4 


3  # 


i 


V 


s 


THE 


~\ 


GREAT  INDUSTRIES 


OF  THE 


UNITED  STATES: 


BEING 

AN  HISTORICAL  SUMMARY  OF  THE  ORIGIN,  GROWTH,  AND 
PERFECTION  OF  TIIE  CHIEF  INDUSTRIAL 
ARTS  OF  THIS  COUNTRY: 


BY 

nORACE  GREELEY,  LEON  CASE,  EDWARD  IIOWLAND,  JOTTN  B.  GOUGH, 
PHILIP  RIPLEY,  F.  B.  PERKINS,  J.  It.  LYMAN,  ALBERT  BRISBANE,  REV. 

E.  E.  HALL,  AND  OTHER  EMINENT  WRITERS  UPON  POLIT¬ 
ICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ECONOMY,  MECHANICS, 
MANUFACTURES,  ETC.,  ETC. 


—  •  •  > 

J&Uitjj  oR-cr  500  Illustrations. 


HARTFORD: 

J.  B.  BURR  &  HYDE. 

CHICAGO  AND  CINCINNATI: 

J.  B.  BURR,  ITYDE  &  CO. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  yea*  1871,  by 
J.  B.  BURR  AND  1IYDE, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Vf  asliingtoD. 


O'NEILL  LIBRARY 
BOSTON  COLLEGE 


PREFACE. 


Iii  the  following  work,  the  design  of  the  publishers  has  been, 
hot  only  to  memorialize  the  great  enterprises  of  manufacture  of 
the  day  in  the  United  States,  but  to  make  clear  to  the  general 
reader  the  processes  and  mysteries  of  the  various  manufactures 
noted,  as  well.  No  pains  have  been  spared,  in  the  matter  of 
general  study  and  special  investigation,  to  make  each  article  as 
nearly  perfect  as  necessary  to  convey  an  adequate  impression  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  manufactures  treated  upon,  their  mechan¬ 
ical  subtilties,  and  everything  connected  therewith,  ol  which 
the  u  inquiring  mind”  may  properly  desire  to  be  informed. 

They  only  who  have  contemplated  the  state  of  manufactures 
as  they  exist  in  the  United  States,  understand  at  all  adequately 
how  great  a  part  these  play  in  the  history  of  modern  civilization, 
or  how  much  is  to  be  learned,  by  each  participant  in  a  special 
art,  of  the  value  and  importance  to  humanity  at  large,  of  every 
other  art. 

There  is  a  more  or  less  anxious  desire,  upon  the  part  of  every 
skilled  man  in  particular,  in  any  branch  of  industry,  to  know 
something  of  the  character  and  pursuits  of  his  fellow-men  in 
every  other  art  of  importance ;  and  it  is  the  design  of  the 
writers  hereof  to  offer  to  such,  an  insight  into  the  various  arts 
which  distinguish  the  present  period  of  scientific  industry  in 
the  United  States  of  America. 

That  the  people  of  this  country  do — all  things  considered — 
outvie,  by  positive  and  original  inventions,  in  the  promotion  of 

(v) 


VI 


Ch¬ 


art,  and  of  the  useful  arts  especially,  as  well  as  by  tlieir  absorp¬ 
tion  of  the  genius  of  other  nations,  all  the  peoples  of  the  civil¬ 
ized  world,  there  can  be  hut  little  doubt.  %  However  superficial 
may  be  the  expression  of  a  given  art  in  the  United  States  (for 
Which,  as  a  people,  we  have  sometimes  been  reproached  by  more 
or  less  intelligent  and  candid  visitors  from  other  lands),  it  must 
be  acknowledged  by  the  just  everywhere,  that,  in  the  aggregate, 
the  United  States  have  made  giant  steps,  even  in  the  last  few 
years,  in  the  prosecution  of  every  class  of  ingenious  industry. 
In  fact,  within  the  boundaries  of  the  nation  is  to  be  found  some¬ 
thing  in  the  way  of  current  enterprise  and  industry,  illustrative 
of  the  genius  of  all  peoples  (and  of  all  times  which  fitly  bear 
upon  the  present  age,  as  the  aggregate  necessary  response  of  the 
past  to  the  wants  of  the  present),  of  which  both  the  scholar 
and  the  active  mechanic,  as  well  as  the  laboring  man  of  every 
degree,  ought  and  wishes,  to  know  more  than  ordinarily 
falls  to  the  lot  of  any  one  man’s  knowledge  without  arduous 
and  pains-taking  study.  To  administer  to  such  desires  this 
work  has  been  projected,  and  it  is  confidently  believed  that  its 
design  has  been  so  faithfully  carried  out,  as  to  leave  but  little, 
if  anything,  more  to  be  desired  for  the  end  in  view,  than  will 
be  found  in  its  pages. 

The  writers  of  this  work  have  been  necessarily  limited  and 
restrained  in  some  respects  ;  for  the  past  history  of  some  arts, 
in  their  struggle  through  invention,  opposing  circumstances, 
etc.,  has  not  been  so  well  preserved  as  that  of  some  other  arts. 
But,  in  the  general,  something  of  worth  has  been  recorded  of 
each. 

As  a  record  of  manufactures  in  their  present  condition,  it  is 
4  believed  that  this  summary  not  only  supplies  a  want  long  felt 
among  geneial  leaders, but  that  it  will  do  much  toward  encour¬ 
aging  in  this  country  that  appreciation  and  study  of  the  arts, 


PREFACE.  vi 

fran  the  high  stand-point  of  science,  which  arc  so  desirable  in 
every  nation. 

Especial  care  has  been  taken  with  each  article  in  order  that 
it  might  discuss  its  special  subject  in  a  manner  comprehensible 
by  all  classes  of  readers,  the  young  as  well  as  the  old  ;  and  the 
design  of  the  publishers,  which  it  is  believed  has  been  regarded 
throughout,  has  been  that  nothing  of  a  questionable  character 
in  the  statement  of  facts  comprised  in  any  article,  should  find 
place.  That  the  labor  of  producing  “  The  Great  Industries” 
has  been  enormous,  the  reader  in  order  to  understand  has  but 
to  consider  that  the  history  of  each  art  has  been  traced  to  its 
origin  through  countless  volumes,  if  the  art  is  really  antique; 
and  its  present  condition,  processes  of  manufacture,  etc.,  de¬ 
rived  by  the  personal  investigation,  inspection,  and  laborious 
study  of  the  several  writers  employed. 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  to  give  the  reader  a  general  (and  in 
all  cases  something  in  detail)  “  speaking  acquaintance”  with 
whatever  is  discussed  herein.  The  great,  chief  ambition  of  the 
human  intellect  is  to  know  something  at  least  of  everything; 
and  “  to  know”  is  certainly  a  laudable  desire. 

Without  specially  noting  any  particular  industry  so  far  as  its 
respective  actors  or  promotors  are  concerned,  this  book  not  only 
makes  record  of  leading  manufactures  as  they  exist,  but  of  the 
principal  manufacturers  of  the  day  noted  for  their  especial 
worth,  as  great,  leading  men,  making  their  mark  upon  the  times, 
and  entitled  to  a  place  in  a  work  which  must  necessarily,  as  a 
record  of  the  times,  hand  their  names  on,  if  not  to  immortality, 
to  many  generations  which  are  to  come.  The  pride  of  the  na¬ 
tion  is  in  its  children,  and  in  none  of  these  so  much  as  in  those 

who  preeminently  distinguish  themselves  in  the  arts  of  peace — . 

• 

in  domestic  manufacture  ;  for  these  have  wrought  out  in  great 
part  the  nation’s  weal,  furnishing  occupation  and  a  lucrative 


PREFACE, 


•  -  • 
vi  1 

“  sphere  for  labor’ ’  for  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  who, 
thus  employed,  have  achieved  for  themselves  and  their  families 
successes,  as  well  as  realized  a  happier  current  life,  which  thoy 
could  never  have  won  and  enjoyed  save  under  the  guidance  and 
skill  of  the  more  enterprising  and  far-sighted.  Out  of  the  plod¬ 
ding  ways  of  life,  which  the  feudal  ages,  for  example,  imposed 
upon  the  race,  there  was  evidently  no  passage,  except  that, 
which  the  inventor  and  the  manufacturer  have  opened.  Though 
prompted  in  the  main  by  the  spirit  of  self-aggrandizement, 
these  men  have  proved  themselves,  nevertheless,  the  chief  phi¬ 
lanthropists  of  the  times,  and  have  borne  the  standard  of  pro¬ 
gress  on  to  its  great  victories. 


$ 


\ 


CONTENTS. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  INDUSTRY  IN  TIIE  UNITED  STATES,.. 

SEWING  MACHINES, . . . 

PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS, . 

WATCHES  AND  "MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING . 

PURIFYING  AND  HEATING  WATER  FOR  STEAM  BOILERS,.. 

STEAM  NAVIGATION, . . . . . . 

SHIPBUILDING, . . . 

CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS, . . . 

AXES  AND  PLOWS, . 

MANUFACTURE  OF  SALT, . 

COINAGE,  OR  MANUFACTURE  OF  MONEY, . 

THE  ICE  TRADE, . . 

WATER  WHEELS, . . . 

JLITHOGRAPHY, . . . . . 

STEREOTYPING  AND  ELECTROTYPING, . . . 

BOOK-MAKING, . 

KNITTING  MACHINES, . . . 

WRITING  PAPER, . 

GLUE, . . . 

VENEERING, . 

EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT, . 

CUTLERY, . 

CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO, . 

CONFECTIONERY:  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST, . 

SUGAR  REFINING, . 

FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES, . 

BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE, . 

CORDAGE, . 

CURTAIN  FIXTURES, . 

HORSE  SHOE  NAILS, . . . , . 

PETROLEUM, . 

GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS, . . 

PIANOFORTES, . . 

MOWERS  AND  REAPERS, . 

IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION, . 

SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE, . 

ORNAMENTAL  IRON  WORK  AND  BRONZE  CASTINGS, . 

BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD  TABLES, . 

BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE, . . 

(ix) 


PAGS. 

25 

47 

57 

73 

82 

87 

101 

109 

122 

148 

151 

156 

159 

170 

175 

181 

192 

201 

209 

214 

217 

229 

239 

247 

258 

261 

277 

285 

289 

295 

303 

307 

317 

332 

£41 

3G3 

379 

390 

405 


X 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

WIRE-DRAWING, .  419 

STARCH, .  422 

ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS .  425 

JEWELRY  AND  IIS  MANUFACTURE, .  435 

STOVES  AND  RANGES, . 442 

FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE, .  445 

QUILL  AND  METALLIC  PENS, .  456 

PRINTING  INKS, . 459 

PAPER  HANGINGS, .  461 

FIRE  PUMPS, .  465 

THREAD  MACHINERY, .  472 

COAL, .  475 

COPPER, . ; .  479 

WOOD  ENGRAVING, . ! . . .  483 

STEEL  AND  COPPER  PLATE  ENGRAVING, .  487 

SCALES, . 493 

WHITE  LEAD  AND  PAINTS, .  496 

BEDS .  501 

STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE, .  507 

CALICO  PRINTING, .  523 

NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS, .  533 

SEWING  SILK  AND  MACHINE  TWIST, . 542 

HINGES, .  547 

.FIRE-ARMS, .  555 

LATEST  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  UTILIZATION  OF  STEAM, .  563 

ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK, . 574 

BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING, .  583 

CLOTHING, . 587 

ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY, .  597 

LINEN  COLLAR  AND  CUFF  MANUFACTURE, .  607 

RAILROAD  CARS, .  618 

IIAIR  CLOTH .  630 

.  FURS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE, .  633 

FIRE-WORKS, . ’ .  641 

CARD  CLOTHING, .  646 

CALLIOPES, .  651 

SHOT, . 653 

GLOVES, .  656 

OIL  CLOTH, .  661 

THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES, .  664 

SOAP,  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE, .  675 

IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY, .  684 

AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS, .  693 

LASTS, .  699 

GUNPOWDER, .  705 

THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS, .  713 

FANCY  LOOM  MAKING, .  721 

AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS, .  728 


CONTENTS.  xi 

PAGE. 

RULES, .  733 

BROOMS,..** .  745 

GOLD  MINING . , .  748 

MERCURY,  OR  QUICKSILVER, . 761 

MIRRORS, .  705 

SILK  DRESS  GOODS, .  770 

HATS  A:'D  THEIR  MANUFACTURE, .  775 

ILLUMINATING  GAS, . 784 

NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS, .  7)2 

CARRIAGE-BUILDING, . 83 

BREACH  LOADING  FIRE  ARMS, .  812 

LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING, .  820 

POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN, . * .  826 

CARPETS, .  834 

STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES, .  840 

BRITANNIA  WARE, .  852 

SCREWS, . 855 

LIFE  INSURANCE .  8  0 

THE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES, .  863 

PHOTOGRAPHY, .  874 

A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION, .  882 

GLASS, .  889 

FERMENTED  LIQUORS,  .  8)8 

SCREW  WRENCHES, .  906 

WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES, .  914 

MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY, .  920 

STEEL, .  931 

THE  GATLING  GUN, .  944 

CHEESE  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE, .  951 

CHILLED  ROLLS .  956 

COTTON  MANUFACTURES, .  964 

CAOUTCHOUC,  OR  INDIA-RUBBER, .  971 

THE  FITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS* .  976 

VARNISH, .  985 

FLOUR, .  994 

SILVER  MINING, .  999 

SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS, .  1907 

RAILROADS, .  1020 

ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS, .  1045 

HOISTING  MACHINERY, .  1055 

LEAD  AND  ZINC, .  1064 

SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS, .  1069 

BANKS  AND  BANKING, .  1079 

,  FURNITURE, .  1099 

CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES, . \ .  1104 

THE  POST  OFFICE, .  1116 

SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD, . .' .  1126 

CLOCKS, . 1138 


CONTENTS. 


•  • 

xu 

PAGS. 

PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS, .  1143 

FIRE  INSURANCE, . . ..  1151 

LINEN  FIRE  HOSE,.... . 1155 

THE  TREASURY, . 1161 

CHURCH  ORGANS, .  1173 

COMBS, . 1179 

BUTTONS, . 1182 

HOTELS .  1186 

HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER, .  1191 

FISH  CULTURE,  .  1198 

GAS  AND  WATER  PIPE, . 1207 

NEWSPAPERS, . 1214 

MATCHES, . .• .  1223 

AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH, .  1233 

LADIES’  BOOTS  AND  SHOES, .  1250 

WOOD  TYPE, .  1265 

CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS, .  1272 

STENCIL  PLATES, . 1282 

HOOKS  AND  EYES, .  1284 

PINS, . .' .  1286 

QUARRIES, .  1289 

INDEX, .  1293 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1.  ILLUSTRATED  TITLE  PAGE, 

2.  COAT  OF  ARMS  OS  TIIE  UNITED  STATE3, 
8.  STATE  SEAL  OF  MAINE, 

4.  STATE  SEAL  OF  NE  V  HAMPSHIRE, 

6.  STATE  SEAL  OF  VERMONT,  - 

6.  STATE  SEAL  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 

7.  STATE  SEAL  OF  l.IIODE  ISLAND,  - 

8.  STATE  SEAL  OF  CONNECTICUT, 

9.  STATE  SEAL  OF  NE  .V  YORK, 

10  STATE  SEAL  OF  NEW  JERSEY,  - 

11.  STATE  SEAL  OF  PENNSYLVANIA,  - 

12.  STATE  SEAL  OF  DELA  .CARS, 

13.  STATE  SEAL  OF  MARYLAND, 

14.  STATE  SEAL  OF  VIRGINIA, 

15.  STATE  SEAL  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA, 

16.  STATE  SEAL  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 

17.  STATE  SEAL  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA, 

18.  STATE  SEAL  OF  GEORGIA, 

19.  STATE  SEAL  OF  FLORIDA, 

20  STATE  SEAL  OF  ALABAMA, 

21.  STATE  SEAL  OF  MISSISSIPPI, 

22.  STATE  SEAL  OF  LOUISIANA, 

23.  STATE  SEAL  OF  TEXAS, 

24.  STATE  SEAL  OF  OHIO,  ... 

25.  STATE  SEAL  OF  INDIANA,  - 

26.  STATE  SEAL  OF  ILLINOIS, 

27-  STATE  SEAL  OF  MICHIGAN, 

28  STATE  SEAL  OF  WISCONSIN, 

29  STATE  SEAL  OF  MINNESOTA, 

30.  STATE  SEAL  OF  10 -VA, 

31.  STATE  SEAL  OF  MISSOURI, 

32.  STATE  SEAL  OF  KENTUCKY, 


83.  STATE  SEAL  OF  TENNESSEE, . 

34  STATE  SEAL  OF  ARKANSAS, . 

35-  ST’ ATE  SEAL  OF  KANSAS,  - . 

36  STA.E  SEAL  OF  UTAH, . 

37.  STATE  SEAL  OF  COLORADO, . 

38.  STATE  SEAL  OF  OREGON, . u 

39.  STATE  SEAL  OF  CALIFORNIA, . 

49.  SEAL  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, . _ 

41  THE  SEWING  MACHINE  IN  USE, . 

42  MANUFACTORY  OF  THE  WEED  SEWING  MACHINE  CO.,  HARTFORD,  CONN., 

43  THE  FAMILY  SEWING  MACHINE, . 

44.  THE  JOB  PRINTING  OFFICE, . 

45.  SIGNET  OF  CAI US  JULIUS, . 

46.  FRANKLIN'S  PRINTING  PRESS, . 

47.  FAUST’S  FIRST  PROOF  FROM  MOVEABLE  TYPE,  .... 

48.  COMPOSING  STICK, . ’ 

49.  TEN  CYLINDER  TYPE  REVOLVING  PRINTING  MACHINE, 

60.  SINGLE  LARGE  CYLINDER  PRINTING  MACHINE,  .... 

51.  ALLEGORICAL  REPRESENTATION  OF  THE  PRINTING  PRESS, 

52.  WATCH-MAKING.  . 

53  THE  FIRST  WATCH  MADE  BY  MACHINERY  IN  AMERICA,  - 

64  THE  “  BULL’S  EYE,” . 

65.  ENGINE  ROOM, . 

56.  STILWKLL’S  PATENT  HEATER  AND  LIME  CATCHER, 

67.  INTERIOR  OF  PATENT  HEATER  AND  LIME  CATCHER, 

68.  REPAIRING  A  BOILER,  . . 

69.  A  MAIL  STEAM  SHIP,  -  -  - . 


Page. 

21 

21 

21 

.21 

21 

21 

21 

21 

21 

22 

22 

22 

22 

22 

22 

22 

22 


23 

23 

23 

23 

23 

23 

23 

23 

23 

23 

24 
24 
24 
24 
24 
24 
24 
24 
24 
24 
47 
52 
66 

57 

58 
60 
60 
64 
68 

71 

72 

73 
78 
81 
82 

84 

85 
88 
87 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xiv 


61.  A  HUDSON  RIVER  STEAMBOAT, 

62.  THE  HULK, . 

63.  EARLY  NAVIGATION  OF  THE  PHOENICIANS, 

64.  THE  LAUNCH  OF  A  PACKET  SHIP, 

65.  BEATING  UP  THE  HARBOR, 

68.  MUSIC,  THE  SOUL  OF  LIFE, 

67.  CABINET  ORGAN,  WEIGHT  278  POUNDS, 

68  CABINET  ORGAN,  WEIGHT  362  POUNDS, 

69.  CUPID  PLAYING  THE  REEDS,  -  -  •  - 

70.  A  FOREST  SCENE,  .... 

71.  COLLINS  &  CO'S  WORKS,  COLLINSVILLE,  CONN., 

72.  VIEW  OF  THE  STEAM  HAMMER, 

73.  THE  TEMPERING  FURNACE, 

74.  ANCIENT  PLOW,  .... 

75.  PALESTINE  PLOW,  ... 

76.  CHINESE  PLOW, . 

77.  EAST  INDIAN  PLOW,  . 

78.  NORMAN  PLOW, . 

79.  ECLIPSE  GANG  PLOW,  -  ... 

80.  THE  GRINDING  SHOP,  -  *  - 

81.  CUBAN  MACHETE, . 

82.  CENTRAL  AMERICAN  MACHETE, 

83.  BRAZILIAN  MACHETE,  .... 

84.  SUGAR  CANE  KNIFE,  -  - 

85.  BRAZILIAN  AXE, . 

83.  BROAD  AXE, . 

87.  YANKEE  AXE, . 

88.  THE  CAST  CAST  STEEL  COULTER  PLOW, 

89.  HOLDING  THE  PLOW,  .... 

80.  THE  BLACK  COOK,  .... 

91.  SALT  WORKS, . 


82.  COINS, . 

83.  THE  OLD  OAK, . 

94.  ICE  BY  THE  WHOLESALE, . 

95.  ORNAMENTAL  TAIL-PIECE, . 

96.  T1IE  OLD  MILL  ON  THE  HILLSIDE, . 

97  WORKS  OF  THE  STILWELL  &  BIERCE  MANUFACTURING  CO.,  DAYTON,  0., 
93.  ECLIP.'E  DOUBLE  TURBINE  WATER-WHEEL,  .... 

99.  GOING  TO  THE  Mil  I  , . 

100.  LITHOGRAPHIC  DESIGNING, . 

101.  STEREOTYPING, . 

102.  STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY,  . 

103.  A  HAPPY  FAMILY, . 

104  A  SMALL  LIBRARY, . 

105.  PRINTING  THE  SHEETS, . 

103.  FOLDING,  GATHERING,  AND  SEWING  THE  SHEETS, 

107.  PRINTING-OFFICE  OF  CASE,  LOCKWOOD  &  BRAIN AIID,  HARTFORD,  CONN  , 

108.  EMBLEMS  OF  LITERATURE, . 

109.  KNITTING  BY  HAND, . 

110  WORKS  OF  LAMB  KNITTING  MACHINE  M'F’G  CO.,  CHICOPEE  FALLS,  MS., 

111  LAMB  KNITTING  MACHINE, . 


99 

101 

102 

102 

108 

109 

316 

119 

121 

122 

124 

129 

132 

133 

133 

134 

135 
133 
133 
140 
142 
142 
142 
142 
142 
142 
142 
147 
147 
118 

150 

151 

155 

156 

158 

159 
164 
168 
1C9 
170 

175 

176 
180 
181 
184 

187 

188 
191 
182 
190 
199 


112.  THE  FARMER'S  DAUGHTERS, 

113  TIIE  WRITING  SCHOOL, 

114.  THE  KNIGIIT  OF  TIIE  GLUE-POT, 

115.  ORNAMENTAL  TAIL-PIECE, 

116  VENEERING,  -  -• 

117  THE  COUNTRY  SCHOOL  MA'AM,  - 

118  HIE  OLD-FASHIONED  SCHOOL  HOUSE, 

119.  MODERN  DISTRICT  'CIIOOL, 

120  MODERN  HIGH  SCHOOL, 

121  THE  MODERN  COUNTRY  SCHOOL  HOUSE, 
122.  SCHOOL  FURNITURE, 

13.  ROGERS' GROUP— SCHOOL  EXAMINATION, 
124  ASSEMBLY-ROOM  DESKS  AND  SETTEES, 

125.  BOOKS,  -  * 

126.  ‘-NOT  ENOUGH  BY  HALF,” 


260 

201 

209 
213 
21 1 

217 

210 
120 
228 
224 
22  i 
22i 

227 

218 

2 28 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


XV 


127. 

123 

129. 

130 

131 

132. 

133. 
134 

135. 

136. 

137 

138 
139. 
140 

141. 

142. 

143 

144 

145. 

146. 
147 

148. 

149. 

150 

151 

152 
153. 
154 

155. 

156. 
157 

158. 

159. 
160 
161 
162 

163 

164 

165 

166 

167 

168 

169 

170 

171 

172 
173. 
174 
175. 

176 

177 

178 

179 
180. 
181 
182 

183. 

184. 

185. 

186. 
187. 
183. 

189. 

190. 

191. 

192. 


JOHN  BUSSELL  MANUFACTURING  CO.,  GREEN  RIVER  WORKS,  MASS., 

CUTLERY,  . 

TRYING  TO  BE  MEN. . 

THE  SWEETS  OF  LIFE. . 

MANUFACTORY  OF  RIDLEY  &  CO.,  NEW  YORK,] 

A  CONFECTIONER'S  STOCK  IN  TRADE,  -  ’  - 

MAKING  MAPLE-SUGAR, . 

THE  RAGING  ELEMENT, . 

FIRE  ENGINE  ON  DUTY, . 

WAREROOM5  OF  ALBERT  F.  ALLEN,  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I., 

THE  SPRAY  NOZZLE, . 

THE  ACTION  OF  THE  SPRAY  NOZZLE, . 

AUTOMATIC  RELIEF  VALVE, . 

“  CRUMBS  SWEPT  UP,”  . 

BRUSHES  OF  VARIOUS  KINDS, . 

A  ROPE  WALK, . ’  - 

OLD  STYLE  TAIL-PIECE, . 

RAISING  THE  CURTAIN, . 

SELF-ADJUSTING  CURTAIN  FIXTURE, . 

CLOTHES  HOOKS,  . 

WINDOW  SHADE, . 

A  TOUGII  SOLE,  . - 

S.  S  PUTNAM  &  CO’S  WORKS,  NEPON3ET,  MASS.,  - 
HORSE-SHOEING,  ...  - 

AN  OIL  WELL, . 

BORING  FOR  PETROLEUM, . 

GAS  7IXTURES, . 

CHANDELIER  AND  GAS  FIXTURES, . 

THE  GRAND  PIANO  FORTE, . 

STEIN  WAY  &  SONS’  PIANO  FORTE  MANUFACTORY, 

THE  SQUARE  PIANO  FORTE,  -  -  - 

“  COMING  THRO'  THE  RYE,”  . 

AT  WORK  -  -  /  . 

CLIPPER  MOWER. . 

WORKS  OF  THE  CLIPPER  MOWER  AND  REAPER  CO.,  YONKERS,  N.  Y., 

PASSING  AN  OBSTRUCTION, . . 

THE  FARMER'S  EMBLEMS, . 

THE  FOUNDRY  MAN . 

THE  VILLAGE  SMITHY, . 

SAWING  LOGS. . . 

DIAGRAM  OF  SAW  TEETH,  -  .  - 

PATENT  GULLET-TOOTH  CIRCULAR  SAW,  -  -  - 

KEYSTONE  SAW  WORKS  ,  HENRY  DISSTON  &  SON,  PHILADELPHIA, 

OLD  STYLE  TAIL-PIECE, . 

ORNAMENTAL  FOUNTAIN, . 

IRON  FOUNTAIN,  . 

BREVOORT  VASE,  -  . 

BRONZE  FOUNTAIN,  . 

MAKING  A  CAROM, . 

PHELAN  &  COLLENDER’S  WORKS,  TENTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK, 

THE  GAME  OF  BILLIARDS,  . . 

“SCISSORS  TO  GRIND,” . 

CHURCH  BELL, . 

WIRE  DRAWING, . 

WIRE  WORKS, . 

“IRONING  DAY,”  . . 

THE  VILLAGE  POSTMASTER,  -  - 

VETERANS,  ....  . 

ARTIFICIAL  LIMB, . 

MECHANISM  OF  THE  ARTIFICIAL  LIMB, . 

ARTIFICIAL  LIMB  IN  SITTING  POSITION,  «... 

ARTIFICIAL  LIMB  WITH  STRAP, . 

“  LOVE  AMONG  THE  ROSES,” . 

THE  JEWELER’S  WINDOW, . 

REGULATING  A  WATCH, . 

PARLOR  AND  COOK  STOVES, . 


OO0 

233 

239 

247 

252 

257 

238 

261 

236 

20 

274 

274 

273 

277 

284 

2S5 

233 

2S9 

292 

293 

294 

295 
293 

302 

303 
3  Jo 
307 

316 

317 
326 

35 1 
332 
£39 
310 
344 

347 

348 

349 
362 

O^Q 

uJO 

386 

387 

372 

378 

379 

352 
385 
3S9 
390 
393 

404 

405 
413 
419 

421 

422 

424 

425 
432 

432 

433 

433 

434 

435 

441 

442 


XVI 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


193. 

194. 

195. 
193. 
197- 

198. 

199. 

200. 
201. 
202. 

203. 

204. 

205. 
203. 

207. 

208. 

209. 

210. 
211. 
212. 

213. 

214. 

215. 
213. 
217. 
21S. 

219. 

220. 
221. 
222. 
2S3 

224. 

225. 
223. 
227. 
228 

229. 

230. 
■231 . 

232. 

233. 

234. 
235 
233 

237. 

238. 
239 

240. 

241. 

242. 

243. 
244 
245. 
243 

247 

248 
250. 

252. 
254. 
253 

253. 

257. 

258. 

259. 

260. 
261 
232- 


cars, 


A  FULL-RIGGED  COOK  STOVE, 

TIIE  USE  OF  T1IE  FILE,  .... 

A  MANUFACTURING  TOWN, 

THE  OLD  PHILOSOPHER  AND  TIIE  YOUNG  CLERK, 

STEEL  PENS,  -  - 

TAKING  A  PROOF,  .... 

THE  NEWSPAPER  PBESS,  .... 

HANGING  WALL  PAPER, 

TIIE  PAPER  HANGER'S  UTENSILS, 

MEMBERS  OF  TIIE  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY, 

SECTION  OF  A  PUMP,  .... 

GEARED  PUMP, . 

ROTARY  PUMP,  . 

PUMP  ON  BED,  WITH  OUTSIDE  BEARINGS, 

HYDRANT  FOR  DISTRIBUTING  WATER, 

THE  ORIGINAL  THREAD  MACHINE,  - 

A  MANUFACTORY, . 

NOT  ABOVE  IIIS  BUSINESS, 

IN  A  COAL  MINE, . 

COPPER  MINING, . 

A  COPPER  MINE, . 

ENGRAVING  ON  WOOD,  .... 

ORNAMENTAL  TAIL-PIECE,  .... 

TIIE  KNAVE  OF  BELLS,  .... 

ARMED  KNIGHT, . 

ENGRAVING  ON  STEEL,  - 
BLACK-LETTER  TAIL-PIECE, 

PLATFORM  SCALES,  .... 

PUTTING  ON  A  NEW  COAT, 

ON  THE  WHARF,  - 

OLD  ENGLISH  BEDSTEAD,  .... 

WOVEN  WIRE  MATTRESS, 

MATTRESS  FOR  STEAMER  BERTHS  AND  SLEEPING 
FOLDING  COTS  FOR  HOTELS  AND  FAMILIES, 

DOUBLE  COMPLETE  BEDS,  .... 

THE  MODERN  BEDSTEAD, 

EXPERIMENTING  WITH  STEAM,  - 
“SHILLING  A  YARD,  MA'AM,” 

A  COTTON  FACTORY,  .... 

GRADING  TIIE  ROAD,  ...  - 

TIIE  PORTABLE  RAILROAD  IN  OPERATION, 

HEAVY  FREIGHT,  -  -  '  - 

THE  SILK  WORM  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS,  - 
CARD  OF  TIIE  NONOTUCK  SILK  CO.,  - 
NATURE’S  HINGE  AND  MAN’S  IMPROVEMENT, 

AMERICAN  SPIRAL  SPRING  BUTT, 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  HINGES,  (9  FIGURES,) 

A  GOOD  SHOT, 

SIX -SHOOTER, . 

FOREHAND  &  WADSWORTH’S  FIRE  ARMS  MANUFA 
BREECH-LOADING  SPORTING  RIFLE, 

BREECH-LOADING  DOUBLE-BARRELED  SHOT  GUN, 

SECTION  OF  CARTRIDGE, 

TIIE  HUNTER'S  PARAPHERNALIA, 

THE  STEAM  ENGINE,  .... 

BABCOCK  &  WILCOX  ENGINE  AND  GOVERNOR,  (2  ILLUSTRATIONS,) 
BABCOCK  &  WILCOX  PATENT  SAFETY  BOILER,  (2  ILLUSTRATIONS,) 
BABCOCK  &  WILCOX  STEAM  ENGINE,  (2  ILLUSTRATIONS,) 

A  SUSPENSION  BRIDGE, . 

BARTLETT,  ROBBINS  &  CO’S  IRON  WORKS,  BALTIMORE,  MD  , 

BASKET  OF  FLOWERS, . 

BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING, . 

CONTINENTAL  MONEY, . .  . 

A  GOOD  FIT, . 

WAIIEROOMS  OF  MACULLER,  WILLIAMS  &  PARKER,  BOSTON, 

PURCHASING  A  COAT, . 

HEAVY  ARTILLERY,  .  -  .  .  . 


C’RY,  WORCESTER, MS., 


444 

445 

455 

456 

458 

459 
4C0 

451 
454 
4G5 
439 
4*'9 
4C9 

470 

471 

472 

474 

475 
4;  8 
479 

452 

453 
484 

454 
4S4 
487 

492 
403 

493 
500 
601 

504 

604 

605 

505 

506 
607 
603 

532 
633 

533 
541 

642 

643 
617 
660 
650 
555 
656 
553 

630 

631 
631 
662 
563 
663 
671 

673 

674 
678 
682 
683 
686 
687 
692 

696 

697 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


XVII 


263 

264 

265 
2(53 

267 

268 

269 

270 

271 

272 

273 

274 

275 

276 

277 

278 

279 

280 
281 
282 
283 
281 
285 
283 

287 

288 
239 

290 

291 
292. 

293 

294 

295 
293 
297. 
293 
299 
8o0 

301 

302 
803. 
304 
8-»5. 
SOi 
3<>7. 

308 

309 

310 

311 
312. 
313 
311. 

315 

316 

317 

318 

319 

320 

321 

322 

323 
824 
325. 
326 
327. 
828 


IASS 


AMERICAN  SIIIPS  OF  WAR  AND  GUN  BOATS, 

BOMBARDMENT  OF  FORT  SUM, TER 

ARTILLERY  IN  MOTION, . 

SELF  ADMIRATION,  -  .... 

GEO  B.  CLUETT  BROTHER  &  CO’S  LINEN  COLLAR  MAN’F’Y,  TROY 
ORNAMENTAL  TAIL-PIECE,  -  -  - 

A  PALACE  CAR,  . 

JACKSON  &  .-IIARP  CO’S  CAR  WORKS,  WILMINGTON,  DEL., 

THE  EXPRESS  TRAIN, . 

HAIR  CLOTH  AND  ITS  ORIGIN,  .... 

BALED  AND  LABELLED, . 

BEAVERS  SUNNING, . 

GOOD  THINGS  FOR  COLD  WEATHER,  .... 

FUN  FOR  ONE  BUT  NOT  FOR  BOTH, 

THE  GOD  OF  THUNDERBOLTS, . 

CARD  CLOTHING,  -  -  -  - 

WORKS  OF  THE  SARGENT  CARD  CLOTHING  CO.,  WORCESTER, 

OLD  STYLE  TAIL-PIECE, . 

EFFECT  OF  CALLIOPE  MUSIC, . 

MUSICAL  INSTRUMENTS, . 

LOADING  UP,  . . 

SHOT  GUNS, . 

A  LIVELY  MILL, . 

OLD  DOG  TRAY,  - . 

RETAILING  OIL  CLOTH, . 

CREATURES  OF  FANCY,  . 

SEALING  FRUIT  CANS, . 

TROPICAL  FRUITS, . 

A  GOOD  WASH, . 

SOAP  MANUFACTORY  OF  E.  MORGAN  S  SONS,  SECTIONAL  VIET 
A  BAD  EGG,  ------- 

IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY,  -  .  - 

WOOD.  LIGHT  &  CO'S  MANUFACTORY,  WORCESTER,  MASS, 
IMPROVED  PATENT  AXLE  LATHE,  .... 

LATHE  FOR  IRON  WORK, . 

CUTTING  A  SWATH, . 

AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS, 

THE  COBBLER  AT  HIS  BENCH,  .... 

TURNING  MACHINE  FOR  LASTS,  .... 
MAWIIINNEY  S  LAST  MANUFACTORY,  WORCESTER,  MASS., 

THE  SHOEMAKER  S  TOOLS, . 

AN  EXPLOSION, . 

MESSENGER  OF  DEATH, . 

MERCURY  AS  AN  EXPRESS  MESSENGER, 

TENDING  A  LOOM, . 

CROMPTON  LOOM  WORKS,  WORCESTER,  MASS., 

BROAD  FANCY  LOOM,  . 

INDUSTRY.  . 

THE  LEAD  PENCIL,  . . 

AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCIL  COMPANY'S  MANUFACTORY,  - 
GODDESS  OF  LIBERTY, 

ACCORDING  TO  RULE, . 

STEPHENS’  PATENT  COMBINATION  RULE, 

STEPHENS  CALIPER  RULE, . 

COMBINATION  RULE  AS  AN  INCLINOMETER,  - 

THE  STREET  SWEEP, . 

THE  HAY  STACK, . 

A  GOLD  MINER'S  CAMP,  -  -  - 

GOLD  WASHING  IN  THE  CALIFORNIA  MINES, 

AUSTIN.  NEVADA.  A  WESTERN  MINING  TOWN, 

WASHING  FOR  GOLD, . 

FILLING  THE  JARS, . 

A  SMALL  LABORATORY,  . 

REFLECTION, . - 

MIRRORS  AND  FRAMES,  * 

A  FINE  DISPLAY,  . 


N.  Y 


600 

603 

606 

C07 

610 

617 

618 
622 

629 

630 

632 

633 

640 

641 

645 

646 

649 

650 

651 

652 

653 
655 
65(5 
600 
661 

663 

664 

674 

675 
678 

653 

654 
686 
689 

692 

693 

698 

699 
701 

703 

704 

705 

712 

713 

721 

722 

726 

727 

728 
730 
733 
739 

743 

744 

744 

745 

747 

748 
752 
755 
760 
761 

764 

765 
769 
WQ 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


829. 

830. 

831. 

332. 

333. 
331. 
333. 
333. 
337 

333. 
339. 
310. 
341. 

312 

313 

314 
345. 
343. 

347. 

348. 
319 
350. 
351 

353 

354 

355. 

356. 
857. 
358. 
859. 
300. 

331. 

332. 
363 

334. 
365. 

333. 
367 
338. 
339 

370. 

371. 

372. 

373. 
874. 
3<5 

376. 

377. 

378. 

379. 

380. 

381. 

382. 

383. 

334. 
385. 
333 
337. 

388. 

389. 
390 

391. 

392. 

393. 

394. 

395. 


PAUSING  THE  TORT,  . *  -  -  775 

AN  0 LI)  HAT  ON  A.  YOUNG  HEAD,  . . 776 

IIATS  .C  SUIT  A  EL  TASTES, . 733 

IN  TIIE  CAS- WORKS, . 784 

LIGHT  FOR  THE  UNIVERSE, . 761 

NARROW  TEXTILE  F AURICS, . 702 

MANUFACTORY  OF  WM.  II.  1IORSTMANN  &  SONS,  PHILADELPHIA,  -  704 

THE  AMERICAN  SAROR,  802 

BUILDING  A  COACH, . 803 

WM  D  ROGERS  &  C'*'S  CARRIAGE  REPOSITORY,  PHILADELPHIA,  -  803 

WAITING  FOR  THE  HORSES, . 811 

A  DE  \D  SHOT, . 8.2 

REMINGTON’S  ARMORY,  ILION,  N.  Y.,  -  -  .  -  -  -  818 

CUTTING  TIMLER, . -  820 

BALKY, . 825 

MAKING  STONE  JARS,  -  -  - . 826 

CROCKERY  WARE  AND  VASES, . £33 

THE  CARPET  SALES-ROOM, . 834 

A  CARPET  MILL,  . . 839 

THE  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINE  AT  WORK, . 840 

LONDON  F.RE  ENGINE,  1740, .  842 

LONDON  FIRE  ENGINE,  1765, .  8i2 


STEAM  FIIIE  ENGINES,  MANUFACTURED  BY 
NEW  YORK  FIRE  ENGINE,  1730,  - 

NEW  YORK  FIRE  ENGINE,  1733, 

GOING  TO  THE  FIRE, 

BRITANNIA  WARE,  -  - 

5 IIE  SCRE  W  PRESS,  -  -  - 


L.  BUTTON  &  SON,  (2  ILLUST'3,) 


ORNAMENTAL  TAIL-PIECE, 

THE  WIDO  W’S  FRIEND, 

LOVE’S  LINKS, 

CUSTOM-HOUSE  PASTIMES, 

THE  AMERICAN  EAGLE,  - 
TAKING  IIIS  PICTURE, 

SITTING  FOR  A  PHOTOGRAPH,  - 
THE  NEW  EXPRESS,  - 


845 

343 

851 

851 

8,52 

855 

859 

860 
867 
803 

873 

874 
8S1 
882 


PACKING  A  SPHERE, . 

FRAME-WORK  SUPPORTING  THE  TULE,  WITH  SPHERE  INSIDE,  - 
PLACING  THE  LOADED  SPHERES  IN  THE  TULE,  - 

ORNAMENTAL  TAIL  PIECE, . 

GL  \SS-BLOWING, . 

GARDENER’S  IIOI-IIOTJSE, . 

PLEADING  AT  THE  BAR, . - 

THE  GRAPE  AND  THE  WINE, . 

TIGHTENING  THE  WHEEL, . 

SCREW-WRENCH, . 

S  REV-WRENCH  MANUFAC’Y  ;  A.  G.  COES  &  CO.,  WORCESTER,  MASS., 
PEACE  AND  PLENTY, . 


884 

885 
8S8 
888 
889 
497 
898 
905 
903 
909 
BIO 
913 


“  ALL  WOOL,” . 

SHEEP  AT  PASTURE,  -  -  f . 

READY  FOR  USE, . 

MANUFACTORY  OF  THE  WILSON  SEWING  MACHINE  CO  ,  CLEVELAND,  O. 
WILSON  SHUTTLE  SEWING  MACHINE,— PLAIN  STAND,  - 
WIL'ON  SHUTTLE  SEWING  MACHINE,— WITH  FOLDING  TABLE,  - 
WILSON  SEWING  MACHINE,— FULL  CABINET,  .... 

THE  CARPENTER’S  BENCH,  -  . . 

A  JUVENILE  B  vCCIIUS, . 

A  QUAKER,  . 

THE  GATLING  GUN. . 

CARTRIDGES  USED  IN  THE  GATLING  GUN,  .... 

AN  INFANTRY  CHARGE, . 

BAIT  FOR  MICE, . 

CASTING  IRON, . 

WORKS  OF  THE  FARREL  FOUNDRY  AND  MACHINE  CO.,  ANSONIA,  CONN., 
PLAYING  CRICKET,  -  ...... 

AN  ADVOCATE  OF  TUB  FIFTEENTH  AMENDMENT,  - 


914 

919 

920 
926 
929 

929 

930 

931 

943 

944 
946 

949 

950 

951 
956 
930 

963 

964 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xix 


896. 

897. 
893. 

399. 

400. 

401. 
402 

403. 

404. 
406. 

406. 

407. 

408. 

409. 

410. 

411. 

412. 

413. 

414. 

415. 

416. 

417. 

418. 

419. 

420. 

421. 

422. 

423. 

424. 

425. 

426. 

427. 

428. 

429. 

430. 

431. 

432. 

433. 

434. 

435. 

436. 

437. 

438. 

439. 

440. 

441. 

442. 

443. 

444. 

445. 

446. 

447. 
443. 

449. 

450. 

451. 

452. 

453. 

454. 

455. 

456. 

457. 

458. 

459. 
400. 
461. 


LOADING -COTTON  ON -A  MISSISSIPPI  STEAMER,  - 
A  WET-DAY,  -  .  -  .  -  .  -  .  - 

THE  WORLD’S  TRUMPETER,. 

GATHERING  SAP  FROM  THE  PITCH  PINE,  -  .  -  .  . 

CLUSTER  .OF  GRAPES,.  -  .  .  .  . 

VARNISHING, . 

MANUFACTORY  AND  WAREROOMS  OF  BERRY  BROS.,  DETROIT,  MICH.,  - 
STUDYING  NAVIGATION,  -  ..  -  -  -  '  .  ^  . 

THE  GRIST  MILL,  -  :  -  /{.."l  '  V  . 

FARM  TOOLS,  -  *  -  %  -  - 

A  BIG  NUGGET,  -  _t-  -  \  -  *  *  **v  -  . 

DISCOVERY  OF  SILVER  IN  PERU,  -  v  .  . 

INTERIOR  OF  A  SILVER  MINE,  -  -  ’»  -  ;•>  \  v  «■  . 

RIDING  “BAREBACK,”  -  -  '**  -  ^  ' 

A  SAFE  OPERATION,  -  -  -  .  ■  -  ' 

MANUFACTORY  OF  HALL’S  SAFE  ANI?LOCK  CO.,  CINCINNATI*  O.,  - 
HALL’S  FIRE  AND  BURGLAR  PROOF  SAFE,  ■>  *  -  '  .  ^  . 

TRANSPORTING  A  SAFE,  -  -  -  -  ,v"'  -  /.  X  - 

GUARDED,  -  -  -  *  •  •  /’  -  /'  .  »'•  . 

ARRIVAL  OF  THE  TRAIN,  -  -  -  -  .  /  '  .  . 

LAYING  THE  TRACK  OF  THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD,  - 
CROSSING  THE  PLAINS  BEFORE  THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  WAS  BUILT, 
THE  LIGHTNING  EXPRESS,  -  -  ,  .. 


970 

-  971 
975 

-  876 

'  984 

>  985 

990 

-  993 
994 

-  ,*998 
.  999 

■  -  1000 
1000 
100(1 

...  1007 

‘  •  1012 
1016 

-  1019 
1019 

-  1020 
1036 

-  ‘1039 
1044 


BRASS  MANUFACTURES,  -  -  -  *  .  .  .  I  -m  1045 

WORKS  OF  THE  SCOVILL  MANUFACTURING  CO.,  WATERBURY,  CONN.,  1048 

REFRESHMENTS, . 

STARTING  THE  ELEVATOR, . .  . 

MANUFACTORY  .OF  HOISTING  MACHINERY,  YONKERS,  N.  Y.,  v  - 
AT  THE  WELL, 

WEIGHING  PIG  LEAD,  -  -  ..  .  -  ,k  . 

PACKING  SMALL  NAILS,  -  -  -  .  .  '  . 

TACK  MANUFACTORY  OF  A.  FIELD  &  SONS,  TAUNTON,  MASS.,  - 

ORNAMENTAL  TAIL-PIECE,  . 

THE  VILLAGE  BANK, 

PARK  BANK,.  NEW. YORK, 

INDIAN  WARRIOR, 

THE  OLD  STYLE  AND  THE  NEW, . 

THE  CHASE,  -  -  r  - 

CHEMICAL  WORKS,  - 

RIVERSIDE,  -  . 

ItUM  FORD,  - . 

COUNT  R.UMFORD, . 

U  S.  GENERAL  POST  OFFICE  AT  WASHINGTON,  - 
VIRTUE,  -  -  -  .  ' 

THE  SEAMSTRESS,  -  -  - 

MAN  F’Y  OF  THE  WILLIMANTIC  LINEN  CO.,  WILIJM ANTIC.,.  CONN., 

LOVELY,  --  ....  . 

THE  DIAL,  \  j*  -•  „  . 

SUPPLICATION,  -  -  N .  .  -  .  .  ,  -  .  s  . 

STIFFNESS,  *  .  ♦  •  *  •  .  .  -  .  .  v 

ORNAMENTAL  TAIL  PIECE,  -  ,  -  - . 

MANUFACTORY  OF  RAY  &  TAYLOR,  SPRINGFIELD,  MASS.,- 
INSURANCE  IS  THE  BEST  POLICY,  -  -  ... 

THE  HOSE  TRUCK,  -  -  •  n  rr 

LINEN  HOSE, . .  v  . 

U.  S.  TREASURY  AT  WASHINGTON,  •  '  -  ‘  '  .X. 

CONTINENTAL  MONEY,  ....  ..  .  .'X  . 


CIIUKCH  ORGAN, 

THE  HARP,  -  ,  -  v.* 

THE  TOILETTE,  ' 

A  SHAVER,  -  '  -  -  V 

THE  AWKWARD  SQUAD,  * 
STEAM  FIRE-ENGINE, 
ARRIVAL  OF  THE  STAGE, 
BROADWAY  “BUS,” 

THE  CASCADE,  -  1 


J 


V 


*  -  1054 

*  1055 

•  1061 

•.  1063 

’  -  1064 

1069 

-  1074 
1078 

-  1078 
1094 

-  1098 
1099 

♦  1103 
1104 

-  1111 
1112 

-  1116 
1116 

-  1125 
1126 

*  1130 

1137 

1138 
1142 

-  1143 
1148 

-  1148 
1151 

-  1155 
'  1160 

-  1161 
1172 

-  1173 
1178 

-  1179 
1181 

-  1182 
1135 

-  11S6 
1190 

-  1191 


XX 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


462. 

463. 

464. 

465. 

466. 

467. 

468. 

469. 

470. 

471. 

472. 

473. 

474. 

475. 

476. 

477. 

478. 

479. 

480. 

481. 

482. 

483. 

484. 

485. 

486. 

487. 

488. 

489. 

490. 

491. 

492. 

493. 

494. 

495. 

496. 

497. 

498. 

499. 

500. 
601. 
602. 
603. 

504. 

505. 
606. 

607. 

608. 
609. 


/ 


MORE  WATER,  * 

FISH  CULTURE, 

UNDER  FULL  SAIL, 

IN  RUINS,  ~  - 

SNAKY.  .  . . 

THE  NEWSBOY. . 

NEWSPAPER  ADDRESSING  MACHINE  (WITH  CABINET  CASE), 
NEWSPAPER  ADDRESSING  MACHINE  (WITH  IRON  STAND), 

FRANKLIN  AT  THE  CASE,  - . 

INDIAN  METHOD  OF  PRODUCING  FIRE, 

FACTORY  OF  SWIFT  &  COURTNEY  &  BEECHER  CO.,  WILMINGTON 
FACTORY  OF  SWIFT  &  COURTNEY  &  BEECHER  CO.,  WE3TVILLE, 

THE  PI  KEN  IX,  - . 

PUTTING  UP  THE  WIRES,  * 

THE  SIGNAL  TELEGRAPH,  -  -9 

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH,  .... 

A  PRETTY  FOOT  AND  A  STYLISH  BOOT, 

A  SHOEMAKER’S  SHOP  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME,  (EXTERIOR,) 

A  SHOEMAKER’S  SHOP  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME,  (INTERIOR,) 
BOTTOMING  ROOM  IN  FACTORY  OF  B.  F.  SPINNEY  &  CO.,  LYNN 
VIEW  OF  LYNN,  MASS.,  FROM  FOREST  PLACE, 

VIEW  OF  LYNN,  MASS.,  FROM  SADLER’S  ROCK,  - 
LIVE  STOCK,  - 
THE  SIGNS  OF  THE  TIMES,  - 
WOOD  TYPE  AND  BORDER  CUT  BY  MACHINERY, 

THE  HONEST  APPRENTICE,  - 

BOUND  FOR  THE  RACES, . 

REED  &  BOWEN  PUNCH,  .... 

CONCORD  SIDE  SPRING, . 

BOW-SHAPED  SIDE  SPRING,  .... 

FRENCH  ELLIPTIC,  . 

ELLIPTIC,  COMMON  HEAD,  .... 

FRENCH  PLATFORM  AND  CROSS,  - 
SCROLL  PLATFORM  AND  CROSS, 

PHILADELPHIA  SHAPE, . 

SCROLL  SPRING, . 

CONCORD  AXLE,  SHORT  SHANK,  .... 

HALF  PATENT  FANTAIL  AXLE,  ... 

IMPROVED  TAPER  AXLE,  SHORT  SHANK, 

MAIL-COACH  AXLE,  LONG  SHANK, 

WEST’S  AMERICAN  TIRE  SETTER,  POWER  MACHINE, 

WEST’S  AMERICAN  TIRE  SETTER,  HAND  MACHINE, 

FOR  THE  BABY, . 

THE  SHIPPING  CLERK, . 

THE  LADIES’  MAID, . 

BUTTERFLIES,  - . 

JOVIAL, . 

IN  THE  STONE  PITS. . 


DEL 

CONN. 


IASS. 


1197 

1198 
1206 
1207 

1213 

1214 
1218 
1218 
1222 
1223 
1226 
1230 
1230 

1233 

1234 
1234 
1250 
1252 
1252 
1255 
1258 
1261 

1264 

1265 
1268 

1271 

1272 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1279 
1279 
1281 
1282 
1284 
1286 
1288 
1289 


MAINE.  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


VERMONT.  MASSACHUSETTS. 


RHODE  ISLAND. 


CONNECTICUT. 


NEW  YORK. 


MARYLAND. 


DELAWARE. 


VIRGINIA. 


WEST  VIRGINIA.' 


NORTH  CAROLINA. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


GEORGIA. 


FLORIDA. 


ALABAMA. 


LOUISIANA. 


INDIANA. 


MISSISSIPPI. 


ILLINOIS. 


I 


UTAH. 


TENNESSEE. 


ARKANSAS. 


KANSAS. 


COLORADO. 


OREGON. 


CALIFORNIA 


UNITFD  STATES. 


THE  GREAT  INDUSTRIES 

OF  THE 

f  •  t  f  ^ 

UNITED  STATES. 

.  ■  r  . 

!««»» 

AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  PROGRESS  OF 
INDUSTRY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  Value  of  Industry. 

It  js  quite  within  modern  times  that,  by  observation  and  expe¬ 
rience,  the  knowledge  has  been  acquired  for  a  comprehensive  and 
philosophical  conception  of  the  importance  of  industry  as  a  neces¬ 
sary  condition  in  the  evolution  of  human  society.  The  position 
of  man  in  the  world,  and  his  social  destiny*  could  not  be  under¬ 
stood  until,  by  experience,  the  data  necessary  for  arriving  at  a 
philosophic  generalization  concerning  it  were  obtained,  any  more 
than  the  position  of  the  world  itself  in  the  solar  system  could  be 
known  until,  by  the  same  process,  the  data  needed  for  its  compre¬ 
hension  had  been  gathered. 

The  brilliant  results  which  have  followed,  in  modern  times,  from 
the  inauguration  of  a  scientific  method  of  inquiry,  though  perhaps 
more  apparent  in  the  physical  sciences,  are  of  no  less  value  in  the 
department  of  sociology.  The  field  of  social  science  has  been 
opened,  and  the  method  has  been  indicated  by  which  the  complex 
questions  of  social  progress  can  alone  be  studied  with  positive 
and  enduring  results.  With  the  growing  perception  of  the  rela¬ 
tivity  of  all  knowledge,  mankind  has  become  aware  of  the  inter¬ 
dependence  of  the  sciences,  and  that  upon  industry  —  upon  our' 
ability  to  modify  the  conditions  in  which  we  are  placed  —  can  we 
alone  depend  for  our  advance  in  the  path  of  progress. 

In  the  study  of  industry,  and  of  its  effects  upon  the  growth  of 

civilization,  and  also  of  the  effects  produced  upon  industry  hy 

(25) 


26 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


political  and  other  causes,  the  United  States  offer  a  most  impor¬ 
tant  and  suggestive  field.  In  the  first  place,  our  history  is  com¬ 
plete  ;  the  beginning  of  the  nation  dates  from  a  definite  historical 
period,  and  the  foundation  of  its  industry  is  not  lost  in  the  ob¬ 
scuring  mists  of  tradition.  Then,  again,  the  political  constitution 
of  the  country,  its  social  equality,  and  the  necessities  of  the  new 
conditions  of  its  settlement,  all  conspired  to  make  more  evident 
the  fact  that  productive  industry  is  of  necessity  the  foundation  of 
all  progress  in  civilization. 

The  Influence  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  democratic  movement  of  modern  times,  America  appears 
destined  to  perform  a  similar  office  for  the  world  that  the  discovery 
of  the  country  in  the  fifteenth  century  did  for  the  knowledge  of 
mankind  concerning  the  form  of  the  world,  and  its  position  in  tho 
solar  system.  At  the  period  of  the  settlement  of  the  country,  the 
industry  of  Europe  had  begun  to  feel  the  influence  of  the  increased 
knowledge  of  the  world  gained  by  the  enterprising  spirit  of  navi¬ 
gation,  which,  during  the  preceding  century,  had  supplemented 
the  discovery  of  America  by  the  circumnavigation  of  the  world, 
and  of  the  new  spirit  of  independence  and  investigation  which, 
thus  brilliantly  vindicated  in  the  domain  of  physical  research, 
excited  the  minds  of  all  those  who  were  not  drugged  by  supersti¬ 
tion,  or  bound  helplessly  by  tradition,  to  apply  the  same  methods 
to  the  existing  conditions  of  their  religious,  their  social,  and  their 
political  organizations.  As  with  all  movements  of  advancing 
social  organization,  the  commencement  was  made  in  the  popular 
discontent  with  the  existing  conditions,  before  it  found  an  expres¬ 
sion  in  the  literature  or  the  political  action  of  the  times.  It  was 
the  popular  demand  for  books  which  stimulated  the  invention  of 
printing,  as  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  times  to  which  Luther  gave 
expression  which  made  the  reformation  possible  ;  and  later,  when 
Voltaire,  in  his  historical  works,  made  the  first  expression  in  lit¬ 
erature  of  the  importance  of  studying  the  opinions  and  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  people,  rather  than  the  whims  and  ambitions  of  kings, 
for  obtaining  an  accurate  conception  of  the  progress  of  society,  he 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  modern  spirit  of  scientific  historical 
research,  but  merely  expressed,  in  literature,  the  sentiments  which 
had  been  for  a  long  time  fermenting  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
the  people. 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


27 


The  First  Settlement  of  the  Colonies. 

The  time  and  the  method  of  the  settlement  of  the  United  States 
were  also  fortunate  lor  influencing  the  industrial  advance  of  the 
country.  The  first  settlement  was  not  made  by  a  roving  army  of 
pastoral  people,  with  whom  the  arts  were  as  yet  undeveloped,  or 
whose  political  and  social  relations  had  attained  only  to  the  patri¬ 
archal  phase  of  development.  The  basis  of  their  social  life  was 
political  equality,  and,  though  hardly  yet  aware  of  the  importance 
of  productive  industry,  still  their  history  shows  that  all  progress 
in  civilization  is  dependent  upon  it. 

In  the  history  of  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts  especially 
does  this  appear.  The  colony  of  Plymouth  came  over  .at  their 
own  expense,  and  the  Massachusetts  colony  made  their  settlement 
also  at  their  own  charges. 

Virginia. 

With  the  settlement  in  Virginia,  which  was  the  first  established 
in  the  country,  in  1607,  the  case  was  somewhat  different.  The 
London  Company,  under  whose  auspices,  and  at  whose  expense, 
the  colony  at  Jamestown  was  established,  had  been  attracted  to 
this  country  by  the  stories  of  the  great  wealth  of  gold  which 
Spain  had  drawn  from  the  new  world.  Yet  they  still  contemplat¬ 
ed  the  establishment  of  some  other  industry  than  searching  for 
gold.  Stitli,  in  his  History  of  Virginia,  tells  us  that  the  company 
sent  out  in  the  second  voyage,  in  the  latter  part  of  1608,  eight 
Poles  and  Germans,  to  make  pitch,  tar,  glass,  mills,  and  soap 
ashes,  who,  he  observes,  would  have  done  well  had  the  country 
been  peopled,  but  in  fact  proved  only  a  burden  and  hinderance  to 
the  rest.  “  No  sooner  were  they  landed  but  the  president  dis¬ 
persed  as  many  as  were  able,  some  to  make  glass,  and  others  for 
pitch,  tar,  and  soap  ashes.”  “  He  himself  carried  thirty  about 
five  miles  down  the  river  to  cut  down  trees,  make  clapboards,  and 
lie  in  the  woods.  Among  these  were  two  fine  and  proper  gentle¬ 
men  of  the  last  supply.  These  were  at  first  strange  diversions 
for  men  of  pleasure.  Yet  they  lodged,  ate  and  drank,  worked  or 
played,  only  as  the  president  himself  did  ;  and  all  things  were 
carried  on  so  pleasantly,  that,  within  a  week,  they  became  masters, 
and  thirty  or  forty  of  those  voluntary  gentlemen  would  have  done 
more  in  a  day  than  a  hundred  of  the  rest,  who  must  be  drove  to  it 
by  compulsion.” 


28 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


Very  soon,  however,  the  attention  of  the  colony  was  turned 
from  all  other  pursuits  to  the  raising  of  tobacco;  and  in  1617, 
Captain  Argali,  on  his  arrival  as  governor,  found  only  five  habita¬ 
ble  houses  in  Jamestown,  while  the  market-place,  the  streets,  and 
all  spare  places  were  planted  with  tobacco.  Various  attempts 
were  made  to  discourage  the  raising  of  tobacco,  and  further  diver¬ 
sify  the  industries  of  the  colony.  The  company  made  arrange¬ 
ments  for  sending  out  “  husbandmen,  gardeners,  brewers,  bakers, 
sawyers,  carpenters,  joyners,  shipwrights,  boatwrights,  plough- 
wrights,  millwrights,  masons,  turners,  smiths  of  all  sorts,  coopers 
of  all  sorts,  weavers,  tanners,  potters,  fowlers,  fish-hook  makers, 
netmakers,  shoemakers,  ropemakers,  tilemakers,  edge-tool  makers, 
brickmakers,  bricklayers,  dressers  of  hemp  and  flax,  lime  burners, 
lether-dressers,  men  skillful  in  vines,  men  for  iron  works,  men 
skillful  in  mines,”  as  appears  in  the  original  list,  in  A  Declara¬ 
tion  of  the  Slate  of  Virginia,  published  in  1620. 

The  character  of  these  men  appears  also  to  have  been  consid¬ 
ered,  according  to  the  same  authority.  “  The  men  lately  sent 
have  been,  most  of  them,  choice  men,  borne  and  bred  up  to  labor 
and  industry ;  out  of  Devonshire  about  one  hundred  men  brought 
up  to  husbandry  ;  out  of  Warwickshire  and  Staffordshire  above 
one  hundred  and  ten  ;  and  out  of  Sussex  about  forty,  all  framed 
to  iron-workes.” 

The  culture  of  tobacco  still,  however,  maintained  its  position  as 
the  chief  industry,  and  in  1621  there  were  fifty-five  thousand 
pounds  exported  to  Holland.  None  was  exported  to  England,  on 
account  of  an  impost  which  had  been  laid  upon  it  there.  At  the 
end  of  twelve  years  from  the  settlement  of  the  country,  the  com¬ 
pany  had  expended  £80,000,  and  were  £4,000  in  debt,  while  the 
colony  numbered  only  six  hundred  persons,  though  much  of  this 
was  unquestionably  due  to  interference  by  the  authorities  with  the 
natural  growth  of  the  industry  of  the  colony.  But,  besides  this,  the 
colony  itself  had  not  the  best  conditions  for  its  industrial  devel¬ 
opment.  Its  political  organization  was  still  too  aristocratic  to  de¬ 
velop  fully  the  individual  independence  and  energy  which  require 
the  freedom  of  political  equality  for  its  best  expression.  Many 
of  the  colonists  were  criminals,  sent  over  by  the  government  of 
the  mother  country,  which  had  commenced  already  to  consider  the 
colonies  rather  as  a  convenient  receptacle  for  those  whom  she 
desired  to  free  herself  from,  than  as  a  nursery  for  the  production 
of  men  and  women  who  should  display,  in  the  freedom  of  their 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


29 


conditions  for  social  and  moral  development,  the  inherent  tendency 
of  mankind  to  progress  with  increasing  knowledge  gained  by 
increasing  experience. 

From  a  tract  entitled  A  Perfect  Description  of  Virginia,  which 
was  published  in  1649,  and  which  can  be  found  in  Force’s  Collec¬ 
tion  of  Tracts,  the  following  extract  serves  to  show  the  industrial 
advance  which  the  colony  had  made  up  to  that  time.  The  writer 
states  that  1  they  had  three  thousand  sheep,  six  public  brew- 
houses,  but  most  brew  their  own  beer,  strong  and  good  ;  that 
indigo  began  to  be  planted,  and  throve  wonderfully  well,  from 
which  their  hopes  are  great  to  gain  the  trade  of  it  from  the  Mo¬ 
gul’s  country,  and  to  supply  all  Christendom  ;  that  the  quantity 
of  tobacco  had  so  increased,  that  it  had  fallen  in  price  to  three 
pence  a  pound  ;  that  they  produced  much  flax  and  hemp  ;  and  that 
an  iron-work  erected  would  be  worth  as  much  as  a  silver-mine  ; 
that  they  had  four  wind-mills  and  five  water-mills  to  grind  corn, 
besides  many  horse-mills ;  that  a  saw-mill  was  much  wanted  to 
saw  boards,  inasmuch  as  one  mill  driven  by  water  will  do  as  much 
as  twenty  sawyers ;  that  they  make  tar  and  pitch,  of  which  there 
was  abundant  material,  as  well  as  for  pot  and  pearl  ashes  ;  that 
all  kinds  of  tradesmen  lived  well  there,  and  gained  much  by  their 
labors  and  arts  as  turners,  potters,  coopers,  to  make  all  kinds  of 
earthen  and  wooden  vessels ;  sawyers,  carpenters,  tyle-makers, 
boatwrights,  tailors,  shoemakers,  tanners,  fishermen,  and  the  like/ 

From  another  pamphlet,  written  by  Ed.  Williams,  and  published 
in  1650,  entitled  Virginia,  more  especially  the  Southern  Part  thereof, 
etc.,  the  following  extract  will  be  read  with  interest.  Speaking 
of  the  country,  he  says,  “  It  will  be  to  this  commonwealth  a 
standing  magazine  of  wheat,  rice,  cole-seed,  rape-seed,  flax,  cot¬ 
ton,  salt,  pot-ashes,  sope-ashes,  sugars,  wines,  silks,  olives,  etc.” 
Of  iron  he  says,  “  Neither  does  Virginia  yield  to  any  other  prov¬ 
ince  whatsoever  in  excellency  and  beauty  of  this  oare ;  and  I  can¬ 
not  promise  to  my  self  any  other  than  extraordinary  successe  and 
gaine,  if  this  noble  and  usefull  staple  be  but  vigorously  followed.” 
Concerning  its  textile  fabrics  he  says,  “  For  what  concerns  the 
Flax  of  China,  that  we  may  not  lose  the  smallest  circumstance  of 
parallel  with  Virginia,  Nature  herselfe  hath  enriched  this  her  bo- 
some  favourite  with  a  voluntary  plant,  which  by  art,  industry  and 
transplantation  may  be  multiplied  and  improved  to  a  degree  of  as 
plentifull  but  more  excellent  nature,  which  because  of  its  accession 
to  the  quality  of  silke  wee  entitle  silke  grass  ;  of  this  Queen  Eliz- 


30 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


abeth  had  a  substantial  and  rich  peece  of  Grogainc  made  and  pre¬ 
sented  to  her.  Of  this  Mr.  Porey,  in  his  discovery  of  the  great 
river  Chamonoak,  to  the  south  of  James  River,  delivers  a  relation 
as  of  infinite  quantity,  covering  the  surface  of  a  vast  forest  of 
pine  trees,  being  sixty  miles  in  length.” 

Though  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  of  the  statements 
put  forward  in  the  numerous  publications  of  that  time  concerning 
America  are  not  to  be  too  implicitly  received,  since  they  were 
written  with  the  intention  of  stimulating  emigration  thither,  and 
were  consequently  constructed  very  much  as  similar  documents 
intended  to  produce  similar  results  in  the  present  day  are  written, 
yet  they  show  that  the  process  of  the  differentiation  of  industry 
commenced  in  Virginia,  and  bade  fair  to  produce  the  same  results 
as  the  more  continuous,  because  unfettered,  growth  of  the  same 
process  has  produced  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  The  too 
general  devotion  to  the  culture  of  tobacco,  as  in  late  years  the 
devotion  of  the  south  to  the  culture  of  cotton,  checked,  however, 
the  diversity  of  employments,  and  thus  prevented  the  country 
from  becoming  thickly  settled  enough  to  induce  the  attention  to 
other  pursuits  which  would  naturally  have  arisen.  Besides,  too, 
the  aristocratic  cast  of  the  social  relations  of  the  people,  and  the 
foolish  prejudice  against  any  other  employment  than  agriculture, 
the  planters  arrogating  to  themselves  the  position  of  social  leaders, 
and  looking  down  ignorantly  upon  all  labor  as  degrading,  were 
shown  even  thus  early,  and  had  then  an  effect  similar  to  that  which 
they  had  later  in  the  country’s  history.  The  climate  and  the  rich¬ 
ness  of  the  soil,  the  cheapness  of  land  and  its  abundance,  enabled 
them  to  obtain  large  estates,  and  fostered  the  habit  of  considering 
the  amount  of  the  land  one  owned,  rather  than  its  being  made 
productive,  the  test  of  gentility  ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  com¬ 
parative  isolation  of  life  thus  produced  led  to  a  monotony  of  exist¬ 
ence  and  a  poverty  of  desires  which  made  them  satisfied  with 
passing  their  lives  confined  to  the  small  circle  of  interests  directly 
surrounding  them,  and  fostered  that  overweening  self-pride  which 
is  the  natural  accompaniment  of  an  existence  devoid  of  an  intelli¬ 
gent  and  comprehensive  social  sympathy. 

In  1640  there  were,  on  Christmas  day,  at  the  ports  of  Virginia, 
ten  ships  from  London,  two  from  Bristol,  twelve  from  Holland, 
and  seven  from  New  England,  while  the  number  of  the  colony  had 
reached  twenty  thousand.  In  1705,  Beverley,  in  his  History  of 
Virginia,  speaks  thus  of  the  dependence  of  the  colony  upon  other 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


31 


nations  to  supply  their  wants,  and  of  tile  change  from  the  early 
habits  of  industry  which  he  had  before  commended  :  “  They  have 
their  clothing  of  all  sorts  from  England,  as  linen,  woollen,  and  silk, 
hats  and  leather.  Yet  flax  and  hemp  grow  nowhere  in  the  world 
better  than  here.  Their  sheep  yield  good  increase  and  bear  good 
fleeces ;  but  they  shear  them  only  to  cool  them.  The  mulberry 
tree,  whose  leaf  is  the  proper  food  of  the  silk-worm,  grows  there 
like  a  weed,  and  silk-worms  have  been  observed  to  thrive  extremely 
and  without  any  hazard.  The  very  furs  that  their  hats  are  made 
of  perhaps  go  first  from  thence  ;  and  most  of  their  hides  lie  and 
rot,  or  are  made  use  of  only  for  covering  dry  goods  in  a  leaky 
house.  Indeed,  some  few  hides,  with  much  ado,  are  tanned  and 
made  into  servants’  shoes,  but  at  so  careless  a  rate  that  the  plant¬ 
ers  don’t  care  to  buy  them  if  they  can  get  others  ;  and  sometimes 
perhaps  a  better  manager  than  ordinary  will  vouchsafe  to  make  a 
a  pair  of  breeches  of  a  deer-skin.  Nay,  they  are  such  abominable 
ill-husbands,  that  though  their  country  be  overrun  with  wood,  yet 
they  have  all  their  wooden  ware  from  England  ;  their  cabinets, 
chairs,  tables,  stools,  chests,  boxes,  cart-wheels,  and  all  other 
things,  even  so  much  as  their  bowls  and  birchen  brooms  —  to  the 
eternal  reproach  of  their  laziness.” 

Now  that,  with  the  nation’s  recent  experience,  it  has  been  found 
that  the  test  of  a  nation’s  social  development  is  more  accurately 
made  by  the  condition  of  its  industry  than  by  that  of  its  aris¬ 
tocracy,  and  that  the  interdependence  of  all  classes  binds  society 
into  one  consistent  whole,  so  that  the  body  politic,  like  each  of 
its  members,  is  dependent  for  its  well-being  and  vigor  upon  the 
healthy  and  unconstrained  action  of  all  of  its  organs,  we  can 
the  more  fully  comprehend  the  reasons  for  the  difference  in  the 
industrial  advance  shown  in  New  England  as  compared  with 
Virginia.  . 

Massachusetts. 

With  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts  the  natural  advantages 
of  the  soil  and  climate  appeared,  when  compared  with  those  in 
Virginia,  to  be  greatly  in  favor  of  the  latter.  A  generally  barren 
and  rocky  soil,  with  tolerably  fertile  valleys  scattered  here  and 
there  along  the  river  courses  ;  an  inclement  climate,  subject  to 
repeated  and  sudden  fluctuations,  which,  with  the  hardships  inci¬ 
dental  to  the  unprovided  condition  of  the  colony,  proved  fatal  to 
so  many  of  them  during  their  first  winter.  But  to  these  very 
causes  the  industrial  success  of  New  England  is  largely  due.  The 


32 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 

# 


very  sterility  of  the  soil  forced  their  attention  to  making  use  of 
the  timber  which  it  provided,  and  soon  the  fisheries  furnished  by 
the  waters  of  the  coast  became  also  an  important  branch  of  their 
industry. 

At  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts,  timber  had 
already  become  somewhat  scarce  in  England,  since  the  use  of  coal 
in  making  iron  had  not  been  discovered,  and  the  forests  had  been 
wasted  in  the  iron  manufacture,  which  had  already  begun  to  be  an 
important  branch  of  English  industry.  In  1623  the  “  Anne,”  a 
ship  of  one  hundred  and  forty  tons,  was  loaded  at  Plymouth  for 
England  with  a  cargo  of  clapboards,  and  a  few  beaver  and  other 
skins.  This  was  the  commencement  of  a  business  which  soon 
increased  so  as  to  become  a  most  important  interest  with  the  colo¬ 
nies.  Not  only  was  lumber  largely  shipped  to  England,  but  the 
settlement  of  the  West  India  Islands  depended  chiefly  upon  New 
England  for  their  supplies  of  barrels  and  boxes,  in  which  to  export 
their  crops  of  sugar  and  molasses. 

Ship-building  in  the  Colonies. 

Ship-building  was  also  soon  established  in  New  England.  The 
first  vessel  ever  constructed  in  North  America  by  Europeans  was 
a  “  Dutch  yacht,”  called  the  “  Onrest,”  built  by  Captain  Adriaen 
Block,  in  1614,  at  Manhattan  River.  She  was  of  sixteen  tons  bur¬ 
den,  with  thirty-eight  feet  keel,  forty-four  and  a  half  feet  in  length, 
and  eleven  and  a  half  feet  wide.  In  her,  Captain  Hendrickson,  in 
the  summer  of  1616,  discovered  the  Schuylkill  River,  and  ex¬ 
plored  nearly  the  entire  coast  from  Nova  Scotia  to  the  Capes  of 
Virginia. 

In  1614  Captain  John  Smith  set  sail  from  England  for  Virginia, 
with  two  ships.  Ilis  purpose  was  to  engage  in  mining  for  gold 
and  copper.  Having  reached  the  coast. of  Maine,  he  made  several 
unsuccessful  attempts  at  whale  fishing,  and  landing,  built  seven 
boats,  with  which  the  crew  were  very  successful  in  cod-fishing. 
Thus  the  commencement  of  our  fisheries  was  made  in  American 
built  bottoms. 

At  Plymouth,  in  1642,  there  arrived  a  carpenter  and  a  salt-maker, 
who  had  been  sent  out  by  the  company.  Governor  Bradford,  in  his 
History,  speaks  thus  of  the  former:  “He  quickly  builds  two  very 
good  and  strong  shallops,  with  a  great  and  strong  lighter,  and  had 
hewn  timber  for  ketches,  but  this  spoilt ;  for  in  the  heat  of  the  sea¬ 
son,  he  falls  into  a  fever  and  dies,  to  our  great  loss  and  sorrow.” 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


33 


The  salt-maker  attempted  unsuccessfully  to  make  salt  both  at 
Cape  Ann  and  at  Cape  Cod.  In  1641  a  bark  was  built  by  sub¬ 
scription  at  Sandwich,  near  Cape  Cod.  She  was  about  fifty  tons 
burden,  and  cost  two  hundred  pounds.  The  money  Tor  her  con¬ 
struction  was  advanced  by  various  persons,  who  formed  a  sort  of 
joint  stock  company. 

The  Massachusetts  colony  built  their  first  vessel  at  Medford.  She 
was  launched  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1631,  and  christened  by 
Governor  Winthrop,  to  whom  she  belonged,  “  The  Blessing  of  the 
Bay.”  The  unsettled  condition  of  things  in  England,  produced 
by  the  commencement  of  the  civil  wars  of  the  commonwealth, 
reacted  upon  the  colony.  Their  industry  had  not  yet  become  en¬ 
tirely  remunerative,  and  they  still  depended  upon  importations  for 
a  portion  of  their  supplies,  and  for  the  accession  to  their  ranks  of 
fresh  emigrants.  Governor  Winthrop,  in  his  Journal,  writes  of 
the  new  aspect  induced  by  this  juncture  of  affairs  as  follows  : 
“  The  general  fear  of  want  of  foreign  commodities,  now  our  money 
was  gone,  and  that  things  were  like  to  go  well  in  England,  set 
us  on  working  to  provide  shipping  of  our  own,  for  which  end  Mr. 
Peter,  being  a  man  of  very  public  spirit  and  singular  activity  for 
all  occasions,  procured  some  to  join  for  building  a  ship  at  Salem 
of  three  hundred  tons,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  stirred  up 
by  his  example,  set  upon  the  building  of  another  at  Boston  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  tons.  The  work  was  hard  to  accomplish  for 
want  of  money,  etc.  ;  but  our  shipwrights  were  content  to  take 
such  pay  as  the  country  could  make.” 

The  want  of  money  in  the  colony  was  shown  at  this  time  by  the 
fact  that  corn  was  made  a  legal  tender  for  debts. 

Other  Industries. 

In  other  departments  of  industry  we  shall  find  the  colonists  actu¬ 
ated  by  the  same  restless  and  persistent  spirit  of  enterprise.  From 
the  first,  though  agriculture,  or  the  raising  of  the  food  they 
needed,  was  considered,  as  it  should  be,  the  art  of  primal  necessity, 
yet  they  were  constantly  extending  their  efforts  in  every  direction, 
as  though  they  were  conscious  that  a  high  condition  of  civilization 
is  attainable  only  by  the  most  highly  diversified  employments,  and 
that  the  general  culture  of  society,  like  that  of  the  individuals 
composing  it,  can  be  reached  only  by  the  widest  and  most  active 
exercise  of  all  of  its  numerous  functions  ;  while  at  the  same  time 
respecting  every  kind  of  industry,  they  considered  them  all  as  of 


34 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


importance,  and  avoided  the  ignorant  feeling  of  contempt  for  any 
useful  occupation. 

The  art  of  ship-building,  of  which  we  have  noticed  the  begin¬ 
ning,  spread  rapidly  through  all  the  seaboard  of  the  New  England 
and  the  Middle  States,  bringing  the  young  nation  into  intimate 
commercial  relations  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  by  spreading 
everywhere  a  knowledge  of  the  comparative  freedom  of  their  politi¬ 
cal  relations,  stimulated  the  emigration  to  the  country  which  has 
done  so  much  for  our  subsequent  advance,  and  has  been  so  instru¬ 
mental  in  breaking  down  the  narrow  bounds  of  prejudice,  and 
generating  a  broad  and  human  interest  in  life  in  the  place  of  a 
petty  isolation  and  contempt  of  foreign  nations. 

It  was  estimated  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution 
that  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  thousand  tons  of  colonial-built 
shipping  were  employed  in  the  general  commerce  of  Great  Britain, 
or  nearly  one-third,  and  if  the  West  India  trade  was  included, 
nearly  two-thirds. 

House-building. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  most  important  branch  of  industry  is  that 
of  house-building,  as  serving  to  indicate  tiie  advancing  civilization 
of  a  nation,  and  the  excess  gained  by  their  industry  over  the  bare 
necessities  of  living.  Peculiarly  is  this  so  in  America,  where  labor 
is  not  generally  consigned  to  hovels,  especially  in  agricultural 
districts,  in  order  that  its  earnings  should  be  squandered  upon  a 
palace  for  the  gratification  of  some  ruler’s  or  capitalist’s  love  of 
vain  display.  As  we  have  seen,  the  first  cargo  shipped  from 
Plymouth  consisted  chiefly  of  clapboards. 

The  forests  of  the  United  States  afforded  an  abundant  supply 
of  building  material.  The  logs  at  first  were  sawed  or  split  into 
the  required  form  by  hand  ;  and  the  time  necessarily  consumed  in 
this  operation  made  it  very  expensive.  The  saw-mill  is  said  to 
have  been  first  introduced  into  Massachusetts  in  1633,  which  was 
some  years  before  it  was  used  in  England.  Even  as  late  as  1V67 
a  saw-mill  was  destroyed  in  that  country  by  the  mob,  because  it  was 
supposed  to  be  destructive  to  the  work  of  the  sawyers. 

At  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  this  country,  the  hand  process 
was  the  only  one  used  in  England  for  the  preparation  of  lumber, 
and  the  colonies  must  have  brought  over  with  them  persons  who 
were  acquainted  with  its  methods.  As  we  have  seen,  the  use  of 
machinery  was  soon  introduced,  though  as  late  as  1663  England 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


35 


depended  chiefly  upon  Holland  for  its  sawn  lumber.  With  the 
introduction  of  the  saw-mill,  the  energy  of  the  numerous  streams 
in  New  England  was  soon  applied  to  the  preparation  of  lumber, 
and  the  same  process  of  improvement  in  house-building  began, 
which  may  be  seen  at  work  in  the  outskirts  of  our  civilization, 
where  the  advent  of  the  saw-mill  abolishes  the  use  of  the  log 
cabin. 

Saw-mills  and  Machinery. 

In  the  “  Body  of  Liberties,”  which  was  a  system  of  laws 
adopted  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  in  1641,  it  was 
provided  that  there  “  should  be  no  monopolies  but  of  such  new 
inventions  as  were  profitable  to  the  country,  and  that  for  a  short 
time  only.”  Under  this  provision  a  saw-mill  was  built  in  Scituate 
in  1656,  for  which  the  authorities  stipulated,  as  appears  in  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  “  that  in  case  any  of  the 
townsmen  do  bring  any  timber  into  the  mill  to  be  sawed,  the  own¬ 
ers  of  the  mill  shall  saw  it,  whether  it  be  for  boards  or  plank, 
before  they  saw  any  of  their  own  timber  ;  and  they  are  to  have 
the  one  half  for  sawing  the  other  half.  And  in  case  any  man  of 
the  town  that  doth  bring  any  timber  to  the  mill  to  be  sawed  shall 
want  any  boards  for  his  particular  use,  the  owners  of  the  mill 
shall  sell  him  boards  for  his  own  use,  so  many  as  he  shall  need, 
for  the  country  pay  at  3.s\  Q>d.  an  hundred  inch  sawn  ;  but  in  case 
the  men  of  the  town  do  not  supply  the  mill  with  timber  to  keep 
it  at  work,  the  owners  of  the  mill  shall  have  liberty  to  make  use 
of  any  timber  upon  the  Common  to  saw  for  their  benefit.” 

Wind  saw-mills  were  erected  by  the  Dutch  in  New  York  as 
early  as  1633,  and  were  also  used  there  for  grinding-mills.  One 
of  the  first  saw-mills  built  there  was  on  Governor’s  Island,  in  the 
harbor  of  New  York  city.  In  1639  it  was  leased  for  five  hun¬ 
dred  merchantable  boards,  yearly,  half  oak  and  half  pine.  The 
introduction  of  the  saw-mill  was  a  great  improvement.  Before 
that  time,  the  first  houses  in  the  colony  were  hardly  better  than 
the  wigwams  of  the  Indians,  and  unquestionably  the  first  shelters' 
constructed  were  fashioned  upon  such  models.  Then  came  the 
log  hut,  described  by  the  poet  as 

“  A  rude  habitation, 

Solid,  substantial,  of  timber  rough-hewn  from  the  firs  of  the  forest; 

Wooden-barred  was  the  door,  and  the  roof  was  covered  with  rushes; 

Latticed  the  windows  were,  and  the  window  panes  were  of  paper, 

Oiled  to  admit  the  light,  while  wind  and  rain  were  excluded.” 


36 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


Brick  Making. 

The  materials  for  some  of  the  best  houses,  especially  those  for 
the  official  residences  of  the  governors  and  other  dignitaries,  were 
at  first  imported  from  England  or  from  Holland  ;  but  soon  the  art 
of  brick  making  was  learned,  and  with  lime  made  from  oyster- 
shells,  before  the  deposits  of  limestone  were  found,  substantial 
brick  houses  came  into  use.  The  first  brick-kiln  in  New  Eng¬ 
land  of  which  there  is  any  account,  was  set  up  in  Salem,  Mass., 
in  1629.  From  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  the  fol¬ 
lowing  notice  of  it  is  taken,  written  by  the  minister  of  the 
town :  “  It  is  thought  here  is  good  clay  to  make  Bricke,  and 
Tyles  and  Earthen  pots,  as  need  be.  For  stone,  here  is  plentie  of 
slates  at  the  Isle  of  Slates,  in  Massathuletts  Bay,  and  Lime-stone, 
Free-stone,  and  smooth  stone  and  Iron-stone,  and  marble  stone, 
also  in  such  store  that  we  have  great  Rockes  of  it,  and  a  harbor 
hard  by.  Our  plantation  is  from  thence  called  Marble  Harbor.” 

At  first,  the  use  of  wood  in  building  houses  was  so  entire,  that 
even  the  chimneys  were  made  of  this  material,  coated  with  cla}'. 
Such  chimneys  were  called  **  catted,”  and  the  danger  from  fire 
thus  incurred  was  heightened  by  the  common  practice  of  making 
the  roofs  thatched.  In  the  first  year  of  the  settlement  of  James¬ 
town,  in  Virginia,  the  fort,  the  store-house,  arid  all  the  supplies  it 
contained,  together  with  most  of  the  rest  of  the  town,  were  burnt 
by  a  fire  which  originated  in  this  way.  The  same  fate,  from  the 
same  cause,  befell  the  first  building  and  store-house  built  by  the  Pil¬ 
grims  at  Plymouth,  within  a  month  of  its  being  finished.  In  Bos¬ 
ton,  the  first  fire,  which  took  place  in  1641,  and  destroyed  two 
buildings,  commenced  from  one  of  these  imperfectly  built  chim¬ 
neys,  from  which  the  flames  were  communicated  to  the  thatch  of 
the  roof.  The  use  of  such  chimneys  and  roofs  was  therefore  for¬ 
bidden  by  Governor  Dudley. 

In  1635,  the  new  fort  at  New  York,  Fort  Amsterdam,  which 
had  cost  the  labor  of  two  years  in  building,  caught  fire  from 
the  same  cause,  and  was  destroyed.  In  consequence,  their  use 
was  prohibited  there.  Throughout  the  country,  however,  the  iso¬ 
lation  of  the  houses,  and  the  difficulty  of  transportation,  made 
brick  so  scarce  that  these  methods  of  building  continued  long  in 
use;  and  in  1189,  Washington,  in  his  tour  through  the  Eastern 
States,  noticed  several  times  in  his  diary  the  fact,  which  seems  to 
have  struck  him  as  worthy  of  record,  that  after  leaving  New 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


87 


York,  no  dwelling-houses  were  seen  in  the  villages  or  small  towns 
through  which  he  passed,  which  had  not  brick  or  stone  chimneys. 
Those  in  Connecticut  had  generally  “  two  flush  stories,  with  a  very 
#  good  show  of  sash,  and  glass  windows.”  The  last  ten  thousand 
bricks  which  were  imported  into  Boston  from  England  in  1629, 
were  intended  for  use  in  building  chimneys. 

In  Boston,  the  first  brick  house,  which  was  also,  most  probably, 
the  first  one  in  Massachusetts,  is  said  to  have  been  built  in  1638 
by  a  Mr.  Coddington.  In  1643  a  watch-house  of  brick  was  built 
in  Plymouth,  the  bricks  for  it  being  furnished  by  a  Mr.  Grimes,  at 
eleven  shillings  a  thousand. 

In  1630,  at  the  first  Court  of  Assistants,  held  in  Charles¬ 
town,  Mass.,  the  wages  of  carpenters,  joiners,  bricklayers,  saw¬ 
yers,  and  thatchers  were  fixed  at  two  shillings  a  day,  with  a  penalty 
of  ten  shillings  to  both  giver  and  taker  if  more  was  paid.  This 
was  one  of  the  few  instances  of  an  attempt  to  transplant  to  the 
colonies  the  foolish  interference  by  legislation  with  the  wages  of 
labor,  which  prevailed  even  much  later  in  the  mother  country. 

.  The  folly  of  attempting  to  introduce  into  the  freer  political  and 
social  conditions  of  the  colony  this  practice,  *  inherited  from  the 
times  when  the  chief  business  of  the  rulers  was  supposed  to  be 
the  domination  of  industry,  was  soon  seen,  and  in  1640  all  such 
restrictions  were  removed. 

,ln  1692  an  order  of  the  General  Court  required  all  buildings 
of  a  certain  size  to  be  built  of  stone  or  brick,  and  to  be  roofed 
with  slate  or  tiles,  on  account  of  the  “  great  desolations  and 
ruins  ”  which  had  been  caused  by  crowding  together  houses  of 
'wood.  In  1700  Boston  contained  about  one  thousand  houses  and 
ten  thousand  people. 

In  New  York  bricks  were  early  imported  from  Holland,  and 
the  style  of  the  houses  was  an  imitation  of  those  of  Amsterdam. 
Brick-making  was  introduced  by  the  last  governor  Stuyvesant. 
In  1649  a  deputation  was  sent  to  the  Hague  to  complain  of  his 
administration  to  the  company,  the  chief  charge  brought  against 
him  being  that  he  had  been  mostly  engaged  in  building,  brick¬ 
making,  and  such  like  occupations,  though  they  were  unprofitable. 
At  this  time,  the  chief  industry  of  the  colony  was  the  gathering 
and  exportation  of  furs  and  skins.  At  the  Van  Rensselaer  estate, 
below  Albany,  bricks  were  made  before  they  were  at  New  York, 
and  between  1630  and  1646,  as  appears  from  the  accounts,  were 
sold  for  fifteen  florins  the  thousand.  Earthen  ware,  which  was 


38 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


said  to  equal  that  made  at  Delft,  was  early  manufactured  on  Long 
Island,  and  the  company  in  Holland,  as  appears  from  the  records, 
refused  to  grant  special  privileges  or  monopolies  for  the  encour¬ 
agement  of  new  branches  of  industry.  Their  language  in  so 
doing  was  as  follows  :  “  The  grants  we  not  only  entirely  disap¬ 
prove,  but  require  that  you  will  not  give  one  single  grant  more 
hereafter,  as  it  is,  in  our  opinion,  a  very  pernicious  management, 
principally  in  a  new  and  budding  state,  whose  population  and 
welfare  cannot  be  promoted  but  through  general  benefits  and  priv¬ 
ileges,  in  which  every  one  who  might  be  inclined  to  settle  in  such 
a  country,  either  as  a  merchant  or  mechanic,  may  participate.” 

In  1678,  Governor  Andros,  in  a  report  to  the  committee  of  the 
House  of  Lords  on  the  colonies,  stated  that  New  York  city  con¬ 
tained  three  hundred  and  forty-three  houses,  with  ten  inhabitants 
to  each  house,  **  most  wood,  some,  lately,  stone  and  brick,  good 
country  houses,  and  strong  of  their  several  kindes.”  About  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Madam  Knight  thus  describes 
the  buildings  of  New  York :  “  The  buildings  are  brick  generally, 

in  some  houses  of  divers  colors,  and  laid  in  cheques ;  being 
glazed,  they  look  very  well.”  Of  their  interiors  she  says,  they 
are  “  neat  to  admiration  ;  ”  that  the  fireplaces  had  no  jambs,  but 
were  made  flush  with  the  walls,  while  the  fireplaces  were  built 
of  tiles,  and  extended  into  the  rooms  sometimes  as  much  as  five 
feet.  In  a  few  of  the  streets,  narrow  brick  sidewalks  were  laid 
down.  ^ 

The  prices  of  building  materials  are  thus  given  for  1637,  in 
New  Amsterdam,  in  O’  Callaghan’s  New  Netherlands:  Bricks,  ten 
florins  ($4)  a  thousand  ;  rushes,  or  reeds  for  thatching,  one  and* 
a  half-  florins  for  one  hundred  bundles,  or,  at  Fort  Orange,  one 
florin.  The  daily  wages  of  carpenters  were  about  two  florins,  and 
day  laborers,  one  florin.  Nails  were  eight  to  ten  stivers  (16  to  20 
cents)  a  pound,  a  pound  containing  a  hundred  nails.  For  the 
minister  at  Rensselaerwick,  a  dwelling-house,  built  entirely  of  oak, 
with  doors  and  window  casings  of  the  same,  was  purchased  for 
three  hundred  and  fifty  guilders. 

The  Various  Styles  of  Domestic  Architecture. 

The  Dutch  style  of  house-building  prevailed  also  at  Albany,  and 
gave  rise  also  to  the  fashion  of  the  houses  in  the  northern  portion 
of  New  Jersey;  the  gable  walls  of  brick,  and,  later,  of  stone, 
while  the  other  walls  were  of  wood,  and  the  roofs  of  shingles. 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


3D 


In  1684,  the  letters  of  Gawen  Laurie  describe  the  houses  of  the 
poorer  classes  in  East  New  Jersey  as  quite  primitive  in  their  con¬ 
struction,  being  made  of  split  trees,  set  up  on  end,  and  the  other  x 
end  nailed  to  the  “  rising ;  ”  they  were  then  covered  with  shingles, 
and  plastered  inside.  The  cost  was  about  five  pounds  each,  and 
barns  were  built  in  the  same  manner.  “  We  have  good  brick 
earth, ”  he  writes,  11  and  stone  for  building  at  Amboy,  and  else¬ 
where.  The  country  farm-houses  they  build  very  cheap  ;  a  car¬ 
penter,  with  a  man’s  own  servants,  builds  the  house  ;  they  have 
all  the  materials  for  nothing,  save  nails.  The  chimneys  arc  stone.” 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  house  was  still  standing 
at  New  Castle,  Pennsylvania,  in  which  Governor  Lovelace  enter¬ 
tained  George  Fox  in  1672.  It  was  built  of  brick  and  hewn  tim¬ 
ber,  the  mortar  and  cement  having  been  made  from  oyster  shells. 

In  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  the  first  buildings  erected  by  the 
Swedes,  who  settled  that  portion  of  the  country,  were  modelled 
after  the  houses  in  use  at  that  time  in  the  northern  part  of  Europe, 
from  whence  the  colonists  came.  They  were  built  chiefly  of  wood, 
were  rudely  finished,  consisted  only  of  one  story,  containing  only 
a  single  room,  and  having  low  doors,  while  the  windows  were 
mere  apertures  in  the  walls.  The  Dutch,"  who  succeeded  them, 
brought  bricks  from  New  York. 

The  manor  house  built  by  William  Penn,  the  founder  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  at  Pennsbury,  a  few  miles  above  Bristol,  in  Bucks 
County,  was  constructed  of  bricks,  which  were  chiefly  brought 
over  from  England.  This  house  cost  its  owner  over  five  thou¬ 
sand  pounds. 

In  the  Southern  States,  wood  was  the  material  chiefly  used  in 
domestic  architecture.  As  late  as  1791,  General  Washington  de¬ 
scribes  Charleston  as  having  a  number  of  very  good  houses  built 
of  brick  and  wood,  though  the  majority  were  of  the  latter  material. 

In  1790,  Hamilton,  in  his  report  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
speaks  of  the  manufacture  of  bricks,  tiles,  and  potter’s  ware,  as 
among  the  most  important  branches  of  the  national  industry. 
From  the  period  of  the  independence  of  the  country  until  quite 
into  this  century,  the  style  and  manner  of  house  building  ex¬ 
pressed  the  growing  wealth  and  culture  of  society ;  while  the  dif¬ 
ferences  in  the  domestic  architecture  of  New  England,  the  Middle 
States,  and  the  South,  necessitated  by  the  differences  of  the  cli¬ 
mate,  were  also  suggestive  of  the  differences  in  the  social  rela¬ 
tions  of  their  various  inhabitants. 

3 


40 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  differences  in  the  political  constitution 
of  the  various  colonies  were  also  expressed.  The  democratic  con¬ 
stitution  of  New  England  society  produced  a  more  general  and 
uniform  air  of  comfort  in  the  houses.  Few  had  any  pretension  to 
be  splendid,  but  all  had  an  air  of  comfort.  The  proprietary  gov¬ 
ernments,  and  the  more  aristocratically  constituted  society  of  the 
Southern  States,  gave  rise  to  a  greater  difference  in  the  houses  of 
the  different  classes,  and  mansions  with  considerable  pretensions 
to  architectural  effects  were  more  common,  and  more  striking 
from  their  contrast  with  the  poorer  accommodations  afforded  to 
industry. 

With  the  opening  of  the  West,  the  new  methods  of  transporta¬ 
tion,  the  use  of  steam,  and  the  application  of  machinery  to  lessen¬ 
ing  the  expenditure  of  labor,  domestic  architecture  has  partaken 
fully  of  the  new  spirit  of  the  age,  and  solidly-built  cities  now 
spring  up  along  the  lines  of  travel  through  the  West  almost  as 
rapidly  as  though  through  the  agency  of  the  wonder-working  lamp 
of  Aladdin. 

Improvements  in  House  Building. 

With  the  application  of  machinery,  the  labor  of  house  building 
has  been  greatly  lessened,  and  the  western  prairies  are  dotted  over 
with  houses  which  have  been  shipped  there  all  made,  and  the 
various  pieces  numbered,  so  that  they  could  be  put  up  complete, 
by  any  one.  The  use  of  iron  also  in  domestic  architecture  has 
been  one  of  the  chief  improvements  of  modern  times,  especially 
in  our  cities ;  and  though  our  architects  have  not  yet  arrived  at 
an  artistic  method  of  treatment  of  this  material,  still  its  use  will 
increase  with  time.  The  strength  of  iron  is  textile,  while  that  of 
stone  is  in  supporting  a  direct  thrust,  and  our  architects  as  yet 
not  recognizing  this  distinction,  have  used  iron  as  though  it  was 
stone,  notwithstanding  that,  in  the  various  crystal  palaces,  exam¬ 
ples  have  been  given  of  the  correct  method  for  its  treatment. 

The  method  of  construction  with  wood,  known  as  11  balloon 
framing,”  is  also  the  most  important  contribution  to  our  domestic 
architecture  which  the  spirit  of  economy,  and  a  scientific  adapta¬ 
tion  of  means  to  ends,  have  given  the  modern  world.  When  it 
was  first  used  is  not  known  with  any  definiteness,  but  it  has, 
within  the  last  fifty  years,  entirely  replaced  the  old  method  of 
construction.  The  heavy  beams,  the  laborious  framing,  the  use 
of  mortises  and  tenons,  have  all  been  replaced  by  lightness  and 
constructive  skill,  so  that  a  single  man  and  a  boy  can  put  up  a 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


41 


house,  such  as  formerly,  for  its  “  raising, ”  required  the  combined 
force  of  a  village. 

There  is  hardly  a  better  evidence  of  the  American  spirit,  which 
is  so  prompt  to  adapt  itself  by  new  methods  to  new  conditions, 
than  the  introduction  of  this  new  style  of  building,  and  it  has 
really  been  the  most  efficient  cause  of  the  rapidity  with  which,  in 
modern  times,  our  villages  and  towns  spring  into  existence.  Our 
methods  of  construction,  like  our  means  of  transportation,  have 
passed  into  the  railroad  phase  of  development. 

Agriculture  in  the  Colonies. 

With  the  settlement  of  the  various  colonies,  agriculture  was  of 
course  considered  as  the  first  and  most  important  branch  of  in¬ 
dustry.  The  colonies  brought  over  with  them  supplies  of  food 
sufficient  to  last  for  some  time,  and  in  many  cases  were  forced  to 
depend  upon  other  countries  for  their  renewal  for  a  year  or  two.. 
With  the  commencement  of  agriculture  was  of  necessity  allied 
the  raising  of  stock,  and  the  differentiation  of  industry  which  nat¬ 
urally  follows  from  manufacturing  the  various  articles  of  clothing 
from  the  materials  thus  provided. 

The  first  cattle  ever  brought  to  America  are  said  to  have  been 
introduced  by  Columbus  in  his  second  voyage  in  1493.  In  155.3 
cattle  were  carried  by  the  Portuguese  to  Nova  Scotia  and  New¬ 
foundland,  and  are  said  to  have  increased  there  very  rapidly.  In 
1565  cattle,  horses,  sheep,  and  swine  were  carried  to  Florida  by 
the  French,  and  in  1608  the  same  people  introduced  cattle  into^ 
Canada. 

The  first  permanent  settlement  in  Virginia  was,  in  the  year 
1609,  in  possession  of  between  five  and  six  hundred  hogsy  with  as 
many  fowls,  a  few  goats,  and  some  sheep  and  horses.  The 
scarcity  of  food,  however,  led  to  their  extinction  by  the  colonists, 
and  in  1610  another  stock  of  cattle  was  -brought  from  the  West 
Indies,  and  the  penalty  of  death  for  killing  them  was  enacted,. 

The  next  year,  Sir  Thomas  Gates  brought  with  him  three  hun¬ 
dred  emigrants,  over  one  hundred  cows,  some  swine,  and  am  ample 
store  of  provisions.  In  1620  the  cattle  had  increased!  to  about 
five  hundred,  and  in  A  Declaration  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  are 
described  as  being  “  much  bigger  of  body  than  the  breed  from 
which  they  came ;  the  horses  also  more  beautiful,  and  fuller  of 
courage.  ”  f 

In  1649  the  cattle  of  Virginia,  including  bulls,  cowhand  calves, 


42 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


were  estimated  at  twenty  thousand,  together  with  two  hundred 
horses,  three  thousand  sheep,  five  thousand  goats,  and  many 
swine.  Of  these  many  were  exported-  to  New  England,  where 
the  diversities  of  industry  made  them  more  valuable. 

In  the  Plymouth  Colony  the  first  neat  cattle  were  introduced 
by  Edward  Winslow,  in  the  spring  of  1624,  and  consisted  of  three 
heifers  and  a  bull.  In  1626  twelve  cows  were  sent  to  Cape  Ann, 
and  in  1629  thirty  more.  With  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts 
in  1629,  there  were  sent  out  one  hundred  and  forty  head  of  cattle, 
with  some  horses  and  goats.  With  Governor  Winthrop,  in  the 
following'  year,  three  hundred  kine,  and  a  number  of  other  animals 
had  been  shipped,  but  more  than  half  of  them  died  on*  the  pas¬ 
sage,  or  during  the  first  winter.  The  Indians  were  also  very 
destructive  to  the  animals  of  the  colony,  as  were  also  the  wolves. 
Yet  the  increase  of  their  stocks  was  rapid,  and  Bradford,  the  sec¬ 
ond  governor,  in  his  recently  discoveied  History  of  Plymouth,  says 
that  by  this,  and  the  rise  in  provisions  from  the  increasing  emigra¬ 
tion,  “  many  were  much  enriched,  and  comodities  grew  plentifull ; 
and  yet  in  other  regards  this  benefite  turned  to  their  hurte,  and 
this  accession  of  strength  to  their  weakness.  For  now  their 
stocks  increased,  and  ye  increase  vendible,  ther  was  no  longer 
any  holding  them  together,  but  now  they  must  of  necessitie  goe 
to  their  great  lots  ;  they  could  not  otherwise  keep  their  katle,  and 
having  oxen  growne,  they  must  have  land  for  plowing  and  tillage. 
And  no  man  thought  he  could  live  except  he  had  catle  and  a 
great  deale  of  ground  to  keep  them,  all  striving  to  increase  their 
stocks.” 

The  Differentiation  of  Industry. 

In  1651,  Johnson,  in  his  Woncler-worhing  Providence,  thus  speaks 

of  the  industries  of  the  colony  :  “  All  other  trades  have  here  fallen 

into  their  ranks  and  places,  to  their  great  advantage  ;  especially 

« 

coopers  and  shoemakers,  who  had  either  of  them  a  corporation 
granted,  enriching  themselves  by  their  trades  very  much.  As  for 
tanners  and  shoemakers,  it  being  naturalized  in  these  occupations 
to  have  a  higher  reach  in  managing  their  manifactures  than  other 
men  in  New  England,  and  having  not  changed  their  nature  in  this, 
between  them  both  they  have  kept  men  to  their  stander  hitherto, 
almost  doubling  the  price  of  their  commodities  according  to  the 
rate  they  were  sold  for  in  England,  and  yet  the  plenty  of  leather 
is  beyond  what  they  had  there,  counting  the  number  of  the  people  ; 
but  the  transportation  of  boots  and  shoes  into  forraign  parts  hath 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


43 


vented  all,  however.”  lie  mentions  also  among'  others  who  had 
**  orderly  turned  to  their  trades,”  card-makers,  glovers,  fell- 
mongers,  furriers.  “  As  for  tailors,  they  have  not  come  behind 
the  former,  their  advantage  being  in  the  nurture  of  new  fashions 
all  one  with  England.”  And  some  “have  a  mystery  beyond  oth¬ 
ers,  as  have  the  vinters.” 

In  1677  the  Assembly  of  the  United  Colonies  of  Connecticut,  at 
Hartford,  ordered  that  no  tanner  should  receive  more  for  tanning 
than  two  pence  a  pound  for  green,  and  four  pence  for  dry  hides ; 
and  that  they  should  be  sold  for  three  pence  a  pound  for  green, 
and  six  pence  for  dry  hides,  and  so  marked  that  they  could  be 
readily  known.  Shoemakers  were  also  to  charge  five  and  a  half 
pence  a  size  “for  all  playne  and  wooden-heeled  shoes  above  men’s 
sevens.  Three  soled  shoes,  well-made  and  wrought,  not  above 
seven  and  a  half  pence  a  size  for  well- wrought  French-falls.” 

In  New  York,  domestic  cattle  were  imported  from  Holland  by 
the  West  India  Company  in  1625,  by  Pieter  Evertsen  Ilulst.  He 
sent  one  hundred  and  three  animals,  horses,  cows,  hogs,  and  sheep. 
In  1627  a  cow  was  worth  there  £30,  and  a  yoke  of  oxen  £40.  In 
1650  the  company  supplied  each  tenant  with  land,  house,- tools, 
four  cows,  as  many  horses  and  other  animals,  to  be  returned  in 
six  years.  A  cow  and  a  calf  were  then  worth  £40. 

New  Jersey  was  provided  with  cattle  from  New  York,  and  their 
increase  soon  made  this  province  one  of  the  storehouses  for  the 
supply  of  the  cities  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York.  In  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  the  Swedes  were,  in  1627,  supplied  with  neat  cattle  by  the 
Swedish  West  India  Company,  and  the  colonists  for  a  long  time 
wore  moccasins,  and  vests  and  breeches  of  Indian-dressed  skins. 
Even  the  women  wore  jerkins  and  petticoats  of  the  same  material, 
and  their  beds,  except  the  sheets,  were  also  of  leather.  Flax, 
hemp,  and  wool  were  also  spun  b}’’  the  women. 

In  the  private  accounts  of  William  Penn,  a  pair  of  leather  over¬ 
alls  are  charged  at  £1  2s.,  and  a  painted  skin  at  twelve  shillings. 
An  account  of  the  province,  written  in  1697,  states  that  twenty 
bullocks,  besides  many  sheep,  calves,  and  hogs,  were  killed  every 
week  for  the  supply  of  Philadelphia.  A  cow  could  be  bought  for 
£3,  and  salted  pork  and  leaf  were  regularly  exported.  Raw  hides 
were  three  halfpence  a  pound.  Curriers  received  3s.  4c?.  a  hide 
for  dressing,  and  paid  20c?.  a  gallon  for  their  oil.  Shoemakers 
were  paid  two  shillings  a  pair  for  men’s  and  women’s  shoes,  while 
last-makers  received  ten  shillings  a  dozen  for  their  lasts,  and  heel- 


44 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


makers  two  shillings  a  dozen  for  heels,  which  were  most  probably 
of  wood.  Among  the  trades  enumerated  were  tanners,  skinners, 
glovers,  pattern-makers,  saddlers,  collar-makers,  book-binders,  and 
carriage-makers. 

In  the  Southern  Provinces,  the  differentiation  of  labor  was  a 
slower  process  than  in  the  more  enterprising  Eastern  States. 
The  cattle  were  left  to  provide  principally  for  themselves.  In 
the  account  written  by  Mr.  Perry,  in  1 T31 ,  he  states  that  cattle 
were  numerous,  but  that  there  was  not  a  hovel  in  all  the  country 
for  their  shelter,  and  that,  in  consequence,  ten  thousand  homed 
cattle  died  from  exposure  during  the  previous  winter.  The  plant¬ 
ers  did  not  know  how  to  mow  or  to  provide  fodder.  Butter  wTas 
7s.  Qd.  a  pound,  and  the  winter  before,  12s.  The  hides  were  ex¬ 
ported  raw,  or  thrown  away.  Imported  shoes  were  sold  at  10s.  a 
pair,  and  ox  hides  at  20s.  each.  “  Neither  are  they  destitute  of 
the  means  to  tan  them,  for  they  make  very  good  lime  witli  oyster 
shells,  and  the  bark  of  oak  trees  is  so  plentiful  that  it  costs  but 
the  trouble  of  gathering.  They  want,  therefore,  only  a  sufficient 
number  of  good  tanners  and  shoemakers.  I  might  say  the  same 
of  leather-dressers,  since  they  send  every  year  to  England  alone 
200,000  deer-skins  undrest.  Yet  Carolina  produces  oker  naturally, 
and  good  Fish  oyle  may  be  had  from  New  York  or  New  England 
very  cheap,  so  that  they  might  be  drest  and  made  up  into  Breeches 
in  the  country  ;  for  which  these  skins  are  very  proper,  being  warm 
in  winter  and  cool  in  summer.” 

The  Extension  of  the  Settlements. 

From  these  settlements  upon  the  coast,  the  population  gradually 
extended  inland,  following  generally  the  course  of  the  rivers,  and 
carrying  their  agricultural  pursuits  into  the  valleys. 

In  many  of  the  various  articles  of  this  work  upon  the  position 
of  the  special  industries,  the  history  of  their  foundation  and  growth 
will  be  found  more  in  detail.  One  of  the  great  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  the  more  rapid  increase  of  the  country  was  the  bad  state 
of  the  roads,  and  the  necessarily  slow  condition  of  the  intercom¬ 
munication.  It  was  not  until  the  discovery  of  the  use  of  steam, 
and  its  application  to  railroads,  that  civilization  in  any  country  had 
the  means  at  its  disposal  for  the  circulation  of  its  men  or  its  prod¬ 
ucts,  with  the  certainty  or  rapidity  which  are  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  fullest  development  of  its  resources. 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 


45 


Methods  of  Communication. 

Up  to  this  time  the  improvement  in  the  modes  of  communica¬ 
tion  underwent  the  same  gradual  course  which  lias  marked  else¬ 
where  the  passage  of  society  to  its  present  phase  of  organization. 
About  the  centres  of  population  the  roads  were  improved.  Stages 
were  introduced,  canals  came  into  use,  and  the  isolation  of  small 
communities  began  to  give  way  before  larger  national  sympathies 
and  more  extended  interests. 

The  war  of  the  revolution  had  much  to  do  with  introducing  and 
organizing  a  national  spirit  among  the  colonies.  In  the  armies, 
the  men  from  different  sections  met  each  other,  and  learned  to 
supplant  their  sectional  jealousies  with  a  mutual  respect  and  a 
wider  conception  of  a  national  destiny.  With  the  formation  of  a 
national  Congress,  the  necessity  for  a  more  intimate  union  of  the 
states  than  that  of  the  confederation  became  evident,  and  the 
means  were  prepared  for  supplanting  the  various  political  differ¬ 
ences  in  the  organizations  of  the  proprietary  and  southern  col¬ 
onies  by  constitutions  which  more  nearly  approximated  the  repub¬ 
lican  character  of  those  in  New  England.  This  course  of  action, 
which  supplemented  the  results  of  independence  gained  by  the 
revolution,  though  more  concealed  in  its  workings,  was  quite  as 
influential  as  was  the  war  in  producing  a  distinctive  national 
feeling. 

With  the  result  of  the  late  war,  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and 
the  unification  of  the  financial  policy  of  the  states,  another  great 
step  has  been  taken  towards  the  advancing  organization  of  the 
social  forces  of  the  country.  Labor  has  been  made  free  from  deg¬ 
radation,  and  the  obstacle  of  slavery  cleared  away  from  the  social 
and  industrial  advance  of  every  one. 

With  political  equality,  the  means  of  education  open  freely  to 
all,  the  guarantee  of  republican  institutions  in  every  state,  with 
no  legislative  or  other  artificial  impediments  in  the  way  of  any 
one  to  improve  his  position,  but  with  every  avenue  of  industry 
open  to  all,  and  only  individual  fitness  made  the  test  of  success, 
the  United  States  now  offers  to  the  industry  of  the  world,  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  human  progress,  the  opportunity  for  it 
to  enjoy  the  most  perfect  freedom  of  development,  and  to  take  its 
proper  place  in  the  organization  of  liberty.  With  the  use  of  the 
ballot,  industry  has  secured  the  ability  to  peacefully  obtain  its  rights, 
for  which,  in  Europe,  revolutions  are  still  necessary.  With  the 


46 


AN  HISTORICAL.  SKETCH. 


means  of  free  education,  the  power  to  comprehend  those  rights  is 
afforded  to  every  one.  With  no  restraint  upon  the  freedom  of 
every  man  to  seek  the  spot  where  he  can  find  the  best  opportunity 
for  exercising  his  industry  ;  with  the  wide  expanse  of  the  national 
domain  open  before  him,  and  no  custom-house  or  other  govern¬ 
mental  restriction  to  prevent  his  going  wherever  lie  may  wish, 
industry,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  has  the  ability  to  control 
the  selection  of  its  own  conditions,  and  organize  them  in  accord- 
mice  with  the  demands  of  its  increasing  knowledge. 

The  Activity  of  National  Life. 

The  political  life  and  activity  of  a  nation,  like  that  of  each 
individual,  consist  in  the  continuous  adjustment  of  internal  to 
external  conditions,  in  this  cycle  of  continuous  motion  and  change 
which  constitute  the  phenomena  of  the  moral  as  of  the  physical 
world. 

Though  it  may  not  be  at  present  possible  to  foresee  with 
minuteness  what  is  in  store  for  us  in  the  future,  yet  from  a  com¬ 
parison  of  the  immediate  past,  we  can  measurably  prefigure  the 
result.  From  the  small  beginnings  which  have  here  been  rapidly 
sketched,  with  their  simple  uniformity  of  employments,  we  have 
seen  produced,  in  less  than  three  hundred  years,  the  great  diversity 
of  our  present  occupations,  and  the  differentiation  of  our  industrial 
pursuits,  of  which  this  work  will  give  an  idea. 

With  the  increasing  circle  of  employments  for  human  energy, 
the  forces  brought  to  bear  upon  the  question  of  social  progress 
have  increased  in  both  number  and  intensity,  and  the  solution  of 
the  problem,  like  that  of  the  resolution  of  various  forces  in  me¬ 
chanics,  has  become  more  complex.  Yet  the  result  is  in  the  line 
of  progress,  in  the  direction  of  securing  to  each  individual  the 
largest  liberty  for  his  personal  endeavors,  and  for  society  at  large 
the  greatest  amount  of  material  for  its  collective  comfort  and  well¬ 
being. 

Upon  the  next- century  of  our  national  life,  we  start  from  a  point 
which  has  been  reached  by  the  labors  of  two  centuries,  and  with 
the  collected  experience  of  the  generations  which  have  preceded 
us,  with  the  organized  appliances  which  their  labors  have  pre¬ 
pared  for  us,  to  carry  forward  still  further  the  process  of  indus¬ 
trial  development,  and  afford  in  our  turn  the  evidence  that  the 
moral  progress  of  mankind  is  best  secured  by  liberty. 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


AN  AMERICAN  INVENTION.  —  AN  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  SPIRIT  OF  MODERN  TIMES.  — ' 

INVENTIONS  PREVIOUS  TO  THE  SEWING  MACHINE.  - THEIR  VALUE  AS  STEPS 

TOWARDS  IT.  —  THE  FIRST  PATENT.  — HOWE’S  PATENT.  — THE  NUMBER  OF 
PATENTS  ISSUED.  —  CLASSIFICATION  OF  SEWING  MACHINES.  —  THE  VERDICT 
OF  THE  PARIS  EXPOSITION  OF  1867.  —  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
institute;  of  the  Maryland  institute. — the  points  weigh  the  man¬ 
ufacturers  NOW  SEEK  TO  REACH  IN  SEWING  MACHINES.  —  THE  G.  F. 
MACHINE.  —  ITS  DESIGNER.  —  THE  POINTS  OF  ITS  SUPERIORITY.  —  A  DE¬ 
SCRIPTION  OF  THE  METHOD  OF  ITS  CONSTRUCTION.  —  THE  EFFECT  OF 
ORGANIZATION  UPON  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  SEWING  MACHINES.  —  THEIR 
PRESENT  PRICES  COMPARED  WITH  THOSE  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  AGO.  —  THE 
SOCIAL  EFFECTS  OF  THE  SEWING  MACHINE. 

The  introduction  of  the  sewing  machine,  by  whicli  the  slow  and 
tedious  process  of  hand  sewing  is  so  largely  done  away  with,  is 
due  entirely  to  American  ingenuity  and  enterprise.  Such  an  ap¬ 
plication  of  the  modern  spirit  of  industry,  which  seeks  in  every  way 
to  dignify  labor  by  lifting  it  above  the  plane  of  drudgery,  and  by 
introducing  the  necessity  for  brains,  as  well  as  simple  muscular 
force,  into  all  the  operations  of  industry,  tends  to  make  the  opera¬ 
tive  more  of  a  human  being,  exercising-  in  his  business  of  life  more 
of  the  faculties  which  form  the  distinctive  characteristic  of  man 
in  the  hierarchy  of  nature,  and  is  analogous  to  the  political  equality 
which  underlies  the  theory  of  our  government,  and  which  seeks  to 
make  of  any  individual  of  the  body  politic  a  citizen,  ‘conscious  of 
the  responsibilities  of  such  a  position,  instead  of  a  subject  depen¬ 
dent  upon  others  for  a  knowledge  of  his  duties  or  his  rights. 

The  steps  which,  before  the  completion  of  a  practically  working- 
machine,  were  made  in  this  general  direction,  will  be  seen  to  have 
been  only  such  as  in  no  way  detract  from  the  claim  of  America  to 
have  originated  and  perfected  this  industrial  appliance.  The  ulti¬ 
mate  effects  of  the  sewing  machine,  though  by  no  means  yet  fully 
attained,  are  still  already  sufficiently  manifest  to  justify  the  asser¬ 
tion  that  this  invention  ranks  among  the  foremost  of  this  century. 

(47) 


48 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


The  earliest  patent  which  appears  to  have  been  granted  for  a 
machine  to  improve  or  facilitate  the  process  of  sewing,  was  grant¬ 
ed  in  England,  on  the  24th  of  July,  1755,  to  Charles  F.  Weisen- 
thal,  for  an  improved  method  of  embroidering.  Under  this  patent 
he  claimed  a  needle,  pointed  at  both  ends,  and  having  the  eye  in 
the  middle,  so  that  it  could  be  passed  both  ways  through  the  cloth 
without  being  turned  round.  The  next  patent  was  granted  to 
Robert  Alsop,  in  17 70,  for  the  use  of  two  or  more  shuttles  in  em¬ 
broidery,  their  purpose  being  to  secure  the  stitches.  In  1804 
John  Duncan  took  out  a  patent  for  an  improved  process  by  the 
use  of  barbed  or  hooked  needles,  by  which  the  loops  were  made 
and  secured  somewhat  as  the  stitch  is  made  in  the  single-thread 
sewing  machine.  In  1807  James  Winter  patented  in  England  an 
appliance  for  sewing  leather  gloves,  the  importance  of  which  here 
arises  only  from  the  fact  that  the  material  was  held  in  position  by 
metallic  jaws,  thus  leaving  the  operator’s  hands  free.  On  July 
17,  1830,  a  French  patent  was  granted  to  M.  Thimonier  for  a  ma¬ 
chine  to  do  crochet  work,  which  could  also  be  applied  to  sewing. 
.In  this  machine  a  hooked  needle  was  used.  In  1848  this  machine 
was  improved  by  M.  Maguin,  a  partner  of  the  inventor,  and  in 
1851  was  exhibited  in  the  great  London  World’s  Fair  of  that  date. 
None  of  these  machines,  however,  were  intended  really  for  the 
purpose  which  the  sewing  machine  performs,  and  are  mentioned 
here  simply  because  each  of  them  in  turn  was  a  partial  step 
in  the  use  of  some  mechanical  process,  which  was  afterwards  in¬ 
troduced  in  the  sewing  machine. 

In  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington  is  the  model  of  a  u  machine 
to  sew  a  straight  seam,”  which  was  patented  February  21,  1842, 
by  James  Greenough,  of  Washington.  This  machine  made  what 
is  known  as  the  “  shoemaker’s  stitch.”  The  needle  was  made 
with  the  eye  in  the  centre,  and  pointed  at  both  ends,  being  pushed 
through  and*  then  drawn  back  by  means  of  pinchers.  In  1813 
other  patents  were  granted  to  G.  R.  Corliss  and  B.  W.  Bean. 
Bean’s  machine  worked  by  crimping  the  .material,  by  running  it 
through  corrug-ated  rollers,  and  then  sewed  by  thrusting  a  needle 
through  the  folds,  thus,  in  fact,  basting  it.  Another  machine  was 
patented  in  1844,  by  Rogers.  The  next  year,  1846,  Elias  Ilowe, 
Jr.,  patented  his,  on  September  10.  This  was  the  first  practicable 
machine  for  sewing. 

Though  not  patented  until  this  year,  Mr.  Ilowe  had  invented 
the  machine  some  years  before,  and  working  without  the  knowl- 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


49 


edge  of  what  had  been  done  before  by  others,  he  had  used  some 
devices  which  others  had  used,  but  had  so  combined  them  in  novel 
shapes  or  arrangements  that  the  machine,  as  a  whole,  was  entirely 
his  own  invention.  His  patent  claims,  substantially,  the  use  of  a 
needle  with  the  eye  in  the  point,  and  a  shuttle  for  the  purpose  of 
uniting  two  edges  in  a  seam,  or  their  equivalent,  making  the  stitch 
by  interlocking  two  threads.  lie  improved  his  machine  as  origi¬ 
nally  invented,  but  failed  in  exciting  sufficient  attention  to  it, 
either  in  the  United  States  or  in  England,  to  raise  the.  capital 
necessary  for  its  successful  introduction  into  popular  use.  Ilis 
attempts  to  do  this  exhausted  his  means,  and  reduced  him  to 
great-  poverty. 

Though  he  afterwards  received  very  large  amounts  of  money 
from  the  subsequent  inventors,  who  manufactured  their  machines 
under  a  royalty  to  him  for  the  use  of  the  appliances  governed  by 
his  patent,  yet  the  heavy  expenses  of  the  lawsuits  he  was  forced 
to  undertake  to  enforce  his  claims  absorbed  so  much  of  the  money 
he  received  that  he  died  in  comparative  poverty. 

While  Howe  was  attempting  to  introduce  his  machine  to  notice* 
the  attention  of  inventors  began  to  be  turned  to  the  subject  of 
sewing  machines,  and  patents  for  improvements,  modifications,  or 
new  arrangements  of  the  parts  began  to  flow  in  a  steady  stream 
from  the  Patent  Office.  Between  the  year  when  Howe’s  patent 
was  issued  to  the  year  1871  nearly  one  thousand  different  pat¬ 
ents  relating  to  sewing  machines  have  been  issued,  and  as  many 
applications  for  patents  have  been  rejected.  Of  this  number  thirty- 
seven  were  issued  in  1857,  seventy-two  in  each  of  the  two  suc¬ 
ceeding  years,  and  with  an  average  of  nearly  fifty  for  each  year 
until  1869,  when  eighty-eight  patents  were  issued,  being  the  largest 
number  in  any  single  year  up  to  that  date. 

Of  all  these  patents,  of  course  the  large  majority  have  never 
been  carried  so  far  as  the  production  of  machines  for  popular  use, 
while  many  of  them  were  simply  for  modification  and  improve¬ 
ments  upon  the  mechanical  devices  already  in  use,  or  for  new 
combinations  of  them.  At  present,  therefore,  all  the  sewing  ma¬ 
chines  presented  before  the  public  may  be  classed,  according  to 
the  variety  of  stitch  they  make,  into  three  classes. 

The  first  are  those  sewing  machines  which  make  the  lock-stitch, 
using  two  threads,  and  consequently  a  shuttle.  The  use  of  this 
kind  of  stitch  consumes  about  two  and  a  half  yards  of  thread  in 
sewing  a  seam  a  yard  long. 


50 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


The  next  kind  of  stitch  is  the  loop  or  double-chain  stitch, 
which  consumes  about  six  yards  of  thread  in  sewing'  a  seam  a 
}  ard  in  len  gth. 

The  third  class  is  the  chain-stitch,  or  the  twisted  loop-stitch, 
which  is  made  with  a  single  thread,  and  consumes  about  lour 
yards  of  thread  in  sewing  a  seam  a  yard  in  length. 

In  the  Paris  Exposition  of  ISO?  there  were  numerous  machines 
exhibited  which  made  the  loop  or  the  chain-stitch,  but  not  one  of 
them  was  noticed  by  the  international  juries  as  deserving  of  men¬ 
tion  for  any  special  merit. 

The  classification  of  sewing  machines,  made  by  a  committee 
appointed  by  the  American  Institute  of  New  York  for  the  purpose 
of  examining  their  comparative  merits,  was  as  follows  :  — 

The  committee  divided  them  into  four  classes,  ranging  them  in 
the  order  of  their  merits.  The  first  class  included  the  shuttle  or 
lock-stilch  machines,  made  for  family  use,  and  the  committee  as¬ 
signed  this  position  to  machines  of  this  kind  on  account  of  the 
“elasticity,  permanence,  beauty,  and  general  desirableness  of  the 
stitching  when  done/’  and  also  for  the  wide  range  of  its  ap¬ 
plication. 

The  second  class  made  by  the  committee  embraced  the  shuttle  or 
lockstitch  machines,  intended  for  manufacturing  purposes. 

The  third  class  included  the  double  chain-stitch,  while  the  fourth 
class  included  the  single  thread ,  tambour,  or  chain-stitch  machines. 

Of  the  first  and  second  class,  the  Weed,  the  Howe,  the  Singer, 
the  Wheeler  and  Wilson,  the  Florence,  and  others  are  the  chief 
representatives.  Of  the  third  class,  the  Grover  and  Baker  is  the 
chief  representative.  Of  these,  while  the  committee  acknowl¬ 
edged  that  this  stitch  can  be  used  most  successfully  for  em¬ 
broidery  purposes,  yet  they  objected  to  it  from  the  fact  that  it 
consumes  so  much  more  thread  than  the  others,  and  leaves  a  ridge 
projecting  upon  one  side  of  the  seam,  which  makes  it  unfit  for 
many  garments. 

In  the  fourth  class  the  Willcox  and  Gibbs  is  the  chief  represen¬ 
tative.  With  these  machines  the  committee  considered  that  the 
tendency  of  the  stitch  to  ravel  formed  so  serious  an  objection  that 
they  refused  to  recommend  it  for  a  premium. 

Of  the  various  machines,  therefore,  the  question  of  the  best  be¬ 
comes  narrowed  down  to  the  consideration  as  to  which  of  those 
making  the  lock-stitch  has  the  most  special  claims  to  consideration. 
Not  only  does  the  verdict  of  the  judges  maintain  this,  but  it  would 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


51 


seem  to  be  also  the  judgment  of  the  public,  who,  as  consumers,  are 
practically  interested  in  deciding  between  the  adverse  claims  put 
forward  by  the  various  machines  offered  for  their  acceptance. 
This  becomes  evident  when  it  is  remembered  that  at  least  five- 
sixths  of  the  machines  manufactured  and.  used  in  the  world  are 
machines  which  make  the  lock-stitch. 

Machines  making  the  lock-stitch  are  all  good  machines,  and 
have  been  practically  tested  by  so  many  thousands  that  it  would 
be  absurd  to  deny  that  they  do  their  work  well.  The  claim  of 
any  one  of  them  to  being  superior  to  the  others  must  depend  upon 
certain  technical  points  in  which  it  is  superior  to  the  others. 

By  a  careful  comparison  of  these  machines,  it  is  evident  that  the 

✓ 

Weed  machine,  which  obtained  the  highest  prize  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1867,  was  then  rightly  judged,  and  is  to-day,  for 
family  use,  the  best  there  is. 

Nor,  after  a  careful  consideration  of  the  following  points,  can 
any  one  without  prejudice  fail  to  come  to  the  same  opinion.  In 
the  first  place  it  is  the  simplest  in  its  construction  ;  it  has  a  straight 
needle  ;  it  will  readily  stitch  either  thick  or  thin  material ;  the  upper 
and  lower  thread  have  the  same  tension  —  a  most  important 
point  ;  it  will  work  as  well  with  both  threads  of  the  same  thick¬ 
ness  ;  its  needle  can  be  set  without  the  use  of  a  screw-driver,  or 
any  other  tool ;  the  needle  is  moved  perpendicularly,  instead  of  at 
the  end  of  an  arm,  by  which  it  is  moved  through  the  segment  of 
a  circle.  This  is  an  important  point,  since  the  differences  of  the 
atmosphere  affect  the  length  of  the  arm,  so  that  to  this  cause  the 
best  judges  assign  the  singular  11  fits  ”  which  so  often  affect  sew¬ 
ing  machines  when  they  refuse  to  work  correctly.  Its  machinery 
is  below  the  table,  where  it  is  free  from  dust.  It  is  so  well  bal¬ 
anced  that  it  is  worked  both  easily  and  noiselessly.  These  points 
and  others  of  less  importance  were  allowed,  in  the  Maryland  In¬ 
stitute,  in  1869,  to  constitute  the  superiority  of  the  Weed  machine 
over  its  competitors,  and  to  entitle  it  to  the  highest  premium. 

Now  that  the  sewing  machine  is  so  popularly  accepted,  and  the 
demand  has  risen  to  such  proportions  that  to  supply  it  requires  a 
production  of  nearly  two  thousand  machines  a  day,  or  over  six 
hundred  thousand  a  year,  the  best  mechanical  ingenuity  in  the 
country  finds  in  it  a  most  profitable  field  for  employment,  and  the 
workmanship  displayed  in  the  machines  from  the  best  manufac¬ 
turers  is  exquisitely  perfect. 

It  is  no  longer  a  question  concerning  the  practicability  of  sew- 


52 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


ing  by  machinery,  but  the  efforts  of  the  various  manufacturers  are 
devoted  to  producing  machines  which  shall  sew  most  noiselessly  ; 
which  shall  be  so  accurately  fitted,  and  so  evenly  hung,  that  they 
can  be  worked  with  the  least  expenditure  of  force  ;  while  the  sim¬ 
plicity  of  their  mechanism  and  its  accuracy  shall  make  them, 
under  use,  more  durable  and  more  easily  kept  in  order. 

As  an  interesting  evidence  of  the  success  attained  in  perfecting 
the  sewing  machine  in  these  important  points,  we  would  mention 
here  a  new  machine  introduced  by  the  Weed  Company  under  the 
trademark  of  G.  F.,  or  1‘  General  Favorite, ”  as  these  initials  are 
ordinarily  translated. 

This  machine  was  designed  by  Mr.  George  Fairfield,  the  super¬ 
intendent  of  the  Weed  Company’s  works,  to  whose  mechanical 
genius  and  talent  for  organization  the  productions  of  the  company 
chiefly  owe  their  well-earned  reputation.  The  credit  of  its  inge¬ 
nious  mechanism,  which  makes  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  sewing 
machines,  is  due  entirely  to  him,  and  this  the  Weed  Company 
have  acknowledged  in  branding  it  with  his  initials. 

The  chief  point  aimed  at  in  the  construction  of  this  new  ma¬ 
chine  was  to  make  it  a  really  noiseless  one  ;  and  early  in  his 
endeavors  to  attain  this  end,  Mr.  Fairfield  found  that  he  must 
abandon  the  mechanical  devices  heretofore  used  in  sewing  machines, 
such  as  cams,  gears,  and  similar  appliances,  and  replace  them  by 
something  else.  With  this  view,  he  introduced  in  their  place  a 
swinging  or  rock  motion,  by  which  to  avoid  the  nervous  grinding 
of  the  cams,  and  the  harsh  clatter  of  the  cogs  and  gears  in  ordi¬ 
nary  use. 

The  essential  merit  of  this  new  combination  is  simplicity  and 
perfection  of  mechanical  motion,  together  with  a  perfect  freedom 
from  the  friction  and  jarring  incident  to  the  ordinary  mechanism 
of  the  sewing  machines  heretofore  made. 

By  this  means,  also,  not  only  is  all  noise  avoided,  but  a  rate  of 
speed  much  higher  than  that  heretofore  attained  becomes  possible 
with  these  machines.  This  merit  is  one  which  will  specially  com¬ 
mend  the  G.  F.  to  manufacturers,  with  whom  time  is  most  practi¬ 
cally  money. 

A  still  further  improvement  in  this  machine  is  a  novel  device  for 
feeding,  by  which  all  wearing  points  are  avoided,  and  which  is 
readily  adjusted  from  the  top  of  the  bed.  As  it  works  also  directly 
under  the  material  to  be  sewn,  it  avoids  all  long  levers  and  the 


MANUFACTORY  OF  THE  WEED  SEWING  MACHINE  COMPANY,  HARTFORD,  CONN, 


a 


<• 


» 


. :  ■ 


■ 


- 


* 


■  •  ' 

. 


■ 


V 


. 


v  » 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


55 


variations  in  the  length  of  the  stitches  which  are  caused  by  their 
springing. 

The  uneven  tension  between  the  upper  and  lower  threads,  which 
all  experts  know  is  an  objectionable  feature  in  almost  all  the  ma¬ 
chines  heretofore  made,  is  also  avoided  in  the  Weed  machines  by 
the  introduction  of  a  delicate,  adjustable  pad  arranged  in  the  shut¬ 
tle,  and  under  which  the  thread  passe's.  Its  tension  is  thus 
secured  without  the  necessity  for  the  short  curves  and  corners/ 
by  which  it  is  chafed,  and  which  have  heretofore  rendered  it  im 
possible  to  secure  a  perfect  tension. 

With  the  upper  thread,  also,  in  the  sewing  machines  as  con¬ 
structed  ordinarily,  the  -tension  is  secured  by  passing  the  thread 
round  corrugated  wheels,  or  between  disks,  or  under  a  spring  or 
clamp. 

All  of  these  various  methods  are  objectionable.  The  corrugated 
wheels  may  stick  ;  or,  when  the  thread  passes  between  disks,  the 
twist  in  the  thread  is  destroyed  ;  or,  in  this  case,  as  also  when  it 
passes  under  a  clamp,  a  knot,  or  any  unevenness  in  the  thread 
itself,  makes  a  difficulty  in  the  way  of  its  even  tension  and  regular 
supply. 

In  the  G.  F.  machine,  however,  these  objections  are  all  overcome 
by  the  introduction  of  a  vibrating  or  an  anti-friction  pad,  which 
readily  adjusts  itself  to  any  ordinary  imperfection  in  the  thread, 
and  renders  all  unevenness  of  the  tension  impossible. 

These  improvements  in  the  tension  obviate  the  difficulties  which 
have  heretofore  been,  perhaps,  the  most  evident  in  the  way  of 
perfecting  the  sewing  machine,  and  their  advantage  will  appear 
manifest  to  any  one  practically  acquainted  with  the  use  of  sewing 
machines. 

In  this  machine,  also,  the  shuttle  is  driven  by  a  ball  and  socket 
joint,  which  is  universally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  mechanical 
device  known  for  imparting  motion  ;  while  all  the  joints  and  bear¬ 
ings  in  its  mechanism  are  arranged  to  be  so  adjustable  that  any 
wear  which  may  arise  from  long-continued,  constant  use,  for  manu¬ 
facturing  or  other  purposes,  may  be  readily  taken  up  without 
trouble  to  the  operator,  or  expense  for  repairing.  This  is  an  im¬ 
provement  which  appeals  most  forcibly  to  those  who  have  had 
experience  in  the  use  of  sewing  machines  for  industrial  purposes. 

The  increase  of  the  consumption  of  sewing  machines  has  raised 
their  manufacture  to  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  mechanical 


50 


SEWING  MACHINES. 


industries  of  the  country,  and  the  economic  value  to  the  consumers 
of  the  organization  of  industry  is,  perhaps,  nowhere  shown  more 
strikingly  than  in  this  branch  of  manufactures. 

With  the  first  introduction  of  the  sewing  machine,  its  cost  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  an  almost  effectual  bar  to  its  general  acceptance.  It 
would  cost  to-day  some  hundreds  of  dollars  for 'a  mechanic  to  make 
a  single  sewing  machine,  from  a  model  before  him  ;  and  the  first 
sewing  machines  made  cost  fully  this  amount. 

The  first  introduction  of  sewing  machines  was  less  than  thirty 
years  ago,  and  yet,  at  that  time,  it  has  been  stated  that  the  origi¬ 
nal  inventor  could  not  have  filled  an  order  for  a  dozen  machines 
at  a  less  price  than  five  hundred  dollars  each.  There  was  not  the 
machinery  in  existence  to  make  the  various  parts,  and  they  had, 
consequently,  to  be,  all  made  by  the  tedious  and  expensive  process 
of  hand  labor.  Now,  however,  in  a  well-furnished  and  properly- 
organized  manufactory,  like  that  of  the  Weed  Company,  every  aid 
of  machinery  is  made  use  of,  and  sewing  machines,  constructed 
with  a  perfection  of  accuracy  which  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  attain  thirty  years  ago,  are  now  made  in  large  numbers  daily, 
and  sold  at  a  price  which  places  them  within  the  reach  of  every 
family  of  thrifty  habits. 

The  influence  of  the  change  in  our  methods  of  domestic  labor, 
which  the  sewing  machine  has  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  pro¬ 
ducing,  can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  We  have  seen  only  its 
beginning.  The  greater  intensity  and  activity  of  the  social  forces 
set  in  action  by  the  new  spirit  of  industry,  and  the  extension  of 
the  means  for  enjoying  the  luxury  of  propriety  in  dress  among  all 
classes,  will  produce  in  our  social  organization  a  change  similar  to 
that  produced  in  the  political  world  by  the  extension  of  political 
rights  and  responsibilities. 

We  live  in  an  age  of  universal  ideas,  and  the  material  questions 
of  the  time  are  rising  to  claim  their  proper  position  as  the  truly 
moral  questions,  which  must  be  answered  in  the  interest  of  no  one 
class,  but  of  all. 


THE  GERM  OF  THE  ART.  — BLOCK-BOOKS.  — DISCOVERY  OF  PRINTING.  —  EARLY 
HISTORY.  —  KOSTER.  —  METBLIN.  —  JOHN  GUTTEMBERG.  —  FAUST.  —  SCIICEF- 
FER.  —  SPLENDID  SPECIMENS  OF  TYPOGRAPHY.  —  SPREAD  OF  THE  ART  IN 
EUROPE.  — THE  FIRST  PRESSES  IN  AMERICA. — THE  CA3IBRIDGE  “  UNIVER¬ 
SITY  PRESS.” - WILLIAM  PENN’S  PRINTER.  —  FRANKLIN’S  PRESS.  —  PRACTI¬ 
CAL  PRINTING. - COMPOSITION.  —  PROOF-READING.  —  IMPOSITION.  —  DISTRI¬ 

BUTION. —  TYPE-SETTING  AND  DISTRIBUTING  MACHINES.  —  JOB  PRINTING. — 
PRINTING  IN  COLORS.  - THE  PRINTING  PRESS. - EARL  OF  STANHOPE.  —  NICH¬ 

OLSON. —  KONIG. — THE  LONDON  TIMES.  — GEORGE  CLYMER. —  APPLEGATII. 
—  ISAAC  ADAMS.  —  NAPIER.  —  THE  MESSRS.  HOE.  —  AMERICAN  PRESSES. 


The  discovery  of  the  art  of  letter-press  printing  is  the  glory  of 
the  fifteenth  century ;  but  the  germ  of  the  art  existed  more  than 
three  thousand  years  before,  when  the  Egyptians  engraved  raised 
characters  and  symbols  upon  tiles  and  cylinders,  which  were  after¬ 
wards  impressed  upon  soft  clay  tablets,  which  were  then  baked 
and  hardened.  These  are  supposed  to  be  records,  and  the  use  of 
stamps,  from  which  many  impressions  could  be  taken,  shows  that 
the  purpose  was  multiplication,  to  disseminate  information.  With 
these  have  been  found  clay  and  porcelain  figures,  on  which  the 
characters  were  evidently  impressed  'singly,  side  by  side,  by 
stamps.  The  ruined  cities  of  Asia  also  exhibit  similar  specimens, 
and  Mr.  Layard  declares  that  “the  most  common  mode  of  keep¬ 
ing  records  in  Assyria  and  Babylon  was  on  prepared  bricks,  tiles, 
or’cylinders  of  clay,  baked  after  the  inscription  was  impressed 
European  public  museums  and  private  collections  contain  many  of 
these  curiosities  of  the  first  steps  taken  in  the  art  of  printing. 

It  is  strange  that  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were  slower  in  dis¬ 
covering  even  this  initial  step  in  the  art.  The  earlier  specimens 
of  Roman  pottery,  many  of  them  exhibiting  exquisite  taste  in 
manufacture,  show  almost  no  attempts  at  the  impression  of  de- 
4  (57) 


8 


PRINTING  AND  TIIE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


signs  or  characters  ;  and  that,  too,  when  their  monuments  and 
public  buildings  bore  sculptured  legends  and  inscriptions  in  the 
Roman  letters  which  we  use  to-day.  But  the  first  attempt  was  an 
immense  step  in  advance.  They  made  stamps  of  different  sizes, 
bearing  on  their  faces  names  and  legends  in  raised  characters  re¬ 
versed.  These  were  of  bronze  or  brass,  and  unquestionably  were 
used  to  make  impressions  by  means  of  ink  or  colors  upon  papy¬ 
rus,  cloth,  or  parchment.  One  of  them,  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum,  has  a  face  two  inches  by  four-fifths  of  an  inch,  with  let¬ 
ters  and  a  border,  which  are  here  given  in  facsimile.  It  is  the 

signet 

Julius)  CiECILIVS  IIER- 
MIAS,  and  with  modern 
printer’s  ink  it  makes  a 
clear  and  handsome  im¬ 
pression  upon  paper,  while 
the  ring  or  handle  on  the 
back  leaves  no  doubt  whatever  of  its  object  as  a  stamp  for 
printing. 

That  the  Romans  of  that  period  should  have  just  missed  the 
discovery  of  block-printing  by  the  page,  which  the  Chinese  claim 
to  have  known  before  the  Christian  era,  is  indeed  surprising.  In 
fact,  there  has  been  no  material  improvement  in  Chinese  printing 
from  its  beginning,  and  for  obvious  reasons  —  their  written  lan¬ 
guage  contains  from  eighty  thousand  to  one  hundred  thousand 
characters,  so  that  block-printing  would  be  easier  and  more  rapid 
than  the  use  of  movable  type,  since  the  number  of  characters  re¬ 
quired  —  at  least  sixty  thousand  —  would  make  composition  quite 
impracticable. 

But  from  the  Roman  stamps  and  (claimed)  Chinese  block-print¬ 
ing,  centuries  elapsed  before  comparatively  civilized  nations  knew 
even  this  much  of  the  art.  Of  course  wood-cutting  was  the  be¬ 
ginning  ;  first  for  the  manufacture  of  playing-cards,  certainly  as 
early  as  in  the  fourteenth  century  ;  and  then  followed  many  rude 
engravings,  generally  of  scriptural  subjects,  with  legends  or  texts 
annexed.  Prominent  among  these  was  the  “  Poor  Man’s  Bible,” 
consisting  of  forty  leaves  from  as  many  different  blocks.  In  this 
book,  and  in  the  Canticles,  and  the  Speculum,  certain  pages  were 
printed  from  movable  type,  and  with  this  fact,  admitted  by  bibliogra¬ 
phers,  comes  at  last  the  great  discovery  of  letter-press  printing. 

But  who  was  the  discoverer  ?  Harlem  claims  it  for  Koster  (*>r 


CICAECILI 
IIERMIAE  SN 


59 


PRINTING  AND  TIIE  PRINTING  PRESS. 

Custos),  Strasbourg  for  Mentelin,  and  Mentz  for  Guttemberg.  It 
is  not  intended  here  to  more  than  mention  the  discussion,  which 
extended  over  three  centuries,  and  space  permits  only  the  briefest 
statement  of  the  prominent  and  really  important  facts  in  the  earlier 
.  history  of  the  art.  It  is  probable  that  many  of  the  small  tracts, 
printed  on  movable  type  previous  to  1440,  were  issued  by  Koster. 
The  actual  invention  of  letter-press  printing  is  now,  however,  al¬ 
most  universally  attributed  to  Guttemberg. 

John  Guttemberg,  of  Mentz,  was  the  first  to  cut  type  from 
metal,  and  he  afterwards  cut  matrices  in  which  type  were  cast. 
He  was  a  man  of  means,  but  these  were  exhausted  in  experiments. 
He  then  applied  to  John  Faust  (or  Fust),  a  wealthy  citizen  of 
Mentz,  to  whom  he  revealed  his  plans,  and  who  became  his ,  part¬ 
ner.  Subsequently  was  associated  with  the  two  Peter  Schoefier, 
a  scribe,  to  whom  many  attribute  the  invention  of  the  matrices  for 
type-casting.  In  1455,  or  thereabouts,  —  for  the  volume  has  no- 
date,  —  this  firm  printed  the  famous  “  Mazarine  Bible.” 

Faust  and  Schoefier  separated  from  Guttemberg,  and,  in  August, 
1457,  issued  the  celebrated  Psalter,  printed  on  large,  cut  type,  and 
the  first  book  which  ever  bore  the  date,  place  of  issue,  and  names- 
of  printers.  In  1462  they  printed  the  famous  Latin  Bible,  and  in 
1465  they  printed  Cicero  de  Officiis,  in  which  occurs  the  first 
Greek  type.  Together  Faust  and  Schoefier  printed  ten  books,  and' 
after  his  death,  Schoefier  carried  on  the  business  for  thirty-five 
years,  during  which  he  issued  many  books.  The  type  used  was 
what  is  called  Gothic,  with  illuminated  initial  letters,  generally 
done  by  hand,  though  Faust  and  Schoefier  printed  them  in  two 
colors.  Parchment  and  paper  were  used  indiscriminately.  Of  the- 
character  of  the  work  and  the  mechanical  skill,  Dr.  Dibdin,  the- 
bibliographer,  says,  11  Everything  is  perfect  of  the  kind  —  the  pa¬ 
per,  the  ink,  and  the  register.” 

Guttemberg  died  in  1467,  poor,  it  is  believed,  and  unhonored,  it 
is  known.  It  was  reserved  for  a  later  century  to  rescue  his  name 
from  the  obscurity  into  which  it  fell.  Not  one  of  his  books  bears 
his  imprint,  and  others  derived  the  immediate  emoluments,  and,, 
for  a  long  time,  the  sole  honor  oMiis  inventions. 

Unless  we  except  Mentelin,  of  Strasbourg,  who  printed  books 
as  earty  as  1460,  for  a  long  time  the  Mentz  printers  had  the  mo¬ 
nopoly  of  their  art,  and  were  sworn  not  to  reveal  it.  But  the  cap¬ 
ture  of  the  city  by  Count  Adolphus  of  Nassau,  in  1462;  not  only 
interrupted  the  labors  of  Faust  and  Schcefler,  but  scattered  their 


60 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


workmen  to  other  cities  ;  so  that  within  eighteen  years  the  art  had 
so  spread  that  there  were  ninety-four  printing-offices  in  full  opera¬ 
tion  in  different  European  cities.  Nicholas  Jenson,  who  ^earned 
his  trade  at  Mentz,  had  the  honor,  at  Venice,  in  14T 1 ,  of  introduc¬ 
ing  the  Roman  type,  which  is  used  to-day.  To  the  famed  Aldine 
Press,  established  by  Aldus  Manutius  at  Venice  in  1488,  we  owe 
the  Italic  letter.  The  earlier  printers  used  only  the  period  and 
colon  ;  the  comma  was  introduced  many  years  later ;  and  in  the 
first  printed  books  capitals  were  rarely  used  in  beginning  sen¬ 
tences. 

William  Caxton  carried  the  new  art  to  England  in  14*14,  and 
printed  “  The  Game  of  Chess/7  the  first  book  in  London.  Ilis 
press  was  in  one  of  the  chapels  of  Westminster  Abbey.  The 
scarcely  less  famous  Wynkyn  de  Worde  was  Caxton’s  successor. 
Presses  were  speedily  established  at  Oxford,  St.  Albans,  and  Cam¬ 
bridge.  The  introduction  of  printing  at  other  important  points  is 
as  follows  :  — 

Paris,  1470  ;  Florence,  1471  ;  Antwerp,  1476  ;  Geneva,  1478  ; 
Vienna,  1482  ;  Stockholm,  1483  ;  Copenhagen,  1493  ;  Cracow, 
Munich,  and  Amsterdam,  1500  ;  Edinburgh,  1507  ;  Dublin,  1551  ; 
and  Mexico,  1569. 

Seventy  years  later,  in  1639,  the  first  printing  press  in  the 
American  colonies  was  set  up  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  It 
was  procured  by  subscription  (the  Rev.  Jesse  Glover  acting  as 
agent)  from  Amsterdam,  and  was  given  to  the  college,  with  a  fount 
of  type  of  forty-nine  pounds  ;  so  that  it  may  be  assumed  to  be  the 
beginning  of  the  present  “  University  Press/7  The  first  issue 
from  this  press  was  the  “  Freeman’s  Oath  ;  ”  next,  “  An  Almanac 
for  New  England,  calculated  by  William  Pierce,  Mariner  ;  ”  and 
next  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms.  On  this  press  was  printed, 
in.  1663,  the  first  edition  of  “  Eliot’s  Indian  Bible.”  It  was  wholly 
set  by  an  Indian,  was  three  years  going  through  the  press,  and 
was  the  first  Bible  printed  in  America.  Stephen  Daye  was  the 
first  printer  at  Cambridge,  and  he  received  a  grant  of  three  hun¬ 
dred  acres  of  land  on  that  account. 

William  Penn  brought  William*  Bradford,  printer,  to  Pennsylva¬ 
nia,  in  1686,  and  established  a  press  in  Philadelphia.  In  1692 
Mr.  Bradford  was  invited  to  establish  a  printing-house  in  New 
York,  with  the  inducement  of  forty  pounds  a  year,  and  the  “  privi¬ 
lege  of  printing  on  his  own  account,”  which  he  accepted  ;  and 
the  first  printed  issue  in  that  province  is  a  proclamation,  bearing 


FRANKLIN’S  PRINTING  PRESS.  FAUST'S  FIRST  PROOF  FROM  MOVEABLE  TYPE. 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


63 


date  of  that  year.  At  New  London,  Connecticut,  a  press  was  set 
up  in  1709  ;  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  1726  ;  at  Williamsburg, 
Virginia,  1729  ;  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  1730  ;  at  New¬ 
port,  Rhode  Island,  1732.  At  Newport,  by  the  by,  in  the  old 
Mercury  office,  was  used  for  many  years  a  press  brought  from 
Boston,  on  which  Benjamin  Franklin  worked  as  a  “  ball  boy.” 
This  curiosity  is  now  the  property  of  the  United  States  govern¬ 
ment,  and  is  in  fhe  Patent  Office  at  Washington.  Other  presses 
were  established  as  follows  :  At  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey,  1752  ; 
at  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  1755  ;  at  Portsmouth,  New  Hamp¬ 
shire,  1756  ;  Savannah,  Georgia,  1762.  Kentucky  had  a  printing 
press  in  1786  ;  Tennessee  in  1793.  William  Maxwell  set  up  a 
press  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  1793.  The  first  printing  west  of  the 
Mississippi  was  at  St.  Louis,  in  1808,  by  Jacob  Hinkle.  Louisi¬ 
ana  had  a  press  immediately  after  her  acquisition  by  the  United 
States;  Michigan  had  a  press  in  1809,  and  Mississippi  in  1810. 
Halifax  boasts  of  a  printing  office  in  1751,  and  Quebec  in  1764. 

To  go  back  briefly  to  the  early  European  printers :  Before  the 
year  1500  almost  every  known  manuscript  of  antiquity  was  print¬ 
ed.  These  were  in  quartos  or  in  folios,  generally  on  parchment, 
with  initial  letters  superbly  colored  and  gilded  by  hand  ;  and  this 
practice  was  long  continued,  till  very  beautiful  initial  letters,  cut 
on  wood,  were  substituted.  Many  of  these  printed  volumes,  with 
all  our  boasted  “  advance  in  the  art,”  have  never  been  surpassed 
in  mere  mechanical  execution,  and  certainly  not  as  works  of  art. 
Some  of  these  volumes  exhibit  now  ink  of  a  dense  blackness,  and 
colored  inks  of  a  brilliancy  which  no  books  of  modern  times  can 
show.  For  in  the  days  when  the  press  was  almost  wholly  devoted 
to  the  production  of  sumptuous  Bibles  for  cathedrals,  and  superb 
copies  of  the  classics  for  libraries,  or  for  wealthy  purchasers, 
printing  was  a  luxury,  and  not,  as  now,  a  necessity.  The  march 
of  centuries,  and  the  universal  diffusion  of  the  art,  have  naturally 
compelled  vast  improvemertts  in  presses,  paper,  type,  and  office 
material  ;  but  the  art  itself,  in  taste,  correctness,  and  practical 
skill,  has  not  greatly  improved.  Printing  is  printing,  and  those 
who  compare  the  mere  letter-press  of  to-day  with  that  exhibited  in 
the  volumes  of  Guttemberg  and  his  contemporaries  will  declare 
that  the  art  sprang  forth,  Minerva-like,  full  grown. 

With  this  condensed  historical  sketch  of  the  origin  and  progress 
of  printing  in  the  past,  we  proceed  to  consider  the  present  process 
of  book-making. 


64 


PRINTING  AND  TIIE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


\ 


Composition'. 

When  the  manuscript  or  “  copy  ”  of  a  work  to  be  printed  is  re¬ 
ceived  in  the  “  composing-room,”  it  is  apportioned  in  “takes” 
among  the  “  compositors,”  who  are  to  set  it  up  in  type.  Each 
compositor  has  before  him,  on  a  stand,  two  “  cases,”  which  slope 
towards  him  in  angles  convenient  to  his  hand,  the  upper  case  be¬ 
ing  more  inclined  than  the  lower  one.  The  upper  case  is  divided 
into  ninety-eight  equal  spaces  or  “  boxes,”  and  the  part  on  the  left 
of  the  broader  division  is  devoted  to  CAPITAL  letters,  figures, 
particular  “  sorts,”  etc.,  while  the  right  contains  the  small  capi¬ 
tals,  accented  letters,  and  references.  The  letters  and  figures 
are  arranged,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  in  alphabetical  and 
numerical  order  from  left  to  right.  The  lower  case  is  divided  into 
fifty-four  boxes  of  varying  sizes,  according  to  the  average  occur¬ 
rence  of  the  letters,  containing  the  small  letters,  punctuation 
points,  figures,  and  spaces  of  different  sizes. 

The  “  lower-case  ”  letters  are  not  arranged  in  alphabetical  or¬ 
der  ;  if  they  were,  the  work  of  the  compositor  would  be  doubled  ; 
but  the  larger  boxes,  which  hold  the  most  frequently-recurring  let¬ 
ters,  are  in  the  centre  of  the  case,  nearest  at  hand.  Separate 
cases,  similarly  arranged,  contain  the  italic  letters,  and  there  are 
still  other  cases  for  accented  (a)  and  diaeresis  (e)  vowels,  superi¬ 
ors  (a’b’c),  fractions,  etc.  The  compositor  never  looks  at  the  face 
of  the  letter,  but,  apparently  without  effort  of  the  mind,  puts  his 
fingers  in  the  particular  box  where  the  letter  should  be. 

Placing  his  copy  before  him  on  the  upper  case,  the  compositor 
takes  in  his  left  hand  a  “  composing-stick,”  which  is  a  steel  frame 


COMPOSING-STICK. 


with  a  slide,  which  can  be  adjusted  and  fixed  to  the  **  measure  ” 
or  width  of  the  page.  In  the  stick  is  a  thin  brass  or  steel  “  rule,” 
on  which  to  slip  the  types  to  their  places,  and  to  prevent  the  lines 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


65 


already  set  from  falling  over.  Reading  a  few  words  of  the  copy, 
the  compositor  takes  a  capital  letter  from  the  upper  case,  and  suc¬ 
ceeding  letters  from  the  lower  case,  one  by  one,  with  a  “  space  ” 
at  the  end  of  each  word,  securing  the  increasing  line  in  its  place 
with  his  thumb  tin  the  line  ends.  If  the  words  with  the  spaces 
do  not  fill,  or  if  they  crowd  the  line,  the  compositor  gains  by 
“spacing  out;”  i.  e.,  by  putting  in  more  or  thicker  spaces,  or, 
on  the  other  hand,  takes  out  the  thick  spaces,  substituting  thinner 
ones,  taking  care  that  his  “  matter  ”  shall  not  look  too  close  or 
too  open,  till  the  line  tightly  fills  the  stick.  This  is  “justifying.” 
lie  then  takes  out  his  rule,  places  it  in  front  of  the  line  just  set, 
and  repeats  the  operation  till  his  stick  is  full.  If  the  matter  is  to 
be  “  leaded,”  —  that  is,  if  the  lines  are  to  be  more  apart,  —  the  com¬ 
positor,  after  setting  each  line,  and  before  removing  his  rule,  places 
before  the  line  one  or  more  thin  pieces  of  metal,  called  “  leads,” 
which  are  of  the  exact  width  of  the  page,  and  not  higher  than  the 
spaces.  The  stickful  is  then  “  emptied  ;  ”  that  is,  by  a  dexterous 
operation  the  compositor  lifts  the  lines,  and  places  them  upon  a 
flat  surface,  usually  of  brass,  with  a  rim  to  sustain  the  standing 
type,  and  called  a  “galley.” 

Compositors  are  usually  paid  by  the  “thousand,”  not  a  thou¬ 
sand  letters,  but  for  the  space  occupied  by  a  thousand  of  the  let¬ 
ter  “  m,”  and  the  payment  is  for  “  corrected  ”  matter. 

Proof-reading. 

The  matter  on  the  galley  is  divided  into  pages,  the  head  lines 
are  added,  “  proofs  ”  are  taken  by  hand  on  a  press  for  that  pur¬ 
pose,  and  are  sent  to  the  proof-reader.  lie  first  looks  over  the 
proof,  and  satisfies  himself  as  to  all  the  technical  points,  whether 
the  directions  given  have  been  followed,  and  marks  whatever  he  finds 
wrong.  An  assistant  —  generally  a  boy  —  then  reads  the  copy, 
while  the  proof-reader,  with  vigilant  eye,  sees  that  copy  has  been 
carefully  followed,  meanwhile  rapidly  noting  on  the  margin  of  the 
proof  all  errors  in  spelling,  turned  letters,  capitals,  italics,  or  other 
blemishes  and  peculiarities,  which,  in  a  proof  not  “  clean,”  will 
soon  cover  the  margin  with  letters,  words,  and  signs.  The  proof 
is  then  sent  to  the  compositor,  who  corrects  his  own  matter,  takes 
a  “  revise  ”  on  the  proof-press,  sends  it  to  the  reader,  who  com¬ 
pares  it  with  the  first  proof,  to  see  that  the  corrections  indicated 
have  been  made,  and  then  carefully  reads  the  revise  for  any  errors 
which  may  have  escaped  him  in  the  first  proof.  A  third  proof  is 


66 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


then  taken,  and  sent  to  the  author.  If  he  materially  changes  the 
text  from  the  original  manuscript,  the  subsequent  corrections  are, 
very  properly,  at  his  expense. 

Imposition. 

When  the  corrections  are  complete,  if  the  work  is  to  be  “  letter¬ 
press,”  that  is,  printed  directly  from  the  type,  the  pages  are  taken 
to  the  “imposing-stone,”  a  large  marble  slab,  or  sometimes  a 
lathe-turned  plate  of  iron.  On  this  table  the  pages  are  laid  down 
correctly,  and  a  “  chase  ”  —  a  frame  of  iron  divided  by  bars  into 
compartments  —  is  placed  over  them,  and  the  spaces  between  the 
pages  are  filled  in  with  “furniture,”  —  pieces  of  wood  or  metal, 
—  while  inside  the  chase,  and  next  to  the  pages,  are  placed  side 
and  foot  sticks,  and  between  these  and  the  chase  are  put  in 
wedge-shaped  pieces  of  wood,  called  “  quoins.”  These  are  sharp¬ 
ly  driven  up  with  a  mallet  and  a  “shooting-stick,”  —  a  piece  of 
hard  wood,  or  iron,  a  foot  in  length,  —  and  if  the  work  is  well 
done,  the  “  form  ”  is  securely  “locked  up,”  and  may  be  lifted 
without  danger,  and  sent  to  the  press-room. 

Distribution. 

When  the  sheets  are  printed,  the  pressman  returns  the  forms  to 
the  composing-room,  where  they  are  carefully  washed  with  lye, 
rinsed,  laid  on  a  board  in  the  sink,  and  unlocked.  The  compositor 
then  loosens  the  type  with  his  hand,  at  the  same  time  pouring  on 
water  to  wash  away  the  lye  and  ink,  and  the  type  are  then  left  to 
drain.  This  is  now  “  dead  ”  matter  for  “  distribution  ”  to  the 
cases,  which  have  “run  low.”  Wetting  the  face  of  the  type  to 
make  it  adhere,  the  compositor  takes  up  a  portion  — nick  upward, 
and  face  towards  him  —  on  his  setting-rule  in  his  left  hand,  while 
with  his  right  he  takes  a  word  or  more,  gives  a  rapid  glance  at  it, 
and  drops  each  letter  in  its  proper  box.  Remembering  that  the 
greatest  accuracy  is  necessary,  since  errors  in  distribution  will 
certainly  cause  errors  in  composition,  to  the  grief  of  the  composi¬ 
tor,  who  must  gratuitously  correct  his  matter,  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  distribution  is  effected  is  indeed  wonderful.  It  depends, 
of  course,  upon  the  size  of  the  “fount,”  and  of  the  book;  but 
whether  the  type  is  sent  to  the  press  or  to  the  stereotyper,  in  the 
printing  of  a  single  volume  the  type  would  be  returned  several 
times  to  be  distributed  and  composed  again. 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


G7 


Type-setting  and  Distributing  Machines. 

A  perfect  type-setting  machine  is  yet  to  be  discovered.  Several 
inventors  have  attempted  it,  the  most  successful  of  whom  was 
Timothy  Alden,  of  Massachusetts,  who  obtained  a  patent  for  a 
machine  ;  and  since  his  death,  his  nephew,  Mr.  IT.  W.  Alden,  has 
organized  a  company  for  the  manufacture  of  the  machine.  The 
machine  is  operated  by  means  of  keys,  like  those  of  a  piano,  and 
the  type  are  made  to  form  themselves  into  words  and  sentences  at 
the  will  of  the  operator.  The  difficulty,  however,  with  this,  and 
with ‘all  the  machines,  is  in  “  justification/7  which  must  be  done 
by  hand  after  the  type  is  set,  thus  rendering  the  services  of  the 
machine  comparatively  valueless.  It  is  claimed  that  the  machine 
invented  by  Mr.  F.  G.  Foster,  of  North  Carolina,  solves  this  diffi¬ 
culty.  Distributing  machines  have  also  been  invented,  which  take 
up  “  dead  matter  ”  and  distribute  it,  sort  by  sort,  in  the  different 
boxes,  with  marvellous  rapidity  and  tolerable  accuracy.  While 
all  these  machines  display  wonderful  ingenuity,  their  disadvan¬ 
tages,  yet  to  be  overcome,  render  them  impracticable  at  present. 

•  r~ 

Job  Printing. 

Within  a  few  years  there  has  grown  up  a  demand  for  a  distinct 
class  of  printers,  who  are  known  as  job  printers.  These  are  the 
useful  citizens  who  fulfil  nearly  all  the  printing  demands  which 
business  or  pleasure  may  require,  who  print  everything,  from  the 
business  or  ball-room  card  to  the  gigantic  illuminated  poster  that 
covers  the  theatrical  bill-board,  and  sometimes  the  whole  “  side  of 
a  barn.”  A  few  years  ago,  such  jobs  as  were  required  in  the  way 
of  cards,  bill-heads,  posters,  etc.,  were  done  in  the  plainest,  often¬ 
times  in  the  poorest  manner,  in  the  newspaper  or  book-printing 
offices  ;  now,  great  and  small  job  establishments  in  all  the  cities 
vie  with  each  other  in  turning  out  work  which  displays  not  only 
admirable  mechanical  skill,  but  frequently  the  highest  artistic 
taste. 

And  hence  the  type-founders  have  furnished,  and  are  constantly 
devising  and  providing  for  this  especial  class  of  printers,  an  infi¬ 
nite  variety  of  large  and  small  letters,  borders,  and  beautiful  de¬ 
signs  of  all  sorts,  which  enable  the  compositor  to  turn  out  work  so 
delicate  and  so  elaborate  as  to  vie  with  lithography  and  engrav¬ 
ing.  The  job  printer  is  not  confined  to  regular  founts  of  Roman 
and  Italic,  and  limited  to  black  ink  ;  he  may — indeed,  he  must  — 


68 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


use  all  the  fanciful  forms  of  type  which  the  imagination  of  the 
type-founder  has  yet  conceived,  and  he  can  indulge  in  all  the  col¬ 
ors  of  the  clouds  at  sunset.  In  addition,  then,  to  a  complete 
knowledge  of  his  business  as  a  first-class  compositor,  he  should 
be*  a  man  of  thorough  good  taste  ;  in  short,  an  artist.  He  has 
not  merely  to  please  himself  and  his  patron,  but  in  many  cases, 
as  in  posters,  programmes,  and  the  like,  which  meet  the  eye  on 
every  side,  he  must  please  the  public.  But  the  printer  is  often 
blamed  or  laughed  at  by  the  public  for  an  inartistic  or  grossly 
tasteless  piece  of  work  which  the  patron  compelled,  while  the 
taste  of  the  printer  rebelled. 

The  character  of  the  work  in  a  job  office  precludes  the  employ¬ 
ment  of  “piece-hands,”  as  in  newspaper  and  book  establishments, 
though  many  of  the  operations  are  the  same.  The  proofs  are 
generally  submitted  to  the  customer,  and  if  approved  are  sent  to 
the  press.  The  job  business  throughout  the  country,  especially 
in  the  large  cities,  is  enormous,  and  in  some  of  the  larger  estab¬ 
lishments  is  very  profitable. 

Printing  in'' Colors. 

The  origin  of  printing  in  colors  was  an  effort  to  reproduce  by 
types  the  gorgeous  illuminations  wherewith  the  old  scribes  illus¬ 
trated  their  manuscripts.  The  early  printers  were  profuse  in  these 
richly-colored  letters,  and  in  rubricated  lines  ;  and  nearly  all  the 
books  of  the  contemporaries  of  Guttemberg,  and  of  the  printers 
of  the  immediately  succeeding  century,  show  page  printing  in  two 
and  three  colors,  which  has  never  since  been  surpassed.  We  sel¬ 
dom  see  color  printing  nowadays,  except  in  books  which  are  in¬ 
tended  especially  as  specimens  of  the  beautiful  in  art  rather  than 
as  “books  which  are  books.” 

But  the  job  printer  still  has  the  opportunity,  and  improves  it. 
Manufacturing  interests,  too,  have  created  an  immense  demand  for 
bronze  printing,  in  which  a  size  is  used  instead  of  ink.  The 
bronze  powder  is  then  applied  to  the  sizing,  and  the  loose  particles 
are  brushed  off.  This  was  formerly  done  by  hand,  but  is  now  suc¬ 
cessfully  performed  by  the  rotary  bronzing  machine. 

The  Printing  Press. 

Before  the  days  of  Guttemberg,  the  few  block-books,  like  the 
Speculum,  the  “  Poor  Man’s  Bible,”  and  others,  were  printed  by 
simply  laying  the  leaf  upon  the  inked  block,  and  taking  an  im- 


TEN  CYLINDER  TYPE-REVOLVING  PRINTING  MACHINE. 


SINGLE  LARGE  CYLINDER  PRINTING  MACHINE. 


PRINTING  AND  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


71 


pression  by  burnishing,  or  friction,  as  we  take  sometimes  a  hasty 
proof  of  a  wood-cut  now.  The  first  printing  press  was  simply  the 
lower  end  of  a  large  wooden  screw  upon  the  paper  on  the  types, 
and  the  first  “  improvement  ”  was  simply  putting  a  heavy  piece 
of  plank  under  the  screw  to  equalize  the  pressure  on  the  face  of 
the  form.  This  rude  press,  with  immaterial  modifications,  was  in 
use  well  into  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Earl  of  Stanhope  de¬ 
vised  an  iron  press,  combining  the  screw  with  the  bent  lever,  and 
having  a  carriage  for  the  form,  which  could  be  run  in  under  the 
point  of  pressure,  and  readily  withdrawn.  This  press  also  had  a 
spring,  which,  when  the  impression  was  made,  caused  the  iron 
plate  (“  platen  ”),  which  pressed  upon  the  form,  to  fly  up,  and 
permit  the  withdrawal  of  the  form. 

In  1790,  Mr.  William  Nicholson,  of  England,  took  out  a  patent 
for  a  cylinder  machine,  which  had  also  an  inking  apparatus.  This 
press  was  never  brought  into  use,  but  it  furnished  the  suggestion 
for  after  constructors. 

Frederick  Konig,  of  Saxony,  was  the  first  to  construct  a  cylin¬ 
der  machine  to  run  by  steam.  This  press  was  built  for  the  London 
Times,  and  the  number  for  November  28,  1814,  was  worked  by  it 
at  the  rate  of  eleven  hundred  impressions  per  hour. 

George  Clymer,  of  Philadelphia,  in  1815,  constructed  a  combi-  • 
nation  lever  press,  called  the  “  Columbian,”  which  would  print  by 
hand  two  hundred  and  fifty  impressions  per  hour. 

In  1827,  Messrs.  Applegath  &  Cowper  constructed  for  the  Lon¬ 
don  Times  a  press  with  four-impression  cylinders,  so  arranged  that 
two  were  in  contact  with  the  type  as  the  table  passed  to  the  right, 
and  two  as  it  passed  to  the  left,  and  which  would  print  from  four 
thousand  to  five  thousand  impressions  per  hour.  Mr.  Applegath 
was  the  first  to  abandon  the  plan  of  placing  the  type  on  a  plane 
table,  and  built  a  press  in  which  the  type  was  placed  on  the  sur¬ 
face  of  a  cylinder.  The  London  Times  was  the  first  newspaper  to 
adopt  the  improvement.  This  is  the  beginning  of  all  cylinder 
presses,  of  whatever  manufacture  and  of  whatever  number  of 
cylinders.  In  printing  newspapers  with  these  presses,  each  page 
is  locked  up  on  a  detached  segment  of  the  large  cylinder,  called  a 
“  turtle.” 

Isaac  Adams,  of  Boston,  patented,  in  1830  and  1836,  a  press, 
not  cylinder,  which  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  book-work.  The  Na¬ 
pier  press,  in  England,  enjoys  a  similarly  good  repute  for  this  class 
of  work.  The  Napier  press  was  introduced  into  the  United  States 
in  1830. 


72 


PRINTING  AND  TIIE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


From  this  time  the  printing  press,  especially  in  the  United 
States,  has  been  so  improved  as  very  nearly  to  have  reached  per¬ 
fection.  This  advance  is  largely  due  to  the  inventive  genius  of 
the  Messrs.  Iloe,  of  New  York.  Robert  Iloe,  who,  with  his  part¬ 
ner,  Sereno  Newton,  constructed  the  first  two-cylinder  press  in 
this  country,  died  in  1833.  Ilis  son,  Richard  M.  Iloe,  who  inher¬ 
ited  the  ability  and  energy  of  his  father,  continued  the  business, 
and  opened  a  new  era  in  the  manufacture  of  printing  machines. 
The  *'  Iloe  Double-cylinder  Press  ”  was  followed  by  “  Iioe’s  Light¬ 
ning  Press  ;  ”  then  other  larger  and  better  machines  followed  in 
quick  succession,  till  now  Hoe’s  eight-and  ten-cylinder  presses  are 
used  in  nearly  all  the  great  newspaper  offices  of  the  country,  and 
their  approval  and  adoption  by  the  London  Times  is  an  acknowl- 
ment  that  Americans  are  the  cha'mpion  printing-press  manufactur¬ 
ers  of  the  world. 

The  proprietor  of  the  Warrington  (England)  Guardian  patented, 
in  1871,  a  steam  type-composing  machine,  which  has  been  success¬ 
fully  used  in  several  English  printing  offices.  It  is  claimed  that 
this  machine,  with  one  man  and  three  boys  to  feed  the  type  and 
space  out  the  lines,  will  set  up  a  newspaper  column,  as  large  as  a 
column  in  the  London  Times ,  in  one  hour,  which  the  inventor  as- 
.  serts  is  equal  to  the  composition  of  eight  men.  The  machine 
costs  five  hundred  pounds. 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


THE  WATCH  !  ORIGIN  OF  THE  WORD.  —  THE  BELL.  —  THE  CLOCK  :  EARLY  HIS¬ 
TORY. —  THE  CLEPSYDRA:  ITS  ETYMOLOGY:  THE  CHINESE  USE  IT:  DESCRIP¬ 
TION.  —  THE  HOUR  GLASS  :  PERSIAN  CALIPH’S  GIFT  TO  CHARLEMAGNE.  - 

GALILEO  AND  THE  PENDULUM. - TOWN  CLOCKS.  — MANUFACTURE  IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES.  —  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  WATCH,  ETC. 

The  word  watch  comes  from  the  Saxon  wceccan,  signifying 
to  wake,  to  excite,  and  is  the  name  applied  to  the  numerous 
species  of  time-markers  which  have  sprung  legitimately  from  that 
old  stirps,  or  “  stock, ”  the  “  clock  ” —  the  earliest  history  of 
which  is  lost  in  the  night  of  the  past,  but  which  has  played  so 
wondrous  a  part  in  the  civilization  of  the  world  ;  and  who  knows 
but  in  barbarism  too  ?  for  the  meaning  of  the  term  originally  was 
“  bell,”  and  is  still  retained  in  the  French  cloche.  And  since  it  is 
probable  that  the  first  sound  man  produced  by  artificial  means  was 
the  resonance  of  bodies  struck  together  by  the  hands  somewhat 
as  the  tongue  of  a  bell  strikes  its  sides,  it  is  quite  likely7'  that  the 
“  bell,”  and  consequently  the  11  clock  ”  in  embryo,  were  among 
the  very  first  conceits  and  mechanical  accomplishments  of  primi¬ 
tive  man. 

Yet  in  the  very  early  ages  there  could  have  been  but  little  need 
of  any  measurers  of  time  save  those  which  nature  affords  ;  as 
the  day  and  night,  the  rising  and  the  setting  of  the  sun  and  the 
moon,  and  the  numerous  phases  of  the  latter.  Then,  as  human 
observation  became  more  extended  and  accurate,  the  varying  con¬ 
stellations  marked  the  wider  passages  of  time.  So  our  aborigines 

(73) 


74 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


still  count  time  by  the  moon’s  passages- — “  Ten  moons  have 
gone  ;  ”  and,  indeed,  in  the  field  to-day  for  the  laborer,  and  wher¬ 
ever  in  the  backwoods  men  find  it  inconvenient,  or  are  for  other 
reasons  unable,  to  afford  the  luxury  of  a  supply  of  artificial  time¬ 
keepers,  the  sun  is  made  to  tell  the  hour ;  “  sun  half  an  hour  up,” 
or  “  an  hour  before  sundown,”  thus  indicating  the  sun’s  place  in 
the  sky  above  the  western  horizon  ;  and,  indeed,  since  “  one 
thought  begets  another,”  as  we  write  we  reflect  that  it  is  no  great 
violence  to  etymology  to  find  the  root  of  “  horizon  ”  and  “  hour  ” 
primarily  in  the  same  Greek  word,  which  signifies  a  bound,  a 
limit ;  i.  e.,  a  measure.  But  it  is  useless,  perhaps,  however  grati¬ 
fying  it  may  be  to  the  imagination,  to  linger  in  speculation  upon 
what  were  the  earliest  measures  of  time  discovered  in  “  revolving 
nature  ”  by  primitive  man. 

But  one  thing  is  certain  — that  motion,  change,  was  a  necessary 
“  symptom  ”  or  index  to  the  measure  of  time  in  the  past  as  well 
as  now.  Out  of  positive  silence  and  rest  nothing  could  have  been 
determined  in  this  matter  ;  and  doubtless  “  Time,”  by  whatever 
sweet  name  the  Orientals  may  have  blessed  him,  or  by  whatever 
uncouth  or  sublime  sound  the  guttural  Northmen  may  have  told 
the  sense  of  his  presence  and  power,  was  among  the  earliest  of 
the  “  gods  ”  which  man  recognized.  Little  could  the  men  of 
those  rude  early  days  have  conjectured  of  the  devotion  which  we, 
their  far-off  children’s  children,  pay  to  Time,  when  in  every  house 
is  erected  an  altar  to  his  worship,  and  in  every  bosom  is  borne  a 
jewelled  monitor  of  his  existence  and  “  passage  ”  along  the  course 
of  “ ever-moving  creation.” 

But  we  must  not  tarry  amidst  the  poetry  which  Time  excites  in 
his  devotee’s  brain,  for  our  title  is  properly  “  watch  -making,”  and 
not  its  great  promoter,  Time. 

Shadows  are  not  “  senseless  shades,”  and  have  played  their 
part  in  the  measurement  of  Time’s  marches  ;  and  the  dial  was 
one  of  the  primitive  means  of  marking  the  divisions  of  a  day,  — 
so  old  at  least  as  to  be  legendary,  or  pre-historic,  —  but  it  is  be¬ 
lieved  that  its  origin  was  in  the  East.  But  the  dial  would  mark 
time  only  on  clear  days.  Obscuring  clouds  hid  the  sun,  and  some 
device  was  necessary  to  mark  his  place  in  the  sky,  above  “  the  great 
wet  veil,”  on  stormy,  dark  days  ;  so  that  very  far  back  in  the  ages 
we  have  records  of  the  “clepsydra,”  though  by  what  natiou  in¬ 
vented  no  one  knows.  This  term  (from  the  Greek  “klepto,”  to  steal, 
and  “  hudor”  water)  means  “  water-stealer,”  and  signified  in 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


75 


the  very  poetry  of  the  word  itself,  that  as  water  “steals”  away, 
drop  by  drop,  through  some  crevice  in  a  vessel  that  holds  it,  so 
time,  for  man,  “steals”  away  from  him.  This  instrument  was  a 
hollow  cylinder,  so  graduated  that  the  recession  of  the  water 
within  it  readily  marked  the  passage  of  the  sun  from  horizon  to 
horizon,  at  its  various  points  of  ascension  to  and  declination  from 
the  meridian.  The  ancient  Chinese,  as  well  as  the  Egyptians,  are 
said  to  have  used  this  instrument ;  and  the  native  Britons,  if  we 
are  to  accredit  Caesar,  also  made  use  of  it.  It  appears  to  have 
been  a  valuable  instrument,  though  imperfect,  and  subject,  of 
course,  to  increasing  inaccuracy,  the  longer  used,  by  the  almost 
imperceptible,  yet  certain  wearing  away  which  the  trickling  water 
caused,  —  the  instrument  at  last  delivering  its  given  quantity  of 
water  more  speedily  than  at  first. 

But  the  clepsydra  naturally  suggested  the  hour-glass,  in  which 
sand  was  substituted  for  water.  Water  would  evaporate  in  all 
climes  at  times,  and  in  some  it  would  inevitably  freeze.  The  hour¬ 
glass  dates  far  back  of  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and 
supplanted  the  clepsydra  almost  everywhere  ;  however,  we  are 
told  that  the  latter  is  used  in  India  even  to-day.  Both  of  these 
instruments  were  constructed  in  various  shapes,  according  to  the 
fanciful  conceits  of  their  fabricators,  sometimes  taking  on  the 
human  form,  sometimes  that  of  fanciful  beings,  —  in  short,  imitat¬ 
ing  everything  in  nature  or  imagination,  the  shape  of  which  could 
be  made  to  bend  to  the  general  principles  of  either.  So  much 
was  finally  added  in  the  way  of  machinery  to  the  clepsydra  that 
it  has  been  denominated  by  some  writers  as  the  “  water-clock.” 
So  ingenious  and  complicated  were  some  of  these,  that  there  seems 
to  be  but  little,  if  any,  room  for  doubt  that  the  very  earliest  and 
most  successful  efforts  of  man’s  mechanical  genius  were  expended 
upon  time-measurers,  and  especially  upon  the  clepsydra.  The 
Persians  appear  to  have  carried  the  manufacture  of  this  instru¬ 
ment  to  the  highest  perfection,  and  it  is  said  that  a  Persian  caliph 
sent  to  Charlemagne,  emperor  of  the  Franks  (in  the  eighth  cen¬ 
tury),  a  clepsydra  which  had  a  bell  to  denote  the  hours.  It  was 
so  constructed  that,  when  the  twelfth  hour  was  striking,  twelve 
doors  in  its  face  opened,  and  from  each  door  issued  an  automaton 
cavalier,  who  proudly  stood,  square  and  “  stock-still,”  till  the 
striking  ceased,  and  then  rode  back  into  his  “  castle,”  shutting 
the  door  behind  him  I 

The  clock  had  its  origin,  according  to  some  writers,  thousands 


76 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


of  years  ago,  among  the  Chinese ;  but  its  invention  has  been 
claimed  by  many  nations,  and  for  several  eras,  it  being  claimed 
that  the  Germans,  less  than  a  thousand  years  ago,  were  its  in¬ 
ventors.  But  for  the  last  eight  hundred  years  the  history  of  the 
clock  is  quite  clear. 

The  watch  was  originally,  we  find,  a  comparatively  huge  and 
“  bungling  ”  thing,  and  was  moved  by  weights,  —  in  short,  it  was 
only  a  “little  clock, ”  — a  “pocket  edition”  thereof,  as  it  were. 
Its  case  was  at  first  made  of  iron,  and  on  account  of  the  weights 
it  had  to  be  borne  about  in  a  suspended  position,  as  by  a  cord 
about  the  neck,  hanging  down  on  the  breast.  It  was  only  a  little 
over  three  centuries  ago,  about  the  year  1555,  that  the  “  spring  ” 
was  devised,  doing  away  with  weights,  and  rendering  the  instru¬ 
ment  more  readily  and  safely  portable.  These  springs  were  then 
only  straight  pieces  of  steel,  not  coiled,  as  now,  and  occupying 
more  space.  The  watch  of  those  days  had  but  one  index  or  hand, 
and  required  to  be  wound  often,  two  or  three  times  a  day.  The 
faces  or  dials  were  of  metal,  brass  usually,  and  the  cases  were 
without  crystals,  but  opened  in  front  and  at  the  back,  not  unlike 
the  “  hunting-watch  ”  case  of  to-day.  The  case  was  from  five  to 
six  inches  in  diameter —  a  “  fashion  ”  which-  modern  indisposition 
to  “  bear  about  large  weights  ”  would  hardly  tolerate  !  As  may 
be  readily  conjectured,  the  watch  of  those  times  was  a  very  costly 
affair,  worth  more  than  many  a  New  England  farm  now  is,  and 
requiring  a  long  time  in  its  construction.  It  is  computed  that  the 
average  value  of  the  watches  of  those  days  was  equivalent  to 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  of  our  currency. 

Long  years  of  experience  finally  enabled  the  Swiss  and  English 
manufacturers  to  produce  watches  of  an  appropriate  size,  of 
great  beauty,  and,  in  those  of  high  cost,  great  exactness  of  time. 
It  had  always  been  supposed,  owing  to  the  want  of  experience, 
the  great  skill  required,  and  the  high  cost  of  labor  in  Amer¬ 
ica,  that  the  business  of  watch-making  could  never  be  successfully 
introduced  here  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that,  even  to  this  day,  it 
would  not  have  been  attempted,  had  it  not  been  for  two  ingenious, 
enterprising  mechanics,  who  would  never  listen  to  the  remon¬ 
strance  of  friends,  or  the  ridicule  of  the  unbelieving,  but  perse¬ 
vered  until  their  efforts  were  crowned  with  success. 

Those  two  persons  who  devoted  their  united  talents  and  their 
thoughts  to  solve  the  problem  of  introducing  machinery  into  watch 
making,  together  with  a  comprehensive  system,  which  would  enable 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


77 


them  to  make  a  more  perfect  watch,  and  at  the  same  time  compete 
with  the  skilled  and  low-cost  foreign  labor,  were  Aaron  L.  Dennison 
and  Edward  Howard,  both  of  Boston,  Mass.  Mr.  Dennison  was 
a  thorough  watch-repairer,  one  of  the  very  best.  Mr.  Howard 
was  a  thorough-bred  clock  maker,  one  of  the  firm  of  Howard  & 
Davis,  both  of  whom  had  learned  the  trade  of  one  of  the  celebra¬ 
ted  Willards.  In  1848  Mr.  Dennison  suggested  to  Mr.  Howard  the 
feasibility  of  making  watches  by  machinery,  conducted  on  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  interchange  of  most  of  the  parts,  and  they  often  had  long 
discussions  of  the  matter. 

They  knew  that  the  foreign  makers  had  no  system  to  work  on, 
because  any  two  of  the  parts  of  watches  of  the  same  size,  by 
the  same  maker,  were  far  too  unlike  to  be  interchanged.  That 
want  of  uniformity  argued  a  want  of  machinery  as  its  cause. 
After  they  had  thoroughly  canvassed  the  matter  for  two  years, 
they  determined  to  commence  action.  Mr.  Dennison,  closing  out 
his  business  of  jeweller  and  watch  repairer,  entered  the  clock  fac¬ 
tory  of  Howard  &  Davis,  and,  with  Mr.  Howard,  they  commenced 
a  series  of  experiments  to  test  their  ideas,  and  as  preliminary  to 
extended  operations. 

Those  experiments  indicated  that  they  were  on  the  right  course, 
and,  in  the  summer  of  1850,  they,  to  increase  the  capital  required, 
associated  with  them  Mr.  Samuel  Curtis,  of  Boston,  and  a  brick 
building  one  hundred  feet  long,  twenty-five  feet  wide,  and  two 
stories  high,  was  erected  near  the  clock  factory  in  Roxbury,  Mass., 
now  a  part  of  Boston.  That  was  supposed  to  be  amply  large  to 
do  an  extensive  business.  The  intention,  at  the  commencement, 
was  to  make  only  eight-day  watches.  Only  fifty  of  them  were* 
made,  when  it  was  found  that  no  uniform  and  reliable  time  could 
be  had  from  an  eight-day  watch,  and  that  plan  was  abandoned. 
The  accompanying  cut  exhibits  the  “  upper  plate  ”  of  the  first 
watch  ever  made  by  machinery  in  America. 

It  seems  simple  enough,  now  that  the  thing  has  been  done,  to> 
suggest  the  application  of  machinery  to  watch-making.  But,  as 
Columbus  showed  the  scoffers  with  an  egg  that  all  the  merit  of 
his  discovery  of  America  consisted  only  in  conceiving  the  idea 
and  then  executing  it,  so  was  it  with  this  practical  extension  of 
the  application  of  machinery  to  industry,  by  which  a  new  era  has 
been  opened  in  our  social  advance,  the  final  results,  of  which  no 
one  can  yet  completely  foresee.  It  is  the  first  step  which  is  diffi¬ 
cult,  since  to  make  it  presupposes  the  genius  necessary  to  con-r 
ceive  it,  and  the  courage  to  attempt  it. 

5 


78 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


This  watch  is  now  possessed 
by  Mr.  Howard,  as  a  memento 
of  the  first  fruits  of  the  enter¬ 
prise.  The  usual  thirty-hour 
watch  was  then  commenced  in 
the  full  plate  form,  and  was  as 
simple  in  its  parts  as  possi¬ 
ble,  and  the  name  engraved 
upon  it  was  “  Samuel  Curtis. ” 
One  thousand  of  them  were 
made  with  that  name  upon 
them.  At  that  time  the  co¬ 
partnership  name  of  the  organization  was  the  Warren  Manufac¬ 
turing  Company.  That  name  was  used  so  as  not  to  unnecessarily 
expose  the  kind  of  business  being  pursued. 

After  the  first  thousand  watches  were  made,  the  copartners 
assumed  the  name  of  the  “  Boston  Watch  Company, ”  and  the 
business  was  continued  at  Roxbury  till  1854,  when  a  large  factory 
in  the  form  of  a  hollow  square,  one  hundred  feet  on  each  side,  and 
two  stories  .high,  was  built  at  Waltham,  Mass.,  and  the  entire 
business  was  then  moved  there.  The  business  was  continued 
there  under  Mr.  Howard’s  charge  till  the  spring  of  1857,  when 
the  heavy  outlay  that  had  been  needed  for  machinery,  for  making 
experiments,  and  instructing  help,  produced  such  financial  embar¬ 
rassments  as  to  force  the  company  to  make  an  assignment  of  the 
property,  which  was  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  creditors.  Mr. 
Howard’s  friends  being  overbid  at  the  sale,  he  immediately  re¬ 
turned  to  the  original  factory  at  Roxbury,  and  there  reestablished 
the  business,  with  new  and  improved  machinery,  and  commenced 
making  watches  of  higher  quality  and  high  price.  Mr.  Howard 
has  always  been  determined  to.  improve  and  perfect  both  his 
watches  and  machinery.  The  factory  has  been  enlarged  from  a 
two-story  building  one  hundred  feet  long  to  a  hollow  square  one 
hundred  feet  on  each  side  and  four  stories  high.  Mr.  Howard  has, 
within  the  past  year,  produced  a  new  style  of  movement,  with  a 
patented  steel  barrel,  which  protects  the  train  from  damage  by  the 
breaking  of  the  mainspring,  and  is  used  as  a  stem  winder,  as  well 
as  a  key  winder.  It  is  no  doubt  the  best  stern  winder  that  is  in 
use,  and  is  already  in  great  demand  by  the  public. 

In  the  factory  at  Roxbury  both  sexes  are  employed.  The 
tools  and  machines  are  countless,  and  are  fitted  to  perform  the 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


79 


most  minute  work — machines  for  shaving  steel  so  minutely 
that  the  “  product  ”  can  hardly  be  seen  ;  registers  for  measuring 
the  least  conceivable  part  of  an  'inch  ;  drills  so  small  that  the 
holes  they  make  cannot  be  seen  without  a  microscope  !  etc.,  etc. 

In  no  department  of  mechanism  is  work  required  to  be  more  mi¬ 
nute  and  perfect  than  in  watch-making.  To  the  uninitiated, 
watch-making  by  machinery,  at  first  sight,  is  nothing  less  than 
miraculous. 

The  inner  “  works”  of  a  watcli  are  made  of  brass  and  steel,  in 
about  equal  quantities.  Steel  is  used  principally  in  those  parts 
of  the  watch  where  the  most  strain  comes  on  a  delicate  part ;  but 
brass  is  used  wherever  there  is  the  most  friction.  Brass  and  steel 
rubbing  against  each  other  will  last  twice  as  long  as  two  pieces  of 
steel  of  like  size  when  rubbed  together. 

The  steel  and  brass  are  brought  to  the  factories  from  rolling 
mills  in  sheets,  and  with  enormous  shears  are  cut  up  into  nar¬ 
row  strips ;  these  are  then  further  thinned,  if  required,  between 
steel  rollers,  so  finely  that  it  takes  four  thousand  of  them  to  meas¬ 
ure  an  inch  !  These  strips  are  then  subjected  to  a  punching  pro¬ 
cess,  cutting  them  into  whatever  shapes  required.  Thousands  of 
wheels  a  day  can  be  cut  out  by  a  single  machine  under  the  gui¬ 
dance  of  one  man. 

The  factory  is  divided  into  apartments  for  the  manufacture  and 
composition  of  the  several  parts  of  the  watch  :  and  we  may  as 
well  go  next  to  the  Plate  Room,  where  the  plates  of  the  watch 
are  made,  or,  in  other  words,  the  framework,  to  which  all  the 
mysterious  “  inner  soul,”  or  working  parts,  of  the  watch  are 
attached.  The  plates  are  here  bored  or  drilled,  for  the  insertion 
therein  of  the  screws,  pivots,  and  pillars.  All  the  parts  made  in 
this  room  being  finished,  they  are  property  stamped  and  placed 
appropriately  in  little  boxes  to  be  carried  on  to  another  room, 
where  they  undergo  further  manipulation.  With  the  aid  of  ma¬ 
chinery  a  man  can  make  more  than  sixty  times  as  many  of  these 
“  attributes*”  or  parts  of  a  watch,  as  by  hand,  in  the  same  time. 
The  plates  of  the  watch  are  nex,t  engraved  with  the  manufacturer’s 
name,  etc.,  and  numbered. 

There  are  fortv-four  screws  in  a  watch,  which  constitute  more  . 
than  a  quarter  of  all  its  pieces.  These  are  made  by  swift-running 
little  machines,  attended  generally  by  active  girls,  who  change 
the  fine  steel  wire  into  minute  screws,  adjust  and  “slot”  their 
heads  in  almost  “no  time.”  The  screws  then  pass  through  a 


80 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


polishing  process,  and  then  are  "tempered”  by  heat,  and  come 
out  ”  at  last  of  fine  blue  color,  perfected  and  ready  to  take  their 
places  in  the  delicate  time-measurers.  These  screws  are  no  larger, 
some  of  them,  than  a  small  grain  of  sand — -it  taking  nearly  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  them  to  weigh  a  pound.  Think  of 
the  infinite  smallness  of  the  "thread”  cut  upon  these!  so  small, 
indeed,  as  to  be  invisible  to  the  unaided  eye.  Screws  for  some 
kinds  of  compensation-balances  are  made  of  gold. 

The  compensation-balance  we  will  next  notice.  A  piece  of 
steel  as  large  as  a  cent,  enclosed  in  a  brass  rim,  is  ground  down 
and  polished  till  it  becomes  only  the  slenderest  wheel.  Through 
the  double  rim  twenty-two  holes  are  drilled  for  screws.  A  boy 
can  drill  over  one  hundred  wheels  a  day.  The  screws  are  put  in, 
and  the  compensation-balance  is  finished. 

In  another  department  takes  place  the  grinding  of  wheels,  pin¬ 
ions,  etc.  Cutting  teeth  in  the  wheels  is  also  a  neat  and  rapid 
process.  A  number  of  wheels  are  piled  up  together  around  an 
upright  shaft,  which  passes  through  a  hole  in  the  centre  of  each 
wheel,  and  is  made  fast.  The  person  in  charge  of  the  cutting 
machine  lifts  a  little  lever,  and  away  whirls  the  cutter  like  light¬ 
ning,  carving  its  way  instantly  through  the  whole  length  of  the 
wheel-pile,  grooving  each  properly  and  accurately.  The  whole 
process  requires  but  a  moment,  and  the  wheels  are  fitly  "  teethed.” 
There  arc  in  these  factories  the  11  escapement  ”  and  jewelling 
rooms,  the  mysteries  of  which  are  very  engaging.  Diamonds, 
sapphires,  rubies,  here  dazzle  the  eye  —  valuable  here  only  for 
their  hardness,  however.  These  are  brought  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  —  mostly  from  India,  Persia,  and  Brazil.  Watches  of  the 
first  quality  are  jewelled  with  diamonds,  sapphires,  and  rubies. 
The  stones  are  cut  into  small  slabs  by  circular  saws,  and  then  fur¬ 
ther  cut  up  into  the  right  sizes,  and  turned  in  lathes  with  diamond 
tools.  The  stones  are,  when  finished,  so  small  that  it  takes 
eighty  thousand  of  them  to  weigh  a  pound. 

Every  part  of  a  watch  must  be  perfect,  but  not  all  parts  close¬ 
ly  fitting,  for  there  must  be  a  little  play  ”  for  the  working  parts, 
so  that  even  every  jewel-hole  must  be  a  particle  larger  than  the 
pivot  which  is  to  move  in  it.  These  holes  are  measured  accurately 
by  gauges,  which  perform  their  functions  with  more  than  human 
accuracy. 

The  dial  is  made  of  a  thin  plate  of  copper  covered  with  a  fine 
white  enamel  in  the  state  of  a  paste,  which  is  thinly  spread  on 


WATCHES,  AND  MACHINE  WATCH-MAKING. 


81 


with  a  knife.  After  this  paste  becomes  dry,  the  dial  is  placed 
upon  a  red-heated  iron  plate  in  the  mouth  of  an  intensely  hot  fur¬ 
nace,  and  is  closely  watched.  The  enamel  prevents  the  copper 
from  melting  almost  instantly  under  so  great  a  heat.  The  dial 
remains  in  the  process  of  baking  for  a  minute,  and  when  removed 
is  soft  and  plastic.  The  baking  “  sets  ”  the  enamel,  but  leaves  it 
in  a  rough  state.  It  lias  then  to  be  polished  smooth  with  emery, 
and  is  again  baked,  and  is  ready  for  the  ornamenters  or  painters. 
Points  for  the  hours  are  marked  out  upon  it,  and  it  is  then  let¬ 
tered,  the  minute  marks  added,  etc. 

The  parts  all  being  finished,  the  process  of  “  putting  together  ” 
follows  next.  The  watch  is  at  first  but  loosely  adjusted  in  its 
parts,  and  is  hung  up  to  run  a  few  hours,  mainly  to  adjust  the 
length  of  the  hair-spring  —  a  delicate  thing  to  do.  It  is  then  taken 
down,  and  all  the  brass  portions  sent  to  the  gilding  department ; 
and  each  part  is  there  polished  ready  for  the  process  of  electro¬ 
gilding.  Gold  is  rolled  out  into  thin  sheets,  and  dissolved  by 
acids.  The  solution,  as  it  goes  into  the  battery,  is  as  colorless  as 
pure  water.  It  is,  however,  a  deadly  poison,  and  must  be  ■“  han¬ 
dled  ”  carefully.  Generally  the  parts  submitted  to  the  electric 
currents  are  left  in  the  solution  about  five  minutes,  and  come  out 
beautifully  covered  with  gold.  All  are  then  sent  to  the  finishing 
department,  where  skilled  hands  re-adjust  the  parts  of  each  watch, 
which  is  next  taken  to  the  inspector’s  office,  who  scrutinizes  all, 
searching  for  the  least  flaw.  The  watch  is  then  again  tried  in  the 
adjuster’s  room,  in  order  to  “time”  it.  At  first  it  is  run  for  six 
or  eight  hours  in  a  little  chamber  heated  to  one  hundred  and  ten 


degrees,  and  next  for  a  like  period  of  time  in  a  refrigerator,  the 
temperature  of  which  is  nearly  at  zero.  It  is  not  perfect  unless 
it  will -keep  time  equally,  well  in  both  places.  If  there  is  any 
variation,  this  must  be  cured  before  the  watch  is  allowed  to  “  pass 
muster.”  Now  the  watch  is  ready  for  the  case,  — its  one  hundred 
and  fifty-six  different  parts  and  pieces  composing  the  perfect 
whole,  —  and  put  in  the  case,  is  perfect  and  guarded  —  finished, 
the  stamp  of  its  reliability  appearing  on  its  face  in  the  words, 
printed  in  the  most  diminutive  letters,  “  E.  Howard  &  Co.,  Bos¬ 
ton.” 


PURIFYING  AND  HEATING  WATER  FOR  STEAM  BOILERS. 

THE  NECESSITY  OF  PURE  WATER  FOR  STEAM  BOILERS.  —  SUBSTANCES  HELD  IN 
SOLUTION  BY  WATER.  — THE  TEA-KETTLE  AND  THE  STEAM-BOILER.  — 
METHODS  OF  FILTERING.  —  STILWELL'S  LIME  CATCHER.  —  THE  WAY  IT 
WORKS.  — ITS  ECONOMIC  ADVANTAGES. — THE  GREATER  SAFETY  GAINED  BY 
ITS  USE. 

The  general  use  of  steam  as  a  motive  power  in  modern  indus¬ 
try  has  made  every  suggestion  by  which  the  safety  or  the  econ¬ 
omy  in  its  production  is  increased,  a  matter  of  great  importance. 
In  generating  steam,  it  is  evidently  best  to  have  the  purest  water 
with  which  to  fill  the  boiler,  since  in  its  evaporation,  as  the  water 
passes  off  into  vapor,  any  extraneous  substance  diffused  through  it 
must  be  deposited  upon  the  boiler  itself,  and  beside  its  tendency 
thus  to  diminish  the  effective  heat  of  the  fire,  it  may  be  a  sub¬ 
stance  having  a  corrosive  and  weakening  effect  upon  the  iron  of 
which  the  boiler  is  composed. 

Very  early  in  the  history  of  the  steam  engine  attempts  were 
made  to  remove  the  impurities  of  the  water,  so  as  to  preserve  the 
boilers  from  becoming  incrusted  with  sediment.  Though  by  the 
use  of  filters,  of  various  kinds,  the  coarser  impurities  can  be  easily 
separated  from  water,  yet  the  soluble  salts  of  lime,  which  give 
to  water  the  property  known  as  hardness,  being  in  a  state  of  solu¬ 
tion,  will  pass  readily  through  simple  filters.  Water,  which  is 
otherwise  pure,  may  thus  contain  about  two  grains  of  carbonate  of 
lime  to  the  gallon,  or  one  thirty-five  thousandth  of  its  bulk  ;  and 
as  water  absorbs  carbonic  acid  gas,  its  capacity  for  dissolving  car¬ 
bonate  of  lime  increases,  until  its  capacity  may  be  ten  times 
greater  than  pure  water.  In  proportion  as  water  dissolves  car¬ 
bonate  of  lime  its  hardness  increases. 

For  tin's  reason  the  water  from  springs,  especially  in  regions 
abounding  in  calcareous  rocks^differs  from  rain  water,  which  has 
(82) 


PURIFYING  AND  HEATING  WATER  FOR  BOILERS.  83 


not  percolated  through  the  ground.  When  hard  water  is  boiled, 
its  excess  of  carbonic  acid  gas  is  freed,  and  its  capacity  for  holding 
carbonate  of  lime  in  solution  being  thus  lessened,  the  excess  of 
lime  is  deposited  as  a  sediment  or  crust,  which  collects  on  the 
bottoms  of  the  vessels  in  which  the  boiling  is  performed.  Every 
cook  has  had  experience  of  this  in  her  own  tea-kettle. 

By  continuing  the  boiling  all  the  lime,  except  about  two  grains 
to  the  gallon,  may  be  thus  separated.  Other  salts,  the  solubility 
of  which  does  not  depend  upon  the  presence  in  the  water  of 
carbonic  acid  gas,  such  as  sulphate  of  lime,  chlorides  of  soda,  mag¬ 
nesia,  and  so  on,  which  give  the  hardness  and  saltness  to  sea¬ 
water,  can  be  separated  only  by  distillation.  It  is  the  same  with 
many  organic  substances,  and  fine  clayey  or  aluminous  particles. 
The  waters  which  flow  over  cliffs  of  clay  become  saturated  with 
the  impalpable  material,  and  refuse  to  part  with  it  by  any  wholly 
mechanical  action.  Water  of  this  kind  may  be  cleansed  by  adding 
alum  to  it,  in  the  proportion  of  a  few  grains  to  the  gallon,  which 
causes  the  water  to  precipitate  the  alumina.  Such  a  process,  how¬ 
ever,  is  objectionable,  since  it  adds  to  the  deposit,  and  a  portion 
of  the  sulphate  of  lime  which  is  formed  still  remains  in  solution, 
rendering  the  water  hard. 

The  best  practical  combination  of  a  heater  and  filter  which  has 
yet  been  invented,  is  StiiwelUs  patent  heater  and  lime  catcher,  the 
general  appearance  of  which  is  represented  in  the  accompanying 
cut,  No.  1.  Not  only  does  this  invention  purify  the  water  from 
the  impurities  which  would  incrust  the  boiler,  but  it  furnishes  it 
to  the  boiler  hot,  thus  saving  the  fuel  necessary  to  generate  steam, 
and  to  accomplish  this,  uses  the  exhausted  steam  from  the  engine 
itself,  thus  proving  a  double  economy.  These  heaters  are  manufac¬ 
tured  by  the  Stilwell  &  Bierce  Manufacturing  Co.  of  Dayton,  Ohio. 

The  necessity  for  some  device  by  which  the  incrustation  of 
boilers  should  be  prevented,  having  engaged  the  attention  of  Mr. 
Stilwell,  after  some  time  spent  in  experiments,  he  finally  produced 
this  present  arrangement,  which,  the  practical  test  of  use  for 
years  has  proved,  is  most  admirably  fitted  for  its  purpose.  Its  in¬ 
terior  arrangement  is  shown  in  cut  No.  2. 

By  using  all  the  escape  steam  fiom  the  engine,  and  bringing  it 
in  contact  with  thin  sheets  of  falling  water,  this  heater  is  capable 
of  purifying  and  heating  a  very  large  quantity  of  water.  The 
steam,  it  will  be  observed,  meets  the  water  as  it  enters  the  heater, 
dashes  it  into  spray,  and  the  work  of  depositing  begins  immedi- 


PURIFYING  AND  HEATING  WATER 


Stilwell’s  Patent  Heater  and  Lime  Catcher,  No.  I. 


ately ;  the  top  shelf  being  always  found  to  be  most  heavily 
covered.  The  shelves  are  easily  removable  when  necessary ; 
and  experience  has  shown  that  this  form  is  better  than  pans, 
since  the  deposit  of  salts  takes  place  more  rapidly  and  thoroughly 
when  the  water  is  passed  in  a  thin  sheet  over  a  highly  heated 
metallic  surface  than  when  it  stands  in  a  pan. 

The  S37stem  of  upward  filtering,  followed  in  this  arrangement, 
is  so  well  known  to  be  the  best,  that  it  needs  only  to  be  men¬ 
tioned.  This  heater  was  first  introduced  t6  use  in  1864,  and  the 
favor  it  has  met  with  proves  that  it  is  indispensable  in  the  most 
economic  use  of  steam.  Especially  is  this  so  where  the  hard 
water  of  a  limestone  country,  or  the  muddy  water  of  our  western 
rivers,  is  used.  To  woolen  or  paper  manufacturers,  and  others  to 


FOR  STEAM  BOILERS.  85 


Stilwell’s  Patent  Heater  and  Lime  Catcher,  No.  2 


A.  Steam  enters  the  Heater,  and  is  divided  into  two  currents, 

B.  Steam  escapes  from  the  Heater.  '  , 

C.  Cold  water  enters. 

F.  Cock  with  which  to  regulate  supply  of  cold  water. 

//.  Door  of  Heater. 

J.  Hot  water  leaves  Heater. 

L.  Glass  water-gauge. 

a.  Overflow  cup  suspended  on  the  end  of  cold  water  pipe. 
bbbb.  Removable  shelves  or  depositing  surfaces. 

c.  Filtering  chamber  to  be  filled  with  any  suitable  filtering  material. 

The  feathered  arrows  indicate  the  course  of  the  steam,  and  the  plain  arrows  the  course  of 
the  water. 

The  letters  of  reference,  in  both  cuts,  refer  to  the  same  parts. 


whom  a  supply  of  pure  water  is  necessary  for  their  operations, 
this  heater  is  equally  valuable,  as  it  furnishes  an  abundant  supply 
of  pure  water,  and  is  so  simple  in 'its  construction. 

For  preventing  the  formation  of  deposit  or  scale  upon  the 
inside  of  steam  boilers,  it  is  one  of  the  most  economic  devices. 
By  careful  experiment,  it  has  been  shown  that  a  deposit  of  scale 
one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick  causes  a  loss,  by  its  being  so  im- 


86  PURIFYING  AND  HEATING  WATER  FOR  BOILERS. 


pervious  to  heat,  of  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  fuel,  while  the  danger 
to  the  boiler  from  cracking  of  the  scale,  thus  letting  the  water 
down  to  the  heated  plates  of  iron,  is  daily  becoming  better  known 
to  practical  engineers.  Both  safety  and  economy  unite  in  teach¬ 
ing  that  to  keep  the  boiler  plates  clean  is  the  first  requisite  of  a 
steam  engine  ;  and  experience  has  shown  that  in  attaining  this  de¬ 
sirable  end  the  Stilwell  heater  is  indispensable. 


* 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


THE  APPLICATION  OF  STEAM  TO  THE  CIRCULATION. — ADAM  SMITH’S  WEALTH 
OF  NATIONS.  — BUCKLE’S  OPINION  OF  IT.  —  THE  FIRST  ATTEMPTS  AT  STEAM 
NAVIGATION.  — JONATHAN  HULLS.  — FRENCH  ATTEMPTS.  — ATTEMPTS  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  OLIVER  EVANS.  —  THOMAS  PAINE’S  SUGGESTIONS.  — 
JAMES  RUMSEY.  —  JOHN  FITCH.  — THE  DISPUTED  CLAIM  OF  PRIORITY.  — 
FITCH’S  FIRST  BOAT.  —  HIS  SECOND  BOAT.  —  ROBERT  FULTON.  —  HIS  TAUT* 
NERSHIP  WITH  LIVINGSTON.  — THE  CONTEST  WITH  THE  MONOPOLY. — LEG¬ 
ISLATION  IN  ITS  FAVOR.  — THE  RESULT  OF  THE  CONTEST.  —  ITS  LESSON 
FOR  THE  PRESENT.  —  THE  ATTEMPTS  IN  THE  WEST.  — THE  FIRST  BOAT  TO 
ASCEND  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  — OCEAN  STEAM  NAVIGATION.  —  THE  IMPROVE¬ 
MENTS  IN  OCEAN  STEAMERS.  —  A  COMPARISON  OF  THE  OLD  METHODS  AND 
THE  PRESENT  ONES. 

The  application  of  steam  to  land  and  water  travel  and  transport¬ 
ation  is  a  step  in  the  progress  of  mankind  which  separates  the 
civilization  of  the  modern  from  the  ancient  world  more  distinctly 
and  definitely  than  perhaps  any  other  single  difference  in  their 
methods  of  industry  or  government.  It  has  secured  the  circula¬ 
tion  of  the  products  of  industry,  and  of  man  himself,  and  rendered 
po'ssible  the  intenser  action  of  the  political,  the  social,  the  indus¬ 
trial,  and  the  other  forces  which  go  together  to  make  the  life  of 
nations.  Less  than  a  century  ago,  Adam  Smith,  in  1776,  pub¬ 
lished  his  work  entitled  The  Wealth  of  Nations,  in  which  the  foun¬ 
dation  was  laid  of  the  science  of  political  economy,  and  of  social 
science  as  its  subsequent  outgrowth,  and  in  which  he  speaks  of 
the  difficulty  of  transporting  men  from  one  place  to  another,  even 
though  the  change  should  be  one  from  want  to  plenty,  from  tyr¬ 
anny  to  freedom ;  and  notices  how  loth  the  great  masses  of  Europe 
are  to  attemjit  any  improvement  in  their  condition  by  changing  their 
place  of  abode. 

Of  this  work,  Buckle,  the  author  of  the  History  of  Civilization 
in  Europe ,  says  most  truly,  “Adam  Smith  contributed  more,  by 

(87) 


88 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


tlic  publication  of  this  single  work,  towards  the  happiness  of  man 
than  has  been  eficcted  by  the  united  abilities  ol  all  the  statesmen 
and  legislators  of  whom  history  has  preserved  an  authentic  rec¬ 
ord.”  This  statement  is  true,  though  the  comparison  is  one  that 
can  hardly  be  made,  and  is  liable  to  a  misinterpretation.  It  is 
^  unfair  as  a  comparison  of  the  respective  worth  of  the  statesmen 
and  legislators  before  his  time  and  of  the  author  of  The  Wealth  of 
Nations.  They,  with  himself,  their  actions  and  their  knowledge, 
were  the  results  of  the  times  in  which  they  lived,  and  of  the  con¬ 
ditions  with  which  they  were  surrounded.  A  comparison  of  their 
relative  value  to  the  human  race,  if  it  is  made  the  basis  of  a  moral 
judgment,  is  as  unfair  as  would  be  the  comparison  of  the  actions 
and  opinions  of  a  child  with  those  of  the  same  individual  after  his 
maturity.  As  with  the  growth  of  a  child,  his  errors  and  his  mis¬ 
takes  are  the  necessary  material  of  his  experience,  from  which  his 
maturer  judgment  can  alone  generalize  the  truth,  and  by  their 
combination  arrive  at  the  rules  and  laws  which  should  govern  his 
actions  and  give  him  a  method  for  forming,  examining,  and  testing 
his  opinions,  —  so  with  the  slower  growth  of  a  nation’s,  or  man¬ 
kind’s  progress  in  civilization ;  the  errors  and  mistakes  of  the 
early  times  are  the  necessary  experience  from  which  alone,  by 
comparison,  the  generalizations  of  laws  which  should  govern  their 
"political,  their  social,  their  industrial,  and  other  relations,  can  be 
arrived  at. 

In  this  view,  therefore,  the  legislators  and  statesmen  who  pre¬ 
ceded  Adam  Smith  were  necessary  precursors  of  the  period  in 
which  he  lived,  and,  together,  each  of  them  has  done  his  part  in 
aiding  to  produce  the  present  condition  of  the  world,  when  social 
progress  is  recognized  as  a  growth  regulated  by  law. 

When  Watt,  taking  up  the  steam  engine,  in  the  condition  to  which 
it  had  arrived  in  his  time,  perfected  it,  in  a  measure,  and  made  it 
practically  applicable  to  industry,  the  idea  readily  occurred  of 
using  it  also  for  purposes  of  locomotion,  and  especially  of  naviga¬ 
tion.  In  England  and  in  France,  which  were  at  that  time  engaged 
in  a  rivalry  in  commerce,  attempts  to  realize  the  introducing  of 
steam  as  a  motive  power  for  propelling  ships  were  frequent,  but 
before  1730  had  led  to  no  practical  results.  In  1736  Jonathan 
Hulls  published  a  description  of  a  vessel  which  was  to  be  pro¬ 
pelled  by  a  stern  wheel,  the  motive  power  of  which  was  to  be  an 
atmospheric  engine  ;  but  there  is  no  record  of  his  having  put  his 
plan  in  operation.  In  France,  during  the  period  intervening  be- 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


89 


tween  HU  and  1796,  the  Count  de  Auxizon,  the  brothers  Perier, 
the  Marquis  de  Joufiroy,  and  M.  Des  Blancs  had  each  attempted 
to  construct  a  boat  which  should  be  propelled  by  steam ;  but  all 
their  experiments  had  proved  failures. 

In  the  United  States,  in  Philadelphia,  which  at  that  time  still 
retained  much  of  the  political  importance  she  had  held  during  tiie 
revolution  from  being  the  seat  of  Congress,  and  in  which  great 
attention  was  paid  to  commerce  and  sliip-building,  early  attempts 
were  made  to  propel  vessels  by  steam  power.  As  early  as  1773 
the  attention  of  Oliver  Evans  had  been  turned  to  steam  propulsion, 
both  on  land  and  water.  Evans  was  the  practical  introducer  of 
the  high-pressure  engine,  and  of  various  improvements  in  mill  ma¬ 
chinery,  and  his  subsequent  successful  attempts  to  build  a  locomo¬ 
tive  carriage,  which  ran  in  the  streets  of  Philadelphia,  and,  with 
the  same  apparatus,  a  boat  which  was  propelled  on  the  Schuylkill 
with  paddle-wheels,  have,  with  some  authorities,  been  supposed  to 
justify  his  claim  to  the  first  contrivance  of  a  practical  steamboat. 
Whether  this  is  so  or  not,  yet  it  is  certain  that  he  predicted  the 
ultimate  triumphs  of  steam,  and  of  his  own  method  of  propelling 
a  boat.  At  the  same  time  there  were  others  in  the  United  States 
whose  attention  was  turned  to  the  same  subject. 

Fitch  mentions  that  steam  navigation  was  the  subject  of  a  con¬ 
versation  between  Mr.  Henry,  of  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Mr.  Andrew  Ellicott  in  the  year  1776.  The  former  had  even  made 
drawings  of  a  steamboat,  which  he  intended  to  lay  before  the 
Philadelphia  Society,  but  was  probably  diverted  by  the  impending 
struggle. 

In  1778  Thomas  Paine,  the  author  of  Common  Sense ,  whose 
writings  have  done  so  much  for  the  success  of  American  indepen¬ 
dence,  and  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  world’s  thought,  recom¬ 
mended  Congress  to  adopt  measures  for  encouraging  the  building  of 
steamboats  on  the  plan  of  Jonathan  Hulls,  patented  in  England  in 
1736,  and  intended  “to  go  against  wind  and  tide.” 

In  1784  James  Rumsey,  of  Maryland,  showed  to  General  Wash¬ 
ington  on  the  Potomac,  the  model  of  a  boat  for  navigating  rivers, 
against  the  current,  by  the  force  of  the  stream  acting  “  on  setting 
poles.”  This  invention  had  been  previously  attempted  without 
success,  in  1750,  by  a  resident  of  Reading,  Pa.  ;  yet  Rumsey  pat¬ 
ented  it  in  several  states,  and  in  March,  1785,  obtained  from  the 
Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  an  exclusive  right  for  ten  years  “  to 


90 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


navigate  and  Build  boats  calculated  to  work  with  greater  ease  and 
rapidity  against  ramd  rivers.” 

In  1785  John  Fitch  had  completed  the  model  of  a  steamboat, 
and  the  next  year  navigated  the  Schuylkill  in  a  small  shallop  pro¬ 
pelled  by  a  wheel  at  the  stern,  driven  by  steam. 

In  1786  Jefferson,  writing  from  London  on  the  22d  of  April, 
appears  to  have  been  informed  of  this  fact,  for  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Charles  Thompson,  of  Philadelphia,  he  says,  “  I  hear  you  are  ap¬ 
plying  the  same  agent  (steam)  in  America  to  navigate  boats.” 

In  the  first  volume  of  the  Columbian  Magazine  for  December, 
1786,  Fitch  published  an  article  descriptive  of  a  new  steamboat  he 
was  building,  and  in  the  following  May  he  made  an  experimental 
trip  with  this  first  practical  American  steamboat  upon  the. Dela¬ 
ware.  Her  speed  was  estimated  by  Messrs.  Ritterhouse,  Ewing, 
Ellicott,  and  others,  who  witnessed  her  performance,  from  their 
measurements  to  be  eight  miles  an  hour  at  dead  water,  and  she 
afterwards  went  eighty  miles  a  day. 

On  March  28,  1787,  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  accorded 
to  Fitch  “the  sole  right  and  advantage  of  making  and  employing 
the  steamboat  by  him  lately  invented  for  a  limited  time”  —  that 
is,  for  fourteen  years  ;  and  subsequently  the  legislatures  of  Dela¬ 
ware,  New. York,  and  Virginia  granted  him  the  same  privileges. 

In  December,  1787,  James  Rumsey,  who  has  been  mentioned  as 
having  exhibited  to  Washington  and  received  from  him  a  written 
testimony  of  the  fact,  a  boat  which  moved  against  the  stream, 
having  turned  his  attention  to  steam  as  a  motive  power,  propelled 
a  boat  by  an  engine  and  mechanism  of  his  own  invention  upon  the 
Potomac.  This  boat  was  propelled  by  the  force  of  a  stream  of 
water  driven  out  at  the  stern  by  a  pump.  Ilis  successful  experi¬ 
ment  was  witnessed  by  a  number  of  people  who  had  gathered  upon 
the  banks.  The  inventor,  however,  became  subsequently  engaged 
in  a  controversy  with  Fitch  concerning  the  priority  of  their  respec¬ 
tive  inventions. 

The  next  year  (1788)  a  society,  of  which  Franklin  was  a  mem¬ 
ber,  was  formed  in  Philadelphia  under  the  title  of  the  Rumsey 
Society,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  Rumsey  in  his  inventions,  who 
in  the  same  year,  having  gone  to  England,  obtained  patents 
there  and  in  France  and  Holland  for  some  of  them.  With  a  boat 
constructed  from  his  plans  he  made  a  successful  trip  upon  the 
Thames  in  December,  1792,  and  was  preparing  for  another  when 
lie  died. 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


91 


In  1839  Congress  voted  to  his  son  —  James  Rumsey —  a  gold 
medal,  “  commemorative  of  his  father’s  services  j^d  high  agency 
in  giving  to  the  world  the  benefit  of  the  steamboat. ” 

In  the  dispute  between  Fitch  and  Rumsey,  the  claim  of 
the  first  to  priority  of  invention  was  sustained  by  the  legisla¬ 
tures  of  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  New  Jersey,  while  Rura- 
sey’s  patents  were  allowed  by  those  of  New  York,  Maryland,  and 
Virginia.  Both  inventors,  on  the^fstablishment  of  the  national 
Patent  Office,  took  out  patents  for  their  marine  inventions.  The 
facts  of  the  dispute  between  Fitch  and  Rumsey  appear  to  be  these  : 
The  credit  of  the  invention  belongs  to  each  of  them,  since  they 
both  arrived  at  it  independently,  and  without  the  knowledge  of 
each  other’s  labors  ;  but  while  the  conception  of  propelling  boats 
by  the  energy  of  steam  appears  to  have  occurred  to  them  both  in 
the  same  year,  Fitch  was  fortunate  enough  to  have  made  the  first 
practical  experiment.  But,  unfortunately  also,  Fitch  being  a  man 
whose  peculiar  idiosyncrasies  of  character  were  intensified  by  his 
independence  of  spirit,  his  inventive  pride,  his  clear  foresight  of 
what  the  eventual  value  of  his  invention  would  be,  and  the  mis¬ 
fortunes  of  his  early  youth,  the  troubles  of  his  domestic  life,  and 
the  want  of  appreciation  he  met  with  in  his  maturer  years,  it  Was 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  him  to  obtain  the  cooperation  he 
needed.  Yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  only  defects  in  the  size 
of  the  wheels,  the  imperfections  and  the  excessive  weight  of  the 
engine,  and  other  quite  secondary  details  of  construction  which 
were  remedied  by  those  who  came  after  him,  together  with  his 
want  of  capital,  which  alone  prevented  Fitch  from  making  naviga¬ 
tion  by  steam  a  success  years  before  it  became  actually  such  in 
other  hands. 

Unsuccessful  and  unhappy,  broken  in  fortune,  and  suffering 
from  poverty  and  want  even  of  sympathetic  appreciation,  he  rash¬ 
ly  ended  a  life  which  had  become  too  great  a  burden  to  be  borne. 
Yet  still  his  countrymen  should  not  willingly  let  his  memory  de¬ 
cay  ;  but,  with  the  growth  of  the  enterprise  he  foresaw,  an  in¬ 
creasing  appreciation  of  the  value  of  his  life  should  bring  to  his 
memory  the  recognition  which  was  denied  him  while  alive. 

In  1788  Fitch  built  a  second  boat  for  the  machinery  he  had  used 
in  his  first,  which  was  an  engine  with  a  twelve-inch  cylinder,  and 
made  with  it  several  passages  between  Philadelphia  and  Burling¬ 
ton,  at  the  rate  of  about  four  miles  an  hour.  This  boat  was  driven 
by  paddles,  six  on  a  side.  Another  boat  for  an  engine  with  an 


92 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


eighteen-incTrcylinder  was  ready  for  trial  in  August,  1189.  Changes 
in  the  machinery,  which  were  found  to  be  necessary,  occupied  the 
time  until  the  spring  of  1790,  when  the  boat  was  run  regularly  to 
carry  passengers  between  Philadelphia  and  Burlington,  making  an 
average  speed  of  seven  and  a  half  miles  an  hour,  and  going  over 
two  thousand  miles  that  season.  This  boat  was  driven  by  paddles 
at  the  stern. 

This  was  the  first  American*  steamboat  which  regularly  carried 

passengers. 

In  Scotland,  in  1788,  Patrick  Miller  and  William  Symington 
built  a  small  double  skiff,  which  was  propelled  in  Dalswinton  Lock 
by  a  four-inch  cylinder  engine,  driving  a  paddle-wheel  working 
between  the  boats,  and  reached  a  speed  of  about  five  miles  an 
hour. 

In  1789,  with  a  larger  engine,  they  propelled  a  boat  upon  the 
Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  at  the  rate  of  from  six  to  seven  miles  an 
hour  ;  but  their  machinery  being  found  insufficient,  they  abandoned 
further  attempts. 

In  1796,  Fitch,  having  returned  to  this  country  from  a  trip  to 
France,  in  which  he  had  been  again  disappointed  in  obtaining  the 
aid  he  needed  for  introducing  his  invention  there,  built  a  small 
boat,  which  was  run  on  a  pond  in  New  York  city,  called  the  Col¬ 
lect  Pond.  This  boat  was  propelled  by  a  screw  at  the  stern,  while 
its  boiler  was  a  twelve  gallon  pot  impressed  into  this  unusual  ser¬ 
vice,  its  top  being  covered  with  a  plank  which  was  secured  in  its 
place  by  an  iron  bar  fastened  down  with  clamps.  This  was  the 
last  attempt  made  by  Fitch  to  realize  his  project.  His  death  oc¬ 
curred  two  years  afterwards. 

During  this  time  Robert  Fulton,  whose  name  is  more  generally 
known  as  connected  with  the  introduction  of  the  steam  engine 
into  practical  use  in  navigation,  was  in  England,  where  he  had 
gone  for  the  purpose  of  continuing  the  study  of  the  art  of  paint¬ 
ing  under  Benjamin  West.  While  there  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater,  who  was  then  carrying  out  his 
system  of  canal  navigation  in  Great  Britain,  and,  following  his 
advice,  determined  to  devote  himself  to  engineering.  A  subse¬ 
quent  acquaintance  with  the  Earl  of  Stanhope,  who  was  an  inven¬ 
tor,  and  then  engaged  in  attempting  to  realize  a  method  of  steam 
navigation  in  which  the  paddles  were  to  be  shaped  and  to  work 
like  a  duck’s  foot,  turned  his  attention  in  this  direction,  and  in  a 
letter  to  this  nobleman,  dated  1793,  Fulton  expresses  some  of  his 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


93 

objections  to  this  proposed  method,  and  made  some  suggestions, 
which  he  afterwards  followed  himself  in  his  attempt  upon  the 
Hudson.  At  Birmingham  he  became  acquainted  with  Watt,  and 
made  himself  perfectly  familiar  with  the  steam  engine,  which  had 
just  been  improved  by  this  inventor.  On  a  visit  to  Paris  he  be¬ 
came  intimate  with  Chancellor  Livingston,  of  New  York,  who  was 
then  United  States  minister  to  France.  Livingston  had  been  con¬ 
nected  in  New  York  with  Nicholas  Rosevelt  and  John  Stevens  in 
experimenting  concerning  steam  navigation,  and,  being  wealthy, 
offered  Fulton,  when  he  heard  his  views,  all  the  capital  necessary  for 
his  experiments,  and  if  they  were  successful  to  contract  for  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  this  new  method  of  propelling  boats  in  the  United  States. 

Through  Livingston’s  influence,  also,  an  act  was  passed  in  the 
legislature  of  New  York,  in  1798,  repealing  the  act  of  1787  in 
favor  of  John  Fitch,  and  granting  to  himself  the  exclusive  privi¬ 
lege  of  navigating  the  waters  of  the  state  by  steam,  on  condition 
that  he  should  give  proof,  within  a  year,  that  he  had  constructed  a 
boat  of  twenty  tons  which  was  able  to  navigate  the  Hudson  River 
at  an  average  speed  of  fbur  miles  an  hour,  and  that  he  should  at 
no  time  fail,  for  the  period  of  one  year,  to  have  a  boat  of  this  de¬ 
scription  plying  between  Albany  and  New  York  city.  From  time 
to  time  the  continuance  of  this  act  was  extended,  and  finally  its 
provisions  were  made  to  include  Fulton. 

In  the  mean  time  experiments  were  continued  in  France,  and 
during  the  summer  of  1802,  at  Plombi&res.  The  next  year  Fulton 
commenced  constructing  a  working  model,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  vessel  sixty  feet  long  and  eight  wide.  It  did  not,  however, 
move  when  finished  with  the  speed  he  had  expected.  The  same 
year  he  also  sent  an  order  to  Watt  and  Bolton  for  a  steam  engine 
suitable  for  a  boat  of  larger  size,  .which,  when  completed,  was  for¬ 
warded  to  New  York,  arriving  there  in  1806. 

Having  informed  himself  concerning  all  the  attempts  made  in 
Europe  to  realize  steam  navigation,  so  that  he  should  be  able  to 
avoid  the  causes  of  their  failure,  he  returned  to  America,  and  doing 
the  same  thing  here,  he  set  about  constructing  a  boat  for  his  ma¬ 
chine.  This  boat  was  finished  in  1807,  and  named  the  Cler¬ 
mont,  the  name  of  Livingston’s  estate  on  the  Hudson.  The  speed 
she  attained  averaged  five  miles  an  hour,  and  during  the  ensuing 
winter  she  was  lengthened  so  as  to  measure  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  on  her  keel  and  sixteen  and  one-half  feet  beam. 

The  legislature  also  granted  to  Livingston  and  Fulton  an  extcn- 


94 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


sion  of  their  exclusive  privilege  for  additional  terms  of  five  years 
for  every  new  boat  they  should  build  and  run,  provided  the  total 
number  of  years  so  granted  should  not  exceed  thirty.  The  second 
boat  built  was  finished  in  1807,  and  called  the  Car  of  Neptune. 
Next  year  the  legislature  passed  another  act  confirming  the  prior 
grants,'  and  giving  the  grantees  further  remedies  against  any  in¬ 
fringement  of  them,  by  subjecting  any  vessel  propelled  by  steam, 
which  should  enter  the  waters  of  the  state,  to  forfeiture,  unless  it 
had  their  license. 

In  1809  Fulton  took  out  his  first  patent  from  the  United  States 
for  his  invention,  and  in  1811  others  for  improvements  in  his  ma¬ 
chinery.  These  patents  covered  the  adaptation  of  a  paddle-wheel 
to  the  axle  of  the  crank  of  Watts’s  steam  engine. 

It  was  naturally  to  be  expected  that  in  a  country  governed 
professedly  upon  democratic  principles  such  a  monopoly  would  be 
resisted,  and  very  soon  the  power  of  the  legislature  to  grant  such 
an  exclusive  privilege  was  denied.  The  question  was  soon  brought 
to  a  legal  issue  in  the  courts  by  the  establishment  of  a  company 
at  Albany  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  another  line  of  boats  to 
ply  between  that  city  and  New  York.  Livingston  and  Fulton,  as 
grantees  of  the  privilege,  filed  a  bill  in  equity,  asking  for  an  in¬ 
junction  against  the  new  company.  Their  request  was  refused  by 
Chancellor  Lansing,  on  the  ground  that  the  act  of  the  legislature 
was  repugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
against  common  right.  This  decision  was,  however,  reversed  by 
the  Court  of  Errors  ;  but  the  case  was  carried  no  further,  being 
quashed  by  a  compromise,  in  which  the  right  to  navigate  the  waters 
of  Lake  Champlain  was  granted  to  the  Albany  company.  Thus 
in  the  very  beginning  of  the  course  of  modern  methods  of  trans¬ 
portation  the  monopolists  showed  their  readiness  to  avoid  compe¬ 
tition,  by  combining  among  themselves.  Nor  was  the  legislature 
more  averse  in  those  times  than  in  the  present  to  lend  its  aid  in 
furthering  the  interests  of  the  monopolists  as  against  the  people. 
Having  in  the  first  place  granted  a  right  which  was  not  theirs  to 
grant,  they  passed  another  act  peremptorily  ordering  the  granting 
of  an  injunction  to  the  grantees  of  their  privilege,  and  also  order¬ 
ing  the  seizure  of  any  boat  which  should  infringe  upon  the  terms 
of  their  grant  before  the  commencement  of  any  suit  against  it. 

By  this  arbitrary  and  unconstitutional  legislation  the  steam  nav¬ 
igation  of  the  waters  of  New  York  State  remained  in  the  exclu¬ 
sive  possession  of  Fulton  and  his  partner  until  the  death  of  Fulton 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


95 


in  1815.  But  the  contest  was  simply  transferred  to  New  Jersey, 
whose  coast  abutted  on  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  River.  Here, 
however,  the  promptness  with  which  monopolists  will  combine  was 
again  illustrated.  Colonel  Aaron  Ogden,  who  had  commenced  to 
contest  the  claims  of  Fulton  and  Livingston  under  the  grants  of  the 
legislature,  was  converted,  by  concessions  on  their  part,  into  be¬ 
coming  the  warmest  advocate  of  the  monopoly,  and  maintained  it 
until  eventually  he  was  defeated  in  the  famous  case  of  Gibbons 
against  Ogden,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  where 
the  question  had  been  carried  by  appeal. 

The  same  course  of  procedure  was  also  forced  upon  the  West 
to  secure  the  free  navigation  of  her  streams.  In  1814,  Fulton, 
claiming  the  monopoly  of  steam  navigation  upon  the  western  riv¬ 
ers,  built  at  Pittsburg,  for  a  company  at  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  New  Orleans,  a  steamboat'  called  the  Vesuvius,  of  three  hund¬ 
red  and  forty  tons.  She  was  the  third  boat  built  at  the  West, 
and  was  intended  for  the  New  Orleans  and  Louisville  trade.  In 
the  spring  of  this  year  she  sailed  from  Pittsburg,  and  in  July 
started  with  a  cargo  from  New  Orleans,  making  in  ten  days  one- 
half  the  distance  between  there  and  Louisville,  when  she  ground¬ 
ed,  and  remained  until  December,  when,  being  floated  off  by  a  rise 
in  the  river,  she  returned  to  New  Orleans. 

The  first  steamboat  to  navigate  the  western  rivers  was  also  built 
by  Fulton  at  Pittsburg.  She  was  called  the  New  Orleans,  and 
had  a  capacity  of  between  three  and  four  hundred  tons.  She  was 
provided  with  a  stern  wheel  and  sails,  since  at  that  time  Fulton 
supposed  these  would  be  needed  in  addition  to  her  engine.  In 
October,  1812,  she  made  the  trip  from  Pittsburg  to  Louisville  in 
seventy  hours.  Being  detained  there  several  weeks  by  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  falls,  she  made  several  trips  to  Cincinnati,  and  in  De¬ 
cember  proceeded  to  New  Orleans.  Her  length  was  one  hundred 
and  thirty  feet,  and  her  breadth  thirty.  Her  cost  was  about  forty 
thousand  dollars,  one-half  of  which  was  received  from  the  net 
profits  of  her -first  year's  business.  From  New  Orleans  she  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  Natchez,  and  engaged  in  the  trade  between  these  two 
cities,  for  which  she  was  built,  until  1814,  when  she  was  wrecked 
upon  a  snag  at  Baton  Rouge. 

The  second  steamboat  of  the  West  was  a  small  boat,  rated  at 
twenty-five  tons,  called  the  Comet.  She  was  built  at  Pittsburg  by 
D.  French,  and  provided  with  machinery  which  he  had  patented 
in  1809.  In  the  summer  of  1813  she  descended  to  Louisville,  and 


96 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


in  the  spring’  of  1814  to  New  Orleans.  After  two  voyages  to 
Natchez,  she  was  sold,  and  her  machinery  taken  for  a  cotton 
mill. 

Thus  far,  therefore,  no  steamers  had  ascended  the  western  riv¬ 
ers.  The  experiment  of  the  Vesuvius  had  been  successful  until 
she  ran  aground,  but  it  was  not  conclusive.  In  1814  the  Enter¬ 
prise,  built  at  Brownsville,  Pa.,  was  provided  with  one  of  French’s 
engines,  and  in  December  descended  to  New  Orleans.  On  her  re¬ 
turn  trip,  in  which  she  was  the  first  vessel  which  ascended  the 
Mississippi,  she  reached  Louisville  in  May,  1816,  making  the  trip 
from  New  Orleans  in  twenty-five  days.  The  event  was  celebrated 
by  a  public  dinner  given  by  the  citizens  of  Louisville  to  her  com¬ 
mander,  Captain  Henry  M.  Shreve.  To  this  gentleman  the  West 
is  greatly  indebted  for  securing  the  free  navigation  of  their  waters, 
for  this  vessel  and  another  called  the  Washington,  which  he  sub¬ 
sequently  built,  were  intended  to  test  the  validity  of  Fulton’s 
claims  to  his  monopoly.  Both  of  these  boats  were  seized,  as  Cap¬ 
tain  Shreve  desired  they  should  be,  and  the  cause  being  carried  up 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  the  exclusive  pretensions  of  the  monopolists 
were  denied,  and  the  freedom  of  navigation  secured. 

The  history  of  the  action  of  state  legislatures  in  aiding  monopo¬ 
lists,  and  the  promptness  with  which  the  monopolists  themselves 
cooperated  with  each  other,  and  their  willingness  to  compromise 
and  aid  each  other,  showed  how  frail  is  the  chance  of  the  public 
to  obtain  from  their  competition  the  benefits  which  many  theorizers 
ascribe  to  this  tendency,  and  afford  many  valuable  lessons  for  the 
action  of  the  present  generation  in  contending  with  other  monopo¬ 
lies,  which,  at  times,  seem  destined  to  override  all  the  principles 
of  our  democratic  nationality. 

In  this  way  the  free  navigation  of  the  internal  waters  of  the 
countries  being  secured,  an  opportunity  was  offered  to  enterprise, 
and  the  result  has  been  beyond  what  even  the  most  sanguine  in¬ 
ventors  of  this  method  of  transportation  could  have  imagined. 
Fitch  left  a  request  that  he  should  be  buried  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio,  “  where  the  song  of  the  boatman  would  enliven  the  still¬ 
ness  of  his  resting-place,  and  the  music  of  the  steam  engine  soothe 
his  spirit;”  and  well  has  his  desire  been  fulfilled. 

The  first  steam  navigation  of  the  ocean  was  in  a  boat  called  the 
Phoenix,  which  was  launched  by  John  Stevens  soon  after  Fulton’s 
Clermont  made  her  first  trip.  As  Fulton  held  the  monopoly  of 
steam  navigation  in  the  waters  of  New  York  State,  the  son  of  the 


t 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


99 


builder  of  the  Phoenix  —  R.  L.  Stevens  —  took  her  to  Philadelphia 
by  the  outside  passage,  the  only  one  then  in  existence. 

The  first  steamboat  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  however,  was  the  Sa¬ 
vannah,  a  vessel  built  in  New  York,  with  side  wheels  and  sails. 
She  sailed  from  New  York  to  St.  Petersburg  by  way  of  Liverpool, 
reaching  this  last  named  place  in  twenty-six  days,  and  returned 
safely.  As  she  was,  however,  a  small  vessel,  and  did  not  depend 
entirely  upon  her  engines,  her  trip  was  hardly  considered  a  proof 
that  ocean  steam  navigation  was  practicable.  The  first  regular 
passages  across  the  Atlantic  were  made  in  1838  by  the  Sirius  and 
the  Great  Western.  The  first  of  these  left  London  and  reached 
New  York  in  seventeen  days,  and  the  second  left  Bristol  and 
reached  New  York  in  fifteen  days. 

Since  then  great  changes  have  been  wrought  in  the  models,  the 
construction,  and  the  propulsion  of  ocean  steamers,  in  which 
American  invention  has  performed  its  full  share.  Though,  owing 
to  the  conditions  of  our  present  tariff,  our  ocean  steamers  have 
entirely  disappeared,  and  there  is  not  a  vessel  now  crossing  the 
Atlantic  under  the  American  flag,  yet  the  labors  of  American  me¬ 
chanics  in  this  direction  have  left  their  influence.  George  Steers, 
the  builder  of  the  yacht  America,  and  of  the  Adriatic,  influenced 
the  lines  of  all  the  English  sea  steamers,  as  the  American  models 
of  the  clipper  ships  have  modified  the  rig  and  the  lines  of  all  the 
best  sailing  vessels. 

The  indications  are,  also,  from  the  success  which  has  attended 
the  use  of  iron  as  a  material  for  the  construction  of  sea  steamers, 
and  the  improvements  made  in  the  propeller,  or  submerged  wheel 
at  the  stern,  that  in  the  future  our  sea-going  steamers  will  all  be 
built  of  iron,  with  water-tight  compartments,  and,  discarding  side 
wheels,  be  propelled  with  a  screw. 

A  comparison  of  the  early  methods  of  travel,  and  of  the  time 
and  discomfort  inherent  to  the  circulation  at  the  commencement 
of  this  century,  with  those  now  in  use,  will  show  in  the  briefest 
and  most  striking  manner  the  industrial  advance  we  have  made 
during  the  past  two  generations. 

In  the  early  days  a  sloop  would  occasionally  ply  between  New 
Amsterdam  (New  York)  and  Fort  Orange  (Albany),  but  the  license 
to  do  so  was  granted  only  on  condition  that  she  did  not  carry 
more  than  six  passengers.  From  an  advertisement  clipped  from  a 
newspaper  issued  early  in  this  century  we  gather  that  this  method 
was  improved  somewhat  at  that  time.  The  announcement  reads 
as  follows  : — 


100 


STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


“  Sloop  Experiment.  —  For  Passengers  only. 

11  Elias  Bunker  informs  his  friends  and  the  public  that  he  has 
commenced  running  a  sloop  of  about  one  hundred  and  ten  tons 
burden  between  the  cities  of  Hudson  and  New  York,  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  carrying  passengers  only.  The  owners  of  this  vessel, 
being  desirous  to  render  the  passage  as  short,  convenient,  and 
agreeable  as  possible,  have  not  only  taken  care  to  furnish  her  with 
the  best  beds,  bedding,  liquors,  provisions,  etc.,  but  they  have 
been  at  very  great  expense  and  trouble  in  procuring  materials  and 
building  her  on  the  best  construction  for  sailing,  and  for  the  ac¬ 
commodation  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  travelling  on  business  or  for 
pleasure. 

“  Merchants  and  others  residing  in  the  northern,  eastern,  and 
western  counties  will  find  a  great  convenience  in  being  able  to  cal¬ 
culate  (at  home)  the  precise  time  they  can  sail  from  Hudson  and 
New  York,  without  being  under  the  necessity  of  taking  their  beds 
and  bedding  ;  and  those  in  New  York  may  so  calculate  their  busi¬ 
ness  as  to  be  certain  of  comfortable  accommodations  up  the  river.” 

The  time  employed  in  such  a  trip  varied,  of  course,  according 
as  the  wind  was  propitious  or  not.  Nor  was  the  travel  upon  the 
western  waters  calculated  to  be  any  more  attractive.  In  1794  a 
line  of  packets,  two  in  number,  commenced  running  between  Cin¬ 
cinnati  and  Pittsburg,  and  were  advertised  to  perform  the  voyage, 
each,  once  in  four  weeks ;  the  passengers  were  assured  of  their 
safety,  since  they  would  be  placed  under  cover,  which  was  proof 
against  rifle  or  musket  balls,  with  convenient  port-holes  for  firing 
out  of.  Each  boat  was  to  be  armed  with  six  pieces  carrying  a 
pound  ball,  and  a  number  of  good  muskets,  with  plenty  of  ammu¬ 
nition. 

How  few  of  those  who  pass  up  and  down  the  Hudson  upon 
the  steamers  which  will  easily  accommodate  a  thousand  passen¬ 
gers,  or  on  the  Mississippi  in  one  of  those  floating  palaces  which 
will  accommodate  an  equal  number,  think  how  much  more  cheaply, 
quickly,  and  conveniently  they  are  thus  transported  than  their 
grandfathers  and  grandmothers  could  have  been  !  It  seems  impos¬ 
sible  that  the  coming  generations  shall  see  changes  of  equal  mag¬ 
nitude  ;  but  the  world  is  just  waking  to  the  conception  of  the  in¬ 
dustrial  tendency  of  mankind,  and  of  the  aids  that  science,  com¬ 
bination,  and  improved  social  methods  can  produce. 


SHIP-BUILDING. 


EARLY  HISTORY.  —  EGYPTIAN,  GREEK,  AND  ROMAN  SHIPS.  —  ENGLISH,  SPANISH, 
AND  FRENCH  IMPROVEMENTS.  —  AMERICAN  MODELS.  —  OLD  PLANS  SET  ASIDE. 

—  BALTIMORE  CLIPPERS.  —  THE  YACHT  AMERICA.  —  GREAT  REPUBLIC.  —  FLY¬ 
ING  CLOUD.  — THE  BUILDING  OF  A  SHIP.  — PROCESS  OF  CONSTRUCTION. — 
LAYING  THE  KEEL.  —  SETTING  UP  THE  FUTTOCKS.  —  CEILING  AND  PLANKING. 

—  CALKING  AND  COPPERING.  — LAUNCHING.  —  IRON  SHIPS.  — HOW  THEY  ARE 
BUILT.  —  SUPERIORITY  OVER  WOODEN  VESSELS.  —  GREATER  STRENGTH  AND 
LIGHTNESS.  —  MORE  SPACE  FOR  CARGO. — WATER-TIGHT  COMPARTMENTS. — 
SECURITIES  AGAINST  SINKING.  —  IRON-CLAD  FLOATING  BATTERIES.  —  SHIP¬ 
BUILDING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  DEPRESSED  STATE  OF  THE  INDUSTRY. 

•  f 

Ship-building  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  construction 
of  Noah’s  Ark  ;  but  even  the  ark  could  only  have  been  an  enor¬ 
mous  enlargement  upon  existing  models,  for  from  the  earliest 
period,  wherever  man  has  lived  in  proximity  to  water,  boats  of 
some  sort  have  been  built.  The  Hebrew  (Scripture)  records 
speak  of  the  joint  Jewish  and  Phoenician  naval  expeditions  for  the 
timber  and  other  material  for  Solomon’s  Temple,  and  mention  of 
tl  ships  ”  is  frequent  in  the  Bible.  The  oldest  tombs  and  monu¬ 
ments  in  Egypt  bear  representations  of  vessels  propelled  by  means 
of  sails,  as  well  as  by  oars.  Tradition  has  handed  down  accounts 
of  great  galleys  and  ships  of  extraordinary  size,  used  in  warfare 
by  the  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and  Romans.  Csesar’s  “  Commenta¬ 
ries  ”  allude  to  ships  constructed  of  oak.  Alfred  the  Great  had 
his  navy.  Edward  III.  had  ships  of  war  carrying  cannon.  When 
the  mariner’s  compass  came  into  use,  larger  and  more  complete 
vessels  were  built.  The  discovery  of  America  gave  an  immense 
impulse  to  ship-building  in  Spain,  and  that  country  long  took  the 
lead  of  all  other  maritime  nations  in  whatever  pertained  to  navi¬ 
gation.  The  opening  of  a  great  East  India  trade  by  the  discovery 
of  the  passage  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  made  England 
foremost  among  ship-building  nations,  and  under  Henry  VIII.,  and 

especially  under  Elizabeth,  extraordinary  progress  was  made.  In 

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102 


SHIP-BUILDING. 


the  seventeenth  century  English  ships,  of  from  fourteen  hundred 
to  sixteen  hundred  tons,  were  built.  In  the  eighteenth  century 
the  French  so  far  advanced  upon  the  ships  built  by  the  Dutch, 
Portuguese,  English,  and  Spaniards  that  their  models  were  eagerly 
adopted.  But  with  all  these  nations  progress  beyond  a  certain 
point  was  comparatively  slow,  till  the  United  States,  ignoring  the 
old-established  features  in  naval  architecture,  began  to  build  ves¬ 
sels  which  have  since  been  models  for  the  world. 

Speed  and  beauty  were  the  ends  sought  and  attained  in  the  new 
American  models,  and  these  were  secured  principally  *by  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  concave,  wedge-shaped  bows,  instead  of  the  convex 
form,  and  corresponding  “  lines  ”  for  the  stern.  The  schooners 
built- on  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  ships  after  the  style  of  the  celebrated 
“  Baltimore  clippers,”  constructed  on  the  new  American  model, 
frequently  showed  a  speed  under  sail  that  had  not  then  been  at¬ 
tained  by  the  best  English  steamers.  The  Collins  steamers  were 
the  stimulus  to  the  construction  of  the  superb  ships  the  Cunard 
Company  subsequently  added  to  their  line.  The  success  of  the 
yacht  “  America,”  at  Cowes,  in  1851,  built  on  the  Baltimore  clip¬ 
per  model,  revolutionized  yacht-building  in  England.  Among  re¬ 
markable  American  sailing  ships,  constructed  outlie  new  principle, 
may  be  mentioned  the  Boston  clipper  “  Great  Republic,”  of  four 
thousand  tons  burden,  and  the  “  Flying  Cloud,”  which  has  made 
three  hundred  and  seventy-four  knots  in  twenty-four  hours,  or 
nearly  eighteen  miles  an  hour.  Other  American  ships  engaged  in 
the  California,  China,  and  East  India  trade,  have  displayed  equally 
wonderful  speed.  Assuming,  then,  that  American  ships  and 
American  models  are  unsurpassed,  we  proceed  to  give  the  de¬ 
tails  of  construction. 

The  architect  first  makes  a  model  of  alternate  strips  of  pine  and 
cedar,  three  or  more  feet  in  length,  fastened  together,  and  hewn 
out  with  the  greatest  precision,  so  as  to  present  every  line  in  the 
ship  to  be  built.  From  this  model  he  makes  three  drawings  — 
the  “  sheer  plan,”  presenting  the  length,  depth,  water-lines,  and 
entire  side  of  the  ship  ;  the  “  half-breadth  plan,”  which  is  a  length¬ 
wise  section  of  half  the  ship  ;  and  the  “  body  plan,”  which  verti¬ 
cally  divides  the  ship  in  halves,  and  shows  the  curves  and  tim¬ 
bers  towards  the  bow  and  the  stern.  From  enlarged  patterns  of 
these  plans  the  workmen  select  and  shape  to  the  required  dimen¬ 
sions  every  timber  for  the  ship. 

In  the  yard,  close  to  the  water’s  edge,  blocks  are  set,  — 


at  a 


EARLY  NAVIGATION  OF  THE  PHOENICIANS.  THE  LAUNCH  OF  A  PACKET  SHIP. 


SHIP-BUILDING. 


105 


proper  inclination  for  the  launching  of  the  ship,  —  on  which  the 
keel  is  laid.  Generally  a  false  keel,  consisting  of  pieces  of  from 
four  to  six  inches  in  thickness,  and  of  the  same  width  as  the  keel 
proper,  —  the  false  keel  preventing  leeway,,  and  protecting  the 
keel  in  case  of  the  ship’s  grounding,  —  is  laid  first,  and  then  the 
keel,  of  live  oak  or  other  suitable  wood,  and  for  a  first-class  ship 
of  timbers  twenty  inches  square,  dowelled  together  to  make  the 
*  required  length,  is  laid.  The  keel  is  grooved  on  both  sides  to  re¬ 
ceive  the  planking.  The  stern,  which  must  be  of  the  best  and 
strongest  timber,  and  which  is  backed  by  other  timbers  called  the 
“  apron”  and  the  “  sternson,”  all  securely  bolted  together,  is 
secured  to  the  keel  by  a  “knee.”  In  setting  this  very  important 
timber,  the  greatest  care  and  accuracy  are  requisite,  as  any  irregu¬ 
larity  will  be  evident  in  the  ship  when  completed.  Next  comes 
the  “  stern-post  ”  of  solid  oak,  which  is  mortised  into  the  keel, 
and  is  strengthened  by  an  inner  post.  The  backbone  of  the  ship 
is  now  ready  for  the  ribs.  At  each  end  of  the  keel  the  space  too 
limited  for  framing  is  filled  in  with  solid  timber,  known  as  “  dead- 
wood.”  The  floor  timbers,  with  alternate  long  and  short  arms, 
are  next  let  into  the  keel  at  right  angles,  and  from  the  floor  are 
elevated  the  curved  timbers  called  “  futtocks,”  which  make  the 
frame  of  the  ship  and  determine  its  shape.  The  futtocks  are 
shored  up  with  sticks  of  timber  to  keep  them  in  their  places.  The 
next  process  is  to  lay  down  the  “  keelson  ”  —  stout  timbers  run¬ 
ning  from  stem  to  stern,  directly  over  and  securely  bolte^  to  the 
keel,  with  two  or  four  side  keelsons,  which  are  bolted  through  the 
floor  and  futtocks.  The  spaces  between  the  floor  and  futtocks  be¬ 
low  the  water-line  are  filled  with  timber,  and  are  calked  water¬ 
tight.  The  entire  frame  is  then  trussed  or  braced  with  bands  of 
iron,  and  the  ship  is  ready  for  the  interior  planking,  or  “  ceiling,” 
which  begins  at  the  keelson  and  is  carried  up  the  sides.  Project¬ 
ing  pieces,  called  shelves,  are  placed  at  proper  intervals,  and  to 
these  the  deck  beams  are  fastened  with  strong  wooden  or  iron 
knees.  Close  to  the  keelson  a  gutter  is  left  to  catch  the  leakage, 
if  any,  and  accessible  to  the  pumps.  The  few  planks  and  timbers 
which  need  curving  for  the  ceiling  are  steamed  and  bent,  and  the 
planks  are  secured  to  the  futtocks  by  locust  pegs,  called  treenails. 
“  Breast-hooks  ”  of  wood  or  iron,  fitting  the  shape  of  the  bow, 
and  “crutches”  at  the  stern,  are  put  in  to  further  strengthen  the 
frame.  Blocks  or  “steps”  for  the  mast  are  fastened  to  the  keel¬ 
son.  The  deck  beams  are  strengthened  by  posts  which  rise  from 


10G 


SHIP-BUILDING. 


the  keelson.  The  outside  planking,  or  “  skin  ”  of  the  ship,  is  of 
oak  planks,  varying  in  thickness  from  four*  to  ten  inches,  carefully 
selected,  and  put  on  with  the  greatest  possible  care,  as  the  security 
of  the  ship  against  leakage  and  decay  depends  upon  the  judgment 
and  skill  with  which  this  outside  planking  is  performed.  The 
decks,  of  yellow  pine,  are  framed  to  leave  hatch  and  ladder  ways, 
mast  holes,  etc.,  and  are  laid  with  great  nicety,  so  as  to  be  per¬ 
fectly  water-tight,  care  being  taken  to  put  down  the  planks  so  as  # 
to  avoid  the  possibility  of  springing  or  straining.  The  hatchways 
are  oblong  in  shape,  the  broadest  part  running  athwart  the  deck. 
The  bulwarks  are  finished  ;  the  capstan  or  windlass,  which  should 
be  double,  running  through  two  decks  to  enable  two  sets  of  hands 
to  work  at  once,  is  set ;  the  catheads,  to  suspend  the  anchor  over 
the  bows,  are  put  in  ;  and  much  other  work  is  done  by  the  ship- 
carpenters  before  the  vessel  is  ready  to  be  calked.  The  rudder, 
which  may  be  added  before  or  after  launching,  is  made  of  the  best 
oak  and  elm,  and  is  hung  by  11  pintles  ”  to  the  “  gudgeons  ”  in  the 
stern-post.  The  circular  head  of  the  rudder  which  appears  on 
deck  is  mortised  to  receive  the  tiller,  and  the  tiller  ropes  run 
through  blocks  to  a  barrel,  which  turns  so  as  to  tauten  one  rope 
while  it  slacks  the  other  from  the  barrel  to  the  wheel  of  the  steers¬ 
man. 

Calking  is  the  process  of  making  the  seams  of  the  deck  and  the 
outer  planking  water-tight,  and  is  effected  by  driving  in  oakum 
with  caring-irons,  and  covering  the  seams  with  pitch.  Copper¬ 
ing  the  ship  may  be  done  before  or  after  launching,  or  even  alter  a 
voyage  or  two,  by  taking  the  ship  into  a  dry  dock.  The  bottom 
is  covered  with  a  smooth  coating  of  pitch  and  tar,  and  sheets  of 
copper,  four  feet  in  length  by  fourteen  inches  in  breadth,  are  nailed 
on.  Patent  sheathing  is  made  of  sixty  parts  of  pure  copper  and 
forty  parts  of  zinc,  the  zinc  counteracting  to  a  great  extent  the 
process  of  oxidation.  The  coppering  is  to  prevent  the  bottom 
from  fouling  by  marine  deposits,  or  the  accumulation  of  barnacles, 
which  materially  impede  the  progress  of  the  ship. 

The  ship  is  now  ready  for  launching.  At  low  water,  two  par¬ 
allel  lines,  or  ways,  of  heavy  timber  are  laid  the  entire  length  of 
the  sliijf,  and  down  to  the  point  where  the  ship  at  high  water  will 
float.  On  the  sliding  ways  are  the  “  bikeways,”  running  five- 
eighths  of  the  length  of  the  ship,  and  connected  with  the  ship  by 
"poppet”  and  11  6topping-up  ”  timbers.  These  are  wedged  up 
with  “slices/’  and  the  whole  makes  a  cradle,  in  which  the  ship  is 


SHIP-BUILDING. 


107 


confined  by  a  single  piece  of  timber  called  a  “  do£-shore.”  When 
all  is  ready,  the  ways  are  well  lubricated  with  soft  soap  and  grease, 
the  dog-shore  is  pulled  away  by  a  cord,  and  the  freed  ship  slides 
down  the  ways  and  into  the  water. 

Though  now  afloat,  the  ship  is  by  no  means  ready  for  sea.  Her 
masts,  yards,  rigging,  sails,  cables,  anchors,  etc.,  are  to  be  added, 
and  if  she  is  to  be  a  steamer,  she  must  be  towed  to  the  works 
where  her  engines  are  put  in.  With  the  riggers  come  the  ship- 
painters  and  numerous  other  mechanics,  who  assist  in  finishing  the 
vessel  and  preparing  it  for  sea.  The  mere  building  of  the  hull  is 
but  a  part  —  a  most  important  one,  however — of  an  infinity  of 
work  that  follows. 

The  woods  used  in  the  United  States  for  ship-building  are  al¬ 
most  exclusively  live  oak  and  pine,  with  such  ornamental  foreign 
woods  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  cabins.  Other  nations  use  a 
great  variety  of  woods,  including  teak,  mahogany,  pencil  and  red 
cedar,  Spanish  oak  and  chestnut,  tamarac,  and  many  others. 
Masts  and  spars  are  made  from  pine,  the  larger  vessels  requir¬ 
ing  “  made  masts  ”  of  several  pieces  secured  to  a  centre  stick  by 
iron  rings.  A  full  suit  of  sails  for  a  large  ship  will  use  fifteen 
thousand  yards  of  cotton  duck.  Anchors  —  “  kedge,”  “small 
bower, ”  “  working  bower, ”  and  “  best  bower”  — weigh  from  five 
hundred  to  eighty-five  hundred  pounds.  To  prevent  the  decay  of 
wood  used  in  ship-building,  a  recent  process  is  to  carbonize  the 
surface  to  a  depth  that  need  not  exceed  one  hundredth  oart  of  an 
inch,  and  which  will  give  a  coating  that  is  claimed  to  be  impervr 
ous  to  air  and  water. 

Iron  Ships. 

Iron  now  enters  very  largely  into  the  construction  of  even 
wooden  ships  by  the  substitution  of  iron  knees,  deck  beams,  and 
sometimes  iron  plate  (hollow)  masts.  This  use  of  iron  is  to  secure 
space,  greater  strength,  and  lightness ;  for  a  vessel  constructed 
wholly  of  iron  is  really  much  lighter  than  a  wooden  vessel  of  the. 
same  size,  while  by  doing  away  with  the  space  required  for  heavy 
timbers,  it  can  carry  a  much  larger  cargo.  For  these  and  other 
advantages,  iron  has  come  to  be  a  common  material  for  ship-build¬ 
ing,  and  it  has  been  used  in  the  construction  of  the  finest  Cunard 
and  other  steamers. 

For  an  iron  ship,  the  naval  architect  sends  his  construction 
drawings  to  the  iron  plate  rolling  mill,  where  each  plate  is  pre¬ 
pared  of  the  exact  curve  and  dimensions.  Holes  for  the  rivets 


ir>8 


SIIIP-BUILDING. 


are  punched  by  machinery,  and  the  plates  are  then  ready  for  the 
ship-builder.  The  keel  of  the  vessel  is  made  of  iron  bars  riveted 
together,  and  to  the  iron  upright  ribs  the  plates  are  riveted,  one 
plate  overlapping  another.  The  frame  of  the  ship,  in  which  the 
ribs  stand  from  ten  to  eighteen  inches  apart,  the  outside  skin,  and 
indeed  the  whole  structure,  are  entirely  of  iron.  When  the  plates 
.  are  prepared,  ships  of  this  kind  can  be  built  with  great  rapidity. 
They  have  the  advantage  over  wooden  ships  of  greater  simplicity 
erf  construction,  greater  immunity  from  deterioration,  no  liability 
to  decay,  and  they  can  be  built  in  compartments,  which,  by  mak¬ 
ing  each  compartment  a  floating  vessel  in  itself,  immensely  in¬ 
crease  the  security  of  the  ship  from  sinking  in  case  of  collision 
or  other  disaster.  In  rigging,  .finishing,  and  otherwise  fitting  out 
iron  ships,  the  processes  are  nearly  the  same  as  for  ships  built  of 
wood. 

Iron-clads. 

The  immense  floating  batteries,  iron  ships,  and  gunboats,  lately 
introduced  into  the  navies  of  all  nations,  are  constructed  either 
wholly  of  iron,  or  they  are  strongly-built  wooden  ships,  heavily 
plated  with  wrought  iron,  of  from  four  to  eight  inches  in  thickness. 
They  carry  the  heaviest  armaments,  and  are  designed,  some  of 
them,  for  sea  service,  but  the  majority  of  them  for  harbor  defence. 

Ship-building  in  the  United  States. 

* 

Ship-building  is  now  (1811)  very  much  depressed  in  the  United 
States.  This  is  owing  to  several  causes,  prominent  among  them 
the  general  use  of  iron  vessels,  and  the  greater  cheapness  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  charges  added  by  our  tariff,  with  which  such  vessels 
can  be  constructed  abroad,  particularly  in  Great  Britain. 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 

PROGRESS  OF  MUSIC  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  THE  LAST  TWENTY  YEARS.  — . 
THE  MULTIPLICITY  OF  MUSICAL  INSTRUMENTS.  —  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  ORGAN, 
THE  INSTRUMENT  DERIVED  FROM  THE  “  PIPES  OF  PAN.”  —  CTESIBUS,  THE 
ALEXANDRIAN,  INVENTOR  OF  THE  HYDRAULICON,”  TWO  HUNDRED  YEARS 
B.  C.  —  AN  ANCIENT  ROMAN  ENGRAVING  OF  THE  ORGAN  ON  STONE.  —  POPE 
VITALIAN,  AND  CATHEDRAL  ORGANS. — THE  GREEK  EMPEROR’S  PRESENT  TO 
KING  PEPIN  OF  FRANCE,  A.  D.  755.  —  THE  ORGAN  FROM  THE  TWELFTH 
CENTURY  UP  TO  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  DISTINGUISHED  BUILDERS  OF 
ORGANS  IN  THE  FIFTEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES.  —  ICONOCLASTIC 
OPPOSITION  TO  THE  ORGAN  IN  ENGLAND,  UNDER  THE  PROTECTORATE  OF 
CROMWELL.  —  ORGAN  MAKING  AS  AN  INDUSTRIAL  INTEREST  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES.  — CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS.  — A  SKETCH  OF  THEIR  INVENTION 
AND  GROWTH  IN  POPULAR  FAVOR.  — MR.  AARON  MERRILL  PEASLEY  AND  MR. 
EMMONS  HAMLIN  —  THE  “  MASON  AND  HAMLIN  ORGAN  COMPANY”  THE  CHIEF, 
MANUFACTURERS  OF  CABINET  ORGANS.  —  PARTIAL  DESCRIPTION  OF  THEIR 
ESTABLISHMENT. 

No  feature  of  11  progress  ”  among  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  within  the  last  few  years,  has  been  more  marked  than  that 
of  the  increased  love  of  music  which  they  display.  Twenty 
years  ago,  but  few  'piano-fortes  existed  even  in  t*he  cities,  and  in 
the  flourishing  and  important  towns.  A  few  harmoniums,  melo- 
deons,  and  other  like  instruments  were  to  be  found  scattered 
over  wide  territories.  The  bass  and  snare  drum,  the  fife,  and 
sometimes  a  horn  of  some  kind,  discoursed  the  chief  music,  aside 
from  vocal,  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  interior  towns  throughout 
the  land  enjoyed ;  and  the  music  of  even  these  was  seldom 
dispensed  by  their  clumsy  and  unskilled  performers,  save  on 
militia  “training  days,”  and  the  Fourth  of  July,  or  on  the  occa¬ 
sion  of  some  extraordinary  excursion  of  a  civic  society  from  one 
town  on  a  visit  to  its  brethren  in  another.  The  best  music  of 
those  days  —  so  near  in  point  of  time,  but  so  far  off  on  the  path 
of  progress  —  was  yielded  by  the  violin,  but  was  generally  to  be 
heard  only  in  the  “  ball-room  ”  of  the  villages  a  few  times  a  year 
at  most.  The  more  wealthy  of  the  towns-people  were  considered 

(100) 


110 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


by  their  neighbors  as  in  danger  of  contracting  extravagant  habits  in 
general,  —  if  they  were  not  charged  with  already  having  done  so 
—  if  they  indulged  in  the  luxury  of  a  piano- forte ;  and  so  marked 
was  the  absence  of  musical  instruments  among  our  people  at 
large,  that  foreigners  visiting  us,  decided  that  the  Americans  had 
but  little  comprehension  of  or  taste  for  music,  and  some  of  the  most 
refined  and  observant  of  our  own  writers  even  deplored  the  lack 
of  interest  in  music,  and  the  tastelessness  and  inaptitude  of  our 
people  to  musical  studies.  This  is  by  no  means  an  overdrawn 
picture  ;  yet  it  would  appear  so  to  one  considering  the  condition  of 
things  now,  and  ignorant  of  the  facts  which  characterized  the  state 
of  music  in  this  country  twenty  years  ago.  What  we  have  said 
above  exhibits  the  state  of  music  at  that  time  in  the  Northern  and 
Western  states,  more  particularly  than  in  the  Southern.  In  the 
last-named  states,  the  “  standard  ”  was  hardly  as  high  as  in  the 
former.  Instrumental  music  was  but  little  encouraged,  and  the 
most  popular  type  of  vocal  music  was  found  in  the  plaintive  airs 
of  the  negro  slaves.  “  Dandy  Jim  from  Caroline/’  “  0  Susannah, 
don’t  you  cry  for  me,”  and  the  like,  were  the  most  popular  songs 
of  the  day.  To-day  there  is  hardly  a  town,  however  far  inland, 
or  obscured  from  the  “  outside  world  ”  by  environing  mountains, 
the  Green,  the  White,  the  Alleghanies,  or  the  Rocky,  even,  where 
well-rendered  selections  from  the  choicest  creations  of  the  grand 
old  masters  cannot  be  heard  ;  and  pianos,  melodeons,  and  cabi¬ 
net  organs  are  to  be  found,  all  over  the  country,  in  the  brown  clap- 
boarded  houses,  the  tenants  of  which  do  not  feel  able  to  paint 
them, —  such  is  the  spirit  of  the  love  of  music  with  our  people 
now.  And  this,  as  already  intimated,  has  created  an  industrial 
interest  of  great  magnitude. 

The  origin  of  the  organ  is  lost  in  the  night  of  the  past.  The 
name  is  derived  from  the  Greek  organon,  which  signifies  simply 
an  instrument  of  action  or  operation,  by  which  some  process  is 
carried  on,  and,  as  applied  in  the  mechanics  of  music,  covers 
several  instruments  the  principles  of  the  construction  of  which 
are  somewhat  similar.  The  largest  of  these  is  the  church  organ, 
which  is  usually  understood  to  be  meant,  when  the  single,  un¬ 
qualified  word  “  organ  ”  is  alone  used.  This  has  come  with  the 
“growth  of  the  ages,”  step  by  step.  The  hypothesis  generally  re¬ 
ceived  as  well  founded  is,  that  the  organ,  in  its  simplest  state,  was  a 
modification  of  the  “  Pipes  of  Pan,”  or  simple  hollow  reeds  of 
various  lengths,  bound  together  and  so  arranged  as  to  be  rapidly 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


Ill 


swept  over  by  the  mouth  of  the  player,  each  pipe  graduated  as 
near  as  might  be  to  some  natural  “  note  ”  of  music.  But  the 
steps  of  improvement  of  the  original  organ  are  all  lost  to  us  so 
far  as  the  relative  times  at  which  they  were  taken  are  concerned. 
But  that  the  progress  of  this  instrument  was  slow  is  sufficiently  cer¬ 
tain.  Eventually,  the  mechanical  powers  of  water  came  to  be 
understood,  and  as  early  as  two  hundred  years  before  Christ,  it 
is  said  that  Ctesibius,  the  Alexandrian,  inventor  of  the  clepsydra , 
or  water  clock,  also  invented  an  hydraulicon  or  hydraulic  organ. 
Upon  an  ancient  monument  in  the  Giardine  Mattel ,  at  Rome,  was 
carved  an  organ,  parts  of  which  bore  strong  resemblance  to  the 
organ  of  these  times.  St.  Augustine  in  his  scriptural  comments, 
makes  allusion  to  the  organ  ;  and  it  is  related  by  some  writers 
that  Pope  Yitalian,  during  the  last  half  of  the  seventh  century, 
promoted  the  introduction  of  the  organ  as  an  inspirer  of  devotion 
into  some  of  the  chief  churches  of  Western  Europe  ;  and  we  have 
reliable  account  of  an  organ  having  been  presented  to  King  Pepin, 
of  France,  in  the  year  *755,  by  the  then  ruling  Emperor  of  Greece. 

It  is  confidently  declared  that  organs  were  “  common  ”  (by 
which  term  we  suppose,  however,  that  nothing  more  is  intended, 
than  that  a  few  existed)  in  England,  in  the  tenth  century.  It 
appears  that  these  were  generally  quite  large  —  larger  than  those 
then  to  be  found  on  the  continent.  Elfeg,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
caused  one  to  be  set  up  in  his  cathedral  in  951.  These  organs 
were  coarsely  constructed,  and  of  restricted  capacity.  The  keys 
were  struck  with  the  fist,  and  the  pipes  were  wholly  of  brass. 
Twelve  pipes,  or  fifteen  pipes  at  most,  measured  the  capacity  of 
the  largest  organs,  up  to  as  late  a  period  as  the  twelfth  century. 
Eventually,  some  Italian  inventor  added  half  notes,  and  first  in¬ 
troduced  his  improved  organ  to  the  Venetians.  This  was  near  the 
close  of  the  twelfth  century.  Pedals,  or  foot-keys,  came  not  till 
as  late  as  14*70,  and  were  the  invention  of  a  musical  German  me¬ 
chanic  by  the  name  of  Bernhard.  But  some  time  elapsed  after 
this  before  the  organ  reached  its  present  form. 

Of  the  builders  of  organs,  the  names  of  whom  have  been  most 
noted,  may  be  mentioned  the  Antegnati,  of  Brescia,  in  the  fif¬ 
teenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  —  later,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
Serrassi  of  Bergamo,  and  the  Venetian  Callido. 

The  organ,  like  almost  everything  else  of  mechanical  progress, 
has  had  its  history  of  opposition.  In  England,  during  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  the  commonwealth,  under  the  protectorate  of  Cromwell, 


112 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


the  iconoclastic  spirit  of  the  Puritans  vented  itself  upon  many  of 
the  largest  organs  in  England,  as  idolatrous,  or,  rather,  barbarous 
and  unchristian  in  their  nature, — being  mechanical  aids  to  devo¬ 
tion,  which  should  be,  as  they  declared,  wholly  spiritual  in  its 
character  and  means  of  expression. 

But  we  have  not  space  to  pursue  the  history  of  the  organ  in  its 
details  of  construction,  and  its  steps  of  progress  of  growth  in 
popular  favor,  for  the  last  few  centuries, — nothing  of  which, 
however,  is  specially  remarkable,  save  within  the  last  few  years. 

One  form  of  the  organ — cabinet  and  parlor  organs  —  is  very 
rapidly  gaining  in  popularity  and  use  in  the  United  States. 

In  1870  about  thirty-two  thousand  were  made  and  sold  in 
America,  while  the  number  of  piano-fortes  was  about  twenty- 
three  thousand.  The  increased  use  of  organs  within  a  few  years 
has  been  very  great.  Probably  their  sales  ten  }7ears  since  were 
not  more  than  one-third  what  they  now  are.  This  is  undoubtedly 
owing  in  a  large  measure  to  the  great  improvements  made  in  the 
instrument  itself.  Formerly  it  was  a  mere  “  convenience  ”  for 
lack  of  something  better,  and  mainly  because  nothing  more  satisfac¬ 
tory  was  available.  Now  the  instrument  is  worthy  from  its  intrinsic 
merit,  and  has  favor  with  cultivated  musicians,  as  well  as  the 
people.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  has  not  yet  reached  its 
greatest  popularity,  because  not  sufficient  time  has  yet  elapsed  to 
make  it  generally  known,  and  its  practical  advantages  are  so 
great.  It  is  comparatively  very  cheap.  A  good  instrument,  though 
quite  small,  is  now  furnished  at  fifty  dollars  ;  and  from  this  it  in¬ 
creases  in  size,  capacity,  elegance,  and  price,  to  styles  which  are 
worth  thousands  of  dollars  each.  Thus  it  is  adapted  to  a  wide 
variety  of  means  and  classes  of  purchasers.  Room  can  be  found 
for  the  smaller  styles,  where  there  is  not  sufficient  space  for  larger 
instruments  ;  and  the  larger  styles  admit  of  the  greatest  amount 
of  elegance  in  form  and  decoration. 

Reed  instruments,  of  which  these  are  now  the  best  illustrations, 
and  the  only  ones  largely  sold  in  America,  include  melodeons,  har¬ 
moniums,  seraphines,  and  all  instruments  producing  tones  by  free 
reeds  without  the  use  of  pipes.  The  reed  is  a  thin  strip  of  brass 
or  other  material,  from  half  an  inch  to  several  inches  in  length. 
It  is  fastened  at  one  end  over  an  aperture  in  a  metal  plate,  corre¬ 
sponding  in  size  to  the  reed.  A  current  of  air  is  made  to  pass 
through  the  aperture,  causing  the  reed  to  vibrate  and  produce  a 
musical  tone.  The  size  of  the  reed  determines  its  pitch,  and  its 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


113 


shape,  surroundings,  and  a  hundred  conditions,  determine  its  qual¬ 
ity  of  tone.  The  invention  is  an  American  one,  letters  patent 
therefor  having  been  granted  to  Aaron  Merrill  Peasley  in  1818. 
The  original  papers,  signed  by  James  Monroe,  President,  and 
John  Quincy  Adams,  Secretary  of  State,  are  now  in  the  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  Mason  and  Hamlin  Organ  Co.,  of  Boston  and  New 
York.  Mr.  Peasley  styled  his  invention  “  an  improvement  in 
organs.”  At  first,  the  new  instrument  enjoyed,  and  probably 
deserved,  little  popularity.  Doubtless  the  quality  of  tone  pro¬ 
duced  was  so  poor  as  to  make  it  rather  an  instrument  of  torture, 
than  anything  else. 

About  twenty-five  years  after,  Mr.  Jeremiah  Carlrart,  then  in 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  introduced  improvements  which  seem  to  have  first 
given  the  instrument  currency.  He  employed  an  exhaust  bellows 
instead  of  the  .force  bellows  which  had  commonly  been  used  be¬ 
fore,  and  in  other  respects  somewhat  modified  its  construction. 

Mr.  Carhart  was  evidently  not  the  originator  of  the  exhaust 
bellows  ;  for  in  the  original  claim  for  the  patent,  Mr.  Peasley  had 
stated  that  a  force  or  exhaust  bellows  might  be  used.  But  Car- 
hart  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  use  the  latter  in  such  a  man¬ 
ner  as  to  develop  its  advantages,  which  were  chiefly  in  improved 
quality  of  tone.  He  gave  his  instruments  the  name  “  melodeon,” 
by  which  they  became  widely  known,  and  are  familiar  to  most 
readers. 

A  few  years  later  Mr.  Emmons  Hamlin,  now  of  the  Mason  & 
Hamlin  Organ  Co.,  but  then  quite  a  young  man,  in  the  employ  of 
Messrs.  Prince  &  Co.,  of  Buffalo,  introduced  an  improvement, 
which  has  probably  done  more  than  anything  else  to  render  the 
instrument  worthy  of  its  present  popularity.  He  discovered  that 
by  giving  to  the  tongue  of  the  reed  a  slight  bend  and  twist,  the 
quality  of  tone  was  greatly  modified.  Patient  and  skilful  exper¬ 
iment  led  to  the  development  of  the  art  of  “  voicing  ”  reeds,  which 
was  immediately  introduced  in  the  instruments  of  Messrs.  Prince 
&  Co.  It  gave  them  great  superiority,  and  they  speedily  became 
the  largest  manufacturers  of  this  class  of  instruments  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  Other  makers  were  not  long,  however,  in  discovering  the 
secret  and  adopting  the  improvement,  which  has  now  become 
universal.  Few,  if  any,  instruments  of  the  class  are  now  made 
in  this  country  without  voicing  the  reeds. 

Mr.  Hamlin  seems  to  have  had  from  the  first,  and  not  to  have 
lost  it,  great  zeal  and  capacity  in  the  construction  and  improve- 

7 


114 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


ment  of  musical  instruments.  In  illustration  of  this  may  be 
mentioned  the  recent  construction  by  him  —  as  a  matter  of  per¬ 
sonal  gratification  solely,  and  with  no  reference  to  business  —  of 
several  violins,  which  are  said  by  virtuosi  to  be  of  extraordinary 
excellence,  and  to  need  age  only  to  rank  with  the  productions  of 
the  old  masters,  who,  it  has  been  supposed,  had  left  no  successor 
to  their  skill. 

A  few  years  after  his  discovery  of  the  art  of  voicing  reeds,  Mr. 
Hamlin,  feeling  confident  that  great  improvement  was  yet  possible 
in  reed  instruments,  and  finding  others  possessing  the  same  con¬ 
fidence,  became  associated  in  business  with  Mr.  Henry  Mason,  a 
son  of  Dr.  Lowell  Mason,  the  distinguished  musical  composer  and 
author,  under  the  now  well-known  name  Mason  &  Ilarnlin,  for 

the  manufacture  of  instruments  of  the  class.  Combining,  thus, 

* 

musical  cultivation  with  mechanical  skill  and  experience,  in  this 
specialty  they  united,  what  is  not  common,  a  knowledge  of  what 
results  were  desirable,  and  capacity  for  their  production. 

The  new  firm  gave  themselves  at  once  to  experiment,  which 
has  been  perseveringly  pursued  to  the  present  time  ;  and  they  have 
certainly  been  largely  successful  in  that  improvement  which  has 
raised  the  instrument  to  its  present  popularity.  To  follow  in 
detail  the  improvements  which  they  have  effected  would  occupy 
more  space  than  can  here  be  afforded.  Allusion  may,  however,  bo 
made  to  the  employment  of  an  improved  bellows,  having  two 
blow-pedals,  and  giving  a  much  stronger  current  of  air  than  was 
before  available  ;  the  introduction  of  ingeniously  constructed 
valves,  which  are  important  in  securing  more  nearly  perfect  and 
durable  action  ;  of  the  automatic  swell  —  a  device  as  simple  as 
effective  ;  of  new  and  different  scales  for  sounding  and  tube 
boards  ;  the  discovery  and  application  of  principles  effecting  the 
purity  and  power  of  tone.  The  instrument  has  indeed  assumed  a 
new  form,  both  in  interior  and  exterior,  and  its  relationship  to  the 
melodeon  with  which  Messrs.  Mason  &  Hamlin  started  is  hardly 
nearer  than  was  that  of  the  latter  instrument  to  the  accordeon, 
which  preceded  it. 

The  growing  popularity  of  reed-organs  has  stimulated  efforts 
by  others  also,  by  whom  some  improvements  of  value  have  been 
originated  ;  but  the  Mason  &  Hamlin  Organ  Co.,  as  in  the  growth 
of  its  business  it  has  become,  have  undoubtedly  been  the  leaders 
in  the  march  of  improvement,  and  have  accomplished  most  im¬ 
portant  results.  Their  instruments  possess  a  peculiar  excellence 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS.  . 


115 


in  quality  of  tone,  which  is  highly  appreciated  by  musicians  ;  the 
result,  in  a  measure,  undoubtedly,  of  superior  “  voicing  ”  —  an  art 
in  which  they  are  acknowledged  to  excel.  Apace  with  the  repu¬ 
tation  of  their  work,  the  demand  for  the  organs  made  by  the  Mason 
&  Hamlin  Organ  Co.  has  increased.  They  are  how  much  the  most 
extensive  manufacturers  of  this  class  of  instruments  in  the  world, 
producing  more  than  twice  as  many  as  any  other  maker.  Re¬ 
cently  they  have  added  a  large  new  factory  to  their  premises,  but 
are  still  greatly  in  lack  of  sufficient  facilities  to  supply  the  demands 
for  their  instruments. 

The  reader,  if  he  can  obtain  permission  to  go  over  it,  will  find 
much  to  interest  him  in  the  principal  factory  of  this  company,  at 
the  corner  of  Cambridge  and  Charles  Streets,  Boston.  Machinery 
is  largely  employed,  resulting  in  more  exact  and  better  work,  and 
greater  economy  of  cost.  Every  part  of  the  instrument  is  made 
by  this  company  themselves,  and  every  precaution  used  to  secure 
only  the  best  and  most  reliable  work. 

The  works  of  the  Mason  &  Hamlin  Organ  Co.,  are,  without 
doubt,  the  largest  establishment  of  the  kind  in  the  world  ;  and  as 
such,  merit,  together  with  the  successes  of  the  company  itself,  and 
their  peculiar  advantages  as  manufacturers  of  cabinet  and  parlor 
organs,  a  brief  historic  notice  in  a  work  like  this. 

The  company  originated  about  eighteen  years  ago,  under  the 
firm  name  of  Mason  &  Hamlin.  Its  factories  are  at  the  corner 
of  Cambridge  and  Charles  Streets,  Boston,  and  in  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  covering  an  area  of  seventy  by  three  hundred  feet,  five 
stories  high.  The  Cambridge  factory  has  the  advantage  of  a  rail¬ 
road  track  connected  with  all  the  railroads  centering  in  Boston. 
The  salesrooms  are  at  154  Tremont  Street,  Boston,  and  596  Broad¬ 
way,  New  York. 

The  number  of  workmen  employed  is  about  five  hundred.  The 
capacity  of  the  establishment  is  two  hundred  organs  per  week. 
None  but  first-class  organs  are  there  made,  and  they  range  in  price 
from  fifty  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars  each.  They  are  sent  to  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,  viz.,  throughout  the  American  continent,, 
to  Europe,  Western  Africa,  to  Japan,  China,  and  Australia  — 
wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken,  and  where  it  is  scarcely 
known  ;  in  fact,  to  all  countries  where  the  love  of  music  is  culti¬ 
vated.  Their  exportation  to  Europe  exceeds  $100,000  in  amount 
annually.  It  has  been  carefully  and  curiously  estimated,  that 
if  all  the  organs  made  by  this  concern  in  the  year  18&9  (and 


116 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


the  number  in  1870  was  considerably  larger  still)  were  stretched 
out,  end  to  end,  in  a  continuous  line,  they  would  reach  to  the 

r 

distance  of  three  miles  ;  or  they  would  form  a  wall  nine  feet 
high,  sufficient  to  enclose  the  whole  of  Boston  Common. 

The  Mason  &  ilamlin  Organs  were  awarded  the  American 
medal  at  the  Paris  Exposition,  but  two  other  medals  then  being 
awarded,  one  to  Germany  and  one  to  France.  They  have  also 
won  seventy-five  medals,  or  other  first  premiums,  at  various  In¬ 
dustrial  Exhibitions  in  America.  They  are  used  in  preference  to 
all  others  in  concert-rooms,  by  the  most  eminent  artists,  a  majority 
of  whom,  here  and  in  Europe,  have  given  voluntary  written  testi¬ 
monials  to  their  numerous  superior  merits.  In  fact  they  are  rec¬ 
ognized  as  the  standard  of  excellence. 


It  is  everywhere  to  be  noted  in  the  history  of  a  great  manu¬ 
facturing  enterprise  of  any  nature,  that  its  great  success  depends 
upon  compliance  with  the  laws  of  rigid  industry,  perseverance, 
and  the  conscientious  production  of  the  best  wares,  as  well  as 
honorable,  fair  dealing  with  customers  ;  and  it  is  fitting,  in  merited 
compliment  to  this  distinguished  company,  to  say  that,  the  supe¬ 
riority  of  their  organs  is  owing  to  the  following  reasons  :  The 
long  experience  of  the  proprietors  ;  the  vast  amount  and  great 
variety  of  ingenious  and  latest  improved  machinery,  tools,  and 
appliances  ;  the  adoption  of  all  improved  processes  in  the  prepara¬ 
tion  and  manufacture  of  the  materials  ;  the  introduction  of  all 
valuable  new  inventions  in  the  mechanism  ;  the  employment  of 
workmen  who  have  been  thoroughly  bred  to  the  business  ;  the 
employment  of  each  set  of  workmen  only  upon  one  special  branch 
of  the  work,  so  that  each  attains  perfection  in  his  particular  division 
of  labor ;  the  fact  that  the  foreman  of  each  department  is  made 
peculiarly  responsible  for  any  defect  which  may  occur  in  his  de¬ 
partment  ;  the  unequalled  care  observed  in  thoroughly  seasoning 
materials  ;  and  the  admirable  system  in  putting  together,  with 
exactness  and  nicety,  the  three  to  four  thousand  pieces  of  wood, 
iron,  brass,  ivory,  ebony,  leather,  rubber,  cloth,  and  other*  ma¬ 
terials  necessary  to  the  construction  of  a  perfect  organ  ;  all  of 
which  discloses  not  only  the  best  business  good  sense,  but  high- 
toned  professional  ambition,  which  it  is  ever  so  pleasant  to  record 
of  our  leading  manufacturers  in  general. 

Tiie  large  scale  upon  which  these  organs  are  made,  and  the 
possession  of  every  facility  which  ingenuity  could  devise  or  money 
purchase,  enable  this  company  to  furnish  these  first-class  instru- 


r 


Length,  4  feet  8  in 


CABINET  ORGAN. 

Height,  8  feet  4  in.  Depth,  2  feet  5  in 


Weight,  362  pounds, 


. 


' 


■  •  • 

‘  .  ‘  l»  *  .  ■ 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


119 


ments  at  the  lowest  rates  ;  as  low,  in  fact,  as  the  rates  charged 
for  inferior  instruments  made  by  others.  The  company  make  all 
parts  of  these  instruments  themselves,  and  thus  avoid  the  neces¬ 
sity  for  charges  to  cover  the  two  or  three,  profits  which  are  made 
when  the  parts  must  be  purchased,  as  is  the  case  with  smaller 
manufacturers. 

Some  peculiar  reasons,  which  may  properly  be  pointed  out, 
have  materially  tended  to  give  the  organs  made  by  this  company 
the  popularity  which  they  enjoy,  and  illustrate,  at  the  same  time, 
the  vast  improvements  which  the  organ,  since  the  days  of  simple 
Pandean  reeds  form,  has  undergone.  The  action  of  the  improved 
centre-pressure  self-adjusting  reed  valves  is  more  instantaneous, 
sure,  and  perfect  than  that  of  any  others.  The  pressure  on  all 
parts  of  the  valve-seat  is  exactly  equal,  and  perfectly  closes  the 
aperture  ;  and  therefore  the  tones  do  not  sound  when  the  keys 
are  not  pressed  down.  These  valves  insure  a  lighter  action,  em¬ 
ploy  a  more  forcible  current  of  air,  produce  a  complete  vibration 
of  the  reed,  increase  the  volume  of  tone,  improve  its  quality,  and 
give  better  capacity  for  expression.  In  the  construction  of  the 
sounding  and  tube  boards ,  the  materials,  size,  plan,  and  details  are 
such  that  these  organs  have  become  specially  famous  for  musical 
power  and  sonorousness.  The  new  styles  of  resonant  cases  also 
aid  in  rendering  the  tones  peculiarly  full  and  rich,  giving  them 
perfect  vibration.  The  automatic  bellows  swell  far  exceeds  all 
others  in  producing  crescendos  and  diminuendos ,  and  is  more  effec¬ 
tively  used  with  little  practice.  The  tones  by  its  use,  from  the 
loudest  to  the  softest,  are  commanded  to  any  degree  without  any 
unusual  movement  of  hands  or  feet.  This  swell  is  perfectly  simple 
in  construction,  and  least  liable  to  get  out  of  order.  It  has  re¬ 
ceived  many  medals,  and  the  high  approval  of  judges,  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  and  elsewhere.*  Numerous  fruitless  attempts 
have  been  made  to  imitate  it.  The  Mason  &  Hamlin  Improved 
vox  humana  produces  brilliant  orchestral  and  solo  effects,  giving 
a  remarkable  imitation  of  stringed  instruments,  and  a  near  re-- 
semblance  to  the  best  characteristics  of  a  cultivated  human  voice , 
from  which  it  takes  its  name.  It  is  as  durable  as  the  instrument 
itself,  being  simple  in  mechanism.  It  is  a  combination  of  several 
patents,  is  used  only  in  these  organs,  and  is  one  of  the  most  popu¬ 
lar  improvements  ever  introduced.  Wood’s  octave  coupler  is  used 
i:i  these  instruments,  and  doubles  their  power.  It  enables  the 
performin',  by  touching  any  one  key,  not  only  to  produce  all  the 


120 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


tones  immediately  connected  with  it,  but  also  their  octaves.  It 
is  not  liable  to  get  out  of  repair,  which  cannot  be  said  of  other 
couplers.  The  vibrators  or  reeds  are  made  by  peculiar  machinery, 
invented  and  perfected  by  the  company  itself.  Each  reed  is  after¬ 
wards  carefully  finished  by  hand,  thus  securing  a  uniformity  unat¬ 
tainable  when  the  reed  is  made  wholly  by  hand  or  less  perfect 
machinery.  No  reed  is  stamped  out  of  brass.  Every  one  is 
riveted  with  iron,  thus  securing  strength  and  durability. 

The  liberal  policy  of  this  company  in  patient  and  costly  experi¬ 
ments,  and  in  obtaining,  at  whatever  cost,  the  use  of  every  real 
improvement  made  by  others,  has  given  them  the  control  of  the 
most  important  improvements.  Many  are  patented,  and  exclu¬ 
sively  used  by  this  company,  although  some  other  makers  wrong’ 
fully  represent  their  instruments  to  be  the  same. 

Every  Mason  &  Hamlin  organ  is  rigidly  tested  before  being 
suffered  to  leave  the  establishment,  and  each  instrument  is  war¬ 
ranted  in  the  amplest  manner  for  five  years.  Their  points  of 
superiority  are  thus  summed  up,  as  claimed  by  the  company  : 
Superior  quality  of  tone  ;  power  and  volume  of  tone  ;  capacity 
for  varied  effects,  imitating  pipe  organs,  the  violin,  violoncello, 
horn,  flute,  clarinet,  etc.  ;  capacity  for  expression  ;  quickness  of 
utterance,  having  almost  the  vivacity  and  life  of  a  fine  piano-forte  ; 
uniformity  in  character,  and  equality  in  loudness  of  tones,  through¬ 
out  each  stop  ;  quality  of  keeping  in  good  tune ;  smoothness  and 
perfection  of  action,  all  the  mortises  in  the  keys  through  which 
the  guide-pins  work  being  lined  with  cloth  ;  and  in  other  respects 
they  are  so  constructed  that  the  action  may  be  reasonably  ex¬ 
pected  to  be  smooth  and  noiseless  till  worn  out ;  durability : 
when  carefully  used  they  may  be  expected  to  improve  for  years. 
They  are  used  in  many  countries  and  most  trying  climates  ;  all 
the  nicest  parts  of  the  lumber  are  seasoned  for  years  in  the  open 
air,  then  in  drying  kilns,  and  then  by  a  new  process  of  super¬ 
heated  steam.  They  scarcely  ever  require  tuning.  They  can  be 
sent  anywhere,  ready  for  use,  and  without  risk,  by  the  ordinary 
freight  routes,  etc.  Strength  and  thoroughness  of  construction  : 
these  merits  of  the  Mason  &  Ilamlin  organs  are  illustrated  by 
the  following  facts  :  the  desks  are  all  made  of  three  pieces  of 
wood,  so  glued  together  that  the  grain  runs  in  different  directions, 
securing  the  greatest  possible  strength.  The  stops  have  fronts  of 
engraved  ivory.  Tho  ivory  in  the  keys  is  of  the  best  quality, 
and  the  lronts  of  the  keys  are  of  ivory  instead  of  wood.  The 


CABINET  AND  PARLOR  ORGANS. 


121 


black  keys  are  of  ebony,  not  painted  inferior  wood.  The  pedal 
coverings,  hinges,  locks,  *etc.,  are  of  the  best  quality;  and  every 
other  detail  exhibits  the  same  thoroughness  of  construction  and 
strength  of  material. 

The  claims  to  preeminence  of  the  Mason  &  Hamlin  organs 
are  confirmed  not  only  by  the  large  number  of  premiums  they  have 
taken  within  a  few  years  at  all  the  prominent  fairs,  but  also  by 
the  Internal  Revenue  returns,  which  are  made  under  oath,  and 
show  that  their  sales  are  very  much  larger  than  those  of  any  other 
reed  instrument.  More  than  three  hundred  of  the  most  prominent 
artists  of  the  United  States,  and  many  of  the  leading  organists  of 
Europe,  besides  the  most  eminent  musical  and  other  journals  of 
both  hemispheres  have  testified  to  the  superiority  of  the  Mason 
&  Hamlin  organs ;  and  independent  of  their  numerous  other 
merits,  in  any  of  their  great  variety  of  styles  they  are  chastely 
elegant  specimens  of  furniture,  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  most 
sumptuously  furnished  apartment. 

In  listening  to  these  organs  one  feels  the  full  force  of  those 
lines  of  Tom  Moore,  in  his  “  Loves  of  Angels,”  in  regard  to  the 
connection  between  love,  religion,  and  music  ;  and  notwithstanding 
the  prosaic  character  of  an  article  upon  an  industrial  enterprise 
and  manufacture,  we  conceive  it  not  unfit  to  conclude  it  with  the 
lines  above  referred  to  :  — 

♦  ...  *  4  w  l  %  .  .  *4  '  '  k 

“  O  Love,  Religion,  Music,  all,  — 

The  only  blessings  since  the  Fall,  — 

How  kindred  are  the  dreams  you  bring ! 

How  Love,  though  unto  earth  so  prone, 

Delights  to  take  Religion’s  wing, 

When  time  or  grief  hath  stained  his  own ! 

How  near  to  Love’s  beguiling  brink, 

Too  oft,  entranced  Religion  lies ! 

While  Music,  Music  is  the  link 

Thby  both  still  hold  by  to  the  skies, 

The  language  of  their  native  sphere. 

Which  they  had  else  forgotten  here.’*  ^ 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


THE  PRIMITIVE  AXE.  — ITS  USE  AS  A  WEAPON  OF  WAR. — TIIE  POET  WHITMAN. 

- IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  AXES  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  —  TUB 

CHIEF  MANUFACTURERS,  COLLINS  &  CO.,  - THEIR  VAST  ESTABLISHMENT  AT 

COLLINSVILLE,  CONN.  - MODE  OF  MANUFACTURING  DESCRIBED.  - PLOWS, 

ANCIENT  IMPLEMENTS.  —  THE  PALESTINE,  CHINESE,  EAST  INDIA,  AND  OLD 

NORMAN  PLOWS  (ILLUSTRATED).  —  THE  PLOW  IN  MODERN  TIMES.  - PROCESS 

OF  MANUFACTURE  OF  PLOWS.  —  COLLINS  &  CO  ’S  SUCCESS,  WITH  REASONS 
THEREFOR.  —  OF  FUTURE  PROGRESS,  AND  THE  PART  TIIE  AXE  AND 
THE  PLOW  MUST  CONTRIBUTE  THERETO.  —  THE  “REVOLVING  COULTER** 
PLOW. 

The  needs  of  man  must  have  made  some  means  of  severing  the 
branches  from  trees,  and  breaking  up  the  soil,  among  the  earliest 
of  tools  —  the  most  primitive  of  manufactures.  Mere  brute  force 
could  break  the  small  limbs  of  trees,  and  the  heel,  or  a  stick 
pushed  by  the  hand,  could  tear  up  the  sod  a  little  ;  but  as  soon 
as  man  came  to  emerge  from  the  most  savage  state,  he  needed 
some  instruments  like  those  of  the  axe  and  the  plow.  Among  the 
fossil  and  other  remains  of  the  oldest  nations  we  always  find 
some  instrument  similar  to  the  axe  —  the  bone  and  stone  tools  of 
sundry  aboriginal  races  of  America  ;  and  sometimes  the  metallic 
instrument,  made  of  copper  blended  with  tin  ;  the  tools  with 
which  the  ancient  Etruscans  cut  even  porphyry  (when  the  mode 
of  hardening  tools  must  have  reached  its  highest  perfection,  since 
porphyry  is  the  hardest  of  all  minerals) ;  the  copper  axe  of  the 
Druids  —  all  these  assure  us  of  the  primitive  use  of  the  axe  and 
its  co-relations. 

The  axe,  in  ancient  times,  was  used  for  warlike  as  well  as  domes¬ 
tic  or  civic  purposes,  and  bears  more  historic  stains  of  human  blood 
than  any  other  domestic  implement.  The  poets  have  not  only 
sung  the  praises  of  the  woodman’s  peaceful  axe,  but  have  sounded 
those  of  tjhe  barbaric  battle-axe.  But  neither  historian  nor  poet 
of  the  past  knew  a  tithe  of  what  the  writers  of  to-day  might  say 
(122) 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


123 


of  the  marvels  wrought  by  the  axe,  as  a  pioneer  of  civilization. 
The  poet  Whitman,  in  his  quaint,  peculiar,  nerveful  style,  has 
given  the  axe  a  classic  niche  in  the  temple  of  poesy.  We  quote 
a  few  lines  from  his  “  Broad-Axe  Poem  ”  :  — 

*  *  * 

“  Broad-axe,  shapely,  naked,  wan !  . 

Head  from  the  mother’s  bowels  drawn ! 

Wooded  flesh  and  metal  bone !  limb  only  one  and 
lip  only  one. 

Gray-blue  leaf  by  red-heat  grown !  helve  produced 
from  a  little  seed’sown  ! 

Resting  the  grass  amid  and  upon, 

To  be  leaned,  and  to  lean  on. 

•  •  •  •  • 

The  axe  leaps ! 

The  solid  forests  give  fluid  utterances  ;  # 

They  tumble  forth ;  they  rise,  and  form 

Hut,  tent,  landing  survey, 

Flail,  plow,  pick,  crowbar,  spade, 

Shingle,  rail,  prop,  wainscot,  jamb,  lath,  panel,  gable, 

•  •  •  -  •  • 

Capitols  of  States,  and  Capitol  of  the  nation  of  States. 

Long,  stately  rows  in  avenues,  hospitals  for  orphans,  or 
for  the  poor  or  sick, 

Manhattan  steamboats  and  clippers,  taking  the  measure 
of  all  seas  !  ” 

The  manufacture  of  axes  in  this  country  constitutes  one  of  our 
largest  and  most  important  business  interests,  involving  an  im¬ 
mense  amount  of  capital,  invested  in  several  (in  fact,  in  nearly  all, 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent)  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  and  em¬ 
ploying  a  vast  number  of  laborers.  But  the  axe  is  an  implement 
which  requires  far  more  science  and  skill  in  its  manufacture,  where 
a  perfect  instrument  is  intended  to  be  produced,  than  not  only  the 
cursory  thinker,  but  even  the  actual  observer  of  the  process  of  its 
manufacture  would  be  apt  to  consider  ;  so  much  depends  upon 
the  amount  of  pressure  the  steel  may  receive  under  the  hammer 
or  press,  its  degree  of  tempering,  and  many  manipulations  which 
it  undergoes  in  its  various  phases  from  the  crude  elements,  or  till 
it  is  pronounced  finished.  Therefore  the  merit  of  various  axes 
of  different  makers,  though  made  from  the  same  kind  of  materials 
(iron  and  steel),  from  the  very  same  manufacturers  of  these,  even, 
is  as  varied  in  degree  as  the  makers  of  the  implement  are  different 
in  person.  It  is  a  mattter,  therefore,  of  great  importance  to  the 
consumer,  or  wielder  of  an  axe,  that  he  possess  himself  of  the 
best  ma^le  one.  All  other  things  being  equal,  it  is  usually  safe  to 


124 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


say  that  the  wares  of  those  who  have,  against  all  obstacles,  and 
commencing  with  limited  means,  worked  out  for  their  wares  a 
large  sale,  or  a  wide-spread  fame,  are  the  most  confidently  to  be 
trusted  ;  for,  in  such  case,  the  valuable  character  of  the  wares 
themselves  accomplishes  the  success  of  their  makers. 

There  are  numerous  manufacturers  of  axes  in  this  country,  not 
a  few  of  whom  do  excellent  work  ;  while  others,  a  very  numer¬ 
ous  class  (it  is  an  unpleasant  thing  for  the  writer  to  confess),  are 
satisfied  with  making  and  putting  upon  the  market,  in  the  shape 
of  an  axe,  anything  that  will  sell ;  trusting  to  a  little  cheaper  price, 
as  the  attraction  to  buyers,  —  who,  however,  always  find  that 
“  cheap  tools  are  dearest.”  But  in  the  matter  of  chief  excellence 
and  extent  of  manufacture  of  the  axe  in  this  country,  it  is  fortu¬ 
nately  not4eft  for  the  writer  of  this  article  to  decide  ;  for,  turning 
to  that  grand  repository  of  useful  learning,  “  The  New  American 
Cyclopmdia,”  published  by  the  Messrs.  Appleton,  it  will  be 
found  (vol.  ii.  page  422,  issued  in  1859)  there  stated,  that  “the 
largest  establishment  in  the  world  for  manufacturing  axes  and 
edge  tools  is  that  of  Collins  &  Company,  situated  on  the 
Farmington  River,  at  Collinsville,  Connecticut.”  Since  that  time 
this  company  has  steadily  increased  in  business  power  and  facil¬ 
ities,  and  in  the  extent  of  its  manufactures  has  more  than  held 
its  relative  position  in  regard  to  other  manufacturers  ;  and  the 
encyclopaedist  above  quoted,  were  he  writing  of  the  same  com¬ 
pany  to-day,  might  add,  that  as  manufacturers  of  plows,  also, 
they  stand  unrivalled  in  this  country,  and,  it  is  believed,  through¬ 
out  the  world. 

Perhaps,  then,  we  cannot  better  serve  the  general  reader,  who 
would  learn  how  axes  are  made,  the  processes  through  which  the 
iron  and  steel  are  passed,  etc.,  etc.,  than  by  taking  him  through  the 
establishment  of  Collins  &  Company,  and  pointing  out  to  him  the 
chief  important  processes.  The  engravings  with  which  this  article 
is  illustrated  will  give  the  reader  who  may  be  unacquainted  with 
the  manufacture  of  heavy  materials  a  fair  understanding  of  the 
vast  power  and  labor  it  takes  to  convert  iron  in  the  raw  state,  not 
only  into  axes,  but  a  thousand  other  things  in  daily  use. 

But  here  it  is  fitting  that  we  give  a  partial  history  of  the 
up-growth  from  its  infancy  of  the  vast  establishment,  and  the 
powerlul  corporation  of  Collins  &  Company,  a  growth  peculiarly 
American,  and  which,  resting  upon  axes  and  plows,  as  it  does, 
could  never  have  occurred  in  any  part  of  the  world  but  the  United 


COLLINS  &  CO.’S  WORKS,  COLLINSVILLE,  CONN. 


/  -  *  •  ••  ,•  l  v  •  ' 

■ 

•  *  .  lU  ..  BkJ  4. 


•  '  •  f’  • 

. 


. 


‘ 

. 

■ 


■  • 

' 


» 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


127 


States  ;  and  this  success  has  been  achieved  by  true  merit,  com¬ 
mencing-,  as  will  be  seen  from  what  follows,  with  a  11  small  begin¬ 
ning/ J  The  reader  will  reflect  that  the  union  of  two  of  the  most 
abundant  substances  in  Nature,  iron  and  carbon,  produces  steel  ; 
and  but  for  this  union  the  world  would  be  without  all  products  and 
results  whatever  which  are  achieved  by  the  use  of  cutting-edges. 
Iron  alone  would  have  given  mankind  only  a  sort  of  half-civilization. 
The  union  of  these  two  substances  is  not  natural,  but  artificial, 
and  is  a  matter  for  the  best  skill ;  if  too  soft,  the  steel  will  not 
receive  a  keen  edge  or  retain  stiffness  ;  if  too  hard,  it  breaks. 
The  proper  compounding  of  iron  with  carbon,  the  process  of  nicely 
tempering  to  just  the  right  hardness,  and  the  most  approved  meth¬ 
ods  of  manufacture,  make  up  the  business  of  tool-making  as 
carried  on  in  the  village  of  Collinsville,  Connecticut. 

The  vanguard  of  American  civilization  moving  westward  has 
always  been  armed,  as  nobody  needs  to  be  reminded,  with  the  axe. 
This  tool,  indispensable,  although  too  unsparingly  used  against  the 
trees  by  almost  every  original  settler,  was  roughly  hammered  out 
by  blacksmiths,  forty  years  ago,  each  purchaser  grinding  his  own 
to  an  edge.  More  than  forty  years  ago,  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Collins,  at 
that  time  engaged  in  mercantile  business  in  the  city  of  Hartford,  Con¬ 
necticut,  convinced  that  there  was  a  field  of  American  enterprise 
in  the  manufacture  of  axes,  determined  to  commence  in  a  small 
way  in  a  little  stone  shop,  still  standing  among  the  score  of  larger 
ones  which  have  since  gathered  around  it.  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Col¬ 
lins  afterwards  removed  to  the  town  of  Canton  (the  chief  village 
and  business  part  of  which  has  long  been  named  Collinsville,  in  honor 
of  him),  and  the  business  has  since  been  his  life-work,  and  his 
name  is  known  wherever  tools  are  used.  He  is  living  yet,  and  his 
quaintly-written  diary  shows  all  the  shrewd,  hard  sense,  ingenuity, 
and  practical  sagacity  which  characterize  the  New  Englander. 
The  following  memorandum  is  taken  from  this  diary  :  — 

“  1828.  —  Contracted  with  Oliver  Couch  to  take  his  four-horse 
stage  off  the  Albany  turnpike,  and  run  through  Collinsville  to 
Farmington  and  Hartford,  and  so  got  a  post  office  established  at 
Collinsville.  .  .  .  Built  the  first  trip-hammer  shop,  etc.  Com¬ 
menced  drawing  axe-patterns,  and  making  broadaxes  with  trip¬ 
hammers.  Each  man  tempered  his  own,  forging  and  tempering 
eight  axes  per  day.” 

We  have  not  space  to  recite  further  from  the  diary,  showing 
the  increase  of  business  step  by  step,  on  up  to  this  time. 


128 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


From  tliis  insignificant  beginning,  a  few  men  making  each  eight 
axes  per  day,  the  business  has  grown,  in  forty  years,  into  a  stock 
company,  with  an  invested  capital  of  over  a  million,  employing 
over  600  men,  producing  3000  axes  and  tools  per  day,  with  a 
capacity  for  producing  daily  100  plows  in  addition  to  the  other 
work.  The  annual  sales  are  over  a  million  of  dollars  ;  the  an¬ 
nual  consumption  of  anthracite  coal,  10,000  tons  ;  of  charcoal, 
50,000  bushels;  of  steel,  1100  tons;  of  iron,  5000  tons  ;  and  of 
grindstones  alone,  600  tons  are  literally  ground  away  in  powder. 

The  first  process  at  the  works  of  Collins  &  Company  is  to 
make  the  steel,  for  all  their  tools  are  made  on  the  spot  from  the 
first  stage  to  the  last.  The  steel-making  process  is  simple.  Bars 
of  the  best  Swedish  iron  are  placed  in  trough-like  furnaces,  made 
of  fire-slabs,  and  enclosed  in  a  shell  of  fire-brick,  in  alternate 
layers  of  iron  and  pulverized  charcoal,  care  being  taken  to  prevent 
any  contact  of  the  bars  ;  when  the  furnaces  are  thus  filled,  the 
whole  is  tightly  sealed  up,  and  the  “  heat  ”  is  commenced.  Twen¬ 
ty  tons  of  iron  are  prepared  at  a  “  heat ;  ”  five  days  are  spent  in 
preparation,  nine  in  keeping  a  perfectly  uniform  temperature  of  a 
thousand  degrees,  and  five  more  in  cooling.  When  removed,  the 
iron  has  become  what  is  known  as  “  blistered  ”  steel  ;  the  carbon 
has  penetrated  it,  roughening  the  surface,  and  puffing  it  up  into 
little  blisters.  The  texture  of  the  iron  bars  had  a  grain,  like 
wood  ;  they  were  fibrous,  and  would  bend  easily  without  break¬ 
ing.  They  are  now  crystalline,  and  very  porous  ;  the  increase  in 
bulk  is  such,  that  repeated  “  heats  ”  have  made  long  cracks  in  the 
thick  walls  of  the  furnace,  which  are  strengthened  by  careful 
bracing.  This  blisteted  steel,  now  so  brittle  that  a  slight  blow 
snaps  it  like  clay,  is  the  material  from  which,  forty  years  ago, 
country  blacksmiths  hammered  the  imperfect  axes  which  cleared 
up  the  new  settlements.  It  is  unmistakably  steel,  but  is  not 
homogeneous  ;  the  carbon  has  penetrated  it,  but  is  not  evenly 
mingled  with  it,  and  the  next  process  is  to  make  of  it  “  cast  ” 
steel,  —  as  many  a  soft  iron  tool  is  falsely  represented  to  be  by 
the  stamp  upon  it.  Broken  into  small  pieces,  the  bars  of  blistered 
steel  are  placed  in  crucibles  holding  fifty  pounds  each,  made  of 
plumbago  and  clay,  and  resembling  in  shape  an  earthen  butter- 
jar  ;  these  are  set  in  furnaces  built  under  the  floor  of  the  foundry, 
and  subjected  for  four  hours  to  a  heat  of  2760  degrees,  after 
which  their  contents  are  cast  into  ingots,  or  round  bars  about  a 
yard  long. 

•/  O 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


129 


The  next  process  is  hammering,  the  object  of  which  is  to  com¬ 
press  the  steel,  increase  its  toughness,  fineness,  and  tenacity. 
This  is  done  under  the  steam-hammer,  borax  being  used  to  cement 
into  union  any  parts  of  the  ingot  which  may  be  partly  separated 
by  flaws.  From  the  hammer,  the  ingot  passes  to  a  series  of 
rollers,  and  after  leaving  them,  further  hammering  is  applied,  until 


VIEW  OF  THE  STEAM-HAMMER. 


the  ingot  becomes  a  bar  about  ten  feet  long.  Its  tenacity  and 
closeness  of  structure,  as  well  as  its  uniformity,  have  been  mar¬ 
vellously  increased  by  this  hammering  and  rolling,  and  the  bar  is 
now  ready  to  assume  the  rough  form  of  the  axe-bitt,  or  cutting 
part.  Common  as  the  axe  is,  some  may  not  know  that  it  is  made 
in  two  parts,  a  “poll,”  or  head  of  iron,  and  a  “  bitt,”  or  cutting 


130 


AXES  AND  FLOWS. 


part  of  steel  ;  the  place  where  these  are  joined  may  be  recog¬ 
nized  by  a  faint  line  about  three  inches  from  the  head  of  the  axe. 
The  iron  head  is  shaped  by  machinery,  and  is  made  solid,  that  is, 
the  hole  for  the  handle  is  punched  instead  of  being  formed  by 
welding.  The  heated  bar  is  inserted  in  an  aperture  in  the  ma¬ 
chine,  whereupon  a  gigantic  knife  snips  it  off  at  the  required 
length  ;  next  a  pair  of  dies  give  the  iron  the  proper  fold  or  bend  ; 
the  workman  withdraws  the  lump  of  iron,  inserts  it  in  another 
aperture,  and  the  hole  for  the  handle  is  punched  ;  another  move¬ 
ment,  and  it  is  bent  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  so,  by  rapid  and 
successive  compressions,  the  head  is  shaped,  and  ready  to  receive 
the  bitt.  This  bitt,  hammered  from  the  steel,  and  finally  punched 
by  a  die  into  shape  as  long  as  the  axe  is  to  be  wide,  with  a  broad 
flange  left  on  either  side,  is  jnow  ready  to  be  joined  to  the  iron 
poll,  and  complete  the  form  of  the  axe.  The  steel  bitt  is  in¬ 
serted  in  the  iron  poll,  both  being  properly  heated  ;  the  forger 
turns  over  the  two  flanges  of  the  poll  upon  -the  bitt,  then  runs 
with  it  to  a  trip-hammer,  under  which,  by  alternate  heating 
and  hammering,  the  two  parts  are  so  firmly  welded  together  as  to 
be  practically  one.  When  sufficiently  drawn  out  under  the  trip¬ 
hammer,  the  next  process  is  to  reduce  the  thickness  by  grinding  ; 
this  labor,  however,  which  is  slow,  expensive,  and  unhealthy  for 
the  workmen,  has  been  greatly  lessened  by  the  introduction  of 
machines  which  now  actually  shave  down  the  bitt  of  the  axe 
nearly  to  an  edge.  * 

The  axe  now  goes  to  the  tempering-room,  where  one  of  the 
most  interesting  of  all  the  processes  is  carried  on ;  any  defect 
in  tempering  would  be  utter  failure.  The  old  way  consisted  in 
heating  axes,  a  few  at  a  time,  and  plunging  them  into  cold  water, 
thus  making  the  degree  of  temper  a  matter  of  accident  and  con¬ 
jecture.  In  these  works,  on  the  contrary,  a  hundred  axes  are 
heated  at  once,  being  placed  on  the  edge  of  a  circular  drum,  with 
the  bitts  projecting  over  the  edge,  the  bitts  being  the  only  part  it 
is  desired  to  heat.  This  drum  is  contained  in  a  circular  iron  oven, 
and  the  fire  laps  up  against  the  bitts  of  the  axes  as  they  project 
over  the  edge  of  the  drum,  while,  to  secure  perfect  uniformity  in 
heating,  the  drum  itself  slowly  revolves.  The  cooling-bath  stands 
close  by,  filled  with  a  fluid  preparation  composed  of  salt  and  other 
substances.  On  the  top  of  the  bath  is  a  frame,  which,  as  well  as 
the  bath  itself,  is  circular,  and  is  fitted  with  hooks  around  its 
edge  *,  on  these  hooks  the  axes,  taken  at  the  proper  heat  from  the 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


131 


furnaces  are  hung  by  the  hole  made  for  the  handles,  so  that  the 
bitts  are  immersed  in  the  bath,  and  the  frame,  steadily  revolving, 
drags  them  around  through  the  water. 

The  “  temper  ”  is  now  in  ;  but  there  is  far  too  much  of  it,  and 
in  its  present  condition  the  axe  would  be  as  useless  as  if  made  of 
glass.  It  is  impossible  by  merely  heating  and  plunging  in  cold 
water  to  attain  the  desired  degree  of  temper  - — the  only  way  is, 
to  make  the  axe  very  hard,  and  then  soften  it  to  just  the  right 
point.  For  this  purpose  the  axe  passes  on  to  the  drawing-fur¬ 
naces  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  ;  there  are  but  two  of  these 
furnaces,  but.  they  hold  two  hundred  axes  each,  and  can  temper 
over  one  thousand  each  per  day.  They  are  circular  ovens,  con¬ 
taining  each  two  racks,  revolving  only  as  they  are  turned  by  the 
hand,  on  which  the  axes  are  hung,  and  again  slowly  heated,  this 
process  drawing  out  a  portion  of  the  temper  or  hardness  previously 
acquired.  The  philosophy  of  the  process  is  briefly  this  :  hard¬ 
ness  is  but  another  name  for  density  or  closeness  of  structure. 
The  axe,  when  its  particles  are  separated  by  heat,  being  suddenly 
cooled,  the  caloric  is  expelled  so-  suddenly  that  the  particles  are 
rushed  together  in  excessive  compactness,  and  the  steel  is  thereby 
made  too  hard ;  the  subsequent  gentle  heating  slightly  separates 
the  particles  again.  The  workman  judges  of  the  proper  temper 
partly  by  the  color  the  metal  assumes,  and  partly  by  certain  in¬ 
describable  signs  and  instincts  his  practice  has  given  him.  A 
“pigeon-blue”  is  the  desirable  shade.  (The  very  deep  blue  on 
some  articles,  such  as  gun-barrels  and  watch-springs,  is  put  on 
artificially,  and  is  merely  on  the  surface.)  Some  methods  of  tem¬ 
pering  follow  the  color  entirely.  Thus,  a  brownish  yellow,  cor¬ 
responding  to  four  hundred  and  ninety  degrees,  is  thought  right  for 
cold-chisels  ;  tinged  with  purple,  five  hundred  and  ten  degrees, 
for  plane-irons  ;  purple,  five  hundred  and  thirty  degrees,  for  table- 
knives  and  scissors ;  pale  blue,  five  hundred  and  fifty  degrees,  for 
swords  and  watch-springs ;  while  at  six  hundred  and  thirty  de¬ 
grees,  all  color  vanishes,  andihe  steel  becomes  soft  as  iron. 

Testing  is  next  in  order ;  and  for  this,  two  or  three  axes  out  of 
each  lot  that  comes  from  the  tempering-furnace  are  ground  abruptly 
to  an  edge.  Here  is  one  just  from  the  bath,  not  yet  drawn  at  all ; 
touch  its  edge  with  a  hammer,  and  it  flies  off  like  glass.  The  enthu¬ 
siastic  superintendent,  who  accompanies  us,  exclaims,  “  Beautiful 
steel !  ”  and  even  the  unpractised  eye  can  see  that  it  is  beautiful 
—  that  broken  surface,  with  its  light  gray  tint,  its  smooth  crystal 


132 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


lustre,  and  its  marvellously  fine  structure  ;  but  for  this  steel  it  is 
hard  to  say  where  our  modern  civilization  would  be.  The  appar¬ 
ent  difference  between  the  hard  and  the  properly  tempered  steel 
is  in  a  slight  variation  of  color,  the  latter  suggesting  more  than 
the  former  —  the  notion  of  being  alive  and  active.  The  tester  lays 
the  edge  of  the  axe  over  an  anvil,  and  taps  it  gently  with  a  ham¬ 
mer.  If  it  first  bends  a  very  little,  and  then  breaks  off  short  and 
sharp,  it  is  right ;  if  it  bends  too  far  before  breaking,  it  is  too 
soft ;  if  it  snaps  off  too  soon,  it  is  too  hard.  The  two  hundred 
axes,  being  tempered  together,  are  necessarily  alike,  and  the  trial 
of  one  or  two  proves  them.  If  the  edge  bends  too  much,  the 


THE  TEMPERING-FURNACE. 


whole  lot  goes  back  to  the  beating-furnace  and  the  bath,  and  then 
to  the  drawing-furnace  once  more  ;  if  it  breaks  too  quickly,  the 
whole  go  into  the  drawing-furnace  for  another  trial.  It  is  rare, 
however,  that  any  second  attempt  is  necessary. 

As  the  axes  must  be  introduced  and  withdrawn  through  a  small 
opening  in  the  oven,  it  would  seem  that  the  time  thus  occupied 
would  operate  to  keep  some  longer  in  than  others,  and  thus  make 
a  difference  in  the  tempering ;  but  trial  has  shown  that  so  won¬ 
derfully  sensitive  are  the  axes  to  heat,  that,  if  one  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  axes  are  in  the  oven  and  partially  heated,  and  the  twTo 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


133 


hundredth  one  be  introduced  cold,  all  those  already  in  will  not  re¬ 
ceive  an  atom  of  additional  heat  until  the  new  comer  is  hospitably 
warmed  into  perfect  equilibrium  with  the  rest. 

When  tempered,  the  axe  passes  through  the  process  of  grinding, 
polishing,  inspecting,  covering  the  poll  with  asphaltum,  and  is 
then  ready  for  packing.  The  polishing  answers  three  important 
purposes,  besides  that  of  handsome  appearance  :  it  makes  the  axe 
enter  the  wood  more  easily,  preserves  it  from  rust,  and  exposes 
the  slightest  flaw  to  the  keen  eye  of  the  inspector.  So  exquisite 
is  this  polish  that  it  has  sometimes  been  actually  mistaken  for 
silver  plating. 

This  is  a  hasty  sketch  of  the  process  of  making  the  common 
u  Yankee  ”  axe.  Many  other  varieties  are  made  by  the  Collins 
Company  —  axes  for  turpentine-making*,  for  miners,  axes  with 
double  bitts,  broadaxes,  axes  for  South  America  and  the  West 
Indies,  adzes,  and  hatchets  ;  besides  many  forms  of  machetes, 
cane-knives,  cleavers,  hoes,  picks,  sledges,  etc.  The  modes  of 
making  all  these  differ  somewhat  in  detail  from  that  described 
already.  For  instance,  Brazil  axes  do  not  have  the  holes 
punched,  but  are  welded,  as  the  Brazilians  like  to  insert  a  rough 
round  stick  for  a  handle ;  machetes,  of  which  there  are  scores  of 
varieties,  are  fitted  with  handles  of  wood,  horn,  and  other  mate¬ 
rials,  and* are  carried  by  every  planter  in  certain  southern  lati¬ 
tudes. 


A  very  important  part  of  the  business  of  Collins  &  Company 
is  the  manufacture  of  steel  plows.  The  history  of  the  plow, 
meagre  though  it  is,  from  the  first  simple  bent  stick  used  to  dig 
up  the  earth,  to  the  perfect  machine  manufactured  by  Collins  & 
Company,  known  as  the  “  Eclipse  Gang  Plow,”  is  not  a  littlq, 
interesting. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  who  was  the  first  inventor  of  the  plow. 

I 

8 


134 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


The  earliest  records  speak  of  it  as  a  well-known  instrument  of  hus¬ 
bandry,  and  we  are  therefore  left  to  conjecture  alone  as  to  its 
origin.  The  first  plow  of  which  we  have  any  delineation  is 
figured  roughly  on  the  monuments  of  Egypt.  This  is  believed 
to  represent  the  original  of  all  plows.  It  was  sometimes  formed 
of  the  limb  of  a  tree,  and  sometimes  of  the  body  and  tough  root 
of  a  sapling,  the  lower  end  being  hewed  to  a  wedge.  The  plow¬ 
man  occasionally  worked  the  implement  by  himself,  applying  his 
foot  to  the  projecting  pin,  like  a  spade,  but  was  oftener  assisted 
by  a  team  composed  of  a  grown  daughter  and  her  mother  attached 
to  the  plow  by  rawhide  or  hempen  thongs.  This  same  contri¬ 
vance  is  at  the  present  day  used  for  a  plow  in  the  Hebrides.  The 
plow  still  in  use  in  Palestine  is  made  entirely  of  three  sticks, 
adjusted  to  support  each  other,  as  shown  in  the  illustration. 
This  is  commonly  drawn  by  a  cow  or  an  ass,  and  sometimes  by 
camels.  Figures  3  and  4  exhibit  the  plows  of  China  and  the 
East  Indies.  These  countries  do  not  seem  ever  to  have  changed 
or  improved  their  plows  in  an}"  important  respect. 

We  present  (in  figure  5),  page  118,  an  engraving  of  a  Norman 
plow  and  plowman,  from  a  sketch  found  in  an  ancient  British  manu¬ 
script.  The  plowman  carries  a  hatchet  to  break  the  clods  of 
earth,  and  the  very  faulty  perspective  shows  it  to  be  about  the 
size  of  his  team.  The  plow  of  the  ancient  Britons  was*very  rude, 
no  man  being  regarded  as  qualified  to  be  a  farmer  until  he  could 
make  his  own  plows.  The  custom  was  to  fasten  the  plow  to 
the  tails  of  oxen  or  horses,  and  compel  the  poor  beasts  to  thus 
drag  it  through  the  ground.  An  act  of  the  Irish  legislature  was 

passed  in  1634,  entitled  “An 
act  against  plowing  by  the 
taile,”  which  forbade  the 
cruel  custom ;  but  it  was 
still  practised  in  some  parts 
of  the  island  as  late  as  the 
present  century.  The  draught-pole  was  lashed  to  the  tail  of  the 
animal,  and,  as  no  harness  was  employed,  two  men  were  neces¬ 
sary,  one  to  guide  and  press  upon  the  plow,  the  other  to  direct 
the  animal,  which  he  did  by  walking  backwards  in  front  of  the 
miserable  creature,  beating  him  on  the  head  on  either  side,  accord- 
•*  ing  to  the  direction  required.  The  beginning  of  the  last  century 
was  signalized  by  a  revival  of  interest  in  agriculture  in  England, 
and  attention  was  more  strongly  turned  to  the  improvement  of 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


135 


plows  ilian  ever  before.  A  plow  introduced  from  Holland,  and 
known  as  the  “  Rotherham  Plow  ”  (perhaps  the  name  was  a  cor¬ 
ruption  of  Rotterdam),  was  first  constructed  and  patented  by 
Joseph  Foljambe,  of  Yorkshire,  which  he  soon  after  sold  to  a  Mr. 
Staniforth,  who,  however,  did  not  manufacture  them  himself,  but 
charged  a  royalty  of  two  shillings  and  sixpence  on  those  made  by 
others  ;  but  when  he  attempted  to  raise  the  price  to  seven  shillings 
and  sixpence,  the  validity  of  his  patent  was  contested,  and  set 
aside  by  the  courts,  on  the  grounds  that  it  was  not  a  new  inven¬ 
tion.  Ten  years  after  the  letters  patent  were  granted  to  Foljambe 
for  the  “  Rotherham  Plow,”  Jethro  Tull,  an  enterprising  English¬ 
man,  published  a  work  on  “Horse  Hoeing  Husbandry,”  in  which 
he  advocated  deep  tillage,  and  the  use  of  four  coultered  plows 
(similar  to  the  ordinary  knife  coulter),  but  so  arranged  as  to  cut 
the  furrow  into  four  parts.  Tull  claimed  great  advantages  for 
his  four-coultered  plow,  but  they  were  never  very  generally 
adopted  ;  and  as  the  same  objects  have  since  been  accomplished 
in  a  more  simple  manner,  it 
has  fallen  into  disuse.  James 
Small,  of  Scotland,  was  the 
next  great  improver  of  the 
theory  and  practice  of  plow¬ 
making.  He  established  his 
manufactory  at  Black  Adder 
Mount,  in  Berwickshire,  in 
1763,  and  died  about  thirty 
years  after,  signalizing  every 
one  of  those  thirty  years  by  some  new  improvement  of  the  various 
parts  of  his  plow.  He  took  the  Rotherham  plow  as  a  basis,  and 
improved  it  in  nearly  every  particular.  Indeed, *he  left  the  imple¬ 
ment  at  his  death  so  nearly  perfect,  that  to  this  day  it  is  used 
in  many  of  the  largest  and  best  cultivated  districts  of  Scotland, 
and  is  prized  more  highly  than  any  other,  being  known  as  the 
East  Lothian  Plow.  In  1785  Mr.  Robert  Ransom,  of  Ipswich, 
England,  obtained  a  patent  for  making  plowshares  of  cast-iron, 
and  in  1803  improved  his  article  by  a  mode  of  chilling  or  case- 
hardening  them,  for  which  he  received  a  patent. 

One  of  the  first  to  improve  the  plow  in  this  country  was  Thomas 
Jefferson,  the  third  President  of  the  United  States,  who,  in  a  com¬ 
munication  to  the  French  Institute,  attempted  to  solve  the  mathemat¬ 
ical  problem  of  the  true  surface  of  the  mould-board,  and  to  lay  down 


136 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


intelligible  and  practical  rules  for  its  formation,  for  the  first  time. 
In  1793  Mr.  Jefferson  put  his  theory  to  the  test  of  practical  ex¬ 
periment,  and  had  several  plows  made  after  his  patterns,  and  put 
them  into  use  on  his  estates  in  Albemarle  and  Bedford  Counties, 
Virginia,  and  became  fully  satisfied  of  their  practical  utility. 
The  first  American,  after  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  set  himself  to  work 
to  improve  the  plows  in  common  use,  was  a  farmer  by  the  name 
of  Charles  Newbold,  of  New  Jersey,  who  invented  the  first  cast- 
iron  plow  ever  made  in  America,  and  whose  letters  patent  were 
signed  by  John  Adams,  President  of  the  United  States,  in  June, 
1797.  Mr.  Newbold  spent  upwards  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  in 
perfecting  and  introducing  his  plow,  and  then  abandoned  the 
business  in  despair,  as  the  farmers  had  in  some  way  imbibed  the 
strange  idea  that  the  cast-iron  plow  poisoned  the  land,  injured  its 
fertility,  and  promoted  the  growth  of  rocks.  The  next  plow  pa¬ 
tented  was  invented  by  John  Denver,  of  Maryland,  in  June,  1804. 
There  is,  however,  no  definite  record  as  to  its  peculiarities,  which  i3 
also  true  of  a  plow  patented  February  24,  1804,  by  Hezekiah  Harris, 
of  Kentucky.  A  patent  was  granted  to  David  Peacock,  of  New  Jer¬ 
sey,  April  1,  1807,  which,  no'  doubt,  resembled  Newbold’s  plow, 
as  Newbold  sued  him  for  an  infringement  of  his  patent,  and  the 
case  was  settled  by  the  payment  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
to  Newbold.  Peacock  obtained  another  patent  in  1822,  consist¬ 
ing  of  some  improvements  in  the  various  parts,  but  the  chief 
feature  was  the  famous  lock  coulter,  which,  it  is  believed,  he  was 
the  first  to  introduce. 

•  We  have  not  space  to  name  the  various  patentees  of  plows  in 


There  were  sold,  in  New  York  city,  of  Wood’s  plows,  in  1817,  fifteen 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


137 


hundred  and  fifty;  in  1818,  sixteen  hundred  ;  in  1819,  thirty-six 
hundred  ;  and  in  the  year  1820,  the  sales  were  largely  augumented. 
It  is  alleged  that  Mr.  Wood  not  only  made  no  profits  by  his  efforts 
to  improve  the  plow,  but  that  he  actually  lost  large  sums  by  his 
enterprise.  Mr.  Wood’s  efforts  were,  however,  lately  recognized 
by  the  New  York  State  legislature,  who  appropriated  two  thousand 
dollars  to  his  heirs.  Many  other  plows  were  patented  subsequent¬ 
ly,  but  as  they  founded  their  claims  to  public  favor  upon  some 
real  or  fancied  improvements,  and  soon  went  out  of  use,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  describe  them. 

In  1836  or  1837,  Daniel  Webster,  the  great  statesman,  invented 
a  plow  for  work  twelve  and  fourteen  inches  deep,  cutting  a  fur¬ 
row  twenty-four  inches  wide,  which  is  still  in  existence,  the  prop¬ 
erty  of  his  friend  Peter  Harvey.  This  plow  is  twelve  feet  long ; 
the  land-side  four  feet  long.  The  mould-board  is  of  wood,  plated 
with  thin  iron  straps,  in  the  usual  way  of  strapping  wooden  mould- 
boards  in  those  days,  and  the  beam  was  some  twenty-eight  inches 
from  the  ground.  Mr.  Webster  designed  this  plow  for  a  field  on 
his  farm  at  Marshfield,  which  was  full  of  very  strong  roots,  and 
it  was  accordingly  made  of  great  strength.  Mr.  Webster  himself, 
with  some  six  or  eight  assistants,  held  this  plow,  and  expressed 
himself  substantially  as  follows  in  regard  to  his  monster  plow  :  — 

“  When  I  have  hold  of  the  handles  of  my  big  plow  in  such  a 
field,  with  four  pair  of  cattle  to  pull  it  through,  and  hear  the  roots 
crack,  and  see  the  stumps  all  go  under  the  furrow  out  of  sight, 
and  observe  the  clean,  mellowed  surface  of  the  plowed  land,  I 
feel  more  enthusiasm  over  my  achievement  than  comes  from  my 
encounters  in  public  life  at  Washington.” 

To  the  various  forms  and  sizes  of  wood  and  cast-iron  plows 
heretofore  mentioned,  succeeded  that  important  change  in  the  ma¬ 
terial  used  for  plows,  viz.,  the  substitution  of  sheet-steel  for  cast- 
iron.  This  was  a  great  improvement  in  certain  respects,  as  it 
enabled  the  manufacturers  to  greatly  reduce  the  weight  of  the 
plows,  without  impairing  the  strength,  and  consequently  lessened 
the  draught  of  the  plow  ;  but  experience  has  demonstrated,  how¬ 
ever,  that  in  soils  sticky  in  their  nature,  there  is  generally  present 
a  proportion  of  sharp  grit,  which  soon  cuts  through  the  thin 
sheets,  rendering  the  use  of  this  class  of  steel  plows  quite  expen¬ 
sive  to  farmers.  The  so-called  “  Smith  plows,”  which  are  manu¬ 
factured  so  extensively  by  Collins  &  Company,  are  an  improvement 
upon  the  sheet  steel  plow. 


138 


AXES  AND  PLOWS 


“  Plow-points,77  or  shares,  of  cast-iron,  rough  as  they  came 
from  the  mould,  and  remaining  rough  until  worn  smooth  by  use, 
were  in  general  use  until  a  comparatively  few  years  back,  yet  very 
uulike  the  light  and  elegant  steel  ones  now  manufactured  by  this 
company,  and  fast  coming  into  use.  The  distinguishing  pecu¬ 
liarity  of  the  Smith  plow,  as  made  by  them,  is,  that  it  is  cast  east- 
steel  ;  and  this  name  is  not  a  mere  repetition  of  the  word  “  cast  77 
for  the  sake  of  sound,  like  “  double  extra  superfine,77  but  is  a 
simple  and  literal  title  ;  the  “  cast-steel 77  expressing  the  material 
of  which  the  plow  is  made,  and  the  “  cast 77  the  mannner  of  mak¬ 
ing  it.  That  is,  the  steel  itself  is  first  made,  broken  up,  and  then 
re-cast  into  plows.  Cast-steel  plows  were  made  before  the  com- 


ECUPSE.  GANG  PLOW. 


znencement  of  this  manufacture,  and  are  made  yet ;  but  they  are 
made  of  u  sheet 77  steel,  being  rolled  into  shape.  Their  manufac¬ 
ture  presents  two  difficulties  :  by  being  rolled,  the  thickness  of 
the  parts  must  necessarily  be  uniform,  and  after  being  rolled,  it  is 
impossible  to  temper  them  properly,  without  warping  them  out  of 
shape.  They  must,  therefore,  be  left  untempered  and  soft,  and 
in  the  gritty  soil  of  the  west,  sheet-steel  plows  have  been  repeat¬ 
edly  cut  entirely  through  by  plowing  no  more  than  twenty  acres. 
In  18t>0,  however,  Mr.  F.  F.  Smith,  who  had  been  hammering 
away  at  sheet-steel  plows  in  a  prairie  town  in  Illinois,  had  his 
attention  attracted  by  the  successful  casting  of  steel  bells  in 
England,  and  he  at  once  asked  himself  whether  plows  also  could 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


139 


not  be  cast.  Entering  into  correspondence  with  Collins  &  Compa¬ 
ny,  he  removed  to  Collinsville,  and  fell  to  work  with  the  savage 
ardor  of  a  man  who  feels  that  he  has  staked  himself  upon  the  re¬ 
sult  of  his  labor.  Like  most  Americau  inventors,  he  was  full  of 
one  idea ;  he  had  lived  for  plows,  and  believed  that  the  earth  was 
created  for  nothing  but  to  be  plowed.  There  was  no  difficulty  at 
all  in  making  cast-iron  moulds,  or  in  pouring  the  steel  into  them ; 
the  difficulty  was  to  cool  the  thin  castings  without  cracking,  and 
after  a  year’s  hard  labor,  even  the  superintendent  of  the  works 
pronounced  the  plow  a  failure.  But  Mr.  Smith  did  not  think  so  ; 
he  had  faith  in  his  plow,  and  success  has  justified  his  faith,  for 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  of  these  plows  are  now  in  use. 

The  three  working  parts,  share,  mould-board,  and  land-side, 
entirely  of  cast-steel,  are  taken  from  the  moulds  ;  the  edges  are 
then  trimmed  off;  the  hammering  and  tempering  process  are 
similar  to  those  employed  in  axe-making  ;  the  parts  are  drilled, 
bolted  firmly  together,  ground,  and  polished  on  emery-wheels. 
The  share  is  solid  for  three  inches  back  of  the  point ;  the  land- 
side  is  an  inch  thick  at  the  heel,  and  the  mould-board  is  half  an 
inch  thick  at  the  point  where  it  presses  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
The  lightness  of  these  plows  is  remarkable  ;  an  average  English 
plow,  made  of  wrought-iron,  handles  and  all,  and  weighing  two 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  large  and  clumsy  in  every  part,  can  cut 
no  deeper  or  wider  furrow  than  a  small  plow  of  this  pattern,  weigh¬ 
ing  but  forty  pounds. 

The  process  of  casting  secures  three  advantages.  The  wearing 
parts  may  have,  and  do  have,  a  thickness  varying  according  to  the 
wear  imposed  upon  them  ;  the  parts  are  all  exact  duplicates  of  one 
another,  and  if  any  part  gives  way  or  wears  out  anywhere  in  the 
civilized  world,  the  owner  can  always  procure  a  duplicate  section 
from  the  nearest  dealer,  and  can  fit  it  into  its  place  with  the  aid 
of  a  hammer  and  wrench.  Moreover,  the  casting  allows  the 
parts  to  be  tempered  at  will  without  destroying  their  shape,  and 
it  is  mainly  in  its  extraordinary  hardness  that  the  peculiar  value 
of  the  plow  consists.  The  invariable  test  of  the  temper  of  every 
plow  is  the  broken  end  of  a  file,  which  must  not  affect  the  steel 
in  the  least.  The  point  of  a  penknife  of  Sheffield  make,  pressed 
against  it,  slides  along  as  it  would  slide  on  glass  ;  breaking  a  file^ 
we  rub  the  jagged  end  upon  the  steel  with  all  our  strength,  but 
no  mark  is  visible.  The  natural  result  of  this  extreme  hardness 
and  polish  is,  that  in  any  soil  which  can  be  found,  the  plow 


140 


AXES  AND  PLOWS 


“  scours,”  or  cleans  itself,  letting  nothing  scratch  it  or  stick  to  it, 
thus  reducing  friction  and  draught  to  the  minimum. 

Revolving-coulters,  as  well  as  the  old-fashioned  knife-coulters, 
are  made  ;  the  circular  outter  runs  lightly  over  the  ground,  parting 
the  grass  and  sharply  cutting  the  sod  just  in  advance  of  the  share. 


This  cutter,  really  beautiful  in  shape  and  finish,  is  like  a  circular 
saw  deprived  of  its  teeth,  and  gently  carried  down  to  an  edge  ;  take 
it  up  and  tap  it  gently  with  the  finger,  and  it  proves  itself  steel 
by  ringing  clearly,  like  a  bell,  for  half  a  minute.  The  manufac¬ 
ture  of  “  left-hand  ”  plows,  turning  the  furrow  over  to  the  left,  is 


THt  GRINDING  SHOP. 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


141 


also  carried  on  ;  this  style  is  bought  chiefly  by  Pennsylvanians 
and  Pennsylvanian  emigrants,  who  have  a  habit  of  guiding  their 
teams  by  attaching  the  rein  to  the  left  shoulder,  and  think  they 
can  “  haw  ”  round  more  easily  than  they  can  “  gee  ”  round. 
There  is  no  reality  in  this  notion  ;  but  just  as  the  Spanish  use  an 
axe  with  a  very  broad  bitt,  because  their  ancestors  happened  to  do 
so,  the  notion  must  be  humored,  and  hence  broad-bitted  axes  and 
left-hand  plows  are  made. 

The  success  of  Collins  &  Company  has  been  attained  by  a 
union  of  the  three  things  which  generally  have  been  the  causes 
of  success  in  all  successful  manufactures,  namely,  first,  manufac¬ 
turing  upon  a  large  scale  ;  second,  minute  division  of  labor  ;  third, 
a  most  persistent  and  rigid  system  of  inspection.  In  every  pro¬ 
cess.  of  the  manufacture,  operations  are  performed  upon  a  large 
scale ;  twenty  tons  of  steel  are  made  at  a  time  ;  hundreds  of 
axes,  and  thousands  of  machetes,  go  through  the  processes  all 
together,  from  first  to  last.  The  efficiency  of  this  doing  upon  a 
large  scale  is  especially  marked  in  the  all-important  process  of 
tempering,  in  which  the  slightest  failure  would  be  the  ruin  of  all 
the  work,  however  excellent  that  may  have  been.  But  no  room 
for  chances  or  variations  has  been  left ;  a  uniform  process  of  heat¬ 
ing  has  swept  them  away,  and  has  supplied  a  certainty  instead. 
By  the  old  process  of  heating  and  tempering  one  axe  at  a  time, 
there  were  as  many  chances  for  variations  of  temper  as  there  were 
axes  ;  but  now  two  hundred  are  tempered  together,  and  if  one  is 
perfect  all  must  be.  The  division  of  labor  also  tends  to  bring  cer¬ 
tainty  into  the  work.  Each  workman,  whether  he  tends  a  furnace, 
or  moulds,  or  hammers,  or  tempers,  or  grinds,  or  packs,  or  in¬ 
spects,  or  whatever  he  does,  does  nothing  else,  so  that  his  eye 
and  hand  acquire  a  certainty  like  that  of  a  machine. 

Then  there  is  the  inspection.  There  is  a  little  army  of  inspect¬ 
ors,  and  the  metal  never  escapes  their  eyes  and  their  searching 
tests,  from  the  time  it  enters  the  furnace  to  be  converted  into 
steel,  until  it  has  been  wrapped  in  paper  and  boxed  for  shipment. 
After  each  stage  in  the  manufacture  comes  the  prying  inspector, 
looking  for  faults,  and  the  material  cannot  go  on  towards  comple¬ 
tion  until' it  has  received  his  private  mark.  Any  defect  sends  it 
back  to  the  department  where  the  fault  occurred,  and  to  the  par¬ 
ticular  workman  through  whose  carelessness  it  occurred  ;  no  fault 
being  seen,  the  material  passes  to  the  next  stage,  and  when  com¬ 
pleted,  receives  a  final  inspection,  every  tool  by  itself.  Then,  and 


142 


AXES  AN1)  PLOWS. 


not  till  then,  the  stamp,  “  Collins  &  Co.,  Hartford,”  is  struck  upon 
the  metal,  committing  the  company  to  the  excellence  of  the  work  ; 
and  not  until  then  are  the  painting,  labelling,  and  packing  begun. 

Inspecting  implies  a  care  for  reputation.  The  Collins  Company 
have  never  tried  to  make  low-priced  tools  ;  they  have  sought  first 
to  make  perfect  work,  and  then  to  sell  it  as  low  as  it  could  be 
afforded.  They  have  always  been  aware  that,  while  to  polish  up 
and  sell  soft  iron  or  brittle  steel  is  an  easy  matter,  it  is  not  easy 
to  sell  it  more  than  once  to  the  same  person  ;  out  on  the  western 
prairie,  or  in  the  forest  somewhere,  the  bad  plow  or  axe  will  give 
way  under  trial,  convicting  its  dishonest  maker,  and  making  the 
purchaser  remember  not  to  buy  that  manufacture  again.  They 
intend  to  sell  many  times  to  the  same  person,  and  so  do  not  allow 
their  reputation  to  be  endangered  by  any  inferior  work.  Repu¬ 
tation  is  capital,  and  to  keep  reputation  there  must  never  be  even 
a  single  instance  of  the  sale  of  poor  work  —  a  fact  of  which  all  our 
American  manufacturers  are  eminent  exemplars. 

The  Collins  Company  are  the  manufacturers,  and  the  works  are 
located  at  Collinsville,  in  Hartford  County,  Connecticut,  but  the 
original  trade-mark  of  “  Collius  &  Co.,  Hartford, ”  is  retained. 
And  how  much  is  this  trade-mark  worth  ?  It  would  be  hard  to 
say  without  seeming  t  extravagant.  Suppose  another  company, 
which  should,  if  it  were  possible,  make  better  tools  than  these, — 
or  suppose  that  these  very  tools,  now  made  and  sold  with  this 
trade-mark,  should  be  made  by  these  men  without  it,  —  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  in  either  case,  forty  years,  at  least,  of  hard  work  would  be 
required  to  build  up  a  business  of  equal  extent  with  the  present  one* 
Yet  what  is  the  trade-mark,  after  all  ?  There  is  no  efficacy  about 
it ;  it  merely  signifies  that  the  name  11  Collins  &  Co.”  stamped 
upon  a  tool  renders  any  asking  of  questions  unnecessary  ;  buy 
it  at  once,  and  trust  it  with  safety.  In  the  interior  of  the  Gulf 
States  it  is  hardly  possible  now  to  find  axes  which  do  not  bear 
this  stamp.  In  the  West  Indies  and  in  South  America  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  sell  an  axe  or  a  machete  bearing  any  other ;  those 
tropical  people  are  suspicious  of  Americans,  but  think  themselves 
quite  safe  when  they  see  the  familiar  stamp.  Other  dealers  have 
found  this  out,  and  have  acted  upon  it ;  so  the  printed  labels 
read,  “Look  for  the  stamp  ‘  Hartford  f  if  you  want  the  genuine 
Collins  &  Co.” 

The  most  remarkable  fact  is  that  even  the  counting-rooms  of 
England  have  found  out  the  value  of  this  trade-mark  by  trying 


SUGAR-CANE  KNIFE. 


..  :  1 

. 

JL 

•  :  : 

m  -  jp'; 

•5  ■?# -  i  *-  b»  *  3  1  ■  >;4^  „ 

* 

*  !  -  f  ?  :y*  utttyr  u  n.S  ■n%U  *  U  3  q  ^o;  i.,\t 

* 

- 

»  T  .  i  '  ^  Hi.  a  . 

I  I 

'  '  J4>,! 

H  |itf>  *  im  ■ ’u‘ mui  1 

* 

V  '  .  *  .  •  I*  4 

•’**' 


*i»  J  ft 


B iIS 


1 


<*  ut 


i&i  9 

»  noo  »  «*!\  J  ^ 

l  oi‘  yi  o  m»>  r-t  91  ,:‘  1 

t  4  .  *  ;• 

k>iw4i-  i  j  •**  »■••<;  4 

M«i«Ht  W  r<t  «MU  feJu^/VA  •  *  4  1  "  ;- 

*■ 


/ 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


145 


to  compete  with  it ;  and  they  did  not  disdain  to  use  it  in  their 
workshops,  bearing  unintentional  tribute  to  the  superiority  of 
New  England  work.  So  long  ago  as  1858,  certain  Birmingham 
manufacturers  having  gotten  into  the  habit  of  using  the  Collins 
trade-mark,  a  test  case  was  made  by  the  company,  and  a  resort 
was  had  to  the  court  for  an  injunction.  This  case,  Collins  vs. 
Beeves,  was  reported  in  full  in  the  London  Times,  in  July,  1858, 
and  the  New  York  Tribune  at  the  time  contained  an  editorial  upon 
it.  Vice-Chancellor  Stuart  granted  the  injunction,  almost  unwil¬ 
lingly,  some  might  think,  for  he  remarked  that  Mr.  Beeves, 
whose  line  of  defence  was,  that  he  was  merely  following 
the  custom  of  the  trade,  had  acted  in  a  highly  honorable  manner 
throughout.  What  this  highly  honorable  conduct  was,  it  is  not 
easy  to  see,  unless  it  consisted  in  stopping  a  dishonest  manufac¬ 
ture,  and  compounding  in  damages  therefor,  when  compelled  to 
do  so.  His  defence  was,  that  certain  customers  had  directed  him 
to  affix  the  trade-mark,  and  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  trade  to 
affix  any  trade-mark  which  might  be  asked  for ;  furthermore,  that 
he  had  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Collins  Company  had  granted 
the  right  to  use  this  trade-mark  to  somebody  else.  This  they  had 
not  done,  and  never  could  do,  without  endangering  the  reputation 
which  has  required  forty  years  to  acquire,  and  on  the  continuance 
of  which  their  business  depends  ;  but  if  they  had  done  so,  —  as 
the  London  Times  remarks,  —  Mr.  Beeves’  plea  is  as  absurd  as  if 
A  had  invited  B  and  C  to  dinner,  and  the  rest  of  the  alphabet, 
hearing  of  the  invitation,  should  all  come  at  the  appointed  hour. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any,  even  of  successful  American  manufacturers, 
have  a  wider  reputation  and  sale  than  those  of  the  Collins  Com¬ 
pany.  The  remoteness  of  some  of  their  customers  is  a  little  as¬ 
tonishing.  Orders  are  received  from  Bohemia ;  and  these  plows 
are  turning  up  the  soil  in  Africa,  New  Zealand,  and  the  “  kindly 
earth  of  Australia,  which,  as  Douglas  Jerrold  so  prettily  said,  is 
so  kindly  that  if  tickled  with  a  hoe  it  laughs  with  a  harvest.  In 
every  state  in  the  west  these  plows  push  their  sharp  steel  wedges 
into  the  soil.  These  picks  ring  in  California.  Not  only  do  these 
axes  chop  and  hew  all  over  New  England  land,  but  they  are  in 
the  pine  forests  of  the  Carolinas  ;  they  smell  of  fragrant  woods  in 
the  tropics  and  in  Brazil ;  they  are  poised  on  the  hunter’s 
shoulder,  and  swing  in  the  miner's  bag.  And  wherever,  in  the 
woods,  or  in  carpenters’  shops,  or  in  the  ship-yards,  there  is  any 
hewing  or  any  cutting  of  wood  or  of  soil  to  be  done,  the  stamp 


146 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


11  Collins  &  Co.”  is  apt  to  be  found  on  the  tools  which  are  do¬ 
ing  it. 

This  manufacture  is  a  triumph  of  skill,  patience,  and  that  fixed 
integrity  in  work  which  thinks  somewhat  of  the  work  itself  as 
well  as  of  its  pecuniary  rewards,  and  is  determined  first  to  do  the 
best  work  that  can  be  done,  and  after  that  to  care  for  the  profits. 
Such  ingenuity  and  integrity  alone  could  suffice  to  establish  a 
world-wide  trade  and  reputation,  the  key  to  which  is  that,  in  the 
long  run,  that  is  sure  to  find  recognition  and  general  honor,  which 
steadfastly  refuses  to  follow  the  too  common  rule  of  putting  the 
best  on  the  outside,  and  being  satisfied  with  what  appears  well 
enough  to  sell  well.  In  a  double  way,  a  great  manufacture  like  this 
is  a  benefit  to  the  whole  country.  It  has  built  up  a  thriving  vil¬ 
lage,  of  which  it  is  the  main-spring,  furnishing  employment  to 
nearly  a  thousand  men  directly,  exclusive  of  those  who  are  en¬ 
gaged  in  selling  the  manufactured  products  all  over  the  world  ; 
and  all  these  furnish  employment  in  turn  to  others,  whose  industry  is 
required  to  supply  to  them  the  necessaries  of  life.  Iron  and  carbon, 
onco  lying  inert  in  the  soil,  are  converted,  by  receiving  a  certain 
expenditure  of  labor,  into  instruments  for  creating  out  of  other 
inert  materials  a  further  large  increase  of  material  products  which 
constitute  wealth.  As  the  steel  punch  produces  a  number  of 
matrices,  which  each  produces  a  large  number  of  types,  which 
each  produces  a  yet  larger  number  of  electrotype  plates,  which  each 
produces  a  yet  larger  number  of  printed  impressions,  so  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  tools  and  the  increase  of  aggregate  wealth  grow  by 
geometrical  progression.  The  approach  of  the  **  good  time 
coming  ”  is  an  approach  of  the  time  when  men  shall  be  more 
worthy  of  leisure,  and  yet  less  fond  of  idleness  ;  when  they  shall 
have  freed  themselves  more  than  now  from  the  rapacious  de¬ 
mands  which  bodily  necessities  make  upon  their  time  ;  when  they 
shall  have  more  fully  conquered  nature  into  working  for  them, 
and  thus  leaving  them  more  opportunity  for  self-culture.  Nothing 
‘contributes  more  to  this  end  than  steel,  and  the  better  the  steel 
the  more  effectual  the  contribution.  The  manufactures  of  "  Col¬ 
lins  &  Company  ”  are  better  helps  to  speed  the  millennium  than  a 
hundred  prize  essays  could  be;  for  they  do  not  absorb  wealth  — 
they  create  it.  They  take  it  like  seed,  but  return  it  a  hundred-fold 
like  harvest,  and  furnish  the  mbst  practicable  and  most  convincing 
answer  to  the  question  whether  the  vast  stores  of  iron  and 
coal  in  the  United  States  were  placed  there  for  any  purpose,  and 


AXES  AND  PLOWS. 


147 


whether  these  stores  shall  be  utilized.  The  annual  gain  by  the 
saving  of  labor  in  using  the  tools  of  Collins  &  Company  rather 
than  the  inferior  ones  of  foreign  manufacture,  aggregates  thou¬ 
sands  ot  dollars,  and  the  foreign  manufacturers  themselves  have  un¬ 
intentionally  borne  testimony  to  this  when  they  fraudulently  copied 
the  trade-mark.  Yet  there  are  those  who  think  it  would  be  better 
to  give  up  manufactures  in  which  we  have  already  beaten  the 
shops  of  England,  let  our  mineral  wealth  lie  undisturbed,  and 
buy  all  our  manufactured  products  abroad.  Such  persons  should 


THE  CAST  CAST-STEEL  COULTER  PLOW. 

consider  Ireland  and  India.  We  may  buy  foreign  products  rather 
than  make  our  own,  but  in  so  doing  we  shall  inevitably  paralyze 
our  own  arms,  and  set  speedy  bounds  to  our  advance  in  pros¬ 
perity.  Agriculture  and  manufactures,  inseparably  connected, 
must  flourish  side  by  side,  or  the  sure  result  will  be  disaster. 
With  all  the  benefits  accruing  from  the  great  industry  which  this 
article  is  written  to  illustrate,  certainly  not  the  smallest  is,  that  it 
so  forcibly  and  practically  argues  in  behalf  of  supporting  home 
industry,  and  relying  upon  American  manufactures. 


MANUFACTURE  OF  SALT. 

THE  FIRST  SALT  WORKS  IN  AMERICA.  —  SENDING  SALT  FROM  VIRGINIA  TO 
MASSACHUSETTS. —  SOLAR  SALT-MAKING  DURING  THE  REVOLUTION.  —  WORKS 
ALONG  THE  ATLANTIC  COAST.  — DISCOVERIES  IN  DIFFERENT  STATES  AND 
TERRITORIES.  —  DEPOSITS  OF  ROCK  SALT.  —  PRINCIPAL  SALT-PRODUCING 
STATES.  —  THE  SPRINGS  AND  WORKS  AT  SYRACUSE.  —  PROCESSES  OF  MANU¬ 
FACTURE.  —  SOLAR  EVAPORATION.  —  BOILING  AND  REFINING.  —  AMOUNT 
AND  COST  OF  PRODUCTION. 

Salt  production  is  a  most  important  industry  in  the  United 
States.  As  a  “  manufacture  ”  it  is  the  earliest  in  American  his¬ 
tory,  for  the  colonists  at  Jamestown,  Va.,  established  salt 
works  at  Cape  Charles  before  1620,  and  in  1633  began  to  send  salt 
to  the  Puritan  settlers  in  Massachusetts.  In  1689  salt  was  made 
in  South  Carolina,  and  from  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country 
it  has  been  produced  from  sea  water,  by  boiling  or  by  natural 
evaporation,  in  large  quantities,  all  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  es¬ 
pecially  during  the  revolution  and  the  war  of  1812,  when  foreign 
importations  were  difficult.  The  leading  manufactories  of  this 
class  were  in  Virginia,  Delaware,  New  Jersey,  Massachusetts,  and 
Maine.  After  the  revolution  salt-making  by  solar  evaporation  be¬ 
came  a  very  important  business  on  Cape  Cod  ;  but  the  cheapness 
of  imported  salt,  such  as  Turk’s  Island,  —  which  means  salt  from 
any  and  all  of  the  West  India  islands,  —  and  the  manufacture  of 
salt  from  springs  in  other  states,  have  made  these  works  less  prof¬ 
itable,  though  the  manufacture  of  sea  salt  is  still  carried  on  to 
some  extent  on  the  New  England  coast,  and  largely  of  late  in 
Florida,  especially  at  Key  West. 

But  away  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  outside  of  New  England, 
no  country  in  the  world  is  richer  in  salt  springs  and  deposits  than 
the  United  States.  Nearly  every  state  and  territory  is,  or  might 
be,  a  large  producer.  Hock  salt  —  especially  valuable,  on  account 
(148) 


MANUFACTURE  OF  SALT. 


149 


of  the  slowness  with  which  it  dissolves,  in  topping  or  “  capping  ” 
meats  cured  with  other  salt  —  is  found  in  Western  Virginia,  and  a 
very  important  discovery  was  made  in  Louisiana  in  1863.  The 
salt  “  licks  ”  and  springs  are  found  in  no  less  than  thirty  of  the 
states  and  territories.  The  springs  of  Southern  Illinois  were 
worked  by  the  French  and  Indians  in  1720.  The  Kentucky  salt 
springs  were  known  and  used  before  1790.  The  first  salt  manu¬ 
facture  in  Ohio  was  in  1798.  In  Western  Pennsylvania  the  busi¬ 
ness  began  in  1812.  The  important  deposits  in  Western  Virginia 
were  early  worked,  and  that  state  is  now  second  only  to  New  York 
in  production.  Later  and  valuable  discoveries  have  resulted  in 
the  establishment  of  salt  works  in  Missouri,  Michigan,  Nebraska, 
Texas,  New  Mexico,  California,  and  Arkansas.  California  and 
Utah  abound  in  salt  lakes,  especially  Utah,  with  its  “  Great  Salt 
Lake,”  which  is,  in  fact,  a  Mediterranean,  fifty  miles  in  length  by 
twenty  in  width,  whose  waters  contain  more  than  twenty  per  cent, 
of  salt.  The  more  important  sources  of  supply,  however,  are,  in 
the  order  of  their  production,  New  York,  AVest  Virginia,  and  Ohio. 

Of  these,  New  York  produces  more  than  one  half  of  the  entire 
domestic  supply.  A  considerable  portion  of  the  north-western 
part  of  the  state  has  abundant  springs  ;  but  the  principal  springs  are 
in  Onondaga  County,  and  the  leading  works  are  at  Syracuse.  The 
“  Onondaga  Salt  Springs”  were  known  to  the  French  Jesuits  who 
were  missionaries  to  the  Indians,  and  the  white  settlers  began  the 
business  of  manufacturing  salt  as  early  as  1788,  producing,  by 
boiling,  in  that  year  perhaps  five  hundred  bushels,  and  from  that 
time  till  now  the  business  has  grown  from  year  to  year  to  its  pres¬ 
ent  enormous  dimensions. 

The  process  of  making  salt  at  Syracuse  —  and  it  is  nearly  the 
same  at  all  other  salt  springs  in  the  country —  is  as  follows: 
The  springs  are  in  the  low  marsh  lands,  in  which  wells  to  the 
depth  of  from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  feet  are  sunk,  and 
from  these  the  salt  water  is  pumped  to  the  reservoirs  which  supply 
the  evaporating  works.  The  brine,  which  contains  from  seventeen  to 
twenty  per  cent,  of  salt,  is  permitted  to  remain  in  the  reservoirs 
till  its  impurities  settle,  and  the  deposit  of  these  impurities  is  as¬ 
sisted  by  the  addition  of  a  minute  portion  of  alum.  There  are  two 
processes  of  making  the  salt — by  solar  evaporation  and  by  boil¬ 
ing.  Solar  evaporation  results  in  a  coarser  salt,  used  for  curing 
meats,  etc.,  and  is  effected  by  putting  the  water  into  large  tanks 
six  inches  in  depth,  and  exposing  them  to  the  sun  and  air.  These 
9 


150 


MANUFACTURE  OF  SALT. 


tanks  cover  hundreds  of  acres  of  ground  at  Syracuse,  and  the  prod¬ 
uct  of  each  tank  (about  16  X  18  feet  in  size)  is  estimated  at  fifty  bush¬ 
els  a  year.  The  kettles  for  boiling  hold  about  one  hundred  gallons 
of  brine,  and  are  set  in  parallel  rows  in  brick  “blocks”  running 
the  entire  length  of  the  different  works.  In  boiling,  the  sulphate 
of  lime  and  oxide  of  iron  are  removed  or  precipitated  ;  the  chlo¬ 
rides  of  magnesium  and  calcium  are,  by  other  processes,  separated  ; 
the  salt  is  thoroughly  drained  before  it  is  barrelled  ;  and  thus  is 
produced  at  Syracuse  a  pure,  fine,  white,  and  dry  salt,  which  will 
not  attract  moisture  in  any  climate  or  weather.  II ow  much  the 
salt  loses  by  this  refining  process  is  seen  in  the  weight  per  bushel, 
which,  for  solar  evaporated  salt,  is  seventy  pounds,  while  for  the 
boiled  salt  it  is  a  little  less  than  fifty-six  pounds.  Every  bushel 
of  either  kind  pays  a  royalty  of  one  cent  to  the  state  which  owns 
the  salines.  The  number  of  kettles  now  set  at  Syracuse  are  capa¬ 
ble  of  producing  from  twelve  to  fifteen  millions  of  bushels  per  year, 
and  the  actual  production  of  the  works  is  from  eight  to  ten  mil¬ 
lion  bushels  a  year.  About  one  eighth  of  the  salt  is  made  by 
solar  evaporation,  and  the  rest  by  boiling.  In  boiling,  it  requires 
a  cord  of  wood  or  a  ton  of  coal  to  make  forty-five  bushels,  and 
*  the  cost  of  manufacture  depends  upon  the  varying  prices  of  fuel 
and  labor ;  within  ten  years  the  actual  cost  of  manufacture  has 
been  as  low  as  one  dollar  per  barrel  of  five  bushels.  The  Syracuse 
salt  has  a  high  reputation  throughout  the  United  States,  and  it  is 
to  some  extent  exported,  especially  to  the  Canadas.  The  United 
States,  however,  can  scarcely  hope  to  compete  in  exportation  with 
the  cheaper  foreign,  particularly  English,  salines. 


COINAGE,  OR  MANUFACTURE  OF  MONEY. 

« V.  |  •  '  •  *  ' 

ANTIQUITY  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  MONEY.  — THE  EARLIEST  GREEK  AND  ROMAN 
COINS.  —  HOW  MONEY  IS  MADE. — THE  UNITED  STATES  MINT.  — GOLD  COIN¬ 
AGE. —  INGOTS.  —  THE  ROLLING  ROOM.  —  THE  DRAWING  MACHINE.  — FIL¬ 
LETS.  —  PLANCHETS.  —  MILLING  THE  EDGE.  —  ANNEALING  THE  BLANKS.  — 
CUTTING  THE  DIES.  — THE  TRANSFER  OR  REDUCING  LATHE.  —  THE  PRESS. 

• — NUMBER  OF  BLANKS  STAMPED  IN  A  MINUTE.  —  FINAL  PROCESS.  —  BAG¬ 
GING  THE  GOLD.  —  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  MINT  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  —  ITS 
IMPROVEMENT  AND  CAPACITY.  —  PIECES  AND  VALUES  IN  A  SINGLE  YEAR.  — 
COIN  WITHDRAWN  FROM  CIRCULATION. — USE  OF  COIN  IN  MANUFACTURES 
AND  THE  ARTS.  —  CURIOSITIES. 

Gold  and  silver  were  used  as  **  money, ”  and  as  the  best  medium 
of  exchange  for  values,  in  the  remotest  periods  of  antiquity.  The 
“  pieces  of  silver,”  however,  mentioned  in  the  earlier  books  of 
the  Bible,  were  rings  of  metal,  though  stamped  coins  of  a  very  . 
early  era  are  now  extant.  According  to  Herodotus,  the  Lydians 
were  the  first  to  stamp  coins.  The  oldest  Greek  coins  in  the  Brit¬ 
ish  Museum  are  those  of  iEgina,  and  they  bear  a  figure  of  a  tor¬ 
toise  on  one  side  ;  and  Phidon,  of  Argos,  is  said  to  have  struck 
the  first  coins  in  Greece,  748  B.  C.  There  is  an  abundance  of 
Roman  coins  in  various  collections  in  Europe  and  America,  bear¬ 
ing  “the  image  and  superscription”  of  Caesar  and  other  rulers, 
with  medals  commemorative  of  events  and  victories,  to  which  we 
are  indebted  for  the  presumed  portraits  of  great  men  of  the  dif¬ 
ferent  periods,  and  many  of  these  coins  show  great  artistic  skill 
in  the  cutting  of  the  dies. 

In  order  to  present  a  clear  idea  of  how  coins  and  medals  are 
made  or  “  minted  ”  at  the  present  day,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
give  briefly,  and  as  perfectly  as  can  be  done  without  diagrams,  a 
description  of  the  processes  pursued  at  the  United  States  Mint  at 
Philadelphia,  which  is  believed  to  be  behind  no  other  mint  in  the 
world  in  the  perfection  of  its  machinery. 


(151) 


152 


COINAGE,  OR  MANUFACTURE  OF  MONEY. 


In  converting1  gold,  silver,  and  copper  (or  copper  and  nickel)  into 
the  coin  of  the  country,  the  processes  are  so  nearly  similar  that  a 
detailed  description  of  the  manner  of  minting  gold  will  be  suffi¬ 
cient.  The  gold,  alloyed  to  the  proper  standard  for  coin,  coines 
to  the  mint  in  ingots,  generally  of  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
ounces,  by  far  the  largest  part  of  it  coming  from  the  New  York 
•  Assay  Office.  Ingots  are  sometimes,  however,  cast  of  different 
thicknesses  and  weights,  according  to  the  coin  to  be  cut  from 
them.  The  mint  has  its  own  assaying  department,  both  for  the 
reduction  of  such  gold  as  it  receives  to  “  standard  gold,”  as  well 
as  for  testing  the  standard  of  the  stamped  ingots  from  New  York 
and  elsewhere.  The  standard  in  England  is  twenty-two  parts  of  pure 
gold  and  two  parts  of  pure  copper,  and  in  the  United  States,  and 
most  other  nations,  it  is  nine  tenths  pure  gold  and  one  tenth  alloy. 
Whenever  the  assay  of  ingots,  or  other  gold,  is  unsatisfactory,  it 
is  adjusted  to  the  standard  and  re-melted. 

The  ingots  are  taken  first  to  the  rolling  room,  where  they  are 
heated  to  redness,  and  are  then  “  broken  down  ”  between  power¬ 
ful  rollers  of  chilled  cast  iron  driven  by  steam.  This  operation  is 
repeated  five  or  six  times,  till,  by  adjustment  of  the  rollers,  the 
ingots  are  reduced  to  two  tenths  of  an  inch  in  thickness  and  five 
or  six  inches  in  width.  The  plates  are  then  annealed  at  red  heat 
for  twenty  minutes,  and  are  plunged  into  cold  water,  which  would 
make  iron  or  steel  hard  and  brittle,  but  it  makes  gold  and  silver 
tough  and  soft.  After  annealing,  still  further  rolling  is  effected  in 
different  sets  of  rolls  till  the  plate  is  of  the  required  thickness ;  it 
is  cut  (or  rolled)  into  “  fillets  ”  or  strips  which  go  next  to  the 
li  drawing  machine,”  which  reduces  the  strip  to  a  perfectly  unifoym 
thickness  from  end  to  end.  Gold  in  passing  through  this  machine 
must  be  lubricated  with  wax,  though  grease  is  used  for  silver,  and 
after  drawing,  the  strips  are  thoroughly  cleaned  with  warm  water. 

The  fillet  is  now  cut  into  four  pieces,  and  the  “  trier  ”  cuts  out  one 
or  more  blanks  from  each  strip,  and  weighs  it  in  a  delicate  scale. 

If  it  is  found  that  the  strips  are  too  thin,  they  must  go  back  to  the 

# 

melting  crucible  ;  if  they  are  too  thick,  they  need  further  drawing  ; 
but  so  minutely  can  the  drawing  machine  be  adjusted,  that  there 
need  not  be  the  difference  of  half  a  grain  in  fifty  blanks,  and 
consequently  in  fifty  coins.  Satisfactorily  tested,  the  fillets  are 
next  taken  to  the  cutting*out  room,  where  they  are  cut  by  machin¬ 
ery  into  round  blanks  or  lt  planchets,”  a  trifle  larger  than  the 
intended  coin.  This  is  a  rapid  process,  each  machine  cutting 


COINAGE,  OR  MANUFACTURE  OF  MONEY. 


153 


blanks  for  two  hundred  and  twenty  double  eagles,  or  two  hundred 
and  fifty  smaller  blanks,  every  minute.  The  perforated  strips,  or 
**  scissel,”  are  bundled  up  to  be  re-melted,  and  the  blanks  are  sent 
to  the  adjusting  room. 

In  this  room  every  blank  is  carefully  examined  to  see  if  it  is 
perfect ;  it  is  minutely  weighed,  and  if  too  light  is  laid  aside  to  be 
re-melted,  and  if  too  heavy  is  “  adjusted  ”  by  filing.  The  work 
is  done  by  women,  and  this  minuteness  of  weighing  and  examina¬ 
tion  is  only  with  the  gold  pieces,  and  in  gold  a  deviation  of  not 
more  than  three  pennyweights  in  a  thousand  double  eagles  is  per¬ 
missible,  which  is  the  “  remedy  ”  for  underweights  and  over¬ 
weights,  for  the  production  of  a  large  number  of  coins  with  the 
weight  of  each  exactly  equal  is  simply  impossible.  Of  course  the 
balances  used,  like  every  instrument  and  every  machine  used  in 
the  process  of  coinage,  is  of  the  utmost  possible  delicacy  and  ac¬ 
curacy  of  construction. 

The  next  process  is  to  raise  the  slight  rim  seen  on  the  edge  of 
the  coin  on  either  face,  which  protects  the  device  and  letters  from 
wear.  This  is  rapidly  done  in  a  “  milling  machine  ”  at  the  rate  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  double  eagle  planchets  a  minute,  and  the 
edge  is  raised  one  thirty-second  part  of  an  inch. 

During  these  preliminary  processes  the  blanks  have  become  so 
hard  and  so  discolored  that  they  must  be  annealed  and  cleaned 
before  they  are  minted  ;  if  they  were  not  annealed,  the  first  blank 
in  the  press,  instead  of  receiving  the  impression,  might  break  the 
die.  The  blanks  are  accordingly  arranged  in  “  rouleaux  ”  in 
iron  or  copper  trays,  the  covers  of  which  are  sealed  on  with  clay 
so  as  to  make  them  as  nearly  air-tight  as  possible.  These  trays  are 
subjected  to  a  red  heat  for  twenty  minutes,  are  then  taken  out, 
and  when  cool  are  opened,  and  the  blanks  are  thrown  into  cold 
water  to  anneal.  When  cold  they  are  put  into  a  bath  of  boiling 
sulphuric  acid  diluted  with  nirfe  parts  of  water.  In  a  few  minutes 
the  blanks  are  free  from  the  oxide  formed  in  the  process  of  anneal¬ 
ing,  and  are  now  perfectly  “  blanched.”  They  are  then  washed 
to  free  them  from  every  trace  of  the  sulphuric  acid,  and  are  thor¬ 
oughly  dried  by  revolving  them  in  a  drum  containing  heated  box¬ 
wood  or  basswood  sawdust.  From  the  drum  they  fall  into  a  sieve, 
which  rids  them  of  the  sawdust,  and  are  then  revolved  for  about 
an  hour  to  polish  each  other  by  attrition.  They  are  now  ready 
for  the  most  important  and  final  process  of  coinage. 

The  dies  from  which  the  impressions  on  the  coins  are  struck  are 


154 


COINAGE,  OR  MANUFACTURE  OF  MONEY. 


made  as  follows  :  The  head,  figure  of  Liberty  or  other  device,  is 
first  made  on  a  large  scale,  five  or  six  times  the  size  of  the  die  for 
the  coin,  of  wax,  from  which  a  brass  cast  is  taken.  This  cast  is 
the  guide,  from  which  a  reduced  copy  (the  cast  is  in  relief)  is 
cut  into  steel  by  an  ingenious  “  transferring  ”  or  “  reducing  ”  lathe, 
one  part  of  which  carefully  follows  every  part  of  the  model,  while 
a  corresponding  part  cuts  the  reduced  fac-simile  in  the  steel.  The 
machine  thus  reduces  the  cast  in  perfect  proportion,  leaving  but 
little  finishing  to  do  by  hand,  and  giving  a  “  hub  ”  or  “  male  die  ” 
in  relief,  which,  when  hardened,  is  used  to  strike  in  soft  steel, 
subsequently  hardened,  the  reverse  dies  from  which  the  coins  are 
struck.  The  mint  has  at  all  times,  for  itself  and  for  branch  mints, 
complete  sets  of  hubs  and  dies  for  all  the  denominations  of  coins. 
The  transfer  lathe  is  also  used  for  the  production  of  the  medals 
ordered  from  time  to  time  by  Congress  ;  and  it  may  be  mentioned 
here  that  transfer  lathes  on  the  same  principle  are  largely  used  by 
engravers  to  produce  on  steel  and  copper  plates  medallions  and 
other  pictures,  which,  when  printed,  appear  to  be  in  relief. 

There  are  several  styles  of  presses  for  mints  —  Boulton’s  in  the 
British  mint,  Thouvclier’s  French  press,  and  Peale’s  and  later  im¬ 
provements  and  inventions  in  use  in  the  mint  at  Philadelphia.  A 
diagram  is  necessary  to  give  a  complete  idea  of  these  beautiful 
and  ingenious  presses  ;  but  in  general  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
coining  press  is  almost  a  perfect  automaton,  which,  when  the 
blanks  are  fed  to  it  through  a  tube,  takes  each  blank  in  succession 
with  a  **  hand  ”  and  lays  it  upon  the  face  of  the  lower  die.  Both 
faces  of  the  coin  and  the  fluted  or  reeded  edge  (which  is  given  to 
all  gold  and  silver  coins  as  a  guard  against  filing)  are  struck  with 
one  blow,  when  the  automaton  hand  displaces  the  coin  and  puts 
another  blank  in  its  place.  The  pressure  for  a  double  eagle  is 
equal  to  seventy-five  tons,  and  eighty  can  be  coined  in  a  minute. 

Eight  of  these  presses,  driven  by  a  steam  engine,  are  in  a  sin¬ 
gle  room  at  the  mint,  and  are  generally  at  work  simultaneously, 
so  that  nearly  twenty  thousand  pieces  can  be  struck  in  an  hour 
with  only  a  girl  or  boy  to  attend  each  machine.  The  coins  are 
examined  at  intervals  during  the  minting  process  to  see  if  there 
are  any  imperfections,  and  from  the  presses  they  go  to  the  chief 
coiner’s  room,  where  the  gold  pieces  are  counted,  weighed  to  veri¬ 
fy  the  count,  and  are  put  up  in  bags  of  from  one  thousand  dollars 
to  five  thousand  dollars,  according  to  the  denomination. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  complete  process  of  coining  gold,  and  the 


COINAGE,  Oil  MANUFACTURE  OF  MONEY. 


155 


processes  for  silver  and  copper  are  nearly  the  same.  The  double 
eagle  weighs  five  hundred  and  sixteen  grains,  and  lesser  gold  coins 
in  proportion  ;  a  silver  dollar  weighs  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  grains, —  halves,  quarters,  dimes,  and  half  dimes  in  propor¬ 
tion  ;  the  nickel  cent  —  eighty-eight  parts  copper  and  twelve  parts 
nickel  —  weighs  seventy-two  grains. 

The  United  States  Mint  was  established  in  1*793.  It  was  quite 
imperfect  till  1835,  when  Mr.  Franklin  Peale  returned,  after  two 
years*  examination  of  the  mints  of  Europe,  with  all  the  latest  in¬ 
ventions,  which  have  since  been  immensely  improved  upon  at 
Philadelphia.  The  capacity  of  the  mint  is  shown  in  the  fact  that 
nearly  seventy  million  pieces  liave  been  coined  in  a  single  year 
(1853)  ;  nearly  fifty  million  dollars  in  value  were  produced  in  1861  ; 
and  in  the  first  five  months  of  1861  the  mint  coined  12,248,037 
pieces,  worth  $31,123,206.  The  almost  total  withdrawal  of  coin 
from  circulation  in  1862  materially  lessened  the  necessary  la¬ 
bors  of  the  mint,  though  the  presses  have  been  constantly  run¬ 
ning  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  government  for  its  gold  interest 
payments  and  for  deposit ;  large  amounts  of  double  eagles  espe¬ 
cially  are  in  daily  demand  for  export  and  exchange  purposes  ;  and 
vast  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  coin,  especially  silver,  are  used* 
in  manufactures  and  the  arts. 

An  interesting  department  of  the  Mint  is  the  Curiosity  Room, 
which  contains  specimen  coins  from  nearly  all  the  nations  of  the 
world.  The  European  collections  are  very  complete,  and  there 
are  man}’’  coins  from  Turkey,  Egypt,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  Persia,  the 
East  Indies,  Algiers,  China,  and  Japan.  The  Mexican  and  South 
American  series  are  very  full.  Some  of  the  coins  from  the  West 
Indies  are  extremely  rare.  This  department  also  exhibits  Greek 
coins  of  ages  of  from  seven  to  three  centuries  B.  C.,  and  a  superb 
collection  of  Roman  coins  dating  from  A.  D.  395  to  A.  D.  1448. 
There  is  also  a  complete  series  of  the  coins  of  the  United  States 
dating  from  1793,  containing  among  other  coins  a  cent  which  from 
Ps  rarity  is  valued  at  one  hundred  and  ten  dollars.  There  are  also 
specimens  of  African  shell  money.  In  this  room  there  are  sam¬ 
ples  of  copper,  silver,  and  gold  ore  from  all  the  mines  in  the  United 
States,  and  specimens  of  gold  and  silver  from  the  most  celebrated 
mines  of  other  countries. 


TIIE  ICE  TRADE. 


AN  AMERICAN  ENTERPRISE.  —  ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  TIIE  BUSINESS.  —  FRED¬ 
ERIC  TUDOR,  OF  BOSTON.  —  THE  FIRST  EXPORTS  FROM  MASSACHUSETTS  TO 
THE  SOUTH.  — THROWING  A  CARGO  OVERBOARD.  —  ICE  TO  CALCUTTA,  BRAZIL, 
AND  ENGLAND.  —  AMERICAN  ICE  ABROAD.  — MODERN  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  ICE¬ 
HOUSES.  —  USES  FOR  SAWDUST.  —  SOURCES  OF  ICE  SUPPLY.  —  QUANTITY  RE¬ 
QUIRED  FOR  NEW  YORK  CITY. —  SUPPLIES  FOR  THE  WEST  AND  SOUTH.  — 
VALUE  OF  ICE  CROPS.  —  HOW  THE  CROP  IS  SECURED.  —  PROCESSES  OF  GROOV¬ 
ING,  CUTTING,  AND  STORING.  — MANUFACTURE  OF  ARTIFICIAL  ICE. 

Cutting  and  storing  ice  in  large  quantities  for  export  and  for 
domestic  supply  is  a  strictly  American  enterprise,  which  began 
nearly  seventy  years  ago,  and  from  a  small  beginning  has  grown  to 
a  great  business,  employing  throughout  the  northern  states  thou¬ 
sands  of  men  and  millions  of  capital.  Besides  the  great  depots, 
like  Portland,  Maine,  and  Boston,  where  ice  is  stored  for  export,  and 
the  vast  supplies  now  needed  for  large  cities,  almost  every  town 
has  its  local  company  or  companies,  to  supply  what  has  long  since 
ceased  to  be  a  luxury,  and  has  become  a  necessity  in  almost  every 
family.  The  importance  of  this  product  to  the  meat-packers  of 
the  West,  and  to  marketmen  everywhere,  alone  would  make  the 
ice  business  prominent  among  the  industries  of  the  country. 

The  export  of  ice  was  first  undertaken  by  Frederic  Tudor,  of 
Boston,  who  sent  a  small  cargo  to  Martinique,  in  1805.  Ten  years 
later  be  began  to  send  ice  to  Cuba  ;  in  1817  and  1818  to  Charles¬ 
ton  and  Savannah  ;  and  two  years  later  to  New  Orleans.  The 
story  is  current  that  the  first  cargo  to  New  Orleans,  arriving  in  the 
height  of  the  yellow  fever  season,  so  alarmed  the  Creole  popula¬ 
tion,  who  were  ignorant  of  the  precise  purpose  and  character  of 
the  shipment,  that  a  riot  ensued,  during  which  the  entire  cargo 
was  thrown  overboard.  Subsequent  shipments,  however,  made 
known  the  value  and  importance  of  an  article  in  a  city  where  ice 
has  since  commanded  in  different  seasons,  according  to  the  supply, 
from  fifteen  to  one  hundred  dollars  per  ton. 

(156) 


THE  ICE  TRADE. 


157 


The  success  of  these  shipments  to  the  South  induced  Mr.  Tudor, 
in  1833,  to  send  a  cargo  to  Calcutta,  and  the  year  following  to 
Brazil.  Other  Bostonians  and  other  New  England  seaports  soon 
went  into  the  trade,  and  ere  long  Kennebec  River,  Cambridge 
Fresh  Pond,  and  Lake  VVenham  ice  was  known  everywhere  abroad, 
from  London  and  Liverpool  to  Calcutta  and  Canton.  Modern  dis¬ 
coveries,  too,  have  resulted  in  methods  of  laying  in  cargoes,  and 
especially  of  building  ice-houses  in  warm  climates,  so  as  to  permit 
as  little  wastage  by  melting  as  possible.  The  business  has  also 
developed  a  use  for  the  enormous  quantities  of  sawdust  made  in 
the  lumbering  districts,  and  an  article  which  was  once  suffered  to 
run  to  waste  is  found  to  be  the  most  valuable  material  for  packing 
and  storing  ice  in  houses  or  on  shipboard. 

Outside  of  New  England  the  sources  of  domestic  supply  are, 
for  cities  and  towns  in  general  in  the  interior,  the  nearest  rivers, 
fresh  ponds,  and  lakes  ;  for  New  York  city,  which  requires  at  least 
three  hundred  thousand  tons  a  jrear,  Rockland  Lake,  in  Orange 
County,  which  can  furnish  more  than  one-third  of  the  entire  sup¬ 
ply  ;  the  ponds  and  lakes  near  the  Hudson  ;  the  Hudson  River,  at 
Athens,  Hudson,  and  above  ;  and  in  some  seasons  large  quantities 
have  been  brought  from  Saratoga  Lake,  Lake  George,  and  Lake 
Champlain.  The  great  lakes  are  the  main  source  of  supply  to  the 
West  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  supplies  are  sent  down  the 
river  and  by  rail  to  all  the  southern  cities.  The  value  of  the  ice 
crop  in  good  seasons  throughout  the  North  is  enormous.  Apart 
from  the  lakes  and  great  ponds  owned  by  companies,  it  is  not  in¬ 
frequent  that  the  uncut  ice  on  ponds  near  a  large  city  will  be  sold 
for  more  money  in  a  single  winter  than  the  whole  farm  on  which 
the  pond  is  situated  originally  cost.  This  was  particularly  true 
of  ponds  in  Poughkeepsie  and  elsewhere  near  the  Hudson  during 
the  scarcity  and  high-price  season  of  1868-69. 

The  following  is  the  method  of  securing  and  storing  the  ice 
crop  :  On  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  ponds,  and  lakes,  at  convenient 
distances,  are  built  large  ice-houses,  constructed  with  double  walls 
lined  with  tan,  sawdust,  hay,  shavings,  or  other  non-conducting 
substances,  which  will  exclude  heat  and  air  as  much  as  possible, 
and  each  capable  of  holding  from  twenty  thousand  to  sixty  thou¬ 
sand  tons  of  ice.  When  ice  has  “  made  ”  of  suitable  thickness, 
say  from  nine  to  twelve  inches,  the  snow  is  taken  off  with  scrapers 
drawn  by  horses,  and  if  there  is  a  porous  thaw  or  “  rain-ice  ”  sur¬ 
face,  it  is  planed  off  by  means  of  steel-blade  scrapers.  The  next 


158  THE  ICE  TRADE. 

process  is  grooving  tin  ice  with  a  machine  similar  to  a  harrow, 
the  teeth  of  which  mark  out  the  surface  in  blocks  of  the  size  to 
be  stored.  A  section  of  these  blocks  is  sawed  out,  and  then  the 
whole  surface  is  split  off  in  sections  with  “  ice  spades. ”  These 
sections  are  hauled  or  floated  to  the  ice-houses,  where  they  are 
broken  into  the  blocks  made  by  the  grooves,  are  hoisted  in,  —  by 
steam  generally,  —  are  compactly  piled  till  the  house  is  filled,  and 
are  then  ready  for  delivery  and  shipment  in  the  ensuing  season. 
The  gathering  of  the  crop  may  go  on  by  moonlight  as  well  as  by 
daylight  during  the  short,  sharp,  and  busy  season,  and  the  process 
on  the  largest  scale  can  be  seen  to  the  best  advantage  at  Athens, 
on  the  Hudson  River,  at  Fresh  Pond,  Cambridge,  or  at  Lake  Wen- 
ham,  Massachusetts. 

Within  a  few  years  considerable  enterprise  and  capital  have 
been  engaged  in  New  Orleans  and  other  southern  cities  in  the 
manufacture  of  artificial  ice.  Several  machines  for  this  purpose 
have  been  invented  in  the  United  States,  in  England,  and  in 
France,  and  in  recent  experiments  at  the  South  the  French  ma¬ 
chines  have  been  preferred.  The  principle  of  all  the  machines  is 
the  same  —  to  produce  intense  cold  by  rapid  evaporation  ;  and  ice 
and  salt,  or  nitrate  of  ammonia  and  water,  or  sulphuric  acid,  as¬ 
sisted  by  the  air  pump  and  the  steam  engine,  are  used  in  the  pro¬ 
cess.  By  these  machines  pure  ice  is  produced;  but  the  machines 
are  expensive,  though  it  is  claimed  that  ice  by  this  process  can  be 
produced  at  the  South  in  large  quantities  os  cheaply  as  it  can  be 
imported  from  the  North. 

In  one  of  the  latest  established  artificial  ice  manufactories,  at 
Atlanta,  Georgia,  the  machinery  employed  weighs  fifty  tons;  the 
agent  for  evaporation  is  aqua  ammonia,  which  is  deposited  in  an 
upright  cylindrical  evaporator,  through  which  steam  pipes  pass,  gen¬ 
erating  steam,  which  passes  into  a  liquefier,  where  it  is  condensed, 
and  goes  by  pipes  through  the  freezing  baths.  The  ammonia  is 
returned  to  the  evaporator,  and  is  repeatedly  re-used.  Tin'  water 
in  the  cans  comes  out  in  clear,  hard  cakes  of  ice,  weighing  twen¬ 
ty-five  pounds  each,  and  four  cans  are  emptied  every  five  minutes. 
By  carrying  on  the  works  night  and  day,  this  manufactory  can 
turn  out  fourteen  tons  every  twenty-four  hours,  and  it  is  intended 
to  produce  at  least  ten  tons  of  merchantable  ice  every  day. 


THE  IDEA  OF  UTILIZING  THE  ENERGY  OF  RUNNING  WATER.  —  THE  CLASSIFICA¬ 
TION  OF  WATER  WHEELS.  - THE  THEORY  OF  HYDRAULICS.  — THE  OVERSHOT 

WHEEL.  —  THE  UNDERSHOT  WHEEL-  —  THE  BREAST  WHEEL.  — THE  TIDE 

WHEEL. - TURBINE  WHEELS.  —  THEIR  INVENTION.  — THEIR  IMPROVEMENT. — 

EXPERIMENTAL  TESTS.  — THEIR  INTRODUCTION  INTO  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — 
IMPROVEMENTS  SUGGESTED  HERE. — THE  ECLIPSE  DOUBLE  TURBINE. — ITS 
CLAIMS,  AND  HOW  IT  SUPPORTS  THEM. 

The  idea  of  applying  the  energy  of  running  water  as  a  motive 
force  for  machinery  must  have  early  occurred  to  mankind,  since 
all  record  of  its  first  practical  application  is  lost.  At  the  present 
day  many  of  the  semi-civilized  nations,  who,  in  other  respects, 
are  quite  backward  in  invention,  have  arrived  at  the  use  of  water 
wheels  in  their  rude  industries. 

With  the  study  of  hydraulics,  the  various  applications  of  the 
energy  of  running  water  have  been  classified  into  two  general 
divisions,  according  as  the  position  of  the  axes  of  the  wheels  used 
are  horizontal  or  vertical.  The  first  of  these  is  the  kind  of  water 
wheel  which  was  always  used  in. early  times,  since  it  is  the  sim¬ 
plest  in  construction,  and  does  not  require  an  accurate  or  scien¬ 
tific  knowledge  of  hydraulics. 

In  theory,  the  natural  force  of  the  current,  the  energy  of  the 
stream,  should  be  equal  to  the  volume  of  water  which  in  a  given 
time  strikes  the  floats  of  the  wheel  multiplied  by  the  amount  of 
the  fall,  or  the  descent  of  the  stream  within  a  given  space.  In 
practice,  however,  the  irregularities  in  the  volume  and  in  the 
velocity  of  the  stream  from  time  to  time,  and  the  loss  from  the 
friction  of  the  stream  against  the  sides  and  bottom  of  its  bed, 
have  shown  that  it  is  better  to  remedy  these  faults  by  gathering  a 
body  of  water  large  enough  to  serve  as  a  steady  supply  for  some 
time,  and  then,  through  a  properly  constructed  canal  or  channel, 

(159) 


1G0 


WATER  WHEELS. 


draw  the  supply  needed  for  imparting-  the  required  force  to  the 
wheel. 

This  result  is  obtained  by  building  a  dam,  or  weir,  across  the 
stream,  and  throwing  the  water  back  into  a  pond  ;  thus  obtaining 
a  supply,  or  head  of  water,  which  may  be  drawn  from  at  pleasure. 
From  this  reservoir  a  canal,  opening  with  a  flood  gate,  supplies 
the  water  for  the  wheel,  at  any  desired  elevation,  or  in  any  desired 
quantity.  In  theory,  from  a  pond  of  water  filled  to  a  certain 
depth,  a  stream  of  water  of  the  same  volume  will  exert  the  same 
energy,  whether  it  be  drawn  from  the  top  and  allowed  to  flow 
over  the  wheel,  or  be  drawn  from  the  bottom  and  directed  against 
the  wheel,  or  whether  it  be  drawn  midway,  and  flow  against  the 
wheel  in  its  course  to  reach  the  same  level,  which  it  attains  in 
each  of  these  three  cases.  This  conclusion  is  derived  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  equal  pressure  of  water  in  all  directions,  and 
since  the  force  imparted  to  the  stream  from  the  top,  by  gravity,  is 
equal  to  that  imparted  to  the  stream  from  the  bottom,  by  the  pres¬ 
sure  of  the  superincumbent  water  in  the  pond.  In  practice,  how¬ 
ever,  this  theoretical  conclusion  is  found  to  be  modified  by  the 
resistance  of  the  air,  the  friction  of  the  sides,  the  eddies,  and  other 
causes. 

Water  wheels  whose  axes  are  horizontal  are  therefore  divided  into 
four  classes,  according  to  the  manner  in  which  the  energy  of  the 
stream  is  directed  against  them.  These  classes  are  overshot, 
undershot,  breast  wheels,  and  suspended  or  tide  wheels.  In  the 
overshot  wheel  the  top  of  the  wheel  is  placed  at  the  level,  or  a 
little  below  the  level,  of  the  water  in  the  reservoir,  and  the  flow 
of  the  water  is  regulated  b}r  a  flood  gate.  The  stream  of  water 
is  received  in  chambers,  formed  of  planks,  extending  between  the 
two  sides  of  the  wheel,  and  placed  at  an  angle,  or  curved  towards 
the  stream.  These  planks  are  called  buckets,  and  the  wheels  so 
constructed  are  sometimes  called  bucket  wheels.  It  has  been 
proved  by  experiment  that  the  greatest  effect  is  produced  when 
the  diameter  of  the  wheel  equals  the  fall  of  the  water;  but,  as  a 
general  rule,  other  things  being  equal,  the  slower  the  revolution 
the  more  effectually  is  the  energy  of  the  water  utilized  ;  since,  in 
this  case,  the  water  is  not  thrown  off  by  the  centrifugal  force  of 
the  wheel,  but,  having  time  enough,  can  enter  the  buckets  more 
evenly  and  regularly,  and  has  its  energy  more  completely  ex¬ 
hausted,  before  the  revolution  of  the  wheel  allows  it  to  escape  and 
flow  away.  The  velocity  allowed  the  water  is  generally  from 


WATER  WHEELS. 


161 


three  to  five  feet  a  second,  the  motion  imparted  by  the  revolution 
of  the  wheel  being  increased  in  the  machinery  by  well-known 
mechanical  devices.  Wheels  of  this  kind  are  suitable  for  falls  of 
from  ten  to  fifty  feet  high.  The  buckets  are  not  increased  pro¬ 
portionately  to  the  increased  diameter  of  the  wheel ;  about  twenty- 
four  buckets  being  provided  for  a  ten-foot  wheel,  while  one  of 
twenty  feet  has  fifty-six,  and  one  of  forty  feet  one  hundred  and 
eight.  Under  the  best  conditions  a  wheel  constructed  in  this 
manner  utilizes  about  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  energy  of  the 
stream. 

An  undershot  wheel  is  placed  either  directly  in  a  running 
stream,  or  close  to  a  fall  or  a  dam.  In  this  last  case  the  water  is 
drawn  from  the  reservoir  by  a  flood  gate  made  at  the  bottom  of 
the  dam,  and  issuing  with  force,  acts  against  the  floats  or  palettes 
with  which  the  wheel  is  provided,  thus  forcing  it  to  revolve.  By 
experiment  it  has  been  found  that  the  thickness  of  the  sheet  of 
water  allowed  to  flow  through  the  flood  gate  should  not  exceed 
.82  of  a  foot, .nor  be  less  than  .492  of  a  foot,  while  the  floats 
should  be  a  little  more  than  two  feet  in  width.  The  diameter  of 
the  wheel  should  be  between  thirteen  and  twenty-six  feet,  and  the 
floats  should  be  placed  at  distances  about  equalling  their  width. 
If  the  wheel  moves  with  the  velocity  of  the  stream,  being  merely 
carried  by  it,  it  would  not  transmit  any  of  the  energy  of  the  cur¬ 
rent,  since  the  floats  would  offer  no  resistance  to  the  current.  On 
the  other  hand,  if#  the  resistance  of  the  work  to  be  done  was  so 
great  as  to  hold  the  wheel  stationary  against  the  force  of  the 
stream,  the  wheel  would  not  move,  and  there  would  be  no  motion. 
The  point  at  which  the  greatest  amount  of  the  energy  of  the 
stream  would  be  utilized  must,  therefore,  lie  somewhere  between 
these  two  points  of  the  maximum  of  motion  with  no  power,  and 
the  maximum  of  power  with  no  motion.  By  experiment  it  is 
found  that  the  point  at  which  the  maximum  of  energy  is  utilized, 
is  when  the  velocity  of  the  wheel  is  forty-five  per  cent.,  or  nearly 
one  half,  of  the  velocity  of  the  stream.  In  consequence,  how¬ 
ever,  of  the  friction  of  the  water,  the  irregularity  of  the  stream, 
and  the  impossibility  of  utilizing,  by  the  agency  of  the  floats,  all 
the  energy  of  the  current,  the  average  amount  of  the  energy 
made  use  of  is  low  in  undershot  wheels,  amounting,  as  an  average, 
to  between  twenty-five  and  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  that  furnished 
by  the  stream.  Therefore  undershot  wheels  are  less  frequently 
used. 


162 


WATER  WHEELS. 


An  improvement  in  their  construction,  however,  is  made,  in 
which  the  floats  are  curved,  so  that  the  water  rises  in  them  more 
uniformly,  and,  being  retained  longer,  more  of'  its  energy  is  util¬ 
ized.  In  this  improved  form,  which  is  known,  from  the  name 
of  the  inventor,  as  Poncelet’s  wheel,  the  floats  are  nearly  double 
in  number,  compared  with  the  usual  form,  and  the  percentage  of 
the  energy  of  the  stream  which  is  utilized  is  raised  to  between 
fifty  and  sixty. 

The  breast  wheel  resembles  the  undershot  wheel  in  its  con¬ 
struction,  but  has  its  floats  placed  nearer  together,  and  inclined 
somewhat  towards  the  stream.  It  is  so  set,  with  reference  to  the 
stream,  that  about  one-quarter  of  its  circumference  turns  close  to 
a  channel  corresponding  to  the  curve  of  its  circumference,  down 
which  the  water,  supplied  through  a  flood  gate,  descends.  The 
object  of  this  arrangement  is  to  make  use  both  of  the  weight  and 
the  momentum  of  the  water,  and,  as  in  this  respect  the  breast 
wheel  holds  an  intermediate  position  between  the  undershot  and 
the  overshot  wheels,  it  stands  also  in  the  same  position  with 
regard  to  its  value.  Being  less  loaded  with  water  than  the  over¬ 
shot  wheel,  it  works  with  less  strain  or  friction  upon  the  bearings, 
and,  under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  ulilizes  about  sixty-live 
per  cent,  of  the  energy  of  the  stream.  From  experiments  it  has 
been  decided  that  the  diameter  of  a  breast  wheel  should  not  be 
less  than  sixteen  feet  nor  more  than  twenty-three,  while  the  best 
results  are  obtained  from  falls  which  are  not  less  than  four  nor 
more  than  ten  feet  high.  According  as  the  stream  is  received 
against  the  wheel,  above  or  below  its  horizontal  diameter,  the 
wheels  are  called  high  or  low  breast  wheels. 

A  suspended  wheel  is  one  intended  to  utilize  the  current  of  a 
river  in  which  it  is  set.  They  are  generally  used  for  temporary 
puposes,  and  are  frequently  set  like  the  paddle  wheel  of  a  steam¬ 
boat,  and  sometimes  in  pairs,  one  on  each  side  of  a  boat  moored 
in  the  stream,  the  shaft  being  connected  with  the  machinery  on 
the  slore.  The  power  utilized  by  wheels  of  this  description  is 
found  to  reach  its  maximum  when  their  motion  is  about  forty  per 
cent,  of  that  of  the  current  of  the  river.  Their  diameter  should 
not  exceed  fifteen  feet,  their  floats  numbering  from  twelve  to 
twenty-four.  A  wheel  of  this  description  which  is  moved  by  the 
tide  is  called  a  tide  wheel,  and  is  generally  furnished  with  a  me¬ 
chanical  arrangement  to  utilize  both  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide, 


WATER  WHEELS. 


163 


by  moving  the  machinery  in  the  same  direction,  whichever  that 
of  the  wheel  itself  may  be. 

The  largest  water  wheel  with  a  horizontal  axle  in  the  world  is 
said  to  be  an  overshot  wheel  in  the  Isle  of  Man.  It  is  used  in 
the  working  of  a  lead  and  silver  mine.  Its  diameter  is  seventy- 
two  feet  and  a  half,  its  breadth  is  six  feet,  and  it  has  a  stroke 
of  ten  feet.  Its  power  is  estimated  as  equal  to  two  hundred  horse 
power,  and  it  pumps  two  hundred  and  fifty  gallons  of  water  to  a 
height  of  four  hundred  feet  every  minute. 

In  modern  times  the  attention  of  inventors  has  been  turned  to 
water  wheels  with  vertical  axes,  and  the  greater  advantages  of 
these,  in  economy  of  construction  and  increase  of  power,  has  led 
to  their  very  general  substitution  for  the  old-fashioned  water 
wheels  with  horizontal  axes.  Wheels  of  this  kind  are  generall}7- 
called  turbine  wheels,  from  the  similarity  of  their  construction  to 
the  shells  of  this  name,  with  spirally  formed  chambers  arranged 
about  a  centre. 

Turbine  wheels  are  horizontally  submerged  in  the  water,  and 
provided  with  curved  vertical  buckets,  or  floats,  which  revolve 
around  a  fixed  horizontal  disk  provided  with  guides  to  direct  the 
impelling  stream  of  water,  and  are  thus  made  to  revolve,  carrying 
a  shaft  or  axis  running  through  the  centre  common  to  the  wheel 
and  the  disk.  The  earliest  suggestion  in  modern  times,  which  in 
a  very  general  way  suggested  the  idea  of  the  turbine  wheel,  was 
the  arrangement  known  as  Barker’s  mill,  which  is  now  used  moro 
as  a  philosophical  toy,  or  as  a  spout  for  small  fountains,  than  for 
any  more  practical  purpose.  In  this  a  hollow  vertical  shaft 
receives  the  stream,  and  discharges  it  from  horizontal  arms  curved 
at  the  ends.  The  force  of  the  water  as  it  discharges  presses  upon 
these  arms  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  causes  them  to  revolve. 
Sometimes  the  same  effect  is  produced  by  making  the  horizontal 
arms  straight,  and  discharging  the  water  through  holes  in  their 
sides. 

In  France  what  is  called  the  spoon  wheel  has  been  long  in  use. 
In  this  arrangement  a  vertical  axle  is  provided  with  a  number  of 
curved  blades,  projecting  from  it  horizontally.  A  descending 
stream  of  water  is  projected  against  these  arms,  and  thus  a  fair 
percentage  of  the  energy  of  the  stream  is  utilized,  when  the  sup¬ 
ply  and  the  fall  are  not  too  great. 

The  turbine  wheel  proper  was,  however,  first  brought  into  prac¬ 
tical  use,  if  it  was  not  invented,  by  a  French  inventor,  Benoit 


164 


WATER  WHEELS. 


Fourneyron,  about  1834.  In  bis  machine  there  were  two  reser¬ 
voirs  of  water,  at  different  levels.  In  the  lower  of  these  the 
wheel  and  disk  are  submerged,  and  the  water  from  the  upper 
reservoir  descends  vertically  through  a  hollow  cylinder  upon  the 
disk,  or  fixed  solid  circular  plate  below.  As  the  cylinder  does  not 
reach  quite  down  to  the  disk,  there  is  a  lateral  circular  opening, 
of  small  size,  completely  around  and  between  the  two.  This  cir¬ 
cular  opening  is  enclosed  with  the  horizontal  wheel,  which  is  thus 
annular  in  form,  and  turns  round  outside  of  the  disk  and  cylinder. 
This  wheel  is  formed  of  an  upper  and  lower  crown  separated  by  a 
space  of  about  a  foot,  and  is  horizontal  in  position  and  annular  in 
form.  In  the  space  between  the  upper  and  lower  crown  are 
arranged  vertical  floats,  or  buckets,  which  are  curved,  resembling 
in  this  respect  the  floats  of  the  Poncelet  undershot  wheel. 
The  upright  guides  fixed  upon  the  disk  direct  the  issuing  stream 
of  water  against  the  curved  floats  of  the  wheel ;  and,  as  the  water 
issues  upon  all  sides,  it  acts  upon  all  the  floats  at  the  same  time, 
and  continually,  thus  forcing  it  to  revolve,  and  with  it  the  axis  to 
which  it  is  attached  The  volume  of  water  discharged  into  the 
apparatus  is  regulated  by  a  movable  hollow  cylinder,  called  a 
regulating  gate,  and  working  along  the  fixed  cylinder.  The 
guides  upon  the  fixed  disk  are  curved  similarly  to  the  buckets, 
but  in  an  opposite  direction,  so  that  the  water  escapes  from  them 
at  a  tangent,  thus  striking  the  buckets  almost  perpendicularly, 
and  greatly  increasing  its  action  upon  the  wheel. 

Some  modifications  have  been  made  in  the  construction  of  this 
original  form  of  the  turbine  wheel,  one  of  which,  by  Fontaine,  was 
exhibited  in  the  London  Exhibition  of  1851  ;  another  modification 
is  known  as  Jonval’s  ;  but  the  performance  of  these  wheels,  like 
that  of  Fourneyron’s,  is  to  secure  the  utilization  of  from  seventy- 
five  to  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  energy  of  the  water — a  result  which 
is  a  great  improvement  upon  that  of  the  ordinary  water  wheels. 

The  chief  advantages  of  the  turbine  wheels  over  all  other 
forms  for  utilizing  the  energy  of  running  water  may  be  concisely 
stated  thus  :  They  occupy  but  little  space  ;  their  action  is  uni¬ 
form  and  steady  ;  the  wheel  being  submerged,  there  is  no  strain  or 
increased  friction  upon  the  axis  in  any  one  direction  ;  they  turn 
with  great  velocity  ;  being  submerged,  they  are  not  affected  by 
ice  ;  they  utilize  a  greater  percentage  of  the  energy  ;  and  their 
efficiency  does  not  decrease  in  the  same  ratio  as  their  velocity. 

Until  about  1843  the  water  wheels  in  use  in  the  United  States 


WORKS  OF  THE  STILWELL  8c  BIERCE  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY,  DAYTON,  OHIO 


WATER  WHEELS. 


167 


were  always  those  with  horizontal  axes.  In  this  year  Mr.  Edward 
Morris  printed,  in  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  a  transla¬ 
tion  of  Morin’s  Experiments  on  Turbines,  and  gave,  also,  an 
account  of  some  experiments  made  upon  two  turbines,  which 
were  constructed  from  designs  of  his  own,  and  one  of  which  util¬ 
ized  seventy-five  percent,  of  the  energy  of  the  stream.  In  18-14 
Mr.  U.  A.  Boyden,  of  Massachusetts,  built  a  turbine  for  the  use 
of  a  cotton  mill  in  Lowell  which  utilized  seventy-eight  per  cent, 
of  the  power.  He  afterwards  built  others,  of  one  hundred  and 
ninety  horse  power  each,  for  the  same  manufacturing  company. 
Besides  this,  Mr.  Boyden,  in  his  work  published  in  1855,  at  Boston, 
under  the  title  Lowell  Hydraulic  Experiments,  has  given  a  valu¬ 
able  account  of  his  experimental  researches  respecting  the  con¬ 
struction  and  proportions  of  turbines,  and  also  many  data  of 
value  on  other  hydraulic  questions. 

The  attention  of  the  industry  of  the  United  States  being 
thus  directed  to  the  advantages  of  turbine  wheels,  the  inventive 
talent  of  the  country  began  naturally  to  interest  itself  in  their 
improvement,  and  experiment  in  new  methods  for  combining 
excellence  and  cheapness  in  their  manufacture.  Among  the 
variety  of  turbines  which  have  resulted  from  this  competition, 
the  Eclipse  Double  Turbine,  made  by  the  Stilwell  and  Bierce 
Manufacturing  Company,  of  Dayton,  Ohio,  claims  the  first  place. 
The  turbines  made  by  this  company  are  built  upon  the  model  of  a 
wheel  invented  by  Mr.  J.  0.  Joyce,  after  years  of  careful  study 
and  comparison  of  the  merits  and  defects  of  those  previously  in 
use.  As  a  practical  mechanician,  and  with  the  experience  of  an 
inventor,  Mr.  Joyce  saw  that  his  efforts  should  be  directed 
towards  the  construction  of  a  turbine  in  which  the  reception  and 
discharge  of  the  water  should  be  scientifically  performed,  while 
the  construction  should  be  as  simple  as  possible,  avoiding  the 
complexity  which  is  so  injurious  in  mechanism  of  any  kind. 

The  result  of  his  labors  was  the  production  of  the  Eclipse 
/Double  Turbine,  which  was  patented  in  1868  and  1810,  and  for 
simplicity,  durability,  percentage  of  energy  utilized,  and  price, 
challenges  comparison  with  any  other. 

One  of  its  peculiar  merits  is  the  conical  interior  of  the  wheel, 

•  • 

by  which  ample  vent  is  afforded  for  the  free  discharge  of  both 
tiers  of  buckets.  This  important  improvement  effectually  pre¬ 
vents  any  reaction  of  the  water,  and  forestalls  any  demand  upon 
the  wheel  of  the  dead  weight  of  water  whose  energy  has  been 

10 


168 


WATER  WHEELS 


consumed.  Another  point  is  having  the  water  ways  or  chutes 
fixed,  being  cast  with  the  wheel  case  in  one  piece,  so  that  the 
water  is  delivered  upon  the  wheel  always  at  the  same  angle, 
whether  the  gates  are  fully  or  only  partially  opened.  This 


feature  is  peculiar  to  the  Eclipse  Turbine.  A  third  point  is  the 
construction  of  the  register  case,  by  which  the  amount  of  water 
delivered  to  the  wheel  is  regulated  without  ever  changing  the 
direction  of  the  stream,  or  its  relative  angle  with  the  face  of  the 


WATER  WHEELS. 


169 


bucket,  or  checking  the  velocity  of  the  water  admitted.  This  is 
a  most  important  point  for  economy  in  the  us^1  of  the  water. 
Another  point  of  importance  is  the  simplicity  in  the  construction 
of  the  machine ;  the  wheel,  wheel  case,  and  register  case  being 
each  cast  in  a  single  piece,  and  thus  all  the  complication  of  the 
construction  in  parts  being  done  away  with  ;  while,  being  manu¬ 
factured  to  measurements,  any  portion  which  may  need  to  be 
replaced  can  be  readily  obtained. 

The  manufacturers  of  the  Eclipse  Double  Turbine  have  erected 
at  their  works  a  Testing  Flume,  that  they  might  intelligently  pur¬ 
sue  the  business  of  constructing  the  most  improved  Turbine 
Wheel,  by  obtaining  such  exact  knowledge  as  can  only  be  ascer¬ 
tained  by  exact  measurements.  Their  Flume  is  constructed  in  a 
* 

scientific  manner,  and  is  equipped  with  one  of  James  Emerson’s 
improved  Dynamometers,  a  machine  which  indicates  with  mathe¬ 
matical  accuracy  the  power  exerted  by  the  wheel,  while  the  water 
expended  upon  the  wheel  is  measured  in  thousandths  of  a  foot, 
by  means  of  Hook  Gauges.  In  this  manner  the  necessary  data  is 
obtained  for  calculating  with  precision  the  percentage  of  power 
which  a  wheel  will  utilize  under  any  head  and  fall,  together  with 
the  amount  of  water  it  will  consume.  Exact  information  upon 
these  points  is  of  vital  importance  to  all  who  use  water  for  a 
motive  power,  and  the  manufacturers  of  the  Eclipse  Double  Tur¬ 
bine  are  entitled  to  credit  for  extending  to  purchasers  of  water 
wheels  the  free  use  of  the  most  improved  apparatus  known  for 
accurately  determining  the  percentage  of  useful  effect  produced 
by  their  wheel ;  thus  absolutely  securing  them  against  imposition 
or  disappointment. 


LITIIOGRAPIIY. 

* 


ITS  ADVANTAGES.  —  THE  INVENTOR.  —  ALOIS  SENEFELDER,  OF  BAVARIA. — 
TIIE  FROGRESS  OF  THE  ART  IN  EUROPE.  —  ITS  INTRODUCTION  IN  THE  UNI¬ 
TED  STATES.  —  THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  SPECIMEN.  —  ESTABLISHMENTS  IN  BOS¬ 
TON,  NEW  YORK,  AND  PHILADELPHIA.  —  REMBRANDT  PEALE  AS  A  LITHOG¬ 
RAPHER. —  THE  STONE. — WHERE  IT  COMES  FROM*.  —  HOW  DESIGNS  ARE 

MADE.  — THE  PROCESS  OF  PRINTING.  - ETCHING  — AUTOGRAPHY. —  CTIRO- 

MOLITIIOGRAPHY. —  PAINTINGS  EXACTLY  COPIED. — FRUIT,  FISH,  FLOWERS, 
AND  GAME.  —  PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY.  —  APPLICATIONS  OF  THE  ART.  —  LITIIO- 

TINT. - ZINCOGRAPHY.  —  NUMBER  OF  LITHOGRAPHIC  IMPRESSIONS  IN  A  DAY. 

—  A  NEW  LITHOGRAPHIC  PRESS.  —  LITHOGRAPHIC  SIGN-GILDING.  —  SUPE¬ 
RIORITY  OVER  WORK  DONE  BY  HAND.  —  CHEAPNESS  OF  THE  PROCESS.  — 
EXTENT  OF  TIIE  BUSINESS.  —  LITHOGRAPHIC  COMMERCIAL  WORK. 

Lithography  is  the  art  of  drawing1  or  engraving  upon  stone  de¬ 
signs  from  which  impressions  can  be  taken  on  paper.  It  is  a 
branch  of  engraving,  and  an  important  one,  since  it  has  to  a  great 
extent  superseded  engraving  on  steel  and  copper,  particularly  for 
maps,  plans,  and  commercial  purposes.  Its  comparative  cheap¬ 
ness  —  the  cost  being  only  one  third  that  of  engraving  upon  metal 
—  commends  it  to  general  use  ;  and  with  the  advance  in  the  art, 
designs  are  now  produced  which  are  very  little  inferior  to  the 
best  specimens  of  wood  and  steel  engraving  of  the  same  class. 
The  art  was  the  discovery  of  a  Bavarian, — Alois  Senefelder, — 
who,  according  to  the  well-known  story,  happened  to  make  on 
stone  a  memorandum  of  his  washing,  when  it  occurred  to  him  to 
attempt  to  take  an  impression  on  paper.  lie  succeeded,  and 
lithography,  or  the  art  of  writing  on  stone,  was  invented.  This 
was  in  1795.  A  year  afterwards  Senefelder  was  printing  music  by 
the  new  process  ;  he  secured  patents  in  the  German  states,  and 
made  important  improvements.  Rome  and  London  introduced  the 
new  art  in  1807,  and  Paris  in  1814,  and  the  simplicity  and  utility 
of  the  process  soon  made  it  popular  throughout  Europe. 

The  first  specimen  of  lithography  executed  in  the  United  States 
(170) 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


171 

» 

was  published  in  the  Analectic  Magazine  for  July,  1819.  In  the 
same  year,  discoveries  of  a  white  stone,  suitable  for  the  work, 
were  made  in  Indiana.  In  1822  Messrs.  Barnett  and  Doolittle, 
who  had  learned  the  art  in  Paris,  began  the  business  in  New  York. 
In  1827  William  S.  Pendleton  imported  lithographers  and  mate¬ 
rials  from  London,  and  opened  an  establishment  in  Boston.  In 
the  year  following  Philadelphia  had  two  lithographic  establish¬ 
ments,  one  of  which  employed  Rembrandt  Peale,  the  portrait 
painter,  as  draughtsman.  Other  lithographers  followed  in  Boston, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  other  cities,  tmd  their  principal  busi¬ 
ness  was  the  production  of  portraits,  cheap  pictures,  —  some¬ 
times  gaudily  colored  by  hand,  —  and  sheet  music.  The  vast  vari¬ 
ety  of  uses  to  which  lithography,  in  all  its  branches,  is  now  ap¬ 
plied,  is  the  result  of  the  progress  made  in  the  art  within  a  few 
years. 

The  stone  used  is  a  light-colored  yellow  or  blue-gray  calcareous 
limestone,  the  best  of  which  come  from  Bavaria,  though  they  are 
found  in  France  ;  and,  quite  lately,  an  excellent  stone  is  brought 
from  Cape  Girardeau,  in  Missouri.  The  stones  are  sawn  to  a 
thickness  of  from  one  and  one -half  to  three  inches,  are  ground  to 
a  level  face  (in  some  establishments  by  machinery),  and  are  pol¬ 
ished  by  rubbing  the  faces  of  two  stones  together  with  fine  sand 
and  water.  The  stones  are  carefully  selected  with  regard  to  the 
fineness  of  the  proposed  work,  and  the  surfaces  are  smoothly  pol¬ 
ished  or  grained  to  the  required  degree  —  different  surfaces  being 
necessary  for  different  classes  of  designs.  When  worn,  or  when 
the  requisite  number  of  impressions  have  been  taken,  the  surface 
may  be  reground  for  another  design. 

The  lithographic  crayons  with  which  designs  are  drawn,  or  which 
may  be  reduced  to  an  ink  and  laid  on  with  pens  and  brushes,  are 
made  of  tallow,  white  wax,  soap,  shellac,  lampblack,  and  turpen¬ 
tine.  When  the  design  is  completed  the  stone  goes  to  the  printer, 
who  dampens  it  with  water  mixed  with  a  small  quantity  of  nitrous 
acid.  The  pores  of  the  stone  take  in  the  water,  while  the  grease 
in  the  ink  or  crayon  keeps  the  design  dry  ';  and  when  the  roller, 
charged  with  ink,  passes  over  the  stone,  the  design  readily  absorbs 
the  ink,  and  leaves  the  rest  of  the  surface  entirely  clean.  An  im¬ 
pression  may  now  be  taken  on  moist  or  dry  paper,  and,  with  sub¬ 
sequent  inking  for  each,  any  number  of  impressions,  till  the  design 
is  worn  off. 

This  is  the  simplest  process  of  lithography.  By  another  method 


172 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


the  face  of  the  stone  is  covered  with  a  black  or  red-colored  gum- 
water,  through  which  the  design  is  etched  with  the  needle  or 
diamond  point  (as  in  copper  and  steel  plate  engraving).  The  en¬ 
graved  white  lines  absorb  the  oil,  which  is  then  applied  ;  the  gum- 
water  is  washed  off ;  and  the  design  may  be  inked  and  printed  as 
in  the  first,  process. 

Autography  is  the  process  of  transferring  to  stone  writing  or 
drawings  made  on  a  prepared  transfer  paper,  which  gives  on  stone 
a  reverse,  which  may  be  printed  from.  This  process  is  much  used 
for  circulars,  price-currents,  and  commercial  letters,  which  thus 
present  the  appearance  of  having  been  written.  It  also  relieves 
the  draughtsman  from  the  tedious  and  difficult  labor  of  writing  a 
reverse  on  the  stone.  Fresh  painted  charts,  maps,  book  plates, 
crests,  arms,  or  other  engravings  in  which  the  ink  is  yet  wet,  may 
be  similarly  transferred  to  stone.  Autography  has  added  an  at¬ 
tractive  feature  to  ' books  by  enabling  the  publisher  to  present  foe- 
simile  pages  of  the  author’s  manuscript,  while,  for  commercial 
purposes,  it  is  one  of  the  most  useful  applications  of  the  art. 

Chromolithography,  or  printing  in  different  colors,  has  been 
brought  to  great  perfection  in  Germany,  France,  England,  and  the 
United  States.  By  this  process  designs  are  printed  in  two  or  more 
colors,  each  stone  carrying  a  different  color,  and  being  engraved 
or  drawn  with  the  design  which  is  to  be  represented  in  a  particular 
color.  In  printing  from  one  stone  after  another,  by  which  the  suc¬ 
cessive  shades  and  colors  are  transferred  to  the  paper  till  the  design 
is  completed,  the  most  accurate  registration  is  imperative.  For 
ordinary  purposes,  such  as  checks,  drafts,  business  cards  of  all 
sizes,  title-pages,  etc.,  only  two  or  three  colors  are  used,  though 
sometimes  even  this  class  of  work  is  very  elaborate  in  design  and 
coloring.  As  applied  to  the  copy  of  oil  paintings,  however,  chro¬ 
molithography  may  fairly  claim  place  among  the  fine  arts.  The 
German  chromolithographs,  particularly  those  executed  in  Vi¬ 
enna,  are  considered  the  best ;  and  then,  in  order,  come  those  of 
Berlin,  London,  Paris,  and  the  United  States.  By  this  process, 
copies  of  paintings  have  been  made  so  accurately,  with  so  perfect 
a  reproduction  of  every  shade  of  coloring,  that  the  chromolitho- 
graphic  copy  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  the  original  paint¬ 
ing.  It  is  ‘especially  applicable  to  copies  of  fruit,  fish,  flowers, 
and  game.  Some  of  the  pictures  produced  by  this  process  in  the 
United  States  (such  as  Tait’s  “  Chickens  ”)  are  wonderfully  popu¬ 
lar,  and  are  unsurpassed  by  any  chromolithographs  of  the  same 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


173 


class  made  in  Europe.  The  process  is  also  much  used  in  land¬ 
scapes,  marine  views,  and  portraits.  Copies  of  old  pictures,  with 
the  cracks  in  the  paint,  and  other  marks  of  time,  have  been  repro¬ 
duced  in  most  faithful  fac-simile.  This  beautiful  art  enables  pur¬ 
chasers  to  procure,  at  a  comparatively  small  cost,  almost  perfect 
copies  of  celebrated  and  costly  pictures. 

This  is  by  far  the  nicest  process  in  lithography,  requiring,  as  it 
does,  the  greatest  accuracy  in  registration.  Exact  copies  of  the 
outline  of  the  design  must  be  transferred  to  as  many  different 
stones  as  there  are  colors  to  be  introduced,  and  these  are  charged 
in  the  proper  parts  with  the  primary  tints,  while  one  or  two  stones,, 
from  which  the  second  and  third  impressions  are  taken,  give  the 
lights  and  shadows.  Other  stones  are  used  to  print  in  the  shades 
which  modify  or  blend  the  other  tints  ;  and,  last  of  all  in  the  pro¬ 
cess,  a  wash  or  glaze  softens  and  subdues  the  colors,  giving  the  pic¬ 
ture  its  resemblance  to  the  oil  painting  of  which  it  is  a  copy. 
Proper  care  in  exact  registration  prevents  one  tint  from  printing 
upon  and  blurring  another,  or  from  destroying  the  distinctness  of 
the  outline. 

Photolithography  is  another  most  important  branch  of  the  art. 
Photographing  upon  wood  only  gives  a  design  which  must  subse¬ 
quently  be  cut  as  if  it  had  been  drawn  in  the  usual  way,  but  pho¬ 
tographing  upon  stone  leaves  an  impression  which  may  be  inked 
and  printed  from,  as  from  the  ordinary  design.  A  method  has 
been  devised  by  which  copies  from  plans  or  engravings  may  be 
obtained  in  an  enlarged  or  reduced  size,  and  the  process  of  reduc¬ 
tion  is  particularly  valuable  in  obtaining  copies  of  topographical 
maps,  the  original  of  which  may  be  drawn  on  an  enlarged  scale, 
so  as  to  include  all  the  features  and  lettering,  which  will  be  accu¬ 
rately  repeated  on  a  smaller  scale  in  the  reduced  design  secured 
by  photography.  Wood-cuts  and  engravings  are  similarly 
enlarged  or  reduced  in  photolithography,  and  the  discovery  affords 
a  new  and  economical  method  of  illustrating  books,  and  in  supply¬ 
ing  cheap  copies  of  popular  engravings.  It  has  been  used  with 
great  success,  also,  in  reproducing  the  printed  pages  of  books, 
thus  giving  fac-simile  copies  of  old  and  rare  works. 

Some  attempts  have  been  made  at  what  is  called  “  lithotint,”  in 
which  the  design  is  painted  with  camel-hair  pencils  ,and  a  liquid 
preparation  of  lithographic  chalk.  Zinc  plates  are  sometimes  used 
instead  of  stones,  in  which  case  the  process  is  “  zincography. 7 , 
These  plates  present  the  advantage  of  cheapness,  and  designs  can 


274 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


easily  be  made  on  them.  For  some  kinds  of  work  they  are  well 
adapted,  as  the  oily  ink  is  readily  imbibed,  and  the  polished  sur¬ 
face  rejects  water ;  they  are  chiefly  used  for  architectural  and 
machinery  drawings. 

On  an  ordinary  hand-press  a  workman  will  print  sixteen  hundred 
lithographic  impressions  in  a  day.  A  lithographic  printing-press 
has  lately  been  invented,  however,  which  is  to  lithography  what 
the  Gordon  press  is  to  letter-press  printing'.  With  this  press,  fif¬ 
teen  hundred  impressions  —  or  nearly  a  day’s  work  on  a  hand- 
press —  can  be  taken  in  an  hour.  It  is  especially  adapted  to 
bill-heads  and  other  commercial  work. 

One  of  the  recent  and  most  ingenious  applications  of  litho¬ 
graphic  printing  is  seen  in  the  metal  signs  which  present  the  letters 
and  designs  in  gold  on  a  black  ground,  or  in  black  on  a  gold 
ground.  The  design  upon  the  stone  is  made  with  an  albuminous 
mixture,  and  when  the  impression  is  printed  on  the  metal,  gold  leaf 
is  laid  on,  the  superfluous  gold  is  brushed  off,  and  the  letters  and 
other  parts  of  the  design  appear  on  the  surface  ;  the  sheet  is  sub¬ 
sequently  heated  to  harden  and  fix  the  impression.  The  metal  is  a 
fine  and  thin  Russia  sheet-iron  rolled  expressly  for  the  purpose, 
and  afterwards  japanned  with  a  highly  glazed  surface  in  this  coun¬ 
try.  The  most  elaborate  designs  are  thus  transferred  in  gilt  to 
these  plates,  with  a  minute  finish  and  perfection  of  detail  which 
no  sign  painter  could  attain,  while  the  cost  of  such  signs,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  those  that  are  gilded  by  hand,  is  trifling.  A  sign  for 
which  a  sign-painter  would  charge  fifty  dollars  can  be  produced 
by  the  lithographic  process  for  three  dollars  ;  but,  of  course,  the 
lithographic  process  is  only  used  when  large  numbers  of  the  same 
sign  are  needed,  as  for  insurance  and  other  agencies,  fire-alarms, 
etc.,  as  the  cost  of  a  single  lithographic  sign  would  be  more  than 
that  of  one  done  by  hand.  This  branch  of  the  art  has  only  lately 
been  introduced  into  the  United  States,  and  the  business  is  already 
enormous. 

At  present,  the  higher  grades  of  lithography,  chromolithography 
especially,  are  better  done  in  Europe  than  in  America  ;  but  in  au¬ 
tography,  and  in  all  classes  of  commercial  lithography,  more  and 
better  work  is  done  in  this  country,  since  here  lithography  has 
almost  entirely  superseded  the  copper  and  steel  engraving,  which 
is  still  employed  to  a  great  extent  in  checks,  bill-heads,  and  other 
commercial  work  in  Europe. 


STEREOTYPING  AND  ELECTROTYPING. 

STEREOTYPE  PLATES.  —  THEIR  ADVANTAGES.  —  SAVING  WEAR  OF  TYPE.  —  JOHN 
MULLER  OF  LEYDEN.  —  VAN  DER  MEY.  — WILLIAM  GED,  OF  EDINBURGH. — 
THE  DIDOTS,  OF  PARIS.  —  EARL  STANHOPE’S  STEREOTYPE  PRESS.  —  FIRST 
STEREOTYPING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  DUPLICATE  FORMS.  —  PROCESS  OF 
STEREOTYPING.  — MATERIALS  USED.  — TRIMMING  AND  PLANING  THE  PLATES. 

—  THE  PAPIER-MACHE  PROCESS.  —  NEWSPAPER  STEREOTYPES.  -  THEIR 

UTILITY.  - ELECTROTYPING.  —  CHEMICAL  AND  MECHANICAL  PROCESS.  — THE 

MOULDS.  —  THE  GALVANIC  BATTERY.  —  HOW  COPPER  FAC-SIMILES  OF  TYPE 
ARE  OBTAINED.  —  COPPER- FACED  TYPE  AN  IMPORTANT  ADJUNCT  TO  THE 
ART  OF  PRINTING. 

» 

A  stereotype  plate  is  a  fac-simile  in  type  metal  of  a  page  of 
movable  type.  Its  design  is  to  avoid  the  expense  of  keeping  in  type 
works  for  which  there  is  a  constant  demand  ;  to  avoid  the  necessity 
of  recomposition  ;  to  reduce  the  founts  of  type  in  the  composing- 
room  ;  and  sometimes  to  print  copies  of  the  same  work  on  two  or 
more  presses  at  the  same  time,  or  to  simultaneously  issue  a  work  in 
two  or  more  different  localities..  To  save  the  wear  of  type  on  the 
press,  and  to  permit  the  use  of  the  same  type,  over  and  over,  in 
the  composition  of  the  successive  pages  of  a  book,  early  suggested 
stereotyping. 

As  writh  many  other  disco.veries,  there  are  several  claimants  for 
the  honor  of  this  invention.  John  Muller,  of  Leyden,  stereotyped 
pages  in  1690.  A  few  years  later,  Van  der  Mey,  of  the  same  city, 
soldered  the  bottoms  of  type  together,  making  them  into  solid 
pages.  William  Ged,  of  Edinburgh,  is  credited  with  the  modern 
mode  of  stereotyping,  which  releases  the  type  for  re-composition. 

William  Ged,  who  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  1690,  was  not  a 
printer  by  trade,  but  a  goldsmith,  and  his  attention  wc^  first  turned 
to  stereotyping  in  1725.  At  that  time  all  the  type  used  in  Scot¬ 
land  were  cast  in  London,  and  it  occurred  to  Ged  that  a  great 
saving  might  be  effected  if  solid  pages  could  be  cast  which  would 
release  the  type  for  re-composition.  He  borrowed  a  page  of  type 

Cl  75} 


176 


STEREOTYPING  AND  ELECTROTYPING. 


and  began  bis  experiments.  In  two  years  he  succeeded  in  making 
perfect  plates ;  but  he  had  to  contend  with  the  prejudices  of 
printers,  who  fancied  that  their  craft  would  be  ruined  by  the  new 
process,  and,  as  has  been  the  case  with  too  many  inventors,  innu¬ 
merable  obstacles  and  difficulties  nearly  ruined  poor  Ged.  He 
succeeded,  however,  in  making  complete  plates  for  an  edition  of 
Sallust,  printed  in  Edinburgh  in  1736.  After  his  death  the  art 
was  nearly  lost  sight  of  till  it  was  revived  in  Paris  in  1795. 

The  Didots,  of  Paris,  made  many  important  improvements  in  the 
art,  and  Earl  Stanhope,  of  England,  invented  a  most  valuable  press 
for  stereotype  printing.  The  art  was  introduced  into  the  United 
States  in  1813,  and  soon  afterwards  stereotyping  establishments 
were  opened  in  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  other  cities. 

Nearly  all  the  books  now  published  are  stereotyped  or  electro- 
typed,  publishers  generally  thinking  that  if  a  book  is  worth  print¬ 
ing  it  is  worth  putting  into  plates.  The  plan  is  also  adopted  in 
the  case  of  many  magazines  and  periodicals,  since  it  enables  the 
publishers,  by  duplicating  plates,  to  run  the  same  pages  on  two  or 
more  presses  at  once,  and,  by  preserving  the  plates,  to  republish 
particular  numbers,  or  to  reproduce  an  entire  series,  if  there  should 
be  a  demand  for  the  same.  The  entire  volumes  of  Punch,  up  to 
a  certain  year,  have  been  republished.  The  art  of.  stereotyping  is 
invaluable,  not  only  to  publishers,  but  to  the  general  public,  in 
enabling  a  wider  diffusion  and  cheapening  the  cost  of  books  and 
periodicals. 

Stereotyping. 

"When  a  work  is  stereotyped  or  electrotyped,  the  spaces, 
11  quads,”  and  leads  used  in  composition  are  of  the  same  height  as 
the  stem  of  the  type.  '  The  mould  for  stereotyping  requires  the 
finest  plaster  .of  Paris,  which  is  specially  prepared,  is  mixed  to  the 
consistency  of  cream,  and  is  poured  over  the  face  of  the  type, 
which  have  been  previously  oiled  to  prevent  the  plaster  from  ad¬ 
hering.  The  plaster  soon  sets,  and  the  mould  is  raised  from  the 
type,  and  is  hardened  in  a  heated  oven.  It  is  then  put  face  down¬ 
ward  on  a  plate  of  iron  in  a  cast  iron  pan,  or  cover,  and  is  im¬ 
mersed  in  melted  type  metal,  which  runs  into  the  spaces  left  in  the 
cover,  and  fills  every  portion  of  the  mould.  This  dipping  process 
is  repeated^o  as  to  allow  the  gradual  and  equal  contraction  of  the 
metal.  The  result  is  a  stereotype  page,  which  may  need  some 
work  with  the  picker  and  graver  to  remove  imperfections.  The 
edges  are  then  trimmed  in  a  machine  ;  in  another  machine  the 


STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY 


* 


' 

•  ft  ) 

. 

.  ..  ‘  if 

f  •  1  • 

v**:  t* 


-  .  K  "•••  ■ 

•  ;  «‘ti*  lew? 

* 


?  ’  •■ot': 


STEREOTYPING  AND  ELECTROTYFING. 


179 


back  of  the  plate  is  shaved  or  planed  to  insure  the  requisite  thick¬ 
ness  and  perfect  level ;  and  the  plates  (if  they  are  cuts,  but  not 
generally  for  letter-press)  are  screwed  upon  blocks  of  wood  which 
bring  them  to  the  same  height  of  ordinary  type. 

Corrections  of  a  word,  or  a  line,  or  more,  in  a  page,  can  be 
made  by  cutting  out  the  imperfect  part  and  inserting  ordinary  type, 
which  are  neatly  soldered  in. 

Moulds  are  rapidly  made  for  newspaper  stereotypes  by  what  is 
called  the  paper  process.  A  newspaper  page  of  type  for  a  cylin¬ 
der  press  is  in  a  curved  form,  in  what  is  known  as  a  “turtle.” 
’  Instead  of  plaster  of  Paris  for  a  mould,  moistened  sheets  of  soft 
paper,  pasted  together,  are  laid  over  the  page  of  type,  and  are 
beaten  down  with  a  brush  till  a  perfect  impression  is  taken.  The 
mould  is  dried  and  hardened,  and  by  pouring  in  melted  metal  one 
or  more  forms  can  be  made  to  be  printed  from.  This  process  is 
now  pursued  in  several  of  the  larger  newspaper  offices.  The  ad¬ 
vantages  are,  first,  saving  the  wear  of  type,  which  are  used  only 
in  composition,  and  not  for  printing  from;  and  next,  furnishing 
forms  for  two  or  more  presses,  and  thus  getting  out  the  entire 
edition  of  the  paper  in  the  least  possible  space  of  time.  This  in¬ 
vention  enables  journals  to  delay  the  hour  of  going  to  press  to 
the  latest  moment,  thus  keeping  the  columns  open  for  the  latest 
news,  and  yet  permitting  the  publication  at  an  early  hour  in  the 
morning  for  distribution  and  for  the  mails.  The  edition  printed, 
the  plates  may  be  re-melted,  to  be  run  into  the  moulds  for  the  next 
day’s  issue. 

Electrotyping. 

Electrotyping  is  now  much  more  common  than  stereotyping  by 
the  process  described  above.  It  is  a  combined  chemical  and  me¬ 
chanical  operation,  the  processes  of  which  are  as*  follows  :  The 
mould  is  made  of  pure  wax,  upon  which  the  page  of  type  is  im¬ 
pressed.  The  mould  is  then  covered  with  a  coat  of  fine  plumbago 
dust,  which  is  evenly  distributed  by  brushes  in  a  machine,  thus 
giving*  a  conducting  metallic  medium  for  the  electric  current,  which 
is  further  strengthened  by  a  wash  of  sulphate  of.  copper  over 
which  iron  filings  are  dusted.  The  result  is  a  thin  film  of  copper 
coating  the  entire  surface  and  hastening  the  subsequent  deposit 
of  copper  when  the  mould  is  in  the  battery.  The  mould  is  now 
washed,  connecting  ribbons  of  copper  are  attached,  and  it  is  sus¬ 
pended  from  a  metal  rod  in  the  trough  containing  a  solution  of 
acidulated  sulphate  of  copper.  Any  number  of  moulds,  according 


ISO 


STEREOTYPING  AND  ELECTROTYPING. 


to  the  dimensions  of  the  trough,  may  be  put  in  at  the  same  time. 
Copper  plates  are  suspended  in  the  solution,  facing,  but  not  touch¬ 
ing,  the  moulds.  The  trough  in  which  the  electric  current  is  gen¬ 
erated  contains  sulphuric  acid,  and  is  isolated  from  the  trough 
which  holds  the  moulds.  The  rods  which  suspend  the  moulds  in 
the  solution  arc  now  connected  by  wires  with  the  zinc  plate  in  the 
battery,  while  the  copper  plates  are  similarly  connected  with  the 
platinum  in  the  battery,  and  the  circuit  is  completed.  Decomposi¬ 
tion  now  begins,  and  the  copper  is  rapidly  and  evenly  deposited 
on  the  face  of  the  mould. 

The  moulds  are  left  in  the  trough  generally  over  night,  and  in* 
the  course  of  ten  or  twelve  hours  copper  shells  are  formed  on  the 
moulds,  giving  fac-similes  of  the  pages  in  type.  The  inside  of 
the  shells  is  covered  with  a  coating  of  chloride  of  zinc,  laid  on  with 
a  brush.  Over  this  is  laid  a  sheet  of  alloyed  foil,  and  the  shell  is 
then  “  backed  up  ”  with  inferior  type  metal  to  give  it  solidity  and 
the  requisite  thickness.  This  backing  is  done  by  pouring  in  the 
metal,  or  by  dipping  the  shell  in  metal ;  the  face  is  then  laid  down 
on  a  perfectly  level  iron  plate  resting  on  an  iron  frame,  which  must 
also  stand  perfectly  level,  and  the  superfluous  type  metal  is  scraped 
off.  The  subsequent  processes  of  trimming  the  sides  and  planing 
the  backs  by  machinery  are  the  same  as  those  described  in  stereo¬ 
typing.  Corrections  can  also  be  made  by  cutting  out  and  insert¬ 
ing,  as  in  the  ordinary  stereotype  plates. 

By  means  of  the  galvanic  battery  type  can  be  copper-faced  by 
presenting  only  the  face  of  the  type  to  the  solution  of  sulphate  of 
copper  in  the  trough,  and  establishing  the  current  as  in  electro- 
typing  on  moulds.  Type  thus  faced  are  very  durable,  and  will 
wear  three  or  four  times  longer  than  common  type. 

For  some  work  on  heavy  calendered  paper,  stereotypes  made  by 
the  first  process  described  are  sometimes  preferred  ;  but  for  the 
great  mass  of  book-work,  and  especially  for  cuts,  electrotypes  are 
superior.  The  invention  is  comparatively  recent,  though  experi¬ 
ments  in  electro-plating  were  made  in  Europe,  with  more  or  less 
success,  from  1801  to  1840,  and  it  is  a  most  important  adjunct  to 
the  art  of  printing. 


BOOK-MAKING. 


ANCIENT  BINDING  OF  MANUSCRIPTS.  — THE  SUPPOSED  INVENTOR. — BINDING  IN 
THE  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  SPLENDOR  OF  THE  SPECIMENS.  — PROGRESS  OF 
THE  ART.  —  MATERIALS  USED.  —  GOLD,  SILVER,  AND  PRECIOUS  STONES.  —  BRIT¬ 
ISH  BINDINGS.  —  ARTISTS  ON  THE  CONTINENT.  —  CHEVALIER  JEAN  GROLIER.  — 

D'EON.  —  PADELOUP.  —  CELEBRATED  LONDON  BINDERS.  -  ROGER  PAYNE 

AND  OTHERS. — FAMOUS  MODERN  ARTISANS  IN  LONDON  AND  PARIS.  — BOOK¬ 
MAKING  IN  AMERICA.  — THE  FIRST  BOOK  IN  BOSTON.  — THE  EARLIEST  BINDER. 

- PROGRESS  OF  THE  INDUSTRY  IN  BOSTON,  NEW  YORK,  AND  PHILADELPHIA.  — 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN’S  BINDERY.  —  THE  ART.  - DETAILS  OF  THE  PROCESSES. 

—  USE  OF  MACHINERY.  —  AMERICAN  INVENTIONS. - MANUFACTURE  OF  CASES. 

- PROCESS  OF  PUTTING  ON.  —  OTHER  KINDS  OF  WORK.  —  MARBLING,  SPRIN¬ 
KLING,  AND  GILDING.  —  EMBOSSING.  - BOOK  PUBLISHING.  —  GROWTH  OF  THE 

Business  in  the  united  states.  —  extraordinary  sales  of  certain 
works. — Webster’s  spelling  book. — “uncle  tom’s  cabin.” — “sun¬ 
shine  AND  SHADOW.” - BIBLE  DICTIONARY.  —  BOOKS  SOLD  ONLY  BY  SUB¬ 

SCRIPTION.  —  USEFULNESS  AND  POPULARITY  OF  THIS  KIND  OF  PUBLISHING. 

Another  article  in  this  volume  (see  Printing  and  the  Printing 
Press)  gives  the  history  of  the  discovery  of  printing,  its  progress, 
its  introduction  into  America,  and  describes  in  detail  the  various 
processes  of  composition,  press  work,  etc.,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
preparation  of  the  printed  sheets  for  the  binder,  who  makes  them 
into  books.  Of  course  bookbinding  was  coexistent  with  book 
printing,  or  rather  it  is  of  far  greater  antiquity,  since  manuscripts 
from  time  immemorial  were  protected  by  wood,  metal,  or  leather 
covers,  and  the  even  older  books  of  wood  or  metal  plates  were 
fastened  at  the  backs  by  thongs  or  hinges,  which  furnished  a  rude 
binding. 

Phillatius,  an  Athenian,  is  credited  with  the  invention  of  sew¬ 
ing  sheets  of  vellum  and  papyrus  together,  and  securing  the  backs 
with  glue.  Boards  or  covers  would  naturally  be  the  next  step, 
and  literal  boards  of  wood  were  first  used,  which  after  a  while 
were  covered  with  parchment  or  leather.  The  Romans  brought 
the  art  to  great  perfection,  especially  in  the  ornamentation  of  the 

(181) 


182 


BOOIv-MAKIXG. 


wooden  covers  by  carvings.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  monks 
bound  their  illuminated  manuscripts  with  covers,  which  were  fre¬ 
quently  enamelled,  ornamented  with  gold  and  silver,  enriched  with 
precious  stones,  and  covered  with  figures  beautifully  carved  in 
wood.  Some  of  these  early  bindings  exhibit  boards  an  inch  or 
more  in  thickness,  in  which  were  covered  recesses  for  relics  and 
crucifixes.  A  century  later  ivory  tablets,  colored  velvets,  morocco, 
vellum  stamped  with  gold,  tooling,  inlaid  calf  and  morocco  covers, 
and  gold  and  silver  clasps  and  corners,  were  employed  in  binding 
and  ornamenting  the  Gospels  and  Missals.  Many  magnificent 
specimens  of  the  fourteenth  and  two  following  centuries  —  bind¬ 
ings  that  have  never  been  surpassed  in  richness  and  elaboration  — 
are  preserved  in  the  great  public  and  private  libraries  of  Europe. 
A  field  or  farm  would  scarcely  purchase  one  of  these  volumes 
■when  fresh  from  the  binder,  and  their  value,  as  relics  of  by-gone 
centuries,  is  even  greater  now. 

The  invention  of  printing  made  general  the  use  of  calf  and  morocco 
bindings  on  oaken  boards,  and  stamped  in  gold  or  in  “  blind  tooling.” 
The  British  Museum  has  many  books  bound  in  England  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VII.  The  period  of  Henry  VIII,  produced  many 
magnificent  specimens  of  binding,  and  under  Elizabeth  embroiddTy 
bindings  were  introduced.  Folios  of  that  period  in  plain  calf 
show  most  substantial  work. 

On  the  continent  bookbinding  fairly  took  rank  as  a  fine  art,  and 
early  enlisted  the  attention  of  true  artists.  Chevalier  Jean  Grolier 
was  famous  for  the  elaborate  patterns  which  lie  drew  for  his  own 
book-covers;  Chevalier  D’Eon  introduced  the  Etruscan  designs  as 
ornaments  ;  Padeloup  tooled  books  so  that  they  looked  as  if  they 
were  bound  in  gold  lace  ;  and  Derome  and  De  Seuil  —  the  latter 
immortalized  in  one  of  Pope’s  poems  —  were  famous  bookbinders. 
The  Cambridge  binding  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  justly  cele¬ 
brated.  Roger  Payne,  who  began  business  in  London  in  1170, 
may  be  said  to  have  opened  a  new  era  in  the  art. 

Payne  was  a  man  of  most  dissolute  habits  ;  but  as  a  thorough 
artist,  especially  in  finishing,  he  was  fur  in  advance  of  all  who 
preceded  him,  and  in  his  own  day  he  had  no  rival.  His  success 
lay  in  his  style,  which  was  original,  in  his  invention  and  manufac¬ 
ture  of  elaborate  embellishing  tools,  and  in  his  choice  and  working 
of  materials  and  ornaments.  Superb  specimens  of  his  work  are 
preserved  in  English  libraries,  particularly  in  Earl  Spencer’s,  and 
bibliographers  speak  of  him  in  the  highest  terms  of  praise.  After 


BOOK-MAKING. 


183 


Payne,  Kalthoeber,  Staggeniier,  Falkner,  Ilering,  and  Walther  de¬ 
serve  especial  mention.  Mackenzie,  Lewis,  Clarke  (celebrated  for 
liis  tree-marbled  calf),  Bedford,  and  Ilayday  are  among  the  more 
famous  of  modern  London  binders.  All  book-buyers  know  how 
much  the  name  of  a  binder  sometimes  enhances  the  value  of  a  vol¬ 
ume.  Trautz,  Ni£dre,  Cap6,  Lortic,  and  Duru  are  among  the  most 
noted  of  modern  French  binders,  and  their  work,  for  its  ornamen¬ 
tation  and  perfection  of  detail,  is  highly  prized. 

Book-making  in  America. 

The  first  bookbinding  done  in  the  colonies  was  by  John  Ratliffe, 
an  Englishman,  who  came  over  expressly  to  bind  Eliot’s  Indian 
Bible,  printed  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in  1661-63,  and  Rat¬ 
liffe  could  bind  only  a  single  copy  in  a  day.  The  first  book  print¬ 
ed  in  Boston  was  in  1616.  The  early  provincial  governors  were 
instructed  to  prohibit  printing,  which  was  looked  upon  as  the 
means  of  disseminating  disobedience,  heresies,  sects,  and  libels. 
But  book-makers  thrived  nevertheless.  From  1684  to  1690,  Pierce, 
mentioned  as  the  fifth  printer  in  Boston,  published  several  books 
for  himself  and  for  booksellers.  Bartholomew  Green  followed  in 
1690,  and  from  that  time  forward  the  art  has  progressed,  till  Bos¬ 
ton  has  become  one  of  the  great  book-making  centres  of  the  Union. 
In  Philadelphia  book-printing  began  in  1686  ;  in  New  York  in  1693, 

with  the  publication  by  Bradford  of  the  Laws  of  the  Province  in 

* 

small  folio.  In  1726  New  York  had  a  second  publisher.  When 
Franklin,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  went  to  Philadelphia,  in  1723,  Samuel 
Keimer,  who  employed  him,  had-  just  started  the  second  press  in 
that  city,  and  besides  him  the  Bradfords  were  the  only  publishers 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York. 

Previous  to  the  issue  of  Eliot’s  Indian  Bible,  copies  of  the 
Psalms  and  of  the  Laws,  bound  in  parchment,  appeared  in  Boston, 
a  copy  of  the  Psalms  as  early  as  1647  ;  but  by  whom  they  were 
printed  and  bound,  or  whether  the  work  was  done  in  England,  is 
uncertain.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution  there  had  been  thirty 
binderies  in  Boston.  New  York  had  a  bindery  in  1769  ;  Benjamin 
Franklin’s  bindery,  in  Market  Street,  Philadelphia,  was  in  opera¬ 
tion  in  1729  ;  an two  Scotch  booksellers  in  Charleston,  S.  C., 
had  binderies  in  1764  and  1771. 

After  the  Revolution  the  progress  of  book-making  in  the  United 
States  was  rapid.  In  1808  was  issued  Barlow’s  Columbiad,  in 


184 


BOOK-MAKING. 


quarto,  illustrated  with  plates  engraved  in  London,  and  by  far 
the  finest  book  published  in  the  country  up  to  that  time.  Two 
years  later  Wilson’s  American  Ornithology,  in  seven  volumes 
folio,  with  colored  plates,  was  issued  in  Philadelphia.  In  1822  an 
American  reprint  of  Rees’s  Cyclopedia  was  published  in  Philadel¬ 
phia,  in  forty-one  volumes,  with  six  additional  volumes  of  plates, 
and  was  the  greatest  venture  of  the  kind  which  had  been  under¬ 
taken  in  the  country.  In  1830  books  to  the  value  of  three  million 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  one-third  of  them  school  books, 
were  printed  in  the  United  States.  Since  that  time,  with  the  in¬ 
crease  of  population,  the  general  diffusion  of  education,  and  the 
introduction  of  machinery  and  other  facilities,  the  growth  of  the 
book  business  in  the  United  States  has  been  enormous. 

•  Processes  in  Bookbinding. 

The  printed  sheets  go  from  the  press  to  the  drying-room,  where 
they  are  hung  on  frames  in  a  steam-heated  temperature  of  from 
one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  degrees,  and  remain  from 
half  an  hour  to  an  hour.  They  are  then  placed  between  press- 
boards,  with  a  highly-glazed  surface  ;  if  very  nice  work,  a  single 
sheet  between  two  boards,  and  sometimes  a  “  set-off  ”  sheet  of 
paper  on  each  side  of  the  printed  sheet,  but  ordinarily  three  or 
four  sheets  between  every  pair  of  press-boards.  A  pile  of  these 
boards,  with  the  interleaving  sheets,  is  then  subjected  to  hydraulic 
pressure  equal  to  six  hundred  tons  for  a  half  day,  or  in  some 
cases  longer.  From  the  hydraulic  press  the  sheets  go  to  the  cut¬ 
ting  machine,  which  rapidly  cuts  them  in  two.  Then  most  ingen¬ 
ious  machines,  of  different  capacity,  fold  the  sheets  into  pages 
of  the  required  size  and  form  for  a  book,  making  them  ready  for 
sewing.  The  folding  gives  the  name  describing  the  size  of  a  book  ; 
thus  a  sheet  once  folded  into  two  leaves,  or  four  pages,  is  a  folio  ; 
folded  again,  it  is  a  quarto  ;  folded  once  more,  as  in  the  case  of 
this  volume,  every  sheet  gives  eight  leaves,  or  sixteen  pages,  and 
the  book  is  called  an  octavo  ;  folding  into  twelve  leaves,  or  twenty- 
four  pages,  makes  a  duodecimo  ;  and  so  on  for  smaller  volumes. 
This  folding  was  formerly  done  by  hand  ;  now  one  girl  tends  a 
machine  which  will  do  the  work  of  several  girls  with  great  rapid¬ 
ity  and  accuracy.  • 

The  folded  sheets  are  then  tied  in  bundles,  till  the  entire  sheets 
of  a  single  work  are  folded,  when  they  are  placed  in  order  in  piles, 
and  a  girl  going  from  pile  to  pile  rapidly  gathers  and  collects  the 


PRINTING  THE  SHEETS. 


FOLDING,  GATHERING,  AND  SEWING  THE  SHEETS. 


BOOK-MAKING. 


187 


pages  for  a  volume,  and  volume  after  volume,  till  the  sheets  are 
exhausted.  These  go  to  the  smashing  machine,  which  has  super¬ 
seded  the  old  method  of  hammering  by  hand,  and  the  more  recent 
one  of  screw-pressing,  and  instantly  presses  the  pages  solidly  to¬ 
gether.  The  sawing  machine  then  saws  the  backs  simultaneously, 
with  the  four,  five,  or  six  grooves  necessary  to  receive  the  cords 
through  which  the  thread  is  passed  in  sewing-  the  different  sheets 
so  as  to  unite  them  all  together.  The  books  are  now  carried  to 
the  sewing  frames,  where  they  are  sewed  by  girls,  who  perform 
their  work  with  singular  dexterity,  deftly  passing  the  needle 
through  each  “  form,”  and  securing  it  to  the  cords  at  the  back. 
Machines  have  been  invented  for  book-sewing,  but  they  have  not 
been  generally  introduced,  and  the  labor  is  usually,  even  in  the 
most  extensive  establishments,  performed  by  girls. 

After  sewing,  the  books  are  “  drawn  off,”  cut  apart,  and  taken 
to  the  trimming  machine,  which  has  superseded  the  old  “  plough¬ 
ing  ”  by  hand  process,  and  which,  with  great  rapidity,  trims  the 
three  sides  smoothly  and  accurately.  The  next  process  is  round¬ 
ing  the  backs,  which  is  done  with  the  hammer.  A  thin  coat  of 
glue,  previously  applied,  holds  the  round  in  shape ;  then  the  back¬ 
ing,  which  forms  the  joint  where  the  cover  opens,  in  small  books, 
is  done  by  a  machine,  but  on  most  of  the  larger  books  by  hand, 
with  a  press  and  hammer.  The  back  is  now  covered  with  a  piece 
of  muslin  nearly  the  whole  length,  and  extending  an  inch  over  the 
sides,  to  strengthen  the  joints  ;  and  over  the  muslin  is  pasted  a 
piece  of  paper.  The  head-bands,  consisting  of  a  doubled  piece  of 
muslin,  and  sometimes  of  knit  silk,  are  put  on,  and  the  book  is 
sprinkled,  marbled,  or  gilded  on  the  edges,  though  in  the  cheaper 
and  smaller-sized  books  the  edges  are  left  plain. 

In  sprinkling,  several  books  are  taken  together  in  a  row, 
on  boards,  and  the  color  or  colors  selected  are  sprinkled  with  a 
large  brush,  or  are  rubbed  through  a  sieve  with  a  stiff  brush,  pro¬ 
ducing  the  fine  dust-like  coloring  seen  on  the  edges  of  books. 
In  marbling,  the  artist — for  a  skilful  artisan  in  this  department  is 
an  artist — sprinkles  his  colors  upon  a  preparation  of  mucilaginous 
liquid  in  a  wooden  trough,  and  then  with  “  combs  ”  makes  the 
“  comb-work,”  which  is  the  pattern  most  usual  for  the  edges.  With 
various  colors,  and  by  skilful  sprinkling,  he  makes  the  different 
patterns  known  as  shell,  —  of  various  colors  and  differently  veined, 
—  blue  Stormont,  light  Italian,  west  end,  curl,  Spanish  of  all  colors, 
antique,  wave,  British,  Dutch,  and  so  on,  in  great  variety,  for  mar- 
11 


188 


BOOK-MAKING. 


bling  paper  used  for  the  sides  of  books.  If  the  book  is  to  be 
gilded,  the  edges  are  scraped,  a  groundwork  of  red  chalk  is  laid 
on,  albumen,  or  the  white  of  an  egg,  with  water,  forms  the  size  on 
which  the  gold  is  laid,  and  is  subsequently  burnished  with  blood¬ 
stone  and  agate.  Over  this  is  sometimes  laid  gold  of  another 
color,  which  is  stamped  in  patterns  in  the  edges,  and  the  super¬ 
fluous  gold  of  the  upper  coat  is  brushed  off,  leaving  the  figures. 

In  cloth-bound  books  the  cloth  is  cut  the  proper  size,  and  glued 
to  the  boards  (in  the  early  stages  of  book  making  they  were  made  of 
wood — but  at  the  present  time  tarred  rope  is  used,  or  other  stock  such 
as  is  used  in  making  cheap,  coarse  paper)  which  form  the  stiffening 
for  the  sides,  and  when  thus  made  are  called  cases.  Ornamenting 
the  sides  and  back  of  the  case  is  then  done  by  having  engraved,  in 
brass,  the  design  required.  That  is  fastened  to  an  embossing  press, 
where  it  is  kept  heated  with  steam,  and  by  strong  pressure  leaves 
its  imprint  on  the  cover.  When  the  impression  is  wanted  in  gilt, 
the  case  is  prepared,  and  gold  leaf  laid  on  where  the  stamp  is  to 
come.  The  books  are  then  glued  or  pasted  into  the  cases,  and 
pressed  in  brass-bound  boards  to  form  the  groove  where  the  joint 
is.  After  the  final  pressing,  the  book  is  ready  for  the  reader. 

Binding  in  leather  and  morocco,  or  half  binding  with  calf  or 
morocco  backs  and  corners,  and  paper  or  cloth  sides,  requires  more 
hand  work.  The  books  are  generally  laced  into  the  covers ;  the 
lettering  and  the  various  designs,  in  gold  and  blind  tooling,  are 
done  by  hand  ;  and  to  this  binding  the  only  limits  are  the  cost  of 
the  work  and  the  ingenuity  of  the  binder.  Machinery  is  much 
more  employed  in  the  United  States  than  in  Europe,  and  most  of 
the  ingenious  and  labor-saving  machinery  used  in  bookbinding  is 
of  American  invention. 

The  foregoing  is  designed  to  give,  in  the  briefest  possible  manner, 
an  intelligible  idea  of  the  ordinary  processes  of  book-making,  as 
seen  in  the  extensive  and  first-class  establishment  of  Messrs.  Case, 
Lockwood  &  Brainard,  at  Hartford,  Connecticut. 

Book  Publishing. 

In  a  work  of  this  kind  it  would  be  useless  to  give  statistics  of 
the  extent  of  the  book-publishing  business  in  the  United  States, 
since  it  is  so  rapidly  increasing  that  the  figures  for  one  year  would 
give  no  idea  of  the  business  of  the  year  following.  It  is  among 
the  most  progressive,  profitable,  and  important  industries  of  the 


PRINTING  OFFICE  AND  BOOK  BINDERY  OF  CASE,  LOCKWOOD  &  BRAINARD,  HARTFORD,  CONN, 


s 


'  t:  ‘ 


' 


. 


.  • 


— 


... 

■ 


'  V  .  r>7 . 

■  '  • 


■ 


. 

. 


••  .vigil 


BOOK-MAKING.  191 

country.  Mention  may  be  made  of  single  works  sold  in  the 
United  States.  Of  Webster’s  well-known  Spelling  Book  more 
than  fifty-five  million  copies  have  been  printed,  the  sales  now 
reaching  a  million  and  one  quarter  copies  a  year,  and  of  the  dif¬ 
ferent  editions  of  Webster’s  Dictionary  three  hundred  thousand 
copies  are  sold  annually.  Of  “  Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin  ”  more  than 
half  a  million  copies  have  been  sold  in  the  United  States  ;  various 
editions  of  the  same  work  have  been  sold  in  England  to  the  extent 
of  a  million  and  a  half  of  copies  ;  it  has  been  translated  into  every 
European  language,  and  even  into  Armenian  and  Arabic. 

Within  a  few  years  an  important  branch  of  the  business  has. 
grown  up  in  the  publication  of  books  for  sale  solely  by  subscrip¬ 
tion.  By  this  mode  of  publication  thousands  of  valuable  books 
have  reached  buyers  who  otherwise  would  not  have  purchased,, 
and  by  this  dissemination  of  works  of  an  entertaining  and  instruc¬ 
tive  character,  intelligence  has  been  diffused,  and  the  country  has 
been  benefited.  Some  of  these  subscription  books  have  reached 
extraordinary  circulation.  Of  “  Sunshine  and  Shadow,”  published 
by  Messrs.  J.  B.  Burr  &  Hyde,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
copies  have  been  sold  ;  of  the  Bible  Dictionary,  seventy-five  thou¬ 
sand  copies  ;  of  other  works  published  by  the  same  house  from 
thirty  thousand  to  one  hundred  thousand  copies  of  each,  and  with 
a  steady  demand  for  all.  This  kind  of  book  publishing  is  becom¬ 
ing  more  and  more  popular  throughout  the  country  every  year. 
It  is  found  to  be  the  best,  indeed  almost  only,  means  of  introdu¬ 
cing  to  a  large  circle  of  readers,  especially  in  interior  towns  which 
are  remote  from  book-publishing  and  book-selling  centres,  standard 
works  of  a  high  character,  and  this  means  of  diffusion,  by  its  enor¬ 
mous  extent,  enables  the  publishers  and  their  agents  to  sell  in¬ 
teresting  and  entertaining  works,  profusely  illustrated,  at  far  less 
prices  than  works  of  the  same  character  can  be  afforded  by  the' 
usual  method  of  book  publishing. 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


NETTING  AND  KNITTING  BY  IIAND.  —  ANCIENT  HOSE.  —  FRENCH  STOCKING 
KNITTERS.  —  THE  FIRST  KNITTING  MACHINE.  —  WILLIAM  LEE.  —  MACHINE¬ 
KNITTING  IN  AMERICA.  —  PROHIBITION  ON  EXPORTATION  OF  KNITTING 
FRAMES.  —  COXENDEFER. —  MICHAEL  TRAPPAL.  —  TIMOTHY  BAILEY.  PROG¬ 
RESS  OF  THE  INDUSTRY.  —  THE  LAMB  KNITTING  MACHINE.  —  WIIAT  IT  CAN 
DO.  —  ITS  AID  FOR  THE  WOMEN. 

The  generalizations  of  modern  thought  have  led  mankind  to  rec¬ 
ognize  in  every  interest  or  occupation  which  go  together  to  make 
.  up  what  is  known  as  the  social  forces,  a  steady  process  of  growth, 
or  progress,  analogous  to  that  which  in  the  observation  of  the 
physical  and  mental  growth  of  any  child  must  strike  any  careful 
observer.  The  activity  of  the  child,  its  ceaseless  motions,  and  its 
insatiable  curiosity  are  the  means  Nature  takes  to  force  upon  him 
the  necessity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  his  powers,  and  able  to 
use  his  physical  and  mental  faculties. 

He  must  learn  to  use  his  legs  and  hands  to  become  aware  of 
what  he  can  do  and  how  best  to  do  it.  The  growth  of  society  is 
necessarily  much  slower  than  that  of  a  child,  but  the  history  of 
the  world  shows  that  in  government,  in  finance,  in  industry,  and 
in  every  other  department  of  human  activity,  the  course  has  been 
the  same.  The  wonderful  industrial  advance  of  the  present  cen¬ 
tury,  the  application  of  steam,  of  the  telegraph,  of  science  to  the 
arts,  are  evidences  that  the  race,  or  portions  of  the  race,  are  be¬ 
coming  acquainted  with  their  powers,  and  are  beginning  to  use 
them.  The  application  of  machinery  to  performing  the  processes 
which  formerly  were  carried  on  by  the  slow  and  tedious  methods 
of  hand  labor,  is  a  most  striking  exemplification  of  this  general 
principle  ;  and  the  inventors  of  modern  times,  by  lessening  the 
time  and  labor  required  for  the  production  of  the  necessities  of 
life,  are  doing  a  work  that  is  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  that  of  the 
(192) 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


193 


moralists,  in  aiding*  and  stimulating  the  social  and  moral  progress 
of  society  towards  a  more  perfect  organization  of  its  forces. 

The  art  of  knitting,  by  which  a  continuous  texture  is  made  from 
a  single  thread,  intricately  joined  by  a  series  of  loops,  was  proba¬ 
bly  in  practice  at  a  very  early  age  in  the  history  of  mankind.  We 
know  that  the  analogous  process  of  netting,  in  which  the  thread 
is  passed  over  a  guard,  making  the  stitches  longer  and  the  texture 
consequently  more  open,  was  in  common  use  from  the  earliest 
ages.  Nets  are  frequently  spoken  of  in  the  Bible,  and  as  aids  to 
the  hunter  and  the  fisher,  are  among  the  most  common  implements 
made  by  the  various  uncivilized  nations  at  present  in  the  world. 

In  modern  times  knitting  has  come  to  be  the  process  upon  which 
we  rely  for  the  production  of  various  articles  of  clothing.  Stock¬ 
ings  were  made  of  cloth,  cut  out  in  the  required  shape,  and  then 
sewed,  even  as  late  in  England  as  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
Ilowell,  in  his  History  of  the  World,  states  that  this  king  habitu¬ 
ally  wore  stockings  of  cloth,  “  except  there  came  from  Spain,  by 
great  chance,  a  pair  of  silk  stockins.  K.  Edward,  his  son,  was 
presented  with  a  pair  of  long  Spanish  silk  stockins  by  Thomas 
Gresham,  his  merchant,  and  the  present  was  much  taken  notice  of. 
Queen  Elizabeth  was  presented  by  Mrs.  Montague,  her  silk  wo¬ 
man,  with  a  pair  of  black  knit  silk  stockins,  and  thenceforth  she 
never  wore  cloth  any  more.” 

The  old  term  for  the  garment  to  cover  the  feet  and  the  legs  was 
hose,  a  word  which  is  found  in  Anglo-Saxon,  Old  and  New  German, 
Danish,  Lower  Latin,  and  Old  French,  and  which,  with  the  use  of 
the  article  itself,  was  derived  from  the  people  from  whom  these 
different  nations  descended. 

In  the  middle  ages  the  feet  and  the  whole  of  the  lower  part 
of  the  body  were  covered  by  one  garment,  the  hose,  which  was 
made  entire,  and  intended  to  fit  the  person  tightly.  Our  word 
stocking  was  introduced  with  the  article  itself,  and  is  derived  from 
the  Anglo-Saxon  word  sfocken,  to  stick,  because  the  material  was 
made  with  sticking-pins,  or,  as  we  now  term  them,  knitting- 
needles.  Our  word  knit  is  also  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
term  enytan,  an  equivalent  for  which  exists  in  all  the  European 
languages,  and  shows  itself  how  old  must  have  been  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  art  it  describes. 

On  the  continent  of  Europe,  as  we  see  in  the  quotation  above 
given  from  Howell,  the  art  of  knitting  stockings  was  practised 
long  before  it  was  in  England.  Buchanan,  in  his  History  of  Inven- 


194 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


tions,  says  that  as  early  as  1527  there  existed  in  France  a  guild  of 
stocking-knitters.  This  fact  shows  that  the  trade  had  then  been 
in  existence  long  enough  to  have  become  of  importance,  though 
as  to  when  it  first  began  to  be  practised  nothing  is  positively 
known. 

In  1589  William  Lee,  an  educated  man,  who  had  been  expelled 
from  St.  John’s  College,  at  Cambridge,  England,  because  he  had 
infringed  the  collegiate  rules  by  marrying  a  wife  instead  of  re¬ 
maining  satisfied  with  being  wedded  only  to  the  Muses,  found 
himself  so  destitute  that  he  was  obliged  to  depend  for  his  support 
upon  the  scanty  earnings  his  wife  could  gain  by  knitting  stockings. 
Observing  her  at  work  one  day,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  making 
a  machine  to  do  the  same  work  more  expeditiously  and  easily. 
Having  finally  succeeded  after  years  of  labor  in  producing  a  ma¬ 
chine  which  could  do  the  work  he  designed  it  for,  he  made  it  pub¬ 
lic  ;  but  finding  no  encouragement  in  England,  he  took  it  to 
France,  where  he  was  seconded  by  Henry  IV.  and  Sully,  and 
where,  after  Henry’s  assassination,  he  died  in  1610. 

Ilis  workmen,  having  returned  to  England  with  the  machine, 
succeeded  finally  in  introducing  its  use  in  London  and  its  vicinity; 
and  shortly  afterwards  the  manufacture  of  stockings  by  the  stock¬ 
ing  frame,  as  the  machine  was  called,  was  introduced  into  Not- 
tinghamshire,  which  soon  acquired  the  reputation  it  has  retained 
for  this  industry.  Since  then  there  have  been  various  improve¬ 
ments  introduced  into  this  branch  of  manufacture,  until  the  num¬ 
ber  of  stocking  frames  in  England  has  increased  to  over  fifty 
thousand,  giving  employment,  in  Nottinghamshire  alone,  to  about 
forty  thousand  persons. 

By  the  machine,  as  originally  invented  by  Lee,  the  thread  was 
knit  in  a  straight  flat  web,  which,  being  cut  into  the  proper 
lengths,  was  sewed  together  to  make  the  stocking.  An  improve¬ 
ment  upon  this  method,  the  origin  of  which  is  unknown,  was  knit¬ 
ting  a  circular  web,  which  was  afterwards  fashioned  into  the  heel 
and  foot  in  various  ways.  This  process  is  supposed  to  have  been 
brought  to  America  by  a  German  who  immigrated  from  Belgium, 
and  settled  in  Connecticut  in  1835. 

During  the  century  before,  as  late  as  1784,  the  existing  penalty 
of  forty  pounds  for  exporting  a  stocking  frame  from  England  had 
been  so  greatly  increased  that  it  had  been  difficult  for  the  colonies 
to  obtain  them.  The  date  of  the  settlement  of  this  country  was 
almost  coincident  with  the  introduction  of  knit  stockings  in  Eng- 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


195 


* 

\ 


land.  Yet  Felt,  in  his  Annals  of  Salem,  gives  a  list  of  articles  to  be 
exported  to  New  England  in  1629,  among  which  are  eight  hundred 
pairs  of  stockings,  two  hundred  pairs  of  which  were  to  be  Irish, 
at  thirteen  pence  a  pair  in  Dublin,  and  one  hundred  pairs  of  knit , 
at  two  shillings  four  pence  a  pair  ;  also  “  500  pair  of  redd  knit 
capps,  milled,  about  5d.  apiece, ”  together  with  “  sutes  of  dublett 
and  hose  of  leather  lyned  with  oyled-skin  leather,  ye  hose  and 
dubletts  with  hooks  and  eyes,”  and  “  breeches,”  or  “  leather 
drawers,”  which  for  a  long  time,  in  New  England,  took  the  place 
of  knit  hosiery. 

The  prohibition  on  the  exportation  of  knitting  frames  from  the 
mother  country  forced  the  colonists  to  depend  upon  hand  labor  for 
the  domestic  supply  of  the  demand  for  stockings  and  other  arti¬ 
cles  of  hosiery.  Naturally,  too,  this  labor  fell  upon  the  women, 
and  nobly  did  the  mothers  and  grandmothers  of  those  days  meet 
the  responsibility.  Up  to  quite  the  present  century  the  chief  sup¬ 
ply  of  hosiery  for  the  inland  population  of  the  country,  was  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  busy  fingers  of  the  women  in  the  odd  moments  of 
leisure  they  could  snatch  from  more  pressing  duties  during  the 
day,  or  during  the  long  evenings  of  winter. 

The  subject  early  engaged  the  attention  of  the  colonial  govern¬ 
ments.  In  1662  the  Virginia  Assembly  voted  a  premium  of  ten 
pounds  of  tobacco,  the  currency  of  that  day,  for  every  dozen  pairs 
of  woollen  or  worsted  stockings.  When  the  approaching  Revo¬ 
lution  intensified  the  patriotism  of  the  land,  the  same  state  of¬ 
fered  fifty  pounds  for  every  five  hundred  pairs  of  men’s  and  women’s 
stockings  produced,  and  worth  from  one  shilling  to  three  shillings 
a  pair,  with  the  privilege  of  buying  them  at  an  advance  of  seven¬ 
ty-five  per  cent,  upon  these  prices.  Among  the  German  settlers 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  this  branch  of  domestic  industry 
flourished  naturally.  The  knitters  of  coarse  yarn  stockings  in 
Pennsylvania  are  said,  in  1698,  to  have  received  half  a  crown  a 
pair. 

Despite  the  prohibition  upon  the  exportation  of  stocking  frames, 
knitting  by  their  aid  was  introduced  into  the  colonies  before  the 
Revolution.  The  machines  were  probably  introduced  by  the  Ger¬ 
mans.  The  earliest  mention  found  is  an  item  in  Bradford’s  Ameri¬ 
can  Weekly  Mercury  for  1723,  which  speaks  of  Matthew  Burne,  of 
Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  as  having  served  John  Camm  one 
or  two  years  at  stockingAveaving,  during  which  time  Camm’s 
stockings  obtained  some  repute.  In  1776  the  Committee  of  Safety 


106 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


in  Maryland  appropriated  three  hundred  pounds  to  Mr.  Coxendefer, 
of  Frederick  County,  to  establish  a  stocking  manufactory.  In 
1  *7 66  the  Society  of  Arts,  established  in  New  York,  offered  a  prize 
of  ten  pounds  for  the  first  three  stocking  looms  of  iron  set  up  that 
year,  with  five  pounds  for  the  next  three,  and  fifteen  pounds  for 
the  first  stocking  loom  made  in  the  province. 

In  1194  Michael  Trappal,  of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  petitioned 
Congress  for  an  additional  duty  on  hosiery,  or  some  other  encour¬ 
agement  of  the  industry.  In  the  census  of  1810  the  returns 
from  ten  states  and  territories  reported  a  manufacture  of  four  hun¬ 
dred  and  eighty-one  thousand  three  hundred  and  ninety-nine  pairs 
of  stockings,  valued  at  five  hundred  and  seventy-two  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  forty-two  dollars.  Of  this  Virginia  had  made 
almost  one  half,  Pennsylvania,  next  in  order,  nearly  one  quarter, 
and  third,  Connecticut.  1,  f  . 

In  1831  Timothy  Bailey,  of  Albany,  succeeded  in  applying  power 
to  the  old  stocking  frame  of  Lee,  thus  making  it  a  power  loom 
instead  of  a  hand  loom.  This  improvement  had  been  repeatedly 
tried  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  but  had  been  abandoned  as 
an  impossibility.  This,  with  the  introduction  of  the  machine  for 
knitting  a  circular  web,  by  which  the  necessity  for  a  seam  in  the 
leg  of  a  stocking  was  done  away  with,  g'ave  great  impetus  to  the 
production,  since  the  cheapening',  consequent  upon  this  saving  of 
time  and  labor,  greatly  increased  the  consumption.  .The  attention 
of  the  inventors  being  thus  turned  in  this  direction,  numerous  im¬ 
provements  were  patented,  which  were  generally  intended  to  im¬ 
prove  the  machines  for  factory  use. 

It  is  thus  that  within  the  last  fifty  years  or  so  the  production 
of  articles  of  hosiery  has  been  changed  from  a  domestic  to  a  fac¬ 
tory  industry.  Formerly  a  workman  with  one  of  the  old  hand- 
power  machines  could  produce  in  a  week  about  a  dozen  pairs  of 
cotton  hose  :  now  one  of  the  best  rotary  round  power-frames  can 
produce  in  the  same  time  about  two  hundred  dozen  pairs.  Against 
such  competition  as  this  the  knitting  needles,  even  in  the  hands  of 
the  most  skillful  grandmother,  are  powerless.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  this  method  of  manufacturing  in  factories,  while  it  has  cer¬ 
tainly  been  of  great  benefit  by  cheapening  the  prices  of  hosiery, 
has  also  done  much  to  deprive  the  women  of  a  branch  of  employ¬ 
ment  of  which  they  had  once  nearly  the  monopoly.  There  is  but 
one  remedy  which  clearly  meets  this  base,  and  that  is  the  inven¬ 
tion  of  a  machino  which  they  could  use  themselves. 


WORKS  OF  THE  LAMB  KNITTING  MACHINE  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY,  CHICOPEE  FALLS,  MASS. 


, 


5  •  •; 

,  /  ^  •;  v  ; 

14  #•'-***•  •  <  .•  i 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


109 


This  result  has  been  attained  by  the  Lamb  Knitting  Machine, 
the  invention  of  Isaac  W.  Lamb,  a  Baptist  minister  of  Michigan. 
This  invention  gives  the  women  the  power  to  successfully  contend 
against  the  competition  of  the  factory,  without  being  forced  to 
leave  their  own  firesides,  or  desert  the  more  congenial  sphere  of 
their  own  homes  for  the  crowded  factory.  While  so  simple  in 


LAMB  KNITTING  MACHINE. 

its  construction  that  any  intelligent  person  can  readily  become 
acquainted  with  its  working,  it  combines  the  merits  of  the  stock¬ 
ing  frame  and  the  circular  machine,  with  the  important  advantage 
over  both  of  forming  a  tubular  web  in  such  a  manner  that  it  can 
be  narrowed  or  widened,  —  “  fashioned,”  as  the  technical  term 
has  it.  This  result  has  never  been  obtained  previous  to  the 
invention  of  the  Lamb  Machine.  This,  with  any  variety  of  plain 
and  fancy  ribbed  webs,  is  accomplished  by  arranging  the  self-' 
acting  ,  latch  needles  in  two  parallel  rows,  and  at  pleasure,  by 
simple  adjustments  effected  in  an  instant,  operating  either  row,  a 
part  singly  for  plain  flat  webs,  alternately  for  tubular,  and  both 
together  for  ribbed  or  seamed  work,  and  narrowing  or  widening 
either  web  by  adding  to  or  subtracting  from  the  number  of 
needles  in  operation.  This  is  usually  done  at  the  ends  of  the 


200 


KNITTING  MACHINES. 


rows,  thus  locating  the  fashioning  at  two  points ;  but,  by 
manipulating  the  stitches  on  the  needles,  a  web  can  be  fashioned 
at  as  many  points  as  may  be  desirable  ;  and  this  has  been  applied 
to  a  branch  of  manufacture  heretofore  done  only  by  hand,  namely, 
heeling  and  toeing  the  ribbed  web  made  on  circular  machines  for 
mens’  and  bo}Ts’  socks.  In  the  ribbed  webs,  by  different  arrange¬ 
ments  of  needles,  and  transferring  stitches,  the  most  beautiful 
designs  can  be  produced,  limited  only  by  the  imaginative  inge¬ 
nuity  of  the  operator. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  this  wonderful  little  machine  (only 
twenty-six  inches  long  by  nine  inches  wide)  will  knit  all  kinds  of 
hosiery,  gloves,  mittens,  &c.,  completing  them  with  less  hand 
labor  than  any  other  machine  ever  made,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
all  the  fancy  articles  of  wearing  apparel,  such  as  scarfs,  hoods, 
jackets,  shawls,  cardigans,  clouds,  nubias,  &c.,  and  is  truly 
called  the  companion  of  the  sewing  machine.  In  short,  it  makes 
the  women,  who  are  the  chief  consumers  of  the  five  or  six  mil¬ 
lion  dollars’  worth  of  knit  goods  which  are  yearly  imported  into 
this  country,  able  to  produce  them  for  themselves. 


A 


WRITING  PAPER. 


HISTORICAL  SUGGESTIONS.  —  PICTORIAL  WRITINGS.  —  ANTIQUE  INSCRIPTIONS.  — 
PARCHMENT.  —  THE  ETYMOLOGY  OF  THE  WORD  “PAPER.”  —  THE  PAPYRUS 

PLANT.  -  MANUSCRIPTS  FOUND  IN  HERCULANEUM.  —  PAPER  IN  SPAIN  IN 

1085  ;  IN  ENGLAND  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  —  VARIETIES  OF  PAPER.  - 

HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  PAPER  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE 
PROCESS  OF  THE  MANUFACTURE.  —  FINE  WRITING  PAPER.  — ITS  DAILY  PROD¬ 
UCT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. — HOLYOKE,  MASSACHUSETTS,  AS  THE  CENTRE 
OF  THE  PAPER  MANUFACTURING  INTEREST. — THE  WHITING  PAPER  COMPANY, 
THE  REPRESENTATIVE  MANUFACTURERS  OF  THIS  COUNTRY.  —  MR.  WILLIAM 
WHITING  AND  MR.  LEVI  L.  BROWN  AS  MANUFACTURERS  OF  FINE  WRITING 
PAPER. 

As  all  our  knowledge  is  derived  from  experience,  the  ability  to 
record  the  results  of  our  thought  and  observation  in  such  a  man¬ 
ner  as  will  enable  others  to  obtain,  to  compare,  and  to  preserve 
them  otherwise  than  by  verbal  communication,  is  one  of  the  most 
important,  if  jiot  the  most  important,  steps  made  by  the  race  in 
their  advance  from  isolation  to  union,  or  from  barbarism  to  civil¬ 
ization.  It  has  been  estimated  that  under  favorable  circumstances 
it  would  take  a  people  about  two  thousand  3rears  to  arrive  at  some 
method  for  expressing  language  by  writing.  Of  course  such  an 
estimate  must  be  very  general,  since,  in  a  matter  of  this  kind,  ac¬ 
curacy  of  calculation  is  evidently  impossible,  the  data  being  mere¬ 
ly  approximate  conjecture. 

The  first  writings  were  most  probably  in  all  cases  pictorial,  be¬ 
ing  crude  and  simple  representations  of  natural  objects.  In  the 
course  of  time  these  drawings  came  to  have  merely  a  conventional 
resemblance  to  the  objects  they  were  originally  intended  to  repre¬ 
sent  ;  and,  by  an  analogous  process,  abstract  ideas  were  repre¬ 
sented  by  signs,  which  originally  expressed  concrete  objects. 
Thus  the  picture  of  a  lion  came  to  stand  for  courage,  the  ox  for 
strength,  and  finally  the  suggestion  of  the  picture  of  a  lion  or  an 
ox  to  represent  the  same  ideas. 

The  researches  of  modern  philosophy  into  what  may  be  called 

(201) 


202 


WRITING  PAPER. 


the  archaeology  of  language  have  demonstrated  beyond  dispute  that 
this  was,  in  general  terms,  the  origin  and  growth  of  writing,  until 
finally  language  itself  was  found  to  be  composed  of  various  sounds 
variously  combined,  and  these  sounds  being  represented  by  some 
arbitrary  signs,  our  various  alphabetical  systems  of  writing  came 
into  existence.  The  oldest  inscriptions  in  the  world  are  cut  upon 
stone,  or  stamped  upon  bricks  before  they  were  baked,  or  engraved 
upon  metallic  plates.  These  operations  are  difficult  to  perform, 
and  the  bark  or  the  leaves  of  some  of  the  tropical  trees,  which 
are  well  adapted  for  the  purpose,  were  early  used  to  write  upon.. 
As  it  must  soon  have  been  found  that  these  substances  are  too 
destructible  for  the  permanent  preservation  of  any  writing  in¬ 
trusted  to  them,  the  ingenuity  excited  by  the  demand  for  some 
substance  which  should  have  the  qualities  needed,  succeeded 
finalty  in  preparing  parchment  from  the  skins  of  sheep  and  other 
animals,  together  with  a  fine  quality  of  the  same  substance,  called  . 
vellum,  from  the  skins  of  calves,  kids,  and  still-born  lambs. 

Though  this  material  possesses  in  a  superior  manner  the  quali¬ 
ties  of  toughness,  indestructibility,  and  smoothness,  which  pecu- 
liarily  fit  it  for  the  purpose  of  writing,  yet  the  necessarily  lim¬ 
ited  supply,  and  the  expense  of  it,  rendered  some  other  material 
still  desirable.  This  demand  was  met  in  antiquity  by  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  papyrus,  the  material  for  which  was  furnished  by  a 
plant,  and  from  which  our  word  “  paper  ”  is  derived.  This  plant, 
classed  by  botanists  as  the  cypertis  papyrus,  or  the  papyrus  anti¬ 
quorum,  grows  on  the  marshy  banks  of  rivers.  It  was  formerly 
very  abundant  on*the  banks  of  the  Nile,  but  is  said  by  Wilkinson, 
in  his  treatise  on  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  to  have  entirely  disap¬ 
peared  from  there.  It  belongs  to  the  natural  order  of  the  cype - 
racece,  or  sedge  family,  of  which  the  common  bulrush  and  the  nut- 
grass  of  the  Southern  States  are  familiar  examples.  It  has  a 
triangular  stem,  reaching  sometimes  the  height  of  twenty-five 
feet,  with  its  flowers  in  a  cluster  about  the  top.  From  this  stem, 
cut  into  sections,  the  papyrus  was  obtained  by  peeling  off  the  in¬ 
ner  bark.  These  strips  were  then  kept  saturated  with  water  upon 
a  table,  and  another  layer  of  them  being  placed  on  the  first,  with 
the  fibres  running  at  right  angles,  they  were  joined  by  pressure, 
and  afterwards  hung  up  to  dry.  The  sheets  were  enlarged  by 
pasting  two  sheets  together,  and  such  a  lengthened  sheet  was 
then  kept  for  use  rolled  upon  a  roller. 

For  several  centuries  after  the  Christian  era  a  very  large  com- 


WRITING  PAPER. 


2C3 


merce  was  occupied  in  supplying  the  countries  lying  upon  the 
Mediterranean  with  the  papyrus  made  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt. 
Numerous  specimens  of  writings  upon  papyrus  have  been  recovered 
to  the  modern  world  from  the  ruins  of  Egypt,  and  from  the  mummy 
cases  of  the  dead.  In  Herculaneum  various  manuscripts,  written 
upon  papyrus,  have  been  found,  and  some  of  them  have  been  un¬ 
rolled  and  read.  Its  use,  however,  was  supplanted  by  that  of 
parchment,  and  by  the  discovery  of  paper.  This  art  was  known 
to  the  Chinese  at  a  very  early  date,  and  was  most  probably  intro¬ 
duced  into  Europe  as  early  as  the  seventh  or  eighth  century. 
Casivi,  in  his  Bibliotheca  Arabico-Hispana,  says  that  paper  was 
brought  to  Mecca  in  707.  The  oldest  specimen  of  paper  made 
from  linen,  known  to  be  in  existence  in  Spain,  is  a  document  con¬ 
taining  a  treaty  of  peace  between  the  kings  of  Aragon  and  Spain 
in  1178.  In  the  Chronology  of  Paper  and  Paper  Making,  written 
and  published  by  J.  Munsell,  at  Albany,  in  1857,  this  author  sa}rs 
that  paper  mills  were  in  operation  in  Toledo,  Spain,  in  1085.  In 
France  the  introduction  of  this  industry  dates  back  to  1314,  and 
in  Germany  to  about  the  same  period.  For  Italy  the  date  is  given 
as  1367. 

Paper  was  made  in  England  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. ; 
but  the  first  mill  of  any  importance  was  established  by  John  Spell¬ 
man,  a  German,  who  was  jeweller  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  Eng¬ 
lish,  however,  for  the  next  century  still  depended  chiefly  upon  the 
continent  for  their  supplies.  The  French  refugees  of  1685  im¬ 
proved  and  greatly  increased  the  production.  In  1760  James 
Whatman  had  a  mill  in  operation  in  Maidstone,  the  paper  from 
which  was  of  such  excellent  quality  as  to  create  a  reputation  for 
its  superiority,  which  has  been  kept  up  by  his  successors,  who,  in 
the  Exhibition  of  1851,  obtained  a  medal  for  it.  During  the 
eighteenth  century  the  paper  manufactured  in  Holland  obtained  a 
deserved  reputation  for  its  toughness  and  its  solidity. 

Paper  is  of  all  varieties,  according  to  the  various  purposes  to 
which  it  is  applied,  and  also  according  to  different  materials  from 
which  it  is  made.  For  writing  and  printing  paper,  however,  the 
chief  materials  used  are  the  fibres  from  cotton  or  linen  rags. 
This  material,  or  that  derived  from  any  other  source,  as  wood, 
straw,  pieces  of  rope,  or  any  other  substance  with  the  required 
fibre,  is  reduced  by  various  processes  to  a  watery  pulp,  which, 
being  run  out  in  thin  sheets  upon  felt  cloths,  the  water  drains  off, 
leaving  the  sheet  of  pulp,  which  is  then  pressed,  dried,  and  sub- 


204 


WRITING  PAPER. 


jcctcd  to  other  processes,  according-  to  the  kind  of  paper  to  bo 
made.  Mr.  Munscll  mentions  in  his  work  one  hundred  and  three 
different  substances  from  which  paper  has  been  made.  The  large 
majority  of  these  are  vegetable  substances,  the  others  being  gen¬ 
erally  animal  substances,  and  the  remaining  few  minerals. 

In  1798  Louis  Robert,  a  workman  in  the  factory  of  Pierre  F. 
Didot,  in  France,  conceived  the  idea  of  a  machine  for  improving 
the  manufacture  of  paper.  Up  to  that  time  the  processes  had 
been  carried  on  entirely  by  hand.  The  pulp  prepared  to  the  right 
consistency  was  dipped  out  from  the  vat  by  the  workman  into 
sieves,  over  the  meshes  of  which  he  distributed  it  evenly.  No 
great  skill  or  experience  was  needed  to  do  this  expeditiously  and 
well.  Then  the  film  of  pulp,  being  drained,  was  removed  to  a 
cloth,  then  pressed  and  dried.  The  various  operations  required 
much  time,  with  some  care  and  attention.  Having  patented  his 
machine,  Robert  was  rewarded  by  the  French  government  with  an 
appropriation  of  eight  thousand  francs,  and  sold  his  patent  in 
England  to  the  Messrs.  Fourdrinicr,  a  firm  engaged  in  the  station¬ 
ery  business.  These  gentlemen,  having  expended  about  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  experiments  for  the  improvement  of 
the  process,  became  bankrupt.  But  the  results  of  their  self- 
sacrifice  the  world  possesses  to-day  in  the  machine  which  bears 
their  name,  and  by  which  the  time  consumed  in  making  paper  is 
shortened  from  weeks  to  hours. 

Roughly  described,  the  process  thus  introduced  is  to  allow  the 
prepared  pulp  to  flow  from  the  vat  upon  an  endless  web.  During 
its  passage  on  this  it  is  partially  drained,  and  this  is  more  effectu¬ 
ally  done  by  its  passage  through  rollers.  Then  it  is  dried  by  being 
passed  round  drums  heated  with  steam,  and  is  delivered,  finished, 
in  a  long  sheet,  which  is  afterwards  cut  into  the  required  lengths. 

In  the  United  States  the  first  paper  mill  of  which  we  have  any 
account  was  erected  at  Roxborough,  near  Germantown,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  as  early  as  1693.  This  was  fifty  years  after  printing  had 
been  introduced  into  the  colonies,  but  only  five  or  six  after  a  proc¬ 
lamation  had  been  issued  by  the  English  government  for  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  the  first  manufactory  of  white  paper  in  England.  This 
mill  was  built  by  an  ancestor  of  David  Rittenhouse,  whose  family 
in  Holland  had  long  been  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  paper, 
and  William  Bradford,  the  first  printer  in  Philadelphia.  Printing, 
writing,  and  wrapping  papers  were  made  here  until  the  mill  was 
carried  away  by  a  freshet. 


WRITING  PAPER. 


205 


Id  1128  Bradford,  when  government  printer  in  New  York, 
owned  a  paper  mill  in  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  which  was 
probably  the  second  mill  erected  in  the  colonies,  unless  the  one 
upon  Chester  Creek,  Delaware  County,  Pennsylvania,  which  was 
built  in  1U4,  should  be  so  classed.  This  mill  in  Delaware  County 
came  shortly  afterwards  into  the  possession  of  a  Mr.  Wilcox,  and 
liis  descendants  quite  recently  continued  the  manufacture  of  paper 
there  by  the  old  hand  process.  From  this  mill  the  press  of  Benja¬ 
min  Franklin  was  supplied  with  paper ;  and  during  the  Revolution 
the  bank-note  paper  used  for  the  printing  of  the  Continental  cur¬ 
rency  was  made  here  by  the  hand  process.  In  1829  the  old  mill 
was  replaced  by  another,  in  which  paper  and  bank-note  paper  have 
continued  to  be  made  in  the  same  way. 

Franklin  took  great  interest  in  the  establishment  of  paper  mills, 
and,  after  the  Revolution,  in  1181  stated  that  he  had  been  con¬ 
cerned  in  the  erection  of  eighteen  of  them.  In  1169,  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  and  Delaware  are  said  to  have  contained  forty  paper 
mills,  of  which  six  were  within  the  present  limits  of  Philadelphia, 
and  to  have  produced  annually  one  hundred  thousand  dollars’ 
worth  of  paper  of  various  kinds.  In  1187  there  were  sixty-three 
mills  in  operation  in  the  states,  forty-eight  of  which  were  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  producing  all  together  paper  valued  at  about  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 

The  first  patent  for  an  improvement  in  the  process  of  paper¬ 
making  in  the  United  States  was  granted  to  John  Carnes,  Jr.,  of 
Delaware,  in  April,  1793,  for  an  improvement  in  the  moulds.  The 
second  was  issued  in  March,  1794,  to  John  Biddis,  of  Pennsyl¬ 
vania. 

In  Massachusetts,  according  to  Salmon  in  his  Modern  History ,  a 
paper  mill  was  built  about  1717,  and  in  1720  paper  was  manufac¬ 
tured  in  it  to  the  value  of  about  two  hundred  pounds.  According 
to  other  authorities,  the  generally  received  statement  is,  that  the 
first  paper  mill  erected  in  Massachusetts  was  built  in  1730,  by 
Daniel  Henchman,  a  large  bookseller  and  publisher  in  Boston, 
Benjamin  Faneuil,  Thomas  Hancock,  and  others,  who  were  in¬ 
duced  to  -commence  this  industry  by  the  encouragement  offered  by 
the  General  Court.  By  the  terms  of  the  license  granted  them, 
they  were  obliged  to  produce  during  the  first  fifteen  months  one 
hundred  and  forty  reams  of  brown  and  sixty  reams  of  printing 
paper,  and  at  least  five  hundred  reams,  including  twenty-five  reams 
of  writing  paper,  during  each  succeeding  year  thereafter.  In 


206 


WRITING  PAPER. 


1731  Daniel  Henchman  presented  to  the  General  Court  samples  of 
the  paper  produced  ;  and  in  the  following  year  the  English  paper 
merchants,  learning  that  the  mill  was  in  successful  operation,  com¬ 
plained  of  it  to  the  British  Board  of  Trade  as  an  infringement  of 
their  business.  This  mill  was  built  at  Milton,  about  seven  miles 
from  Boston,  on  the  Neponset  River,  and  continued  until  the 
Revolution  in  successful  operation,  though  interrupted  once  or 
twice  by  the  want  of  experienced  workmen. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  last  century,  the  manufacture  of 
paper  gradually  increased  throughout  the  country,  though  the 
supply  never  equalled  the  demand.  One  of  the  chief  causes  lim¬ 
iting  the  production  was  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  sufficient 
supply  of  rags.  The  importation  of  these,  together  with  the  at¬ 
tempts  to  produce  paper  from  various  other  materials,  was  stimu¬ 
lated  into  greater  activity  by  the  action  of  the  American  Company 
of  Booksellers,  who,  in  1804,  offered  gold  and  silver  medals  for 
the  greatest  quantities  and  best  qualities  of  printing  and  wrapping- 
papers  made  from  othqr  materials  than  cotton  and  linen  rags.  In 
New  York  and  New  England  the  people  were  stimulated  and 
urged  to  preserve  their  rags  by  advertisements  and  patriotic  ap¬ 
peals  in  both  verse  and  prose,  together  with  the  more  seductive 
offers  of  three  pence  a  pound  for  clean  white  cotton  or  linen  rags, 
and  two  pence  a  pound  for  blue,  brown,  or  check  rags. 

During  the  early  part  of  this  century  one  engine  for  grinding 
rags  constituted  a  mill,  and  two  what  was  called  a  double  mill, 
and  the  manufacturer  who  ow-ned  one  of  these  last  was  counted 
more  than  rich.  An  engine  then  would  grind  about  one  hundred 
pounds  a  day.  Now  an  engine  will  work  up  from  four  hundred  to 
fifteen  hundred  pounds  a  day,  according  to  its  capacity.  The  pa¬ 
per  manufactured  then  was  worth  about  fifty  cents  a  pound,  a 

% 

price  which,  comparatively  with  the  present,  was  equal  to  about 
one  dollar  a  pound.  The  business  of  paper-making  at  that  time 
had  not  become  as  well  organized  as  at  present,  and  paper-makers 
were  “  tamps,”  as  they  were  called  ;  that  is,  they  were  frequently 
forced,  by  want  of  steady  employment,  to  wander  over  the  coun¬ 
try  in  search  of  it.  A  mill  employed  about  seven  men,  and  ten  to 
twelve  girls. 

At  this  time  the  custom  of  drinking  was  universal,  and  in  the 
general  preparation  of  the  material  for  the  temperance  reform  of 
the  next  twenty  years  the  paper-makers  were  not  behind  their  fel¬ 
low-laborers.  The  ordinary  daily  product  of  a  mill  was  about  one 


WRITING  PAPER. 


207 


hundred  pounds.  Wages  were  paid  in  cash,  or  in  equivalent  trade 
in  goods,  as  needed,  settlements  being  made  about  once  a  year. 
The  rate  of  wages  ranged  from  twenty-five  cents  to  five  shillings 
(eighty-three  cents)  or  to  a  dollar  a  day.  A  dollar  and  a  quarter  a 
day  was  large  pay  for  a  superintendent. 

Women  then,  as  now,  were  paid  less  for  the  same  work.  Their 
wages  averaged  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  week,  of  which  one  half  was 
paid  in  cash  and  the  other  in  board.  There  was  no  social  dis¬ 
grace  in  working  in  the  mill,  and  the  daughters  of  the  best  society 
the  place  contained  were  often  employed  in  the  mill.  The  work 
was  all  done  by  hand,  the  pulp  being  dipped  out  into  the  11  mould, ” 
which  was  just  the  size  of  the  sheet  to  be  made.  Two  men  and 
a  boy  were  required  for  the  dipping  from  the  vat,  the  couching,  or 
laying  off  on  the  “  felt,”  and  separating  from  the  felt. 

When  a  pile  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  sheets  had  been 
made,  they  were  pressed  together  in  alternate  layers  with  the 
felts  by  a  common  screw-press.  The  paper  was  then  removed 
from  the  felts,  and  pressed  again  and  again,  until  the  water  was 
expelled.  The  next  day  the  girls  "  parted  packs,”  that  is,  sepa¬ 
rated  the  sheets,  which  were  again  pressed,  and  again  parted,  and 
then  hung  up,  in  sections  of  six  to  ten  sheets,  in  a  loft  to  dry. 
When  dry,  the  sheets  were  evened,  or  “  jogged,”  as  the  term  was, 
then  sized  in  packages  of  about  one  half  ream  by  being  dipped 
into  a  thin  glue,  then  pressed  again,  and  the  edges  turned  to  pre¬ 
vent  their  sticking  together,  then  parted,  pressed  again,  and  hung 
up  again  to  dry.  When  dry  they  were  pressed  again,  assorted, 
the  specks  and  motes  picked  off  with  a  sharp  knife,  then  pressed 
again  with  . sheets  of  paper  between  them,  and  then  again  between 
hot  plates  of  iron.  The  edges  were  then  trimmed  even  with  a 
binder’s  plough,  and  the  paper  was  packed  for  sale. 

Steam  power  was  first  applied  in  the  United  States  at  Pittsburg 
in  1816.  The  introduction  of  the  Fourdrinier  machines  has  great¬ 
ly  facilitated  the  manufacture,  and  made  the  production  of  modern 
times  able  to  satisfy  the  increased  demand  caused  by  the  wonderful 
industrial  advance  of  this  century.  These  machines  cost  about 
twenty  thousand  dollars  each,  and  kept  at  work  the  twenty-four 
hours  of  a  day,  make  two  and  a  half  tons  of  paper.  A  part  of  the 
new  process  in  its  manufacture  is  the  use  of  chlorine  in  bleaching 
and  cleaning  the  rags,  and  rendering  it  possible  to  use  coarser 
materials  for  the  production  of  the  better  qualities  of  paper. 

The  general  statement  of  the  workings  of  this  machine  lias 
12 


208 


WRITING  PAPER. 


already  been  given.  It  would  be  almost  impossible,  without  nu¬ 
merous  illustrations,  to  describe  intelligently  its  technical  arrange¬ 
ments.  The  machine  occupies  a  space  of  eleven  hundred  square 
superficial  feet,  and  a  continuous  sheet,  which  commences  as  pulp, 
and  is  delivered  as  paper,  occupies,  in  its  intricate  passage  through 
the  various  operations  of  manufacture,  a  length  of  over  one  hun¬ 
dred  feet,  or  over  six  rods.  After  the  paper  is  made,  it  is  calend¬ 
ered,  which  consists  of  rolling  it  between  a  smooth  copper  roller 
and  one  made  of  paper,  this  last  material  being  the  best  substance 
known  for  giving  a  smooth  surface.  These  rollers  are  pressed  to¬ 
gether  with  great  force,  and  the  effect  is  to  greatly  strengthen 
the  paper.  When  finished  and  arranged  in  reams,  the  paper  is 
stamped  with  any  device  by  means  of  dies. 

The  manufacture  of  fine  writing  paper  in  this  country  is  promi¬ 
nently  among  its  great  industries,  some  sixty-five  tons  a  day  being 
the.  customary  product,  a  large  percentage  of  which  is  made  at 
Holyoke,  Massachusetts,  where  exists  the  representative  or  lead¬ 
ing  paper  manufactory  of  the  Whiting  Paper  Company,  whose 
paper  is  so  extensively  used  throughout  the  United  States,  and  ap¬ 
preciated  for  its  delicate  finish  and  general  perfection. 

The  Whiting  Paper  Company,  though  not  old  as  a  corporation, 
has  won  for  itself  the  first  place  among  paper  manufacturers  with 
a  rapid  and  sure  success  rarely  equalled  in  any  business  enterprise, 
through  the  happy  combination  among  the  gentlemen  composing 
it,  of  peculiar  talents  for  the  business,  great  energy,  thorough 
experience,  and  large  capital. 

Mr.  William  Whiting,  after  whom  the  company  is  named,  is 
still  a  young  man,  one  of  the  few  who  win  early  successes. 
Though  young  he  has  had  long  business  experience,  and  enjoys 
an  extensive  acquaintanceship  throughout  the  country.  With  un¬ 
tiring  energy  he  devotes  himself  to  the  active  business  of  the  vast 
establishments  owned  by  the  company,  while  he  has  the  co-opera¬ 
tion  and  invaluable  counsels  of  his  chief  partner,  Mr.  Levi  L.  Brown, 

whose  perfect  acquaintance  with  the  business  in  every  detail,  and 

* 

unequalled  success  as  a  paper  manufacturer  (at  South  Adams, 
Mass.),  long  since  secured  to  him  a  cordial  deference  among  paper 
manufacturers  as  the  leading  man  of  their  order  in  the  United  States. 

Such  men,  who  could  not  fail  to  do  credit  to  any  enterprise  in 
which  they  might  engage,  are  likely,  especially  as  they  are  in  the 
full  vigor  of  life,  to  long  hold  the  leading  position  in  their  manu- 
.factuie,  which  They  have  so  worthily  obtained. 


1 


GLUE,  SAND-PAPER,  CURLED  HAIR,  COW-HIDE  WHIPS. 

HISTORY  OF  GLUE-MAKING.  —  THE  MODERN  USE  OF  GLUE.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF 
MAKING  IT.  —  THE  TESTS  FOR  GLUE.  —  THE  EFFECT  OF  GLUE-MAKING  ON  THE 

y  t 

PUBLIC  HEALTH.  —  THE  AMOUNT  OF  THE  BUSINESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — 
SAND-PAPER.  —  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THIS  INDUSTRY.  —  THE  AMOUNT  OF  THE 

BUSINESS.  —  BAEDER,  ADAMSON  AND  CO.,  PHILADELPHIA.  —  EMERY  PAPER.  - 

ITS  USES.  —  CURLED  HAIR.  —  A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFAC¬ 
TURE.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE  LEADING  HOUSE  IN  THE  MAN¬ 
UFACTURE.  —  COW-HIDE  WHIPS.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  MAKING  THEM.  — PHILA¬ 
DELPHIA  THE  SEAT  OF  THIS  MANUFACTURE. 

The  superior  processes  introduced  into  industry,  in  modern 
times,  by  the  knowledge  of  chemistry,  has  led  to  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  various  branches  of  manufacture,  and  made  them  of  great 
importance,  though  they  deal  with  articles  which  were  formerly 
either  entirely  unknown,  or  disregarded  as  of  no  value. 

Glue,  in  the  modern  industrial  world,  is  a  case  in  point.  Like 
many  of  the  important  things  in  industry,  it  has  heretofore  been 
overlooked  ;  and  though  the  world  would  suffer,  to-day,  much  less 
in  its  comforts  and  conveniences  of  living  from  a  loss  of  all  its 
gold  and  silver  than  from  that  of  its  glue,  yet  this  fact  would  be 
most  probably  overlooked  by  the  large  majority  of  those  whose 
well  being  is  so  intimately  dependent  upon  its  abundant  and  cheap 
supply.  Yet,  in  fact,  glue  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  arts 
of  modern  industry,  and  as  yet  no  substitute  has  been  found  to 
take  its  place.  Without  it,  turpentine  and  petroleum  would  escape 
from  the  barrels  which  now  contain  them,  and  be  lost.  The  very 
paper  on  which  we  write  would,  but  for  glue,  make  nothing  but 
a  series  of  blots  ;  and  so  on  through  all  the  series  of  domestic  or 
household  arts. 

#  *  ■  ' • 

But  very  little  is  known  of  the  history  of  glue-making.  For¬ 
merly  the  artist  and  the  artisan  made  themselves  what  little  glue 
they  wanted.  The  semi-civilized  peoples  made  it  in  a  simple  way, 
by  boiling  pieces  of  skin.  Fish  sounds,  that  is,  the  bladder  of 
the  fish,  now  called  isinglass,  or  fish  glue,  has  from  time  imme¬ 
morial  been  known  as  a  substance  from  which  glue  could  be  made, 

(209) 


210  GLUE,  SAND-PAPER,  CURLED  HAIR,  COW-HIDE  WHIPS, 


and  has  been  used  for  this  purpose.  In  modern  times  glue  is 
made  from  hides,  skins,  sinews,  and  tendons  of  animals.  In  the 
process  of  tanning  and  currying  the  skins  a  large  amount  of  cut¬ 
tings  and  trimmings  is  removed.  These  clippings  are  placed  to 
soak  in  a  strong  solution  of  lime-water.  This  treatment  disposes 
them  to  dissolve  readily  under  the  application  of  heat,  removes  at 
the  same  time  the  fat,  flesh,  and  hair,  acts  as  an  antiseptic,  and 
removes  alUtraces  of  putrefaction. 

After  the  trimmings  are  thus  cleaned,  they  are  then  washed  and 
dried,  and  laid  away  for  perfect  desiccation.  When  perfectly 
dried,  they  are  taken,  in  autumn  and  spring,  —  for  glue  cannot  bo 
made  in  summer,  -and  placed  in  a  vat  or  kettle,  and  reduced  to 
a  liquid  glue,  either  by  the  direct  action  of  fire  or  by  steam.  Tho 
liquid  is  then  drawn  off,  strained,  into  a  vat,  where  it  is  al¬ 
lowed  to  settle.  Then  it  is  placed  in  boxes,  or  tin  dishes,  and 
allowed  to  cool  into  a  tremulous  jelly,  which  it  generally  becomes 
after  standing  about  ten  or  fifteen  hours.  It  is  then,  by  a  very  sim¬ 
ple  contrivance,  removed  and  sliced  into  sheets,  which  are  placed 
upon  nets  of  cotton  or  flax,  stretched  upon  wooden  frames,  and 
exposed, , either  in  the  open  air  or  in  well-aired  buildings,  to  dry. 
The  process  of  drying  occupies  generally  about  two  weeks.  When 
dried,  it  is  placed  in  lofts  to  season,  and  is  then  ready  for  market. 

In  England,  owing  to  the  greater  dampness  of  the  climate,  glue 
becomes  dull  or  mouldy  in  appearance.  To  remove  this,  each 
sheet,  after  it  is  dry,  is  washed,  to  give  it  a  glazed  look.  The 
greater  dryness  of  our  climate  renders  this  operation  unnecessary 
here.  The  quality  of  glue  is  judged  of  by  its  adhesiveness,  and 
by  the  amount  of  surface  it  will  cover  when  used  as  a  size.  A 
clear,  hard,  horny  appearance  when  broken  is  an  indication  of 
good  quality  ;  but  no  rule  can  be  given  which  is  always  reliable. 
The  reputation  of  tlie  manufacturer,  and  the  reliance  placed  on  his 
marks,  are  the  only  sure  guarantees  as  to  quality  or  value. 

Not  only  is  the  manufacture  of  glue  an  important  one  for  the 
value  of  its  product,  but  it  is  also  worthy  of  consideration  for  its 
incidental  conservation  of  the  public  health,  since  it  takes  from 
the  tanner  and  the  butcher,  when  fresh,  materials  which,  if  not  so 
disposed  of,  would  ferment,  rot,  and  become  a  serious  danger  to 
the  hygienic  conditions  of  the  community.  An  opinion  generally 
prevails  that  bones,  hoofs,  horns,  and  dead  animals  are  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  glue.  This  is,  however,  erroneous.  There  is  not 
glue  enough  in  dead  animals  to  pay  for  the  expense  of  handling 


GLUE,  SAND-PAPER,  CURLED  HAIR,  COW-HIDE  WHIPS.  211 


them,  nor  is  there  any  in  hoofs  and  horns.  Occasionally,  where 
acids  are  cheap,  bones  are  used  ;  but  in  this  country  they  are 
too  valuable  for  other  purposes  to  be  used  in  making  glue.  The 
amount  of  capital  invested  in  the  United  States  in  the  glue  busi¬ 
ness  is  about  eight  million  dollars,  and  the  yearly  product  made 
amounts  to  about  ten  million  dollars.  In  order  to  carry  on  the 
business,  large  outlays  must  be  made  for  buildings  and  fixtures, 
while  the  time  required  in  the  processes,  and  the  short  periods  dur¬ 
ing  which  glue  can  be  made,  do  notallow  a  quick  return.  One  half 
to  two  thirds  of  the  value  in  glue  is  labor.  There  are  numerous 
firms  in  the  United  States  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  glue, 
scattered  from  Maine  to  California,  but  for  the  most  part  located 
east  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  laVgest  in  the  country,  or  in  the 
world,  is  the  Riverside  Glue  Works,  on  the  Delaware  River,  Phila¬ 
delphia,  and  owned  by  Baeder,  Adamson  &  Co.  This  concern  was 
founded  by  Mr.  Charles  Baeder,  in  1828,  and  has  grown  from  small 
proportions  to  its  present  size,  employing  some  eight  hundred  men 
and  boys,  and  is  a  model  of  industrial  organization. 

Sand  Paper, 

This  branch  of  manufacture  is  comparatively  new  in  this  coun¬ 
try,  or  in  any  other.  Formerly  it  was  customary  for  the  trades 
using  sand  paper  constantly,  to  make  it  for  themselves,  as  they 
needed  it,  out  of  ordinary  brown  paper,  glue,  and  sand.  This  is 
done  even  yet  in  some  parts  of  Europe.  The  business  was  organ¬ 
ized  by  Messrs.  Baeder,  Adamson  &  Co.,  who  make  their  own 
paper  out  of  old  rope,  use  the  best  quality  of  glue,  and  pulverize 
the  quartz  or  flints  used  in  it.  By  this  means  they  are  enabled  to 
furnish  so  superior  an  article,  of  a  constantly  uniform  grade,  at  so 
low  a  price,  —  some  being  as  low  as  half  a  cent  a  sheet,  —  that  the 
demand  for  it  has  become  universal,  large  quantities  being  export¬ 
ed  to  Europe,  South  America,  the  Pacific  Islands,  and  elsewhere. 
The  amount  made  in  the  United  States  is  very  large,  amounting  to 
about  two  hundred  thousand  reams  yearly,  requiring  a  capital  of  at 
least  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Emery  paper  and  emery  cloth 
are  made  by  the  same  firm,  a  large  demand  for  them  being  created 
’  by  the  nice  iron  work  in  the  steam  engine,  the  sewing  machine,  and 
other  similar  industries  which  require  them  for  polishing  pur¬ 
poses. 

Curled  Hair. 

This  industry  is  comparatively  modern,  and  is  created  by  the 
demand  originating  in  the  increased  appliances  for  comfort  in  the 


212  GLUE,  SAND-PAPER,  CURLED  IIAIR,  COW-HIDE  WHIPS. 


furnishing  of  our  houses,  railroad  cars,  and  other  places.  Curled 
hair  is  made  from  the  manes  and  tails  of  horses,  and  from  the  hair 
or  switches  of  cattle.  The  greater  part  of  the  hair  used  for  this 
purpose  is  imported  from  South  America,  where  it  is  cut  from  the 
animals  while  alive,  which  are  then  let  run  until  they  have 
grown  another  crop.  In  making  curled  hair,  the  material  is  first 
cleaned  by  washing;  it  is  then  carded  and  spun  into  ropes,  and 
simultaneously,  by  the  same  process,  an  extra  twist  is  given  to  the 
rope,  which  is  thus  half  kinked.  In  this  condition  it  is  boiled  for 
about  an  hour  in  fresh  water,  and  then  placed  in  an  oven  or  kiln  to 
bake.  After  being  thus  baked,  it  is  untwisted  and  picked  apart. 

The  operations  of  spinning,  twisting,  boiling,  and  baking  have 
given  the  hair  a  curl  which  acts  as  a  spring,  so  that  a  mattress 
made  of  good  curled  hair  consists  of  ten  thousand  tiny  springs, 
and  forms  an  admirable  support  for  the  tired  body.  The  quantity 
of  curled  hair  made  in  the  United  States  may  be  fairly  estimated 
at  thirteen  million  pounds,  and  a  capital  of  not  less  than  two  and 
a  half  million  dollars  is  engaged  in  carrying  on  the  business.  But 
when  in  addition  to  this  we  estimate  the  various  uses  to  which 
curled  hair  is  put,  the  capital  invested  in  the  various  trades  which 
necessarily  employ  it  becomes  enormous. 

An  inferior  article  is  made  either  directly  from  hogs’  hair,  or  by 
mixing  it  with  horse  hair;  but  is  not  as  durable.  Philadelphia 
has  always  been  the  centre  of  this  business,  and  Baeder,  Adamson 
&  Co.  are  acknowledged  to  be  the  largest  producers,  while  the 
excellence  of  the  article  they  make  is  unsurpassed. 

Cow-Hide  Whips. 

It  is  not  known  to  whom  the  honor  of  inventing  the  cow-hide  whip 
belongs  ;  yet  of  all  simple  things  it  is  the  simplest  and  most  com¬ 
plete.  It  is  nothing  but  a  strip  of  hide  twisted  in  proper  shape, 
and  kept  in  position  until  it  has  dried,  when  it  has  all  the  toughness 
and  elasticity  of  whalebone,  without  its  brittleness.  They  are  used 
principally  for  stocks  for  covering,  instead  of  whalebone.  Philadel¬ 
phia  is  now,  and  has  always  been,  the  only  place  in  the  world  where 
these  whips  are  made.  Baeder,  Adamson  &  Co.  make  nine  tenths 
of  all  that  are  made,  and  ship  them  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 

As  a  simple,  cheap,  and  handy  whip,  they  have  no  equal.  They 
are  generally  made  of  strips  of  hide  which  could  be  turned  to  no 
other  use. 

It  is  singular  to  see  how  the  industrial  activity  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  has  by  ingenuity  turned  to  the  advantage  of  our  comfort 


GLUE,  SAND-PAPER,  CURLED  HAIR, 


COW-HIDE  WHIPS.  213 


such  simple  and  generally  disregarded  materials  as  we  have 
been  writing  about.  By  their  industry,  enterprise,  and  persever¬ 
ance,  however,  Messrs.  Baeder,  Adamson  &  Co.  have  made  the 


manufacture  of  their  specialties  one  of  the  great  industries  of  the 
country,  and  have  fairly  earned  the  high  commercial  estimation  in 
which  they  are  held. 


VENEERING. 


THE  ART  KNOWN  TO  TIIE  ROMANS.  —  ITS  UTILITY.  —  THE  PRINCIPAI  WOODS 
USED.  —  SELECTION  OF  ABNORMAL  FORMATIONS.  —  DEFORMITIES  TURNED 
TO  BEAUTIES.  — PROCESS  OF  SPLITTING  AND  SAWING  VENEERS.  — UTILIZING 
SAWDUST.  —  DELICATE  MACHINERY.  —  THINNESS,  WIDTH,  AND  LENGTH  OF 
VENEERS.  — STRIPS  OF  IVORY.  — PROCESS  OF  PUTTING  ON  VENEERS.  —  AP¬ 
PLICATION  OF  THE  ART.  —  BUHLWORK. —  PRESSED  WORK.  — BOOK-BIN DERS' 
BOARDS.  — WOOD  HANGINGS  FOR  WALLS. 

Veneering  is  the  art  of  facing  straight-grained,  inexpensive 
wood  with  a  thin  strip  or  plate  of  beautiful  and  costly  wood,  so 
that  the  cabinet  work  or  other  article,  when  finished,  may  present 
the  appearance  of  having  been  made  from  solid  boards  of  the  more 
expensive  material.  The  art  is  very  ancient;  it  was  known  cen¬ 
turies  ago  to  the  Romans,  and,  possibly,  to  the  Egyptians,  to  whom 
it  naturally  would  be  suggested  by  the  plating  of  wood  with  gold 
and  silver,  in  which  they  were  experts.  Obviously,  the  first  in¬ 
tent  of  veneering  is  to  deceive  —  to  represent  as  solid  substance 
what  is  only  surface ;  but  it  enables  the  purchaser  to  procure  what 
he  desires  in  furniture,  panels,  casings,  and  other  wood  work,  at  a 
far  less  price  than  the  same  work  from  the  solid  material  would 
cost ;  and  the  art  has  the  intrinsic  advantages  of  strengthening, 
by  means  of  the  veneer,  the  wood  basis,  so  as  to  materially  assist 
in  preventing  it  from  warping  or  splitting,  and  of  permitting  the 
artisan  to  make  perfect  matches  in  parallel  panels,  or  in  one  design 
in  a  single  part  of  his  work,  by  using  two  faces  of  the  same  cut, 
tli  us  producing  exact  duplicates,  which  would  be  impossible  in  the 
solid  wood. 

The  principal  woods  used  for  veneering  are  the  American  bird’s- 
eye  maple,  ebony,  mahogany,  rose-wood,  king’-wood,  satin-wood, 
sandal-wood,  sycamore,  kiabocca  (or  amboyna),  zebra-wood,  tulip- 
wootl,  and  a  few  others.  From  these  woods  sections  can  be  se¬ 
lected  which  present  knots,  gnarls,  or  other  excrescences,  which, 
(214) 


VENEERING. 


215 


when  sawn  into  strips,  present  surfaces  showing  beautiful  and  va¬ 
riform  figures.  In  parts  of  the  trunk  where  limbs  have  protruded, 
the  veneers  will  give  elliptical  figures,  sometimes  two  or  three  feet 
in  length,  by  from  four  to  six  inches  in  breadth.  In  such  parts  of 
the  tree  the  fibres  not  only  assume  a  vast  variety  of  twists  and 
shapes,  but  they  acquire  deeper  colors,  and,  by  interlacing  the 
texture,  the  wood  becomes  denser  and  more  compact.  Other  parts 
of  the  same  wood  exhibit  a  wavy  and  grotesque  appearance,  or 
that  mottled  surface  seen  in  the  bird’s-eye  maple,  and  the  similar, 
though  far  more  beautiful  and  costly,  kiabocca.  These  dots  or 
“  eyes  ”  are  incipient  or  partially  formed  knots.  The  knots  and  ex¬ 
crescences  turned  into  veneers  furnish  the  endless  and  pleasing 
varieties  of  shapes  seen  in  finished  furniture  and  cabinet  work, 
and  what  in  nature  is  in  reality  a  deformity  becomes  beauty  of  a 
high  order  in  art. 

The  veneers  are  sawn  or  cut  by  machinery  from  blocks  or  planks 
of  the  wood.  For  straight-grained  woods  there  are  ingeniously 
constructed  machines  which  will  split  the  veneers  of  the  required 
thickness,  thus  utilizing  the  whole  of  the  wood  and  saving  the 
waste  (estimated  at  one  eighth)  made  by  sawing.  But  for  the 
more  valuable  woods,  this  sawdust  need  not  be  wasted,  since  it 
can  be  mixed  with  glue  or  bullock’s  blood,  and  then  forced  by  pow¬ 
erful  pressure  into  moulds  which  will  give  beautiful  imitation  wood- 
carvings  of  solid  texture.  The  greater  part  of  the  veneers  are 
sawn  by  machines  which  must  be  of  the  nicest  construction,  for 
the  veneers  vary  in  thickness  —  according  to  the  material  or  the 
value  of  particular  woods — from  eight  to  one  hundred  veneers  to 
the  inch  in  thickness  of  the  plank  or  block.  The  veneers  vary  in 
width  from  a  few  inches  to  four  or  five  feet.  By  still  another  ma¬ 
chine  veneers  of  considerable  length  as  well  as  width  are  obtained. 
This  machine  is,  in  fact,  a  turning-lathe,  which  cuts  the  veneer 
from  the  wood  in  a  spiral,  so  that  the  strip  comes  off  as  it  were 
from  a  roll,  in  a  sheet  of  from  ten  to  fifty  feet  in  length.  This  is 
applied  especially  to  bone  and  ivory,  and  sheets  of  ivory  have  been 
cut  by  this  method  of  from  ten  to  forty  feet  in  length  and  from  one 
to  two  and  one  half  feet  in  width.  Perfect  machinery  enables  the 
veneer  mill  to  supply  the  cabinet  maker  or  other  artisan  with  uniform 
veneers  of  the  required  thickness  for  different  classes  of  work. 

The  veneers  are  sent  to  the  cabinet  maker  rough  on  both  faces, 
and  the  surface  to  be  placed  on  the  wood  is  further  roughened  to 
facilitate  the  gluing.  The  strips  are  selected  and  shaped  to  the 


210 


VENEERING. 


part  to  be  veneered  ;  the  wood  work  ground  is  thinly  coated  with 
glue  ;  the  veneer,  well  warmed  to  keep  the  glue  liquid,  is  laid  on  ; 
over  the  veneer  is  placed  an  exactly-fitting  wooden  cover,  or 
“caul,”  also  warmed,  and  caul  and  veneer  are  then  tightly  pressed 
down  by  wooden  clamps  secured  by  screw  bolts  and  nuts.  Or 
the  veneer  may  be  placed,  rubbed  down  by  hand,  and  then  pressed 
down  by  the  “veneering  hammer”  worked  by  one  or  more  men 
from  the  centre  to  the  edges,  so  as  to  press  out  air  and  any  ex¬ 
cess  of  glue.  In  this  process  the  glue  is  kept  in  a  fluid  state 
by  hot  size  on  the  surface  of  the  veneer.  Such  spots  or  places  as 
do  not  adhere  closely  are  “gone  over”  with  a  hot  iron.  -When 
contact  is  perfect,  and  the  work  is  thoroughly  dry,  the  veneering 
is  finished,  as  in  other  cabinet  work,  by  planing,  scraping,  pol¬ 
ishing,  oiling,  or  varnishing  with  colorless  varnish.  The  finished 
work  acquires  a  darker,  and  so  older,  appearance  by  exposure 
to  light,  and  the  same  effect  may  be  produced  artificially  by  the 
use  of  lime  water. 

The  application  of  the  art  is  almost  unlimited.  It  is  seen  in 
furniture  of  the  commonest  and  of  the  most  costly  kinds  ;  in  the 
ivory  keys  of  pianos  ;  in  panellings,  and  cabinet  and  carpenter 
work  of  various  sorts  ;  and  in  the  elaborate  interior  fittings  of 
halls,  offices,  and  libraries.  It  is  exhibited  in  its  most  perfect 
form  in  the  mosaic,  or  inlaid  work  known  as  “  buhl  work  ”  (proba¬ 
bly  the  most  ancient  style  of  veneering),  in  which  rare  woods, 
ivory,  tortoise  shell,  and  other  materials  are  inlaid  or  veneered  in 
fanciful  and  beautiful  forms.  A  recent  American  invention  utilizes 
veneering  in  what  is  known  as  “  pressed  work,”  which  consists 
in  gluing  together  several  veneers  of  a  cheaper  wood,  say  black 
walnut,  facing  them  with  more  expensive  wood,  like  rose-wood, 
and  then  heating  the  whole  and  shaping  it  in  moulds  to  furnish 
chair  backs  and  arms,  or  other  curved  work.  By  this  process,  a 
stronger  piece,  less  liable  to  crack  or  warp,  is  secured,  than  could 
be  obtained  from  a  solid  plank.  By  similar  processes,  heating  and 
putting  into  moulds,  an  infinity  of  shapes  may  be  obtained  from 
veneers,  which  are  thus  made  to  present  forms  and  figures  in  re¬ 
lief,  as  if  of  carved  wood,  the  concavities  being  filled  with 
composition  to  make  the  work  solid.  Veneers  are  sometimes 
cut  and  stamped  for  binding  books ;  and  large,  thin  sheets  of 
variegated  woods  have  lately  been  introduced  in  the  United 
States  to  take  the  place  of  paper  hangings.  Properly  put  on 
the  wall,  a  room  presents  the  appearance  of  having  been  finished 
in  the  solid  wood  from  which  the  veneers  are  cut. 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 

i 

THE  EDUCATION'  BUSINESS.  —  EIGHT  MILLION  CHILD-PATRONS.  —  GIGANTIC  CAP¬ 
ITAL  INVESTED.  — TWENTY-SIX  HUNDRED  SCHOOL-BOOKS. — NO  HISTORY 
OF  EDUCATION.  —  PRACTICAL  TENDENCY  OF  EDUCATION  REFORM. — OBJECT¬ 
TEACHING  TWO  CENTURIES  AGO.  - A  QUART  OF  BLACKBOARD. - OLD-FASH¬ 

IONED  SCHOOLS. — REBELLION  AGAINST  GRAMMAR.  — THE  REAL  ROYAL  ROAD 
TO  KNOWLEDGE.  -  FIRST  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  IMPROVED  SCHOOL  APPA¬ 
RATUS  BUSINESS.  - ORIGIN  ANQ  RISE  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  J.  W.  SCHERMER- 

HORN  AND  CO.  —  EXTENT  OF  THEIR  OPERATIONS.  —  CONTENTS  OF  THEIR  MU¬ 
SEUM. —  MODERN  APPARATUS. — MASTER  TILESTON  AND  THE  PEN-WIPER.  — • 
PUBLISHING  DEPARTMENT. 

Improvements  in  the  methods  and  in  the  machinery  of  educa¬ 
tion  and  schools  have  a  value  in  a  mental  and  moral  point  of  view 
which  has  been  endlessly  talked  about,  and  is  pretty  well  under¬ 
stood.  But  their  importance,  as  a  matter  of  every-day  business, 
in  dollars  and  cents,  is  not  so  often  mentioned,  and  is  less  familial*. 
And  yet  the  business  part  of  education,  even  leaving  the  matter  of 
“soul”  for  the  moment  out  of  the  question,  ranks,  in  point  of  money 
importance,  pi  the  same  grade  with  the  cotton  business,  the  wool¬ 
len  business,  the  grain  trade,  or  the  shipping  interest. 

That  this  is  so  will  quickly  be  perceived,  if  we  only  remember 
that  about  one  fifth  of  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  the  LLiited 
States  are  always  occupied  in  attending  schools  or  other  educa¬ 
tional  institutions  ;  that  is,  at  present,  not  far  from  eight  millions 
of  pupils,  besides  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  teachers. 
The  books  alone  used  by  this  yast  army  at  any  one  time  have  cost 
at  the  very  least  twenty  millions  of  dollars  ;  the  seats,  desks,  and 
other  apparatus,  thirty  millions  of  dollars  —  together,  fifty  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars.  The  investment  of  capital  in  schpol-houses  and. 
other  buildings,  in  lands,  college  endowments,  etc.,  is  several 
times  as  much  as  this  ;  one  single  item,  viz.,  fifty  millions  of  acres  of 

(217) 


218 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


public  lands,  given  by  Congress  at  one  time  for  educational  pur¬ 
poses,  being  alone  equal  in  value  to  the  items  of  books  and  iiirni- 
ture.  To  all  these  must  be  added,  further,  a  capital  the  interest  of 
which  would  equal  the  annual  total  sum  paid  to  teachers  ;  a  still  fur¬ 
ther  considerable  item  for  libraries  ;  another  for  reference-books  and 
professional  works  owned  by  teachers  ;  and  the  total  amount  of 
the  business  investment  of  the  United  States  in  education  becomes 
absolutely  gigantic. 

Perhaps  another  fact  will  add  to  the  distinctness  of  our  picture. 
It  is  well  known  that  as  much  as  twenty  thousand  dollars  has  re¬ 
peatedly  been  invested  in  preparing,  printing,  and  distributing 
some  single  new  school-book  before  the  receipt  of  any  returns 
from  it,  with  the  expectation  that  subsequent  sales  would  reim¬ 
burse  the  whole,  with  abundant  profits.  Very  well  :  there  are  in 
the  market  to-day  (besides  books  which  have  become  obsolete) 
about  twenty-six  hundred  different  school-books.  Of  course  the 
investment  for  “  introducing  ”  these  has  often  been  comparatively 
small  ;  but  if  there  are  so  many  competitors  for  a  patronage  which 
it  may  cost  so  much  to  obtain,  that  must  be  an  enormously 
lucrative  patronage. 

No  competent  history  of  education  exists  in  English  literature. 
German  literature  contains  many  works  on  the  subject,  and  abun¬ 
dant  materials  for  it  are  dispersed  throughout  English  literature, 
particularly  in  the  essay  and  biographical  departments.  But  any 
one  at  all  versed  in  the  general  subject  will  recognize  the  truth 
of  the  statement  that,  since  the  time  of  the  “  revival  of  classical 
learning  ”  in  Europe,  which  took  place  just  after  the  capture  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  and  just  before  the  Protestant  Refor¬ 
mation,  one  line  of  progress  more  distinct  than  any  other  can  be 
clearly  traced  along  the  whole  history  of  modern  education  — 
namely,  improvement  in  the  practical  character  of  education. 

This  practical  tendency  has  always  belonged  to  the  prominent 
educational  reformers,  and  has  characterized  all  the  improved  edu¬ 
cational  systems,  as  compared  with  those  which  preceded  them. 
We  find  Comenius,  in  the  days  of  Oxenstiern  and  the  Thirty  Years’ 
War,  laying  down  with  perfect  distinctness  the  very  doctrine 
which  is  to-day  most  prominent  among  the  improvements  now  in 
progress,  to-wit,  the  Object  Lesson  system.  lie  says,  “  Things 
and  words  should  be  studied  together ;  but  things  especially,  as 
being  the  object  both  of  the  understanding  and  of  language.’, 
This  same  idea,  indeed,  was  the  basis  of  his  famous  Orbis  Pictus, 


EDUCATION  ;  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT.  21 V 

a  collection  of  pictures  of  natural  objects  with  explanations,  in 
connection  with  which  he  intended  that  the  objects  themselves 
were  to  be  used  as  far  as  possible.  This  work  has  been  a  favorite 
German  school-book  for  two  hundred  years  —  a  duration  of  popu¬ 
larity  more  than  doubling  that  of  Webster’s  Spelling-Book. 

To  pass  at  once  to  the  affairs  of  the  present  day.  The  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  educational  interest  of  the  United  States,  so  far  as  it 
is  to  be  looked  at  on  the  business  side,  presents  two  especially 
striking  features.  These  are  —  first,  the  rapidly  advancing  prac¬ 
tice  of  educating  through  the  senses,  and  about  things  instead  of 
educating  about  words,  and  through  the  memory  ;  and  as  a  means 
of  accomplishing  this,  the  increased  use  of  improved  apparatus  of 
all  kinds,  from  the  school-house  itself  with  its  symmetrical  and 
elegant  furniture  and  fittings  to  models  and  machinery  of  all 
kinds,  and  even  down  to  the  minute  details  of  crayons,  erasers, 
rods,  inkstands,  and  hat-pegs ;  and  second,  the  use  of  capital, 
machinery,  and  inventive  ability  for  supplying  these  improved  in¬ 
strumentalities  at  once  in  great  quantities  and  at  cheap  rates  — 
that  is,  according  to  the  spirit  of  modern  civilization. 

One  question,  to-day  a  perfectly  reasonable  one,  but  which  at 
any  past  period  in  the  history  of  schools  would  have  been  per¬ 
fectly  absurd,  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  changed  character  of  the 
new  order  of  things  :  — 

“  What  is  the  price  of  a  quart  of  blackboard  ?  ,} 

Heretofore  we  might  as  well  have  inquired  for  a  yard  of  oil,  or 
a  pound  of  conscience.  But  it  is  no  joke  at  all ;  a  material  is 
regularly  manufactured  and  extensively  used,  which  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  liquid  blackboard.  It  is  bottled  or  canned  for 
carriage  and  keeping ;  may  be  spread  like  paint  on  board,  paper, 
or  wall,  and  becomes  a  blackboard. 

The  old-fashioned  “  district  school  ”  has,  within  the  memory  of 
very  many  persons  now  living,  been  the  prevailing  type  of  school- 
house  and  apparatus  ;  and,  indeed,  abundance  of  specimens  of  it 
may  yet  be  found.  It  is  a  clapboarded  shanty,  or  perhaps  a  log 
hut ;  its  walls  within  fringed,  so  to  speak,  with  a  sloping  board 
for  a  desk,  while  parallel  to  this  are  slabs  for  seats,  upheld  by 
straddling  legs  cut  from  green  poles,  with  the  bark  still  on  them. 
Perhaps  other  desks  and  seats,  on  the  same  principle,  occupy  part 
of  the  floor.  Each  pupil  has  a  speller,  a  reader,  an  arithmetic, 
and  possibly  a  geography  and  atlas  ;  perhaps  there  is  a  black¬ 
board,  and  very  likely  there  is  a  rattan,  a  ferido,  or  even  a  raw- 


220 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


hide  within  reach  of  the  teacher’s  hand.  No  wall  maps ;  no 
globe;  no  apparatus  of  any  kind,  unless  a  painted  pail  and  a  tin 
dipper  may  be  called  such,  for  illustrating  hydraulics  and  hj’gi- 
enics  at  once.  As  for  a  school  library,  or  any  real  “  apparatus, ” 
as  well  expect  to  find  a  grand  piano  growing  in  the  woods.  It 
has  happened  within  the  last  twenty  years  that  a  rebellion  broke 
out  among  the  intelligent  parents  of  a  certain  school  district  in 
the  educationally  famous  State  of  Connecticut,  because  the  teacher 
ventured  —  not  to  make  the  district  pay  for  globes,  or  maps,  or 
pictures,  or  anything  else,  but  —  to  teach  grammar! 


THE  OLD-FASHIONED  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


However,  the  number  of  such  abodes  of  darkness  decreases. 
The  present  spirit  of  the  schools  is  represented  by  a  very  different 
affair  —  by  the  first-class  graded  school,  with  its  elegant  architec¬ 
ture,  home  like  and  healthful  warmth  and  fresh  air,  neat  and  com¬ 
fortable  desks  and  seats,  abundance  of  text-books,  well-chosen 
library,  varied  assortment  of  maps,  charts,  globes,  and  primary 
and  scientific  apparatus  of  all  kinds,  in  short,  by  an  array  of  con¬ 
trivances  for  shortening,  clearing,  and  easing  the  way  of  the 
scholar,  and  for  speeding  his  progress  upon  it,  so  numerous  and 
so  effective  that  the  time-honored  maxim,  “  There  is  no  royal  road 
to  knowledge,”  is  pretty  much  done  away.  There  is  one;  it  lies 
through  the  improved  common  school  ;  and  the  sovereign  for  whom 
it  h  is  been  contrived  is  the  Sovereign  People. 

Unquestionably  the  utmost  point  thus  far  reached  in  this  pro¬ 
cess  of  organizing  and  combining  for  the  supply  of  mental  training 
on  business  principles  is  shown  in  the  existence  and  operations  of 
a  central  depot  for  exhibiting  and  distributing  school  material. 


MODERN  DISTRICT  SCHOOL. 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


223 


Fifteen  years  ago  no  such  depot  existed.  The  boys  and  girls  in 
the  country  could  get  their  spelling  books,  arithmetics,  and  slate 
pencils  where  their  fathers  bought  their  codfish  and  molasses,  and 
their  mothers  their  calico  and  thread —  at  the  country  store.  In 
the  cities  there  were  publishers  and  booksellers,  in  case  of  a 
wholesale  order  for  the  like  commodities.  But  it  was  not  easy  to 
obtain  much  more.  Some  of  the  simpler  articles  of  school  appa¬ 
ratus,  now  in  common  use,  were  not  unknown,  but,  in  order  to 
obtain  them,  the  enterprising  teacher  or  trustee  must  visit  as  many 
different  places  as  there  were  articles  named  on  his  memorandum. 
Prices  were’ high,  the  supply  small,  and  the  shops  or  garrets  where 
each  article  might  be  had  were  obscure,  and  dispersed  throughout 
the  city.  Of  course  these  articles  were  usually  not  supplied,  and 
the  efficiency  and  improvement  of  the  schools  were  seriously  im¬ 
peded  accordingly.  A  few  feeble  attempts  had  been  made  to  es¬ 
tablish  the  manufacture  of  some  of  the  most  important  apparatus, 
but  without  enough  of  either  capital,  or  energy,  or  knowledge  of 
what  was  required  to  attain  success. 

In  1858  a  schoolmaster,  now  principal  of  the  house  of  J.  W. 
Schermerhorn  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  having  learned  in  his  profes¬ 
sional  experience  the  wants  of  the  schools,  and  having  studied  the 
needs  of  the  times,  conceived  the  idea  of  a  general  depot  for 
school  material  of  all  kinds.  In  this  one  centre,  according  to  his 
conception,  should  be  gathered  and  displayed  specimens  of  furni¬ 
ture,  apparatus,  stationery,  books,  —  everything  useful  in  the 
school-room.  It  was  to  be  an  exhaustive  museum  of  educational 
merchandise,  where  ail  things  in  that  line  could  be  seen  by  all  men 
—  and  women  ;  in  fact,  a  perpetual  world’s  fair  of  school  material. 

In  1859  a  connection  was  made  with  the  American  School  Insti¬ 
tute,  and  the  proposed  business  was  actually  set  on  foot  in  Phila¬ 
delphia.  In  1861  it  was  found  expedient  to  remove  the  base  of 
operations  to  New  York.  It  quickly  became  evident  that,  in  order 
to  adequately  develop  the  enterprise,  a  department  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  school  merchandise  must  be  added.  Mr.  George  M. 
Kendall,  who  had  been  identified  with  the  enterprise  from  the  first, 
assented  to  the  suggestion  ;  in  1865  Mr.  George  Munger,  an  in¬ 
ventor  of  celebrity,  whose  articles  had  been  extensively  ordered 
through  the  house,  joined  it  as  a  partner,  and  manufacturing  was 
soon  afterwards  begun  at  Guilford,  Conn.  Mr.  W.  P.  Hammond 
joined  his  interests  with  those  of  the  gentlemen  already  named, 
and  not  long- afterwards  three  enterprising  capitalists  —  Messrs. 


22  t  EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 

Nelson  Crawford,  Thomas  Bell,  and  Samuel  P.  Bell  —  invested  funds 
in  the  house. 

No  gigantic  fortunes  have  yet  been  made  in  the  operations  of 
this  modern  and  very  original  concern.  The  nature  of  the  trade 
is  such  that  the  margin  of  profit  cannot  be  heavy  ;  and  in  the 
early  period  of  such  enterprises  there  is  alwa}7s  a  great  and  appar¬ 
ently  wasteful  outlay  of  money,  thought,  and  labor  in  creating 
and  improving.  Our  country  is  yet  new.  Vast  as  the  existing 


THE  MODERN  COUNTRY  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


school  mercantile  interest  already  is,  we  have,  in  fact,  barely 
entered  the  real  school-organizing  period.  The  business  of  the 
firm  hitherto  has  partaken  largely  of  a  missionary  character;  has 
drawn  heavily  upon  the  faith  of  its  managers  and  supporters. 
But  the  original  projector  of  the  house,  as  well  as  his  partners  in 
it,  have  not  at  all  lost  confidence  in  the  importance  of  the  school 
interest,  and  in  the  magnitude  of  the  part  which  they  must  play  % 
in  working  out  American  destiny  ;  nor,  accordingly,  have  they  any 
fear  for  the  ultimate  success  of  their  undertaking  in  a  business 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


225 


point  of  view.  It  would  be  an  unprecedented  violation  of  the 
laws  of  business  should  such  industry,  perseverance,  and  fertil¬ 
ity  of  contrivance  remain  permanently  unrewarded. 

Indeed,  the  business  has  already  fully  verified  the  predictions  uf 
its  founder  as  to  the  main  principles  involved.  It  was  believed 
that  there  was  a  national  demand  for  such  a  central  depot  as  this 
in  the  business  metropolis  of  the  nation  ;  and  the  operations  of  the 
house  have  become  national.  It  has  become  a  regular  resort  for 
persons  interested  in  education  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
its  agencies  are  open  in  most  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union. 
Its  trade  extends  from  Canada  to  the  Mexican  border,  and  from 
Maine  to  California.  Orders  from  England  are  frequent ;  trade 
with  South  America  is  large  ;  Honolulu,  and  other  localities  of  the 


SCHOOL  FURNITURE. 


islands  of  the  sea,  make  frequent  demands  upon  the  facilities  of 
the  house  ;  it  has  furnished  the  public  schools  of  Melbourne,  in 
Australiaff  and  distant  missionary  stations,  as  they  establish 
schools,  are  habitually  resorting  here  for  supplies. 

No  more  vivid  representation  of  the  advance  of  educational  im¬ 
provements  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  could  be  made  than  is 
supplied  by  a  contrast  between  the  catalogue  which  Messrs.  J. 
W.  Schermcrhorn  &  Co.  publish  of  the  school  material  for  sale 
by  them,  and  the  condition  of  things  twenty-five  years  ago.  On 
one  hand,  a  handsomely  printed  volume  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
pages,  containing  two  hundred  and  forty-four  elegantly  executed 
Vood-cuts,  to  begin  with  ;  and  specifying  the  names  and  prices  of 
several  hundred  books,  describing  dozens  of  different  courses  of 
study  ;  cataloguing  not  merely  the  articles  represented  in  the 
13 


226 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


illustrations,  numerous  as  they  are,  but  twenty  times  as  many, 
with  prices  at  retail  and  wholesale,  suggestions  for  use,  etc.,  etc., 
to  the  extent  of  being  substantially  a  practical  pictorial  educa¬ 
tional  encyclopaedia.  So  much  for  the  list  of  to-day.  As  for  that 
of  twenty-five  years  back  —  there  is  none. 

It  is  out  of  the  question  to  give  within  the  limits  of  an  article 
like  the  present  even  an  approach  to  a  full  summary  of  the  mate¬ 
rials  thus  catalogued  and  represented.  But  a  list  of  the  names  of 
fifty  of  the  items,  picked  out  in  turning  over  the  pages,  and  which 
we  throw  into  an  alphabetical  order,  will  surprise  any  one  not 


ROGERS'S  GROUP  — SCHOOL  EXAMINATION. 


thoroughly  familiar  with  the  subject,  so  varied  are  the  articles, 
and  so  wide  the  range  of  knowledge  illustrated,  processes  of  study 
assisted,  and  devices  contrived  :  — 

Abacus,  alphabet  blocks,  arithmetical  solids,  barometer,  book 
carrier,  color  cube,  crayon  holder,  croquet  set,  cube  root  blocks, 
dissected  cone,  dividers  (for  blackboard  use),  drawing  paper,  dumb 
bells,  eraser,  geometrical  forms  and  solids,  globe  (slated),  goni- 
graph,  hat  rack,  hydrometer,  Indian  clubs,  kindergarten  blocks, 
letter  clip,  liquid  blackboard,  lunch  box,  magic  lantern,  magnet,, 
mariner’s  compass,  mathematical  instruments,  microscope,  organ, 
orrery,  pencil  file,  planisphere,  prism,  rain  gauge,  Rogers’s  school 


EDUCATION  :  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


227 


groups,  school  bags,  season  machine,  shoe  scraper,  slate  rest,  song 
roll,  spelling  stick,  stream  of  time,  sweeper,  tape  measure,  tellu¬ 
rian,  thermometer,  wall  slate,  wands  (for  exercise),  waste  basket. 

This  list,  it  will  be  observed,  omits  such  obvious  items  as  chair, 
desk,  ink,  paper,  etc.  It  is  not  .unlikely  that  some  of  our  readers 
may  h  ive  to  stop  and  think  before  they  can  tell  what  some  of 
these  things  are  for.  What  is  a  gonigraph  ?  a  pencil  file  ?  a  sea- 
•  son  machine?  a  spelling  stick?  “  Gony  ”  is,  or  used  to  ber  a 
slang  term  for  “  a  silly  fellow ;  ”  does  a  gonigraph  describe 
gonies  ?  Is  the  file  to  sharpen  the  pencil  or  to  keep  it?  Can 
your  season  machine  turn  out  weather  to  order?  Will  a  stick 
spell  ?  Even  the  man  of  to-day  might  almost  be  imagined  to  put 
these  questions.  But  please  to  hear  about  Master  Tileston  and 


THE  ASSEMBLY  ROOM  DESKS  AND  SETTEES,  WITH  ALLEN’S  OPERA  FOLDING  SEATS. 


the  pen-wiper,  and  then  imagine  what  that  excellent  old  gentleman 
would  have  said  to  Schermerhorn  &  Co.’s  catalogue  of  school 
material.  Master  Tileston,  who  died  not  far  from  1824,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-five  or  more,  was  writing-master  in  one  of  the  Boston 
schools  for  over  half  a  century.  Sundry  curious  anecdotes  are 
told  about  the  good  old  gentleman  ;  but  that  which  is  to  the  pres¬ 
ent  point,  and  which  was  recorded  by  one  of  his  pupils,  is  as 
follows  :  This  pupil  had  become  apprentice  in  a  bookstore,  when 
his  old  instructor  entered  the  store :  “  Out  of  respect  for  the  ven¬ 
erable  man,  the  pupil  wiped  his  pen  on  a  rag  that  hung  by  the 
desk  for  that  purpose,  and  suspended  his  work.  The  old  gentle¬ 
man  approached  the  desk,  and  carefully  raising  the  rag  with  his 
thumb  and  forefinger,  said,  ‘  What  is  this  for  ?  ’  ‘To  wipe  the 


228 


EDUCATION:  ECONOMICAL  AND  EFFICIENT. 


pen  on,  sir,  when  we  stop  writing/  said  the  respecttul  pupil. 
‘  Uh  !  it  may  be  well  enough/  said  he,  *  but  Master  Proctor  had 
no  such  thing !  ’  Master  Tileston  always  wiped,  out  his  pen  with 
his  lillle  finger ,  and  then  cleaned  his  finger  on  the  while  hairs  just 
under  his  wig.  Ilis  model,  Master  Proctor,  had  been  dead  half  a 
century,  perhaps,  but  he  still  lived  in  the  routine  that  he  had  es¬ 
tablished  .” 

The  pen-wiper  evidently  was  a  sore  burden  to  the  poor  old  man. 
The  gonigraph  would  have  staggered  him  ;  the  magic  lantern 
»  would  have. been  little  better  than  sacrilege  in  his  eyes;  and  the 
Indian  clubs  would  have  beaten  his  very  life  out.  And  yet  this 
comprehensive  and  seemingly  heterogeneous  variety  of  school 
material  corresponds  to  a  very  wise  saying  of  a  very  judicious  old 
gentleman  of  far  more  ancient  date  than  Master  Tileston  —  that 
famous  and  practical  Greek,  the  Spartan  King  Agesilaus  —  who, 
on  being  asked,  “  What  ought  children  to  learn  at  school  ?  ”  re¬ 
plied,  “  Whatever  they  will  need  to  do  as  men.” 

Besides  the  extensive  arsenal  —  so  to  speak  —  of  educational 
ordnance  &,nd  munitions  of  war  wherewith  to  teach  the  young  idea 
how  to  shoot,  the  house  keeps  on  hand  a  full  specimen  assortment 
of  all  the  best  school  books,  and  furnishes  them  in  the  same  man¬ 
ner  as  apparatus,  maps,  or  furniture.  Moreover,  it  publishes, 
from  time  to  time,  books  of  its  own,  the  last  being  Professor 
Johonnot’s  School- Houses,  with  designs  by  Hevves  —  an  elabo¬ 
rate  work,  bringing  its  subject  down  to  the  very  latest  dates,  and 
with  a  great  number  of  drawings  and  plans  for  school-houses  of 
all  sorts,  materials,  and  sizes.  And  lastly,  it  issues  The  Ameri¬ 
can  Educational  Monthly,  a  lively  periodical,  which  serves  as  a 
record  of  contemporary  educational  history,  doctrine,  and  prac¬ 
tice,  and  as  a  common  organ  of  communication  among  those  inter¬ 
ested  in  schools  and  other  institutions  and  instrumentalities  of 
learning. 

Such  an  institution  as  has  thus  been  described  could  not  exist 
except  amidst  a  great  number  of  highly  improved  and  improving 
schools.  It  at  once  lives  by  them,  and  helps  them  live  ;  and 
while  it  is  justly  entitled  to  large  pecuniary  success,  it  is  at  the 
same  time  incomparably  most  significant  as  an  iudex  and  engine 
of  mental  and  moral  improvement. 


THE  DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD.  —  CUTTING  TOOLS  BEFORE  THE  IRON  AGE.  — 
AMONG  THE  EGYPTIANS.  — THE  HINDOOS.  — THE  TEST  OF  COMPARATIVE  CIV¬ 
ILIZATION.  —  THE  MANUFACTURE  IN  SHEFFIELD.  —  CHAUCER  QUOTED.  —  THE 
INTRODUCTION  OF  FORKS  INTO  ENGLAND.  —  THE  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  IMPROVED  METHODS.  —  DETAILED 

ACCOUNT  OF  THE  NEW  PROCESSES. - THE  RESULTS  OF  MACHINE  AND  HAND 

LABOR  COMPARED.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  RUSSELL  MANUFACTURING  COM¬ 
PANY'S  WORKS.  —  THE  AMOUNT  OF  THEIR  YEARLY  PRODUCTION. 

Our  term  cutlery  is  derived,  through  the  process  of  phonetic 
change  which  characterizes  the  passage  of  Latin  to  English,  from 
the  Latin  word  culler,  meaning  a  small  knife,  as  distinguished 
from  a  sword. 

One  of  the  earliest  necessities  of  mankind  must  have  been  to 
shape  some  tool  into  a  cutting  edge.  Before  the  discovery  of  the 
art  of  working  metals  was  known,  men  used  bone,  or  hard  woods, 
or  stone.  The  Egyptians  had  the  art  of  tempering  copper  to  a 
hard,  cutting  edge,  and  from  them  many  of  the  nations  of  antiquity 
derived  the  process,  which  is  now  lost,  and  made  their  sharp  im¬ 
plements  of  war,  or  for  domestic  usage,  from  this  material. 

The  art  of  making  steel  was,  however,  known  to  the  natives  of 
India  before  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  from  the  steel 
there  made  the  famous  Damascus  blades  were  tempered  in  the 
city  of  that  name.  Singularly  enough,  some  of  the  uncivilized 
races,  as  those  in  Borneo,  and  others,  have  now  great  skill  in 
tempering  their  weapons,  though  they  use  a  rude  method  which 
has  probably  been  handed  down  by  tradition  from  a  very  early 
age. 

One  of  the  chief  characteristics,  however,  of  civilization,  is  that 
the  industry  and  invention  of  the  people  who  have  arrived  at  such 
a  condition  of  social  advance,  are  chiefly  devoted  to  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  tools  and  utensils  for  domestic  and  industrial  use,  instead 

(229) 


230 


CUTLERY. 


of  weapons  for  use  in  war.  Judged  by  this  standard  we  can  com¬ 
pare  the  progress  of  our  own  times  with  that  even  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  without  vanity  we  can  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the 
comparison.  The  Grecians  and  Romans  forged  and  tempered 
swords,  which  performed  their  bloody  work  only  too  completely  f 
but  they  still  ate  with  their  fingers,  and  the  cleanly  decency  of 
knives  and  forks  was  unknown  even  to  their  kings,  their  states¬ 
men,  or  their  philosophers. 

The  steady  growth  of  mankind  towards  that  ideal  future  when 
the  world  shall  be  at  peace,  when  mutual  aid  and  sympathy  shall 
replace  national  jealousies,  and  the  relations  of  nations  shall  at¬ 
tain  the  plain  of  reason  and  law  which  now  prevails  between  gen¬ 
tlemen,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  now  the  art  of  making  cutting 
weapons  is  chiefly  employed  for  pacific  purposes,  and  our  cutlery 
uses  more  steel  to  make  our  table  knives  which  serve  to  increase 
our  social  culture,  throwing  the  graces  of  good  breeding  about  the 
occupations  for  the  support  of  life,  than  in  fashioning  the  weapon? 
for  war,  by  which  men  meet  to  only  attempt  their  mutual  destruc¬ 
tion. 

Up  to  within  quite  a  recent  date,  the  chief  supply  of  cutlery  for 
the  civilized  world  was  manufactured  in  England.  At  a  very  early 
period  this  art  was  practised  there,  and  Sheffield,  which  is  still  the 
chief  seat  of  the  manufacture  of  knives,  was  celebrated  for  the  sami 
article  as  early  as  the  times  of  Chaucer,  the  father  of  English  po 
etical  literature,  who  writes,  — 

“  A  Shelfeld  thuytel  bare  he  in  his  hose.” 

The  word  ihuytlc  is  the  old  form  for  thwite,  a  knife,  which  is  itself 
now  obsolete,  but  traces  of  which  still  remain  in  the  language,  in 
the  diminutive  ihwittle,  from  which  we  have  our  word  whittle. 

Though  knives  were  made  in  England  at  an  early  date,  yet  they 
were  not  a  regular  piece  of  table  furniture,  and  the  fingers  were 
still  the  chief  implements  used  for  eating.  In  the  time  of  James 
I.,  Coryatt,  the  traveller,  in  his  account  of  his  tour  through  Europe, 
mentions  forks  as  recently  introduced  into  Italy,  and  speaks  of 
their  use  as  a  curious  custom. 

The  manufacture  of  cutlery  is  of  quite  recent  introduction  into 
the  United  States,  but  has  made  Ruch  progress,  owing  to  the  im¬ 
proved  methods  and  machinery  introduced  into  the  processes,  that 
it  will  be  best  to  mention  only  these,  since  thus  the  reader  will 


CUTLERY. 


231 


quicker  and  easier  become  acquainted  with  the  latest  and  best 
modes  for  its  manufacture. 

The  leading  manufactory  of  cutlery  in  the  United  States  is  the 
Russell  Manufacturing  Company,  at  Greenfield,  Massachusetts. 
The  business  was  commenced  by  John  Russell,  of  Greenfield,  who 
was  born  in  1797.  He  is  a  man  of  a  remarkable  business  capa¬ 
city,  with  great  decision  and  perfect  integrity.  In  1834,  being 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  edged  tools,  such  as  chisels,  &c., 
he  commenced,  upon  a  small  scale,  that  of  table  cutlery.  This 
was  the  first  attempt  made  to  introduce  this  branch  of  industry 
into  the  United  States.  At  first  the  attempt  appeared  to  be  a 
failure.  The  goods  produced  did  not  pay  the  cost  of  manufac¬ 
ture,  the  difficulty  being  the  lack  of  skilled  workmen.  During 
this  first  year,  however,  the  amount  produced  was  very  small. 
Mr.  Russell,  nevertheless,  still  persevered  in  the  attempt,  though 
he  had  to  contend  not  only  against  the  difficulties  inherent  in  any 
new  enterprise,  but  also  against  a  foolish  prejudice  against  Amer¬ 
ican  cutlery ;  so  that,  though  he  produced  wares  which  were  ac¬ 
tually  as  good  as  those  imported  from  Sheffield,  yet  they  could  not 
be  sold  as  readily  or  as  well. 

At  first  the  capital  to  carry  on  the  business  was  small,  and  all 
the  operations  were  performed  by  hand  labor,  the  only  machinery 
in  use  being  the  emery  wheels  and  grindstones  for  grinding  and 
finishing  the  blades  ;  the  handles,  or  hafts,  being  made  entirely  by 
hand,  and  the  blades  forged  by  the  same  tedious  and  expensive 
method. 

At  this  time  the  market  was  entirely  under  the  control  of  the 
Sheffield  manufacturers,  who,  though  they  used,  and  still  in  a 
great  measure  use,  more  hand  than  machine  labor,  yet  having  the 
advantages  of  an  established  business,  a  reputation,  and  a  buying 
public  prejudiced  in  their  favor,  could  force  out  any  competition 
from  American  manufactories.  The  first  improvement  made  by 
Mr.  Russell,  in  the  processes  used  in  the  “  Green  River  Works,” 
was  the  introduction  of  the  trip  hammer  for  forging  the  blades. 
This  improvement  is  purely  American.  Though  trip  hammers 
were  then  in  use  in  England,  in  forging  large  masses  of  metal,  yet 
the  idea  had  never  occurred  to  any  one  to  use  them  for  this  pur¬ 
pose.  At  first  in  the  “  Green  River  Works,”  two  trip  hammers 
were  introduced.  This  improved  process  did  much  towards 
cheapening  the  manufacture,  and  together  with  the  next  intro¬ 
duced,  by  which  the  bolsters,  or  that  part  of  the  blade  which 


232 


CUTLERY. 


abuts  upon  the  handle,  and  bolsters  it,  or  supports  it,  were  also 
struck  up  by  the  trip  hammer  instead  of  by  hand,  enabled  the 
American  production  to  compete  successfully  with  the  Sheffield 
manufacture. 

This  process  of  forming  the  bolster  is  called  swedging,  and  the 
importance  of  the  introduction  of  this  process,  as  an  improvement 
over  the  old-fashioned  way  of  forming  them  by  hand,  is  shown  by 
the  following  fact :  By  the  hand  process,  a  man,  aided  by  a  striker, 
who  swung  the  hammer,  could,  in  a  day,  subject  about  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  blades  to  this  process,  while  a  trip  hammer,  with 
one  man  and  a  tender,  can  accomplish  the  same  for  about  three 
thousand  blades.  But  the  improved  processes  were  not  allowed 
to  stop  here,  and  the  next  step  was  the  introduction  of  machinery 
to  perform  the  plating,  or  shaping,  of  the  blade,  and  the  cutting 
of  the  same  into  the  required  shape  by  dies,  which  were  crushed 
in  a  cam  power  press.  These  two  improvements  were  of  great 
importance,  since  they  replaced  by  one,  and  the  same  operation, 
the  tedious  and  slow  methods  of  plating  the  blades  ;  that  is,  of 
making  a  blade  from  a  plate  of  steel  by  hammering  it  into  shape, 
and  then  cutting  it  out. 

By  these  improvements  the  manufacture  of  the  entire  blade, 
with  its  bolster,  was  transferred  from  hand  work  to  machinery, 
with  the  increase  of  production,  and  cheapening  of  expense,  con¬ 
sequent  upon  such  a  transfer.  The  next  improvement  was  direct¬ 
ed  towards  the  process  of  preparing  the  handies.  For  wooden 
handles,  the  wood  from  the  apple  tree  is  preferred.  The  improve¬ 
ment  in  making  them  consisted  in  subjecting  them,  hot  with  oil,  to 
a  pressure  in  a  machine.  In  this  way  the  handles  are  greatly  im¬ 
proved,  and  oak,  maple,  and  other  woods  can  be  used.  The  next 
improvement  was  the  invention  of  an  ingenious  way  of  making 
the  bolster,  so  that  it  should  hold  the  scales,  or  the  slips  of  wood, 
or  other  material,  forming  the  handle,  to  the  tang,  or  the  projecting 
prong  to  which  the  outside  of  the  handle  is  riveted.  This  improve¬ 
ment  was  invented  by  Matthew  Chapman,  and  patented  by  the 
company  as  assignee  in  18G2. 

This  patent  bolster  does  away  with  the  necessity  for  forging  or 
swedging  the  bolsters,  and  so  simplifies  the  process  of  manufac¬ 
ture  as  to  quadruple  the  production.  The  next  improvement  con¬ 
sisted  of  making  the  blade,  the  bolster,  and  the  handle  all  of  steel, 
forged  from  one  solid  piece.  This  process,  like  the  two  previous¬ 
ly  mentioned,  was  also  invented  by  Mr.  Chapman,  and  the  patent 


JOHN  RUSSELL  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY;  GREEN  RIVER  WORKS,  MASS. 


.. 

••  1  %  : 

■ 


. •  ^  *  ',? 

■  !  \ 

.  .  i 


A 


CUTLERY. 


235 


steel-handled  knife,  which  is  made  by  tin’s  process,  has  already  en¬ 
tered  largely  into  consumption.  The  handles  are  silver-plated, 
and  the  knives  are  quite  elegant  in  appearance,  and  convenient  to 
use,  especially  in  hotels,  for  which  they  are  specially  adapted. 

A  still  further  improvement  has  been  made,  by  which  the  blade 
is  manufactured  of  steel,  and  the  handle  of  iron,  which  is  after¬ 
wards  japanned,  and  thus  affords  a  cheaper  article.  All  of  these 
later  improvements  are  patented,  thus  giving  the  control  of  their 
use  to  the  company.  Besides  this  the  company  control  in  this 
country  the  use  of  ivoride,  a  patented  article  made  in  England, 
and  which  can  be  distinguished  from  ivory  only  by  a  skilled  ex¬ 
pert. 

Though,  as  has  been  shown  in  the  above  remarks,  the  various 
processes  of  making  cutlery  have  been  so  successfully  simplified 
and  cheapened  by  substituting  for  the  slow  and  tedious  methods 
of  hand  labor  the  more  rapid  and  accurate  work  of  machines,  yet 
the  process  of  making  knives  is  still  quite  a  complicated  one,  and 
one  which  requires  the  cooperation  of  a  great  many  men.  From 
the  selection  of  the  steel  to  be  worked  up,  which  requires  skilled 
experience  and  judgment,  through  all  the  various  processes  of 
manufacture,  up  to  the  point  when  the  manufactured  articles  are 
ready  to  be  offered  for  sale,  con-stant  care  and  attention  are  neces¬ 
sary  to  insure  the  excellence  which  has  been  recognized  by  the 
public. 

Most  of  the  improved  processes  of  manufacture,  which  have 
been  alluded  to,  are  also  applied  by  the  Russell  Manufacturing 
Company  in  their  manufacture  of  forks.  The  prongs  of  these  are 
cut  and  shaped  by  machinery,  and  the  entire  fork,  handle  and  all, 
are  made  by  the  same  process  by  which  the  solid  knives  are  made. 

Though  the  improved  machinery  has  increased  the  production, 
while  it  has  simplified  the  methods,  yet  still  the  processes  through 
which  a  knife  has  to  pass  before  being'  ready  for  sale,,  are  many 
and  various,  as  may  be  seen  from  this  list :  First,  cutting  steel 
into  proper  lengths  ;  second,  trying  blade  under  trip  hammer,  and 
bolstering ;  third,  shaping  under  a  press  ;  fourth,  straightening ; 
fifth,  ground  for  the  stamp  ;  sixth,  stamped  ;  seventh,  hardened  ; 
eighth,  tempered;  ninth,  ground  ;  tenth,  halted;  eleventh,,  fin¬ 
ished  on  the  emery  wheels,  and  the  handles  so  finished  ;  twelfth, 
bolsters  so  finished  ;  thirteenth,  buffed  ;  fourteenth,  cleaned  ;  fif¬ 
teenth,  inspected  ;  sixteenth,  packed. 

Numerous  as  these  operations  may  seem,  yet,  in  fact,  they  are 


£36 


CUTLERY. 


much  fewer  than  by  the  old  process.  A  penknife,  by  the  old 
method,  is  said  to  pass  through  a  hundred  hands  before  it  is  ready 
for  sale. 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  vast  variety  of  goods  manufactured  by 
this  company,  it  may  be  stated  that  they  make  thirty  different 
styles  in  each  class  of  the  following  table  cutlery,  with  the  finest 
ivory,  pearl  and  ivory  (2d  class)  handles  of  different  patterns  — 
oval,  fluted,  square,  octagon,  oval  ornamented,  grooved,  “  tulip,” 
shell  head,  witli  fancy  carving,  with  and  without  silver  ferrules,  etc., 
etc  — viz.:  table  knives,  dessert  knives,  meat  or  game  carvers, 
Jones’  carvers,  steels  "and  concave  steels  ;  eleven  patterns  of  but¬ 
ter  knives,  with  ivory,  fine  ivory,  pearl,  cocoa,  ebony  and  horn, 
square,  oval,  and  octagon  handles  ;  two  kinds  of  cheese  scoops, 
steel  and  silver  plated,  with  ivory  and  ivoride  handles  ;  four  varie¬ 
ties  of  fruit  knives  ;  four  kinds  of  nut-picks ;  twenty-two  kinds 
of  knives  and  forks  with  cocoa  handles  ;  two  kinds  with  iron 
handles  ;  four  kinds  with  horn  handles ;  twenty-two  kinds  with 
ebony  handles ;  fifteen  kinds  with  bone  handles  ;  and  each  kind 
with  dessert  sets,  carvers,  steels,  etc.,  to  match. 

The  ivoride,  to  which  we  have  referred,  and  which  presents  a 
scarcely  distinguishable  substitute  for  ivory,  gives  superior  han¬ 
dles,  which  will  not  break  or  crack,  nor  absorb  grease  and  stains. 
They  are  put  on  without  cement,  so  that  they  are  not  injured  by 
contact  with  hot  water,  and  are  warranted  to  hold  fast  as  long  as 
they  are  in  use.  Besides  the  solid  steel,  silver-plated  handles, 
manufactured  expressly  for  hotels,  restaurants,  steamboats,  and 
other  hard  service,  the  company  make  wrought  oval  hollow- 
handled  plated  knives  and  forks,  and  hollow  metal  handle  silver- 
plated  table  and  dessert  knives.  All  these  goods  are  made,  not 
merely  to  sell,  or  to  be  admired  as  beautiful  and  artistic  speci¬ 
mens  of  work,  but  are  designed  for  use,  and  consequently  every 
detail  receives  the  greatest  care  and  attention,  so  that  the  well- 
merited  reputation  of  the  company  may  be  maintained. 

This  company  turns  out  a  great  variety  of  very  superior  pocket 
knives,  of  different  sizes  and  patterns,  with  ivory,  horn,  bone, 
cocoa,  ebony,  and  imitation  stag  handles,  at  prices  ranging  from 
four  to  ten  dollars  per  dozen.  They  heavily  silver-plate  all  table 
cutlery  so  ordered.  They  also  manufacture  rose-wood  cases,  of 
different  sizes,  for  fine  table  cutlery,  and  make  to  order  rosewood 
and  morocco  cases  for  any  number  of  pieces. 

To  show  how  much  raw  material  is  required  in  such  an  estab- 


CUTLERY. 


237 


lishment,  we  give  the  following  figures  for  a  single  year :  2,000 
tons  of  anthracite  coal ;  25,000  bushels  of  charcoal ;  400,000 
pounds  of  grindstones  ;  44,000  pounds  of  emery  ;  3,000  pounds 
of  beeswax;  for  handles,  36,000  pounds  of  ivory,  112,000  pounds 
of  ebony,  57,000  pounds  of  rosewood, '305,000  pounds  of  cocoa- 
wood.  Every  day  two  tons  of  steel  are  used.  A  large  amount 
of  silver  is  used  in  plating  blades  and  handles.  The  increase  of 
business  from  year  to  year  compels  a  proportionate  increase  of 
this  enormous  quantity  of  raw  material  of  the  different  kinds. 

Besides  their  various  styles  of  table  cutlery,  the  company  man¬ 
ufacture  California  hunting  knives,  butcher  knives,  bread  knives, 
beef  sheers,  carving  knives  and  forks,  of  which  a  knife  specially 
designed  for  the  carving  of  fowls  should  be  mentioned.  This 
knife  has  the  blade  made  narrow,  so  as  to  be  more  easily  moved 
about  in  search  of  the  joints. 

In  the  gradual  social  advance  of  mankind,  industrial  pursuits 
offer  one  of  the  best  fields  for  displaying  the  increased  power 
gained  by  organization,  and  the  advantage  of  applying  scientific 
knowledge  to  the  processes  in  use.  One  of  the  best  examples  of 
the  truth  of  these  axioms  is  afforded  by  the  Russell  Manufactur¬ 
ing  Company.  An  ignorant  adherence  to  the  traditional  methods 
in  use  would  have  resulted  in  failure,  and  have  simply  intensified 
the  opinion  that  the  manufacture  of  cutlery  could  not  be  success¬ 
fully  established  in  the  United  States.  But  in  industry,  as  in  sci¬ 
ence  itself,  or  in  any  other  department  of  human  interest,  the  new 
spirit  of  investigation,  which  takes  nothing  for  granted,  but,  wisely 
sceptical  concerning  all  authority,  seeks  to  discover  new  methods 
and  new  appliances  in  harmony  with  the  new  conditions  of  the 
social  organization,  is  the  only  spirit  with  which  our  industry 
must  be  carried  on  in  order  that  it  should  advance  in  line  with 
our  moral  and  social  progress. 

The  works  of  the  Russell  Manufacturing  Company  are  at  Tur¬ 
ner’s  Falls,  Mass.  The  power  used  in  the  manufactory  is  water 
power  derived  from  the  Connecticut  River,  and  the  amount  used 
by  the  company  is  estimated  as  equal  to  seven  hundred  horses. 
The  buildings  of  the  company  are  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  par¬ 
allelogram,  enclosing  a  middle  building  and  a  yard.  The  two 
larger  buildings  are  each  six  hundred  feet  long  by  fifty  wide, 
rising  four  stories  on  the  inner  and  two  stories  on  the  outer  side. 
The  stories  are  high  and  commodious,  measuring  fourteen  feet 
from  floor  to  ceiling.  The  interior  building  is  three  hundred  feet 


238 


CUTLERY. 


long  by  forty  wide,  and  is  only  one  story  high,  being  devoted  to 
the  various  smith  shops  of  the  company. 

The  ventilation  of  the  buildings  is  admirable,  and  in  the  grind¬ 
ing  rooms,  where,  from  the  immense  business  they  are  required  to 
do,  the  dust  would  be  oppressive  and  injurious  to  health,  it  is  all 
carried  off  by  a  system  of  fans  and  channels,  so  that  the  air  is 
kept  perfectly  free  from  it. 

The  company  own  also  a  branch  railroad,  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  long,  connecting  with  the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  Rail¬ 
road.  From  the  average  steady  increase  of  their  sales  during  the 
past,  their  sales  for  this  year  (1871)  will  probably  reach  one  million 
and  a  half  of  dollars.  The  company  disburse  an  average  vf  over 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  a  month  to  their  employees ;  and  as 
the  means  for  doing  this  are  derived  from  the  sale  of  their  manu¬ 
factured  products  all  over  this  country,  from  Maine  to  the  Pacific, 
it  offers  a  practical  proof  of  how  important  an  agency  the  industry 
of  the  country  is  in  demonstrating  the  necessity  and  value  of  unity 
and  peace,  thus  arriving  by  practice  at  the  same  results  which 
by  theory  the  moralist  and  the  scientist  have  before  proclaimed. 


Mv|#,  MA 


'*)  >  *  >ikf  tv  • 

.ta#4$<wb  ! 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 

,  i 

DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD  “CIGAR.” —  OF  “TOBACCO.” — THE  INTRODUCTION 
OF  ITS  USE.  —  KING  JAMES’S  “COUNTERBLAST.”  —  BURTON’S  COMMENTS  ON 
THE  HABIT.  — THE  CALUMET.  — TOBACCO  IN  CHINA.  — CHINESE  SNUFF  AND 
SNUFF-BOXES.  —  CIGARS  IN  VARIOUS  COUNTRIES.  —  THE  CIGAR  MANUFACTO¬ 
RIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  PROCESS.  —  BYRON  ON  TOBACCO.  — 
THE  CULTIVATION  OF  THE  PLANT.  —  THE  VALUE  OF  WIVES  IN  TOBACCO. — 
THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  TOBACCO  TRADE.  —  THE  SCIENTIFIC  EXAMINATION  OF 
THE  EFFECTS  OF  TOBACCO. 

The  Cigar  is  supposed  to  be  of  Spanish  origin,  and  is  called 
Gigarro  in  Spain.  It  is  a  small  roll  of  tobacco,  so  formed  as  to 
be  tubular,  and  is  used  for  smoking.  Cigarrilo  is  a  smaller  roll 
of  finely-cut  tobacco  wrapped  in  unsized  paper. 

Tobacco  was  the  name  used  by  the  Caribbees  for  the  pipe  in 
which  the  natives  of  the  islands  smoked  a  certain  weed,  which 
name  the  Spaniards  transferred  to  the  herb  itself.  It  was  by  them 
-  introduced  into  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  botanical  name  of  the 
various  species  of  the  plant  is  Nicotiana ;  so  called  after  Jean  Nicot, 
of  Nismes,  in  Languedoc,  who  was  an  agent  of  the  King  of  France 
in  Portugal,  where  he  procured  the  seeds  of  the  tobacco  from  a 
Dutchman,  who  had  procured  them  from  Florida.  Nicot  sent  them 
to  France  in  the  year  1560. 

This  plant  appears  to  be  a  native  of  the  West  Indies,  and  of  dif¬ 
ferent  parts  of  America.  The  common  Virginia  tobacco  is  largely 
cultivated  in  the  United  States  and  in  Europe.  Another  species 
is  called  Orinoco  Tobacco,  and  is  larger  than  the  Virginia  plant, 
the  stem  rising  from  five  to  seven  feet  high  ;  the  milder  Havana 
cigars  are  said  to  be  made  of  it.  Another  kind  is  called  English 
Tobacco,  because  it  was  the  first  species  introduced  into  that  coun¬ 
try  from  America.  It  grows  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  thence  finds  it  way  into  India.  The  difference  of  climate  and 

(2S9) 


240 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


soil  in  which  this  plant  is  cultivated  imparts  to  it  different  quali¬ 
ties.  In  the  shops  this  tobacco  is  known  as  Turkish. 

The  general  form  in  which  tobacco  is  used  is  lor  smoking.  This, 
too,  is  the  most  ancient  mode  of  using  it.  As  smoking  has  now 
become  a  general,  and,  apparently,  an  indispensable  luxury,  the 
cultivation  and  consumption  .of  tobacco  has  increased  in  greater 
proportion  than  almost  any  other  product  of  agriculture.  And 
were  it  not  for  the  fiscal  restrictions  arising  from  duties  imposed 
by  many  governments,  its  cultivation  would  doubtless  be  much 
more  increased,  and  be  a  groat  resource  to  native  industry  in  all 
countries  where  the  plant  could  be  made  to  grow. 

The  discoverers  of  America  introduced  the  habit  of  smoking 
into  Spain  and  Portugal,  from  whence  it  was  adopted  in  other 
parts  of  the  continent.  The  persons  who  composed  the  colony 
which  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  sent  to  Virginia  returned  unsuccessful 
in  1586,  and  introduced  the  habit  into  England.  The  historian  of 
that  expedition,  Ilariot,  carefully  observed  the  culture  of  tobacco, 
and  by  using  it,  became  a  firm  believer  in  its  medicinal  and  heal¬ 
ing  virtues.  And  Raleigh  himself  is  said  to  have  written  of  its 
excellences,  as 


“  Rest  to  the  weary,  to  the  hungry,  food, 

The  last  kind  refuge  of  the  wise  anil  good.” 


Before  the  establishment  of  the  Virginia  Colony  in  the  year 
1006,  the  tobacco  imported  into  England  came  through  the  Span¬ 
iards,  from  the  West  India  Islands.  Its  use  in  England  encoun¬ 
tered  great  opposition,  especially  from  King  James,  who  stigma¬ 
tized  it  as  a  “  precious  stink.”  In  the  year  1604,  without  the 
consent  of  Parliament,  the  king  raised  the  duty  on  tobacco  from 
two  pence,  to  six  shillings  and  ten  pence  a  pound.  In  the  com- 
munication  addressed  on  this  occasion  to  the  Lord  Treasurer,  he 
said  that,  “  Tobacco  being  a  drug  of  late  years  found  out,  and 
brought  from  foreign  parts  in  small  quantities,  was  taken  and  used 
by  the  better  sort,  both  then  and  now,  only  as  physic,  to  preserve 
health  ;  but  that  persons  of  mean  condition  now  consumed  their 
wages  and  time  in  smoking  tobacco,  to  their  great  injury,  and  to 
the  general  corruption.”  Its  cultivation  was  forbidden  in  Eng¬ 
land,  and  the  plants  then  growing  were  ordered  to  be  rooted  up. 
Not  long  after  the  “Counterblast  to  Tobacco”  by  King  James, 
the  quaint  Burton,  who  could  write  of  “  Borage  and  Ilellebor,” 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


241 


“  Sovereign  plants  to  purge  the  veins 
Of  melancholy,” 

mingled  praise  and  condemnation  in  speaking  of  that  herb  :  “  To¬ 
bacco,  divine,  rare,  super-excellent  tobacco,  which  goes  far  beyond 
all  their  panaceas,  potable  gold,  and  philosophers’  stones,  a  sovereign 
remedy  to  all  diseases.  A  good  vomit,  1  confess,  a  virtuous  herb, 
if  it  be  well  qualified,  opportunely  taken,  and  medicinally  used  ; 
but  as  it  is  commonly  abused  by  most  men,  which  take  it  as  tinkers 
do  ale,  ’tis  a  plague,  a  mischief,  a  violent  purger  of  goods,  lands, 
health,  hellish,  devilish,  and  damned  tobacco,  the  ruin  and  over¬ 
throw  of  body  and  80111.”  (Burton’s  Anat.,  p.  444) 

But  all  condemnation  of  the  weed  appeared  only  to  bring  it  into 
higher  favor  and  more  general  use.  Columbus  found  the  natives 
of  Hispaniola  smoking  a  plant,  “  the  perfume  of  which  was  fra¬ 
grant  and  grateful,”  which  from  earliest  ages  had  been  offered  as 
incense  to  their  imaginary  gods.  The  early  colonists  to  Virginia 
found  that  pipes  and  tobacco  held  a  most  important  place  in  all 
transactions  among  the  -Indians.  The  Calumet,  or  Pipe  of  Peace, 
was  made  of  red,  black,  or  white  stone,  finely  polished.  The  stem 
was  about  two  and  a  half  feet  long,  made  .of  strong  reed  or  cane, 
adorned  with  feathers  of  all  colors,  interlaid  with  women’s  hair. 
Two  wings  of  some  rare  bird  were  fastened  to  it,  so  that  the  Calu¬ 
met  somewhat  resembled  the  wand  of  Mercury.  The  pipe  was  a 
safe-conduct  among  the  allies  of  the  tribe  which  gave  it,  and  in  all 
embassies,  the  ambassador  carried  it  as  a  symbol  of  peace.  They 
believed  a  great  misfortune  would  befall  them  if  they  violated  the 
public  faith  of  the  Calumet.  All  their  enterprises,  declarations  of 
war,  or  conclusions  of  peace,  as  well  as  all  other  ceremonies,  were 
confirmed  with  the  Calumet.  They  filled  the  pipe  with  the  choicest 
tobacco,  and  presented  it  to  those  with  whom  they  concluded  any 
important  affair,  and  then  smoked  the  same  after  them. 

A  recent  traveller  through  the  Chinese  Empire  says  the  cultiva¬ 
tion  of  tobacco  is  immense,  though  the  plant  was  not  known  in 
China  till  a  very  late  period.  It  is  said  to  have  been  imported 
into  the  Central  Empire  by  the  Mantchous ;  and  the  Chinese  were 
much  astonished  when  they  first  saw  their  conquerors  inhaling  fire 
through  long  tubes  and  “  eating  smoke.”  It  was  at  first  difficult 
for  them  to  imitate  this  accomplishment,  but  now  they  are  passion¬ 
ately  devoted  to  it.  By  a  curious  coincidence,  this  plant  is  called, 
in  the  Mantchou  language,  iambakou  ;  but  the  Chinese  designate 
it  simply  by  the  word  meaning  smo/ce.  Thus  they  say  they  culti- 


242 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


vate  in  their  fields  the  “  smoke  leaf ;  ”  they  call  their  pipe  the 
“smoke  funnel. ” 

The  use  of  tobacco  has  become  universal  throughout  the  em¬ 
pire  ;  men,  women,  and  children,  everybody  smokes,  almost  with¬ 
out  ceasing.  They  go  about  their  daily  business,  cultivate  the 
fields,  ride  on  horseback,  and  write,  with  the  pipe  always  in  their 
mouth.  During  their  meals,  if  they  stop  for  a  moment,  it  is  to 
smoke  a  pipe  ;  and  if  they  awake  in  the  night,  they  arc  sure  to 
amuse  themselves  in  the  same  way.  It  may  be  easily  supposed, 
therefore,  that  in  a  country  containing  300,000,000  of  smokers,  with¬ 
out  including  the  tribes  of  Thibet  and  Tartary,  who  lay  in  their 
stocks  in  the  Chinese  markets,  the  culture  of  tobacco  has  become 
very  important.  The  cultivation  and  sale  are  entirely  free,  without 
any  interference  of  government. 

“  Snuff-takers  are  less  numerous  in  China  than  smokers  ;  tobac¬ 
co  in  powder,  or,  as  the  Chinese  say,  ‘  smoke  for  the  nose/  is 
little  used  except  by  the  Mantchou  Tartars  and  Mongols,  and 
among  the  mandarins  and  lettered  classes.  The  Tartars  are  real 
amateurs,  and  snuff  is  with  them  an  object  of  the  most  important 
consideration.  The  custom  of  taking  snuff  was  introduced  into 
China  by  the  old  missionaries  (French),  who  resided  at  the  court. 
They  used  to  get  the  snuff  from  Europe  for  themselves,  and  some 
of  the  mandarins  tried  it,  and  found  it  good.  By  degrees  the 
custom  spread  ;  people  who  wished  to  appear  fashionable,  liked  to 
be  seen  taking  this  *  smoke  for  the  nose/  Pekin  is  the  special 
locality  of  snuff-takers.  The  first  dealers  in  it  made  great  fortunes. 
The  French  tobacco  was  the  most  esteemed  ;  and  as  it  happened 
at  this  time  that  it  had  for  a  stamp  the  ancient  emblem  of  the  three 
jleurs  de  Us,  the  mark  has  never  been  forgotten  ;  and  the  three 
fleurs  de  lis  are  still,  in  Pekin,  the  oidy  sign  of  a  dealer  in  tobacco. 
The  Chinese  have  now  for  a  long  time  manufactured  their  own 
snuff;  but  they  do  not  subject  it  to  any  fermentation,  and  it  is  not 
worth  much.  They  merely  pulverize  the  leaves,  sift  the  powder 
till  it  is  as  fine  as  flour,  and  afterwards  perfume  it  with  flowers  and 
essences.  Their  snuff-boxes  are  little  vials  made  of  crystal,  porce¬ 
lain,  or  precious  stones.  They  are  sometimes  very  elegant  in  their 
form,  and  are  cut  with  great  taste,  and  sold  at  immense  prices.  A 
little  silver  or  ivory  spatula,  with  which  the  pinch  is  taken  out,  is 
fitted  to  the  stopper.  ” 

The  manufacture  of  cigars,  and  the  preparation  of  tobacco  in 
other  forms  for  smoking,  is  a  most  important  industry  in  all  coun- 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


213 


tries  where  that  herb  is  cultivated.  The  best  tobacco  for  cigars, 
holding  the  highest  rank  for  the  excellency  of  its  flavor,  is  grown 
on  the  island  of  Cuba,  from  whence  innumerable  cigars  are  ex¬ 
ported  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  cigars  known  as  cheroots 
have  a  good  reputation  ;  they  are  made  in  Manila,  and  exported  in 
large  quantities.  Mexico  produces  a  large  amount  of  tobacco, 
but  entirely  for  home  consumption,  of  which  the  greater  part  is 
used  for  smoking.  Cigars  arc  made  in  Spain,  and  most  other  coun¬ 
tries  of  Europe,  in  great  numbers ;  the  city  of  Bremen  alone  em¬ 
ploying  more  than  four  thousand  persons  in  making  them,  and 
exporting  300,000,000  annually.  In  France,  tobacco  is  grown  in 
larger  quantities  than  any  other  vegetable,  except  wheat,  owing  to 
the  extensive  consumption  of  cigars  and  snuff  among  all  classes 
of  society.  A  kind  of  cigar  is  made  in  Switzerland,  of  a  poor 
quality  of  tobacco,  which,  by  some  process  (known  only  to  the 
manufacturers),  is  greatly  improved,  and  a  very  good  cigar  can  be 
sold  at  retail  for  one  cent.  Count  Cavour  persuaded  one  of  the 
Swiss  manufacturers  to  go  to  Turin,  and  superintend  the  making 
of  cigars  by  the  same  secret  process.  These  cigars  are  known  in 
Italy  as  11  Cavours,”  and  are  sold  for  one  cent  each. 

In  I860  there  were  in  the  United  States  fourteen  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  cigars,  using 
more  than  three  millions  of  capital,  and  three  and  a  half  millions  in 
value  of  raw  material.  There  were  employed  in  these  establish¬ 
ments  seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  males,  and  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-one  females,  at  a  cost  for  labor  of  $2,531,354. 
The  total  value  of  cigars  from  these  manufactories  in  1860,  was 
$9,068,418.  v»: 

The  process  of  making  cigars  is  simple  and  easy.  A  sound 
piece  of  leaf,  shaped  like  one  of  the  gores  of  a  globe,  is  placed  on 
the  work-bench.  A  bundle  of  fragments  of  leaves  is  placed  across 
the  centre  of  this  gore,  and  rolled  up  in  it  by  passing  the  hand 
flat  over  it.  The  point  of  the  cigar  is  shaped  with  a  pair  of  scis¬ 
sors,  and  secured  by  means  of  a  solution  of  gum  and  chiccory.  The 
cigar  is  next  placed  against  a  gauge,  and  a  portion  from  the  broad 
end  cut  off  square.  This  is  the  French  mode  of  manufacture,  and 
is  the  work  of  women  altogether  ;  and  in  all  foreign  countries, 
female  labor  is  chiefly  employed  in  cigar-making. 

The  large  amount  of  capital  employed  in  the  cultivation  and 
manufacture  of  tobacco,  and  the  untold  millions  of  pounds  con¬ 
sumed  in  smoke  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  would  seem  to  indicate 
14 


214 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


that  it  is  profitable  to  the  producer,  and  a  source  of  pleasure  and 
comfort  to  those  who  smoke  it.  Though  its  use  has  been  con¬ 
demned  as  unhealthy  and  even  immoral,  the  world  generally  puffs 
at  these  censures.  Lord  Bacon  wrote  :  “  Tobacco  comforteth  the 
spirits  and  dischargeth  weariness,  which  it  worketh  partly  by 
opening,  but  chiefly  by  the  opiate  virtue  which  condenseth  the 
spirits. ”  The  eminent  English  divine,  Dr.  Barrow,  excused  his 
great  fondness  of  tobacco  by  saying,  “  It  did  very  much  regulate 
his  thinking. ”  In  reference  to  the  universality  of  its  use,  Lord 
Byron  speaks  of  the  tl  short,  frail  pipe  ”  which  “  puffed  where’er 
winds  rise  or  waters  roll,”  and  11  wafted  smoke  from  Portsmouth 
to  the  pole.” 

“  Sublime  Tobacco!  which  from  east  to  west 
•  Cheers  the  tar’s  labor  or  the  Turkman’s  rest; 

Which  on  the  Moslem’s  ottoman  divides 
His  hours,  and  rivals  opium  and  his  brides; 

Magnificent  in  Stamboul,  but  less  grand, 

Though  not  less  loved,  in  Wapping  or  the  Strand; 

Divine  in  hookas,  glorious  in  a  pipe, 

When  tipped  with  amber,  mellow,  rich,  and  ripe; 

Like  other  charmers,  wooing  the  caress 
More  dazzlingly  when  daring  in  full  dress ; 

Yet  thy  true  lovers  more  admire  by  far 
Thy  naked  beauties  — give  me  a  cigar!  ” 

Tke  Island ,  pt.  xix. 

For  exportation,  tobacco  is  most  extensively  cultivated  in  the 
United  States.  A  very  large  proportion  of  that  which  is  consumed 
in  Europe  is  grown  in  this  country.  The  mode  of  cultivation  is 
substantially  the  same  in  all  countries.  The  seed  is  sown  in  pre¬ 
pared  seed-beds  in  March;  or  early  in  April,  and  carefully  pro¬ 
tected  from  the  frost.  When  the  plants  are  two  or  three  inches 
out  of  the  ground,  they  are  ready  for  transplanting.  The  field 
must  be  well  prepared,  and  from  only  good,  rich  land  can  a  satis¬ 
factory  crop  be  secured.  The  plants  must  be  carefully  cultivated, 
kept  free  from  weeds  and  dead  leaves,  and  the  soil  frequently 
stirred  about  the  roots.  When  the  plants  are  about  two  feet  high 
the  leading  stem  is  clipped  so  as  to  prevent  it  from  running 
flower  and  seed.  After  the  topping,  from  five  to  nine  leaves  are 
left  on  the  stem,  the  fewer  the  number  the  stronger  will  be  the 
tobacco.  When  fully  ripe  the  leaves  change  their  appearance,  and 
become  in  color  a  yellowish  green.  The  plants  should  be  cut 
when  ripe ;  if  cut  before,  the  leaves  will  not  have  a  good  color  in 
curing,  and  when  packed  will  be  likely  to  rot.  The  plants  are  cut 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


245 


near  the  ground,  and  after  a  few  hours’  exposure  to  the  sun,  are 
removed  to  the  place  of  curing,  which  should  be  properly  venti¬ 
lated,  where  the  stalks  are  suspended  on  poles.  In  four  or  five 
weeks  the  tobacco  is  ready  to  be  put  up  for  market.  A  damp  or 
rainy  day  is  selected  for  taking  down  the  stalks  and  stripping  off 
the  leaves.  A  number  of  leaves  are  tied  together  at  their  thickest 
end  ;  each  bundle  of  leaves  is  called  a  hand.  These  bunches  of 
tobacco  are  then  heaped  together,  when  they  undergo  the  process 
of  sweating.  When  thoroughly  cured  it  is  packed  in  hogsheads 
or  boxes  for  shipment. 

It  was  in  the  year  1615  that  the  colonists  of  Virginia  abandoned 
all  other  employments,  and  devoted  themselves  to  the  culture  of 
tobacco.  “  The  fields,  the  gardens,  the  public  squares,  and  even 
the  streets  of  Jamestown,  were  planted  with  tobacco.  As  tobacco 
gave  animation  to  Virginian  industry^  it  eventually  became,  not 
only  the  staple,  but  the  currency  of  the  colony.”  (Bancroft’s  Hist., 
Vol.  I.,  p.  151.)  In  1619,  “ninety  agreeable  persons,  young  and 
incorrupt,”  and  in  1621,  “  sixty  more  maids,  of  virtuous  education, 
young  and  handsome,”  were  sent  out  from  London,  on  a  marriage 
speculation.  The  first  lot  of  females  was  bought  by  the  colonists 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  of  tobacco  each  ;  but  the 
second  lot  brought  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  each.  This  cer¬ 
tainly  might  be  called  a  virtuous  use  of  the  weed. 

From  the  earliest  settlement  of  Virginia,  therefore,  tobacco  has 
been  a  most  important  article  in  the  agricultural  and  commercial 
interests  of  the  country.  The  tobacco  crop  for  the  year  1869  was 
estimated  at  273,775,000  pounds,  at  a  valuation  of  $32,206,325. 
In  1870  there  was  exported  from  this  country  185,748,881  -pounds 
of  leaf,  besides  365,000  cigars,  and  20,181  pounds  of  snuff,  and 
other  manufactured  tobacco,  to  the  total  value  of  $22,705,225. 
The  importation  of  manufactured  tobacco  has  greatly  decreased 

Tii 

since  the  imposition  of  high  duties.  In  the  year  1857,  the  value 
of  cigars  imported  into  the  United  States  was  $4,221,096,  while 
in  1870  the  cigars  imported  were  value? at  only  $1,621,609. 

Great  Britain,  and  all  British  possessions,  received  from  the 
United  States  in  the  year  1870,  54,433,695  pounds  of  tobacco,. 
84,000  cigars,  and  12,670  pounds  of  snuff.  The  city  of  Bremen! 
received  41,977,412  pounds  of  tobacco  ;  Italy  received  27,629,871! 
pounds ;  France  received  23,387,339  pounds.  The  net  yearly- 
income  received  by  England  from  duties  on  tobacco  is  about 
$23,000,000. 


246 


CIGARS  AND  MANUFACTURED  TOBACCO. 


The  demand  for  tobacco,  as  a  medicinal  herb,  must  be  very  lim¬ 
ited  ;  as  a  luxury,  the  demands  are  enormous.  Millions  of  acres 
and  millions  of  men  are  devoted  to  its  cultivation  and  manufac¬ 
ture.  The  commercial  intercourse  created  by  the  demand  for  it 
employs  a  vast  amount  of  tonnage  for  its  importation  and  expor¬ 
tation.  The  home  trade  in  the  countries  where  it  is  used  requires 
the  attention  of  millions  of  men.  In  the  year  1840  the  number  of 
dealers  in  Great  Britain  was  185,155.  If,  in  other  countries,  there 
is  the  same  proportion  of  dealers  to  population,  the  number  so 
occupied  cannot  be  less  than  1,000,000.  The  amount  of  vital  force 
expended  by  all  nations  and  peoples  in  “inhaling  fire  through  long 
tubes”  and  “eating  smoke,”  cannot  be  estimated.  Its  visible 
result,  however,  is  only  smoke. 

In  modern  times,  however,  the  school  of  scientific  students,  who 
aim  to  arrive  at  their  conclusions  rather  by  a  study  of  facts  than 
from  an  appeal  to  their  own  prejudices  or  fancies,  have  turned 
their  attention  to  the  facts  of  the  consumption  of  tobacco.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  at  present  there  are  many  millions  of  human 
beings  in  the  habit  of  daily  using  tobacco,  and  that  its  use  has 
spread  with  wonderful  rapidity  among  both  civilized  and  uncivil¬ 
ized  nations,  it  will  appear  as  though  there  was  some  good  and 
sufficient  reason  for  such  a  change  in  the  manner  of  our  living. 
Besides,  too,  chemistry  has  shown  that  the  essential  principle  of 
tobacco  and  ?f  tea  and  coffee  is  the  same,  and  that  the  use  of  all 
these  stimulants,  which  were  introduced  to  the  world  about  the 
same  time,  has  an  effect  in  stimulating  the  nervous  energy  of 
those  who  use  them.  Mr.  Johnson,  whose  contributions  to  a  sci¬ 
entific  •knowledge  of  what  we  eat  and  drink  are  so  well  known, 
remarks  that  the  old  lady  who  spends  for  her  tea  the  money  which 
she  seems  hardly  able  to  spare  from  her  supply  of  food,  is  really 
doing  wisely,  instead  of  foolishly,  since  the  money  so  spent  is 
wisely  spent.  Her  tea  affords  her  the  nervous  stimulant  she  needs. 
In  the  study  of  modern  society,  no  accurate  estimate  can  be  made 
of  the  causes  of  the  nervous  energy  of  modern  times,  without 
paying  attention  to  the  use  of  the  modern  stimulants,  tea,  coffee, 
and  tobacco,  the  introduction  of  which  is  contemporaneous  with 
the  advent  of  the  new  spirit  of  energy  which  lias  revolutionized 
all  our  modes  of  thought,  and  which,  in  every  department  of 
human  energy,  has  made  so  wide  a  distinction  between  the  new 
and  the  old  life  of  mankind  ;  and  a  literature  upon  this  subject  is 
already  commenced,  in  which  it  is  studied,  not  metaphysically,  but 
scientifically. 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 

TEST  FOH  TERRA  ALBA  ADULTERATION  OF  CANDY.  —  NATURE  OF  TERRA 
ALBA.  —  GLUCOSE  USED  INSTEAD  OF  GUM  ARABIC.  —  COMPOST  IN  IMI¬ 
TATION  OF  LICORICE.  —  OTHER  ADULTERATIONS.  —  POISONOUS  FLAVORS  AND 
COLORS.  — GOVERNMENT  INFLUENCE  IN  AID  OF  ADULTERATIONS.  — NATURAL 
FONDNESS  FOR  SUGAR.  — FIRST  HISTORICAL  ACCOUNT  OF  SUGAR.  —  COURSE  OF 
THE  SUGAR  AND  CANDY  BUSINESS.  —  NUMBER  OF  CONFECTIONERY  HOUSES  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  RIDLEY  AND  CO.  THE  SENIOR  HOUSE  ON  THE  WESTERN 

CONTINENT.  -  THEIR  RULES  OF  DEALING.  - NO  SUBSTITUTED  OR  INFERIOR 

ARTICLES.  — NO  LIQUOR  NOR  GAMBLING  CANDY.  — ACCOUNT  OF  MATERIALS 
FOR  CONFECTIONERY.  —  PROCESSES  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  SUGAR-BOILING 

SCALE.  — TORPEDOES  AND  MOTTOES.  —  MOTTO  POETRY.  - EXTENT  OF  RIDLEY 

AND  CO.’S  BUSINESS.  —  QUEEN  VICTORIA  ANX>  HOARIIOUND  CANDY.  —  SWIN¬ 
DLING  IN  THE  CANDY  BUSINESS  UNNECESSARY. 

Take  some  lozeng'es,  or  some  “  stick  candy/’  or  some  “  sugar¬ 
plums/’  say  a  wine-glassful  or  thereabouts,  pound  or  break  them 
up,  if  you  choose,  into  small  fragments,  put  these  into  a  tea-cup  or 
a  two-ounce  vial,  and  fill  up  with  hot  water  ;  stir,  or  let  it  stand, 
until  the  candy  is  dissolved.  If  it  was  pure,  it  has  disappeared, 
just  as  loaf  sugar  would  do,  except  that,  if  it  was  colored,  the 
coloring  matter  might  slightly  cloud  the  water.  But  in  a  good 
many  cases  a  fine  white  or  brownish  powder  will  quietly  settle  to 
the  bottom  of  the  solution  in  a  layer  perhaps  an  eighth,  or  even  a 
third,  of  an  inch  deep.  This  is  dirt ;  at  least  it  is  a  mineral.  It 
is  known  in  the  wholesale  candy  and  grocery  business  as  terra 
alba,  and  it  is  manufactured  in  great  quantities,  and  sold  to  swindle 
with,  and  for  no  other  purpose.  Sometimes  wheat  flour  or  starch 
is  mixed  with  it,  when  the  sediment  is  probably  brownish. 

This  terra  alba  is  nothing  but  plaster  of  Paris,  or  gypsum, 
chemically  a  sulphate  of  lime,  which  is  composed  of  oxygen,  sul¬ 
phur,  and  lime,  ground  to  a  fine  flour.  Now,  gypsum  is  useful  to 

fertilize  land,  and  to  make  cornices,  and  “  hard  finish  ”  for  walls 

(247) 


248 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 


and  ceilings.  But  the  human  stomach  has  not  been  found  to  re¬ 
quire  mineral  fertilizers,  nor  do  its  walls  receive  benefit  from  being 
“  hard  finished.’ ’  Gypsum,  as  an  article  of  food,  is  just  as  good 
as  slate-pencils,  or  hard  coal.  As  coal  dust  would  show,  it  is /im¬ 
practicable  to  cheat  by  mixing  it  with  sugar  ;  but  as  plaster  is 
white,  and  docs  not  show,  the  cheat  is  easy. 

It  is  fortunate  that  this  ground  plaster  of  Paris  can  be  used  in 
confectionery  without  being  burned  in  a  kiln.  It  is  this  process 
of  burning  which  makes  it  “  set,”  as  it  is  called.  If  candy  were  • 
made  with  burned  plaster,  it  would  “  set”  in  the  stomach  and  bow¬ 
els,  furnishing  a  cast  of  our  interior  at  the  expense  of  our  life. 
As  it  is,  it  only  causes  disorders  of  the  stomach  and  bowels. 

Sometimes  half  the  substance  of  candy,  or  even  more,  is  made 
up  of  this  mineral.  As  it  costs  many  times  less  than  sugar,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  candy  made  of  it  might  be  sold  at  a  less  price 
than  unworked  white  sugar  itself ;  and  this  apparent  paradox  has 
often  been  seen  in  our  markets. 

Numerous  other  tests,  besides  the  very  simple  one  above  de¬ 
scribed  of  solution  in  water,  would  be  necessary,  most  of  them 
more  scientific  and  difficult. than  this,  before  all  the  cheats  which 
are  common  in  the  candy  business  could  be  found  out.  For  in¬ 
stance,  instead  of  gum  arabic,  of  which  considerable  quantities 
are  required,  glucose  is  used.  This  is  harmless,  being  simply  a 
mucilage  of  dextrine,  which  is  itself  a  modification  of  starch. 
But  the  cheat  is,  that  glucose  costs  only  eight  or  ten  cents  a 
pound,  while  gum  arabic,  of  equal  cleanness,  costs  sixty-five  or 
seventy  cents,  and  the  price  is  not  reduced  in  proportion.  How¬ 
ever,  a  practice  has  grown  up  among  the  candy-makers  which  may 
be  called  semi-honest.  It  is  this  :  they  mark  the  glucose  gum- 
drops  “  A  B,”  and  they  are  known  in  the  trade  as  “  A  B  gum- 
drops,”  or  “  Arabian  gum.”  This  enables  the  retailer  to  know  what 
lie  is  about ;  so  that  this  half  of  the  matter  is  honest  enough. 
But  the  consumer  has  not  the  same  information  ;  so  that  the  re¬ 
tailer  is  tempted  to  charge  a  gum-arabic  price  for  glucose  goods. 
This  might  very  justly  be  called,  to  use  a  rather  slangy  expression, 
a  “gum  game.”  These  glucose  gum  drops,  by  the  way,  can  be 
recognized  by  their  peculiar  “  short”  or  brittle  fracture,  whereas 
the  gum  arabic  has  much ‘more  elasticity. 

Again  :  a  great  proportion  of  what  are  sold  as  “  licorice  drops  ” 
are  manufactured,  not  from  the  proper  materials,  —  refined  sugar, 
gum  arabic,  and  licorice,  —  but  from  lampblack,  glue,  and  brown 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 


249 


sugar,  with  as  little  licorice  as  will  give  this  compost  something 
like  a  proper  flavor.  In  like  manner  the  Tonka  or  Tonquin  bean 
is  very  commonly  used  instead  of  vanilla.  The  same  ground  plas¬ 
ter  of  Paris,  or  terra  alba,  which  is  used  in  sugar,  is  extensively 
mixed  with  chocolate  for  the  same  purpose  ;  tartaric  acid  and 
sulphuric  acid  are  used  instead  of  lemon  for  acidulating;  etc.,  etc. 

Instead  of  cochineal,  which  is  Harmless,  but  expensive,  aniline, 
•  a  poisonous  product  of  coal  tar,  is  extensively  used  to  color  red 
candies  ;  and  instead  of  saffron  for  the  yellow  candies,  gamboge 
and  chrome  yellow,  both  poisons,  are  used.  Indigo  is  compara¬ 
tively  harmless  for  blues,  and  “  sap  green, ”  or  vegetable  yellows 
of  other  kinds,  along  with  indigo,  is  safe  enough  for  greens  ;  but 
smalt,  ultramarine,  verdigris,  Brunswick  green,  and  other  mineral 
poisons,  are  extensively  employed. 

Flavoring  matters  of  a  poisonous  nature  are  as  readily  used  in  the 
ordinary  confectionery  of  the  shops  as  poisonous  colors,  or  cheap 
dirt,  and  for  the  same  reason,  to  wit,  that  more  money  can  be 
made  by  poisoning  people  than  by  furnishing  them  healthful  viands. 
An  enormous  quantity  of  the  oil  of  turpentine  is  mixed  with  the 
peppermint  oil,  the  oil  of  lemon,  and  the  oil  of  cinnamon,  which 
are  used  in  flavoring  candy,  sometimes,  indeed,  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  turpentine  can  be  distinctly  tasted.  But  far  worse  poisons 
than  turpentine  are  used.  All  the  “  bitter  almond  ”  flavor  that  is 
given  to  confectionery,  of  whatever  kind,  is  produced  by  prussic 
acid,  one  of  the  quickest  and  strongest  poisons  known  to  chemis¬ 
try.  Another  class  of  poison  flavors,  common  a  few  years  ago, 
has  fortunately  gone  pretty  much,  out  of  use.  This  is  not  because 
the  confectioners  hesitated  to  sell  the  poison,  by  any  means,  but 
because  its  effects  were  so  distinct  that  the  public,  careless  as  it 
is  about  its  stomach,  would  not  buy  it.  These  flavors  were  used 
in  what  were  called  “banana  drops, ”  “pear  drops,”  “peach 
drops,”  “  pineapple  drops,”  etc.  Now  the  flavor  of  the  pineapple 
drops  was  made  from  an  extract  of  rotten  cheese  and  sulphuric 
acid,  and  the  others  from  a  mixture  in  which  a  chief  ingredient 
was  the  very  poisonous  “  fusel  oil,”  a  well-known  constituent  of 
bad  liquor,  and  equally  well  known  to  physicians  as  a  powerful 
cause  of  the  fatal  and  agonizing  disorder  of  the  kidneys,  known  as 
“  Bright’s  disease.”  It  is  a  fact  that  numbers  of  deaths  of  young 
children  have  been  directly  traceable  to  the  use  of  some  of  these 
poisonous  candies. 

The  temptations  to  perpetrate  these  (literally)  sickening  imposi- 


250 


CONFECTIONERY,  IIONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 


lions  arc,  no  doubt,  great,  for  the  gain  in  money  is  great.  So  is 
the  money  gain  of  robbing  a  bank,  or  robbing  and  murdering  a 
man.  The  yellow  coloring  matter  obtained  from  saffron  costs 
thirty-five  dollars  a  pound,  while  chrome  yellow  costs  ten  cents  a 
pound.  Terra  alba  costs  a  little  more  than  ordinary  loam,  while 
refined  sugar  costs  eighteen  or  twenty  cents  a  pound,  or  more  ; 
and  so  on  of  the  other  poisons,  as  compared  with  nutritious  or 
harmless  materials.  But  more  than  this,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that 
the  influence  of  the  United  States  government  has  once,  at  least, 
been  thrown  directly  in  favor  of  the  dishonest  candy  manufacture, 
as  against  the  honest  trade.  During  the  war,  the  price  of  sugar 
was  for  a  time  as  high  as  from  twenty-eight  to  thirty-two  cents  a 
pound.  Yet  at  that  very  time  abundance  of  candy  was  in  the 
market  at  seventeen  or  eighteen  cents  a  pound  —  a  state  of  things 
which  only  plaster  of  Paris  can  account  for.  However,  the  United 
States  offered  a  further  premium  of  two  cents  on  every  pound  of 
dishonest  candy,  by  means  of  a  tax  of  four  cents  on  all  candy  costing 
over  twenty  cents  a  pound,  but  of  only  two  cents  on  such  as  cost 
less.  But  it  is  evident  that  no  honest  candy  could  have  cost  so 
little  as  twenty  cents  a  pound  ;  so  that  the  honest  dealer  had  not 
only  to  compete  with  a  cheating  commodity  offered  at  one  half  the 
price  of  his  own  goods,  but  with  a  further  bribe  of  two  cents  al¬ 
lowed  by  his  own  government  for  every  cheating  pound  over  and 
above  the  advantage  of  the  cheat  itself. 

It  will  be  seen,  however,  by  the  account  which  a  subsequent 
portion  of  this  chapter  will  give  of*  the  business  of  the  senior 
American  house  engaged  in  the  candy  manufacture,  that  one  con¬ 
cern,  at  least,  has  found  it  possible  to  live,  and  to  prosper,  too, 
without  the  use  of  lying,  swindling,  poisoning,  or  dirt,  during  a 
business  career  of  three  quarters  of  a  century. 

The  love  of  sweet  things  is  as  natural  and  healthy  as  any  other 
appetite.  Sugar  and  sugar  candy  are  as  good  to  eat  as  puddings 
or  preserves,  or  anything  else  whose  flavor  is  one  of  its  recom¬ 
mendations.  Very  true,  it  is  not  suitable  for  sustaining  life,  if 
eaten  without  anything  else  during  considerable  periods,  but  neither 
is  any  one  of  the  “proximate  principles  ”  which  constitute  food. 
AYe  should  sicken  or  starve  on  starch  alone,  or  gluten  alone,  or  fat 
alone,  or  albumen  alone,  or  sugar  alone  ;  but  each  _  of  them  is 
healthful  in  its  place,  as  part  of  a  properly  arranged  diet.  It  is 
said,  indeed,  that  sugar  is  a  prompt  and  fatal  poison  to  frogs,  and 
lizards,  and  to  doves.  So  is  salt  to  hens.  But  human  beings  are 


CONFECTIONERY,  IIONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 


25 1 


neither  frog,  lizard,  dove,  nor  hen,  —  whatever  Mr.  Darwin  may 
believe  as  to  their  having  been  such  a  hundred  million  years  ago, 

—  and  sugar  and  salt  are  good  for  the  food  of  man. 

Candy,  like  everything  else,  has  a  history,  although  it  does  not, 
within  the  records  of  Christendom  at  least,  date  very  far  back. 

Before  the  use  of  sugar,  honey  was  the  great  sweetener  of  culi¬ 
nary  and  confectionery  labor,  as  the  classic  recipes  sufficiently 
show.  No  other  article  is  mentioned  as  so  uspd  in  the  Bible, 
wdiich  refers  to  honey  as  an  article  of  food,  or  as  an  ideal  of 
sweetness,  some  fifty  times. 

The*. sugar-cane,  sugar,  candy,  molasses,  and,  for  all  we  know, 
gingerbread  and  molasses  candy,  appear  to  have  been  known, 
however,  from  time  immemorial  among  the  Chinese.  The  sugar¬ 
cane,  but  not  sugar  itself,  is  supposed  to  be  referred  to  by  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  on  botany  and  medicine.  The  cultivation  of 
the  cane,  the  manufacture  of  sugar,  and  that  of  rock-candy  also, 

—  this  being  the  earliest  known  of  all  the  varieties  of  candy, — 
were  brought  by-the  Saracens  from  Asia  into  Cyprus  and  Sicily 
about  the  eighth  century,  and  into  Spain  not  far  from  the  same 
time.  About  1240  these  industries  were  introduced  into  the  Ma¬ 
deira  Islands.  In  1493,  the  very  next  year  after  Columbus  dis¬ 
covered  America,  they  were  established  in  San  Domingo,  whence 
they  spread  to  the  other  islands,  and  to  the  main  land  of  America. 
Humboldt,  after  thorough  research,  became  convinced  that  the 
sugar-cane  was  not  known  in  America  until  thus  introduced*.  It 
was  not  until  1563  that  Admiral  Ilawkins  brought  sugar  into 
England. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  several  hundred  concerns  en¬ 
gaged  in  manufacturing  confectionery,  and  twenty-five  or  thirty  in 
New  York  city  alone.  Jmich  the  oldest  of  them  all,  however, 
and  indeed  the  senior  concern  of  all  on  the  Western  Continent,  is 
the  house  of  Ridley  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  which  dates  from  the 
year  1806,  and  whose  modest  parent  establishment,  at  No.  1  Hud¬ 
son  Street,  and  which  is  shown  by  the  cut  accompanying  this 
article,  is  still  occupied  by  the  firm,  another  larger  sales-room 
having  also  been  opened  in  connection  with  their  up-town  manu¬ 
factory  at  No.  1149  Broadway. 

The  original  founders  of  the  house  were  succeeded  by  the  pres¬ 
ent  partners  in  May,  1856,  after  just  half  a  century  of  honest  and 
prosperous  dealing.  The  firm  now  consists  of  Messrs.  Robert  A. 
Ridley,  William  A.  Fritz,  William  Kennedy,  and  William  Force,  all 


252 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST 


of  whom  were  apprentices  to  the  old  firm.  Mr.  Fritz,  who  was 
twenty  years  with  the  old  firm,  is  at  present  business  manager. 

Ridley  &  Co.  do  not  thus  far  experience  any  temptation  to  vary 
from  the  traditions  of  the  concern.  They  use  no  materials  what¬ 
ever  in  their  business  except  the  purest  and  best.  Their  sugar  is 
sugar,  and  neither  sulphate  of  lime  nor  wheat  flour,  and  it  is  the 
best  refined  loaf  sugar,  too.  Their  honey  is  honey,  and  not  mo- 


MANUFACTORY  OF  RIDLEY  &  CO.,  NEW  YORK. 


lasses  ;  their  gum  is  gum  arabic,  and  not  glucose  ;  their  licorice 
is  licorice,  and  not  a  compound  of  lampblack  and  glue  ;  their 
vanilla  is  vanilla,  and  not  Tonquin  beans  ;  their  flavoring  extracts 
are  made  by  themselves  ;  no  deleterious  article  whatever  is  used 
in  their  business  for  flavoring,  color,  or  ingredient  of  any  kind. 

The  high  principle  of  morality,  which  prevents  this  standard 
firm  from  the  profitable  swindling  which  has  been  described,  is 
consistently  adhered  to,  not  only  in  their  process  of  manufacture, 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST.  253 

but  throughout  their  whole  business.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  firm 
will  not  deal  in  what  are  called  “  brandy-balls,”  “  cordial  drops,” 
nor  any  of  the  kinds  of  candy  which  contain  alcoholic  fluids,  nor 
will  they  deal  in  the  gambling  stuff  known  as  “prize  candies.” 
As  befits  the  truly  honorable  merchant,  they  will  not  trade  either 
upon  the  bodies  or  the  souls  of  men.  The  economical  organiza¬ 
tion  of  their  business,  and  their  extensive  and  successful  use  of 
steam  processes  in  manufacture,  show  at  the  same  time  that  they 
possess  a  full  share  of  intelligence  and  enterprise. 

The  materials  used  in  Ridley  &  Co  's  extensive  business  are 
much  more  numerous  and  varied  than  might  be  imagined  ;  but 
they  present  a  singularly  agreeable  array  of  things  wholesome, 
flavorsome,  delicate,  and  aromatic.  They  include,  first  and  fore¬ 
most,  sugar;  then  the  auxiliary  substantial  of  honey,  molasses, 
cream,  gum  arabic,  almonds,  filberts,  cocoanuts,  peanuts,  chocolate, 
liquorice,  jujube,  flax  seed,  coriander  seed,  caraways,  cinnamon 
(i.  e  ,  the  cassia  of  commerce),  cloves,  and  Iceland  moss.  Next 
are  the  flavors,  which  are  birch,  boneset,  cayenne  pepper,  cinna¬ 
mon,  ginger,  hoarhound,  lemon,  musk,  peppermint,  raspberry,  rose, 
sassafras,  vanilla,  and  wintergreen.  Then  come  the  coloring  mat¬ 
ters,  viz.  :  cochineal,  indigo,  and  saffron.  Last  are  what  may  be 
called  the  literary  and  military  styles  of  confectionery,  namely, 
“  mottoes  ”  and  “  torpedo  mottoes.”  The  former  are  either  those 
which  are  infolded  with  a  motto  or  rhymed  couplet,  or  certain  so- 
called  “  conversation  lozenges,”  each  having  a  brief  remark,  ques¬ 
tion,  or  answer  printed  upon  its  face  in  bright  red  letters.  As  for 
the  second  or  military  confectionery,  this  simply  consists  of  motto 
candy,  accompanied  with  a  kind  of  small  torpedo  that  goes  off  when 
pulled,  with  a  delicate  pop  just  loud  enough  to  please  a  young  lady. 

As  for  the  forms  which  are  given  to  these  substances,  they  are 
still  more  various.  Candy  is  manufactured  into  rock,  sticks,  bars, 
lumps,  braids,  crystallized,  plums,  kisses,  comfits,  drops,  lozenges, 
nonpareils,  and  broken  candy.  All  these  are  manufactured  of  all 
combinations,  flavors,  and  colors,  and  they  are  put  up  in  boxes, 
parcels,  and  cornets. 

Thus  there  are  used  in  the  confectioneiy  business  between  thir¬ 
ty  and  forty  different  kinds*  of  materials.  These  are  manufactured 
into  several  hundred  different  styles  of  candy. 

The  processes  of  the  manufacture  are  not  without  their  interest, 
although  a  detailed  account  of  them  would  be  suitable  onty  for 
scientific  or  commercial  purposes.  All  the  sugar  used  is  bought 


2 oi  CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 

of  the  best  quality,  and  is  carefully  clarified  besides.  No  candy, 
except  lozenges,  is  made  without  heat ;  the  principal  process 
being  to  boil  a  strong  sirup  of  sugar  ip  the  proper  manner,  and 
then  to  manipulate  it  in  a  proper  manner  for  crystallizing,  or  to  color 
it  and  shape  it  for  drying  into  its  various  forms.  The  quantity  of 
labor  bestowed,  both  by  machinery  and  by  hand,  is  enormous. 
Take,  for  instance,  one  of  those  common,  round,  rough-surfaced 
sugar-plums,  about  half  an  inch  in  diameter,  which  are  made  of 
various  colors,  some  white,  some  red,  etc.  Split  one  of  these  in 
two  ;  you  can  see  numerous  concentric  circles  all  the  way  from 
the  coriander  seed,  which  is  the  nucleus,  out  to  the  surface.  Each 
of  these  circles  is  the  evidence  of  one  dip  in  the  sugar,  and  a  sub¬ 
sequent  drying.  Before  this  little  globe  was  finished,  this  dipping 
and  drying  had  to  be  repeated  two  hundred  or  even  three  hun¬ 
dred  times.  It  is  true  that  a  large  tray  or  panful  is  thus  treated 
all  at  once  ;  if  each  had  to  be  made  alone,  sugar-plums  would  be 
practically? unattainable.  Machinery  and  division  of  labor  have 
rendered  them  cheap,  however  ;  and  these  being  the  two  great 
triumphs  of  modern  industry,  it  is  evident  that  a  great  deal  of 
civilization  goes  into  a  sugar-plum. 

King  George,  according  to  an  old  story,  "was  once  greatly  mys-  . 
tified  with  the  fact  that  an  apple  could  be  inside  of  a  dumpling, 
without  any  sign  of  its  entrance  therein.  A  similar  question  has 
often  puzzled  the  uninstructed  mind  about  the  cream  in  cream 
chocolate  drops,  and  the  jelly-like  material  in  the  so-called  '‘jelly 
drops,’7  and  in  soft  gum  drops.  As  for  the  chocolate  drops,  the 
answer  is  only  this  :  the  inner  lump  of  il  cream  ”  —  it  is  nothing 
but  a  lump  of  very  fine,  soft  sugar  —  is  made  first,  and  then  dipped 
into  a  thick  paste  of  chocolate,  which  clings  to  it  and  hardens 
upon  it.  The  structure  of  the  jelly  drops  is  one  grade  more  com¬ 
plicated,  depending  on  the  fact  that  a  thick  sirup  of  gum  and 
sugar,  and  indeed  of  sugar  alone,  ready  to  crystallize,  always  be¬ 
gins  to  do  so  on  the  surface,  the  interior  changing  last,  because  it 
is  thus  shut  out  from  the  free  action  of  air  and  light.  A  prop¬ 
erly-shaped  lump  of  such  sirup,  ready  flavored  and  mixed,  is 
therefore  placed  by  itself;  it  quickly  hardens  or  crystallizes  on  the 
outside,  and  the  rest  is  the  "jelly.”  Keep  it  long  enough,  and 
that  crystallizes  or  dries  up  also. 

There  is  a  well-known  scale  of  the  degrees  of  heat  and  continu- 
ance  of  boiling,  which  produce  certain  scientific  effects  upon  sugar. 
Warm  water  simply  dissolves  it  more  readily  than  cold.  Boil,  for 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST.  255 

instance,  in  a  proper  vessel,  fine  loaf  sugar  with  water,  at  three 
gills  of  water  to  a  pound  of  sugar,  and  two  minutes’  boiling  will 
bring  the  solution  to  what.is  called  “  the  thread,”  i.  e.,  to  a  state 
where  it  will  draw  out  into  a  short  thread  ;  a  few  moments  more, 
and  it  is  at  the  11  pearl,”  that  is,  bubbles  like  pearls  appear  on  its 
surface  ;  and  so  on.  After  a  little,  a  small  portion  dropped  into 
cold  water  can  be  rolled  into  a  ball  by  the  hand  ;  a  little  more, 
and  it  becomes  dryer,  and  will  crack  ;  then  it  begins  to  grow 
brown,  and  turns  into  what  is  called  in  the  shops  caramel  ;  and 
the  baking  can  be  carried  still  further,  until  the  sugar  becomes 
nothing  but  charcoal.  The  sugar  is  used  for  one  or  another  kind 
.  of  confectionery,  at  one  or  another  of  these  various  stages  of'boil- 
ing,  as  the  work  requires. 

Messrs.  Ridley  &  Co.  have  no  regular  war  departmgnt ;  the 
torpedoes,  which  they  use  for  “  torpedo  mottoes,”  being  imported 
ready  for  use.  The  mottoes,  which  are  used  in  the  candy  of  that 
name,  have  themselves  been  composed  by  unknown  poets,  and 
consist  usually  of  two-line  or  four-line  stanzas,  amatory,  compli¬ 
mentary,  or  sarcastic.  Of  these  compositions  there  is  a  wonder- 
ful  variety,  the  stock  possessed  by  the  firm  reaching  to  about  ten 
thousand  different  mottoes.  Of  thirteen  of  these  poetical  efforts, 
picked  up  at  random  from  a  lot  in  an  open  basket,  every  one 
turned  out  to  belong  to  the  affectionate  kind,  belonging  to  classes 
such  as  we  find  described  in  the  indexes  to  hymn-books  by  words 
like  “  invitation  ”  and  “  expostulation,”  etc. ;  and  it  may  be  ob¬ 
served  that  there  is  a  notable  equality  between  the  sexes  as  re¬ 
gards  taking  the  initiative.  One,  for  instance,  suitable  for  a  bold 
young  thing,  says,  — 

“  This  motto  is  sent,  and  sent  by  a  miss, 

Who  wishes  you,  sir,  to  return  her  the  kiss.” 

This  one,  again,  is  for  a  melancholy  and  unsuccessful  lover  :  — 

“  How  can  the  fair,  for  whom  I  daily  pine, 

Prefer  another’s  boasted  love  to  mine  ?  ” 

But  most  of  them  are  ambiguous  in  regard  to  sex,  being  such 
gushes  of  affection  as  might  fly  either  way,  viz.  :  — 

“  Together  let  us  faithful  twine 

A  wreath  that  will  our  hearts  combine.” 

* 

No  specimens  from  any  of  the  classic  English  poets  in  particular 


25G 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 


were  observed,  though  it  might  be  imagined  that  such  a  selection 
would  be  just  as  loving  as  these,  and  a  good  deal  more  poetical. 
Why  not,  for  instance,  use  these  ?  — 

“  O,  woman,  in  our  hours  of  ease, 

Uncertain,  coy,  and  hard  to  please  !  ” 

“If  to  her  share  some  female  errors  fall, 

Look  on  her  face,  and  you’ll  forget  them  all.” 

“  Maid  of  beauty,  ere  we  part, 

Give,  O,  give  me  back  my  heart !  ” 

However,  this  very  experiment  has  been  made,  and  it  has  failed. 
A  sufficient  number  of  couplets  and  stanzas  could  not  be  found 
having  at  once  the  completeness  of  form  and  the  peculiar  signifi¬ 
cation  required.  There  are,  perhaps,  enough  abstract  and  general 
compliments  and  declarations  of  love  ;  but  a  brief  rhymed  request 
to  be  allowed  to  see  a  young  lady  home,  or  an  invitation  from  her 
to  a  young  gentleman  to  do  so,  it  would  be  hard  to  select ;  and 
such  homely,  every-day  suggestions  as  those  are  the  most  useful 
“  mottoes  ;  ”  for  they  save  the  blushes  and  shyness  of  many  a 
loving  but  awkward  heart. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  steady  and  long-continued  busi¬ 
ness  success  which  has  attended  the  operations  of  this  firm,  al¬ 
ready  of  a  patriarchal  standing  among  American  business  houses. 
It  does  not  even  condescend  to  employ  those  energetic  and  volu¬ 
ble  representatives  of  the  spirit  of  modern  business,  known  as 
“  drummers.”  Nevertheless,  the  transactions  of  the  house  of 
Ridley  &  Co.  reach  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  many  other 
countries  besides,  as  various  parts  of  South  America,  London, 
Paris,  China,  etc.,  etc. 

The  series  of  circumstances  which  ended  in  the  establishment 
of  one  of  these  business  correspondences  in  particular  is  interest¬ 
ing  enough  to  be  related  somewhat  in  detail.  Quite  a  number  of 
years  ago,  her  grace  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland  called  one  morn¬ 
ing  on  her  friend,  Mrs.  Bates,  the  wife  of  the  late  Joshua  Bates, 
the  well-known  American  member  (since  dead)  of  the  great  bank¬ 
ing  firm  of  Baring  Bros.  &  Co.  Observing  that  the  duchess  had 
a  cold,  Mrs.  Bates  gave  her  some  hoarhound  candy  to  use  as  a 
remedy.  The  duchess,  finding  it  of  great  service,  afterwards  rec¬ 
ommended  it  to  the  queen,  who  tried  it  with  equal  success,  and 
the  London  firm  of  De  Castro  A  Co.,  grocers  to  the  queen,  were 


CONFECTIONERY,  HONEST  AND  DISHONEST. 


257 


soon  commanded  to  supply  her  majesty  with  a  further  quantity  of 
the  article.  As  Mrs.  Bates  had  obtained  it  from  Messrs.  Ridley  & 
Co.,  the  order  was  sent  to  them;  and  Ridley  &  Co.  have  ever 
since  been  supplying  Queen  Victoria  and  her  family,  and  the  Lon¬ 
don  market  besides,  with  hoarhound  candy,  sending  considerable 
shipments  monthly,  or  even  oftener.  It  is  an  additional  proof  of 
•the  excellence  of  Ridley  &  Co.’s  candy,  that  counterfeits  of  it  are 
constantly  on  sale  all  over  London. 

The  extent  of  the  business  of  Messrs.  Ridley  &  Co.,  as  well  as 
its  duration  in  time,  is  ample  proof  of  the  unnecessary  nature  of 
the  impositions  which  have  been  alluded  to  in  the  previous  pages. 
The  sugar  which  they  use  is  counted  by  thousands  and  thousands 
of  barrels  a  year.  In  preparing  one  of  their  styles  of  candy  alone 
they  use  annually  a  quantity  of  dried  hoarhound  leaf  equal  in 
bulk  to  a  good  large  haystack.  Their  printer’s  bill  alone  is  some 
two  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Indeed,  as  long  as  there  is  so  ample 
a  field  for  profit,  with  the  purest  integrity  in  supplying  the  sweets 
of  life,  it  is  peculiarly  strange  that  the  substitution  of  poisons  and 
rubbish  should  be  so  extensively  practised. 


SUGAR  REFINING. 


EXTENT  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  OLD  METHODS.  —  MODERN  PROCESSES.  —  SUGAR 
REFINERIES.  — LOAF,  CRYSTAL,  AND  CRUSHED  SUGARS.  — TREATMENT  OF  RAW 
SUGAR.  —  REMOVAL  OF  COLOR  AND  IMPURITIES.  —  GRANULATION.  —  THE 
VACUUM  PAN.  —  LIQUORING.  —  MOULDING.  —  OTHER  PROCESSES.  —  MAPLE 
SUGAR.  — WHERE  AND  HOW  IT  IS  MANUFACTURED.  —  SORGHUM. 

Sugar  Refining  is  carried  on  to  a  very  large  extent  in  New  York 
city,  and  in  nearly  every  other  leading  city  in  the  United  States. 
The  process  is  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the  impurities  and 
coloring  matter  from  raw  sugar,  as  imported,  and  producing  pure 
white  loaf  sugar,  crystals, — large  crystal  or  “  coffee  sugar/7  — 
and  crushed  and  pulverized  sugar.  These  classes  of  refined  su¬ 
gars  may  be  made  in  one  large  establishment,  or  in  different  estab- 
•  lishments  devoted  to  the  production  of  a  particular  class.  The 
process  of  refining,  in  its  rudest  form,  is  exceedingly  ancient,  and 
was  practised  in  England  in  the  sixteenth  century.  For  many 
years  the  method  of  refining  was  to  add  to  the  solution  of  raw 
sugar  blood,  eggs,  and  lime  water  to  neutralize  acid  ;  heat  was 
then  applied,  the  scum  was  removed,  the  semi-crystallized  solution 
was  poured  into  moulds  to  drain,  and  the  hardened  loaves  were 
trimmed,  dried,  papered,  and  were  ready  for  market.  This  pro¬ 
cess  is  almost  entirely  superseded  by  a  more  perfect  form  of  filtra¬ 
tion,  which  removes  the  color  and  impurities  with  far  less  waste 
of  sugar. 

The  refineries  are  immense  buildings,  six  or  seven  stories  high, 
to  admit  of  the  various  processes  in  the  different  stories,  begin¬ 
ning  at  the  top  floor.  On  this  floor  the  hogsheads  and  boxes  are 
emptied,  the  sugar  is  put  into  copper  “  dissolving  pans/7  about 
eight  feet  in  diameter,  and  hot  water  is  added.  The  solution  is 
raised  to  the  required  heat  by  means  of  the  steam-heated  coils 

which  encase  the  pans.  From  the  pans  the  si^up  passes  through 
(258) 


SUGAR  REFINING. 


259 


filters,  which  are  long  bags  of  thick,  twilled  cotton  cloth,  arranged 
in  rows,  and  which  are  kept  warm  by  steam.  From  these  bags 
the  liquor  runs  free  from  most  of  its  impurities,  but  still  colored. 
To  rerhove  the  color,  the  liquor  is  passed  through  iron  cylinders 
•  of  from  five  to  ten  feet  in  diameter,  and  (now)  of  fifty  feet  in 
height,  filled  with  animal  charcoal,  or  “  bone  black.”  This  char¬ 
coal  is  granulated,  and,  after  thorough  cleansing  and  reburning,  it 
recovers  a  portion  of  its  power,  and  may  be  re-used. 

From  tliese  charcoal  cylinders  the  sirup  comes  out  perfectly 
colorless,  and  is  removed  to  the  “vacuum  pan  ”  for  evaporation 
and  crystallization.  The  more  rapidly  this  is  effected,  the  more 
sugar  will  result.  The  evaporation  begins  at  a  temperature  of 
from  one  hundred  and  seventy  to  one  hundred  and  eighty  degrees, 
and,  when  granulation  begins,  is  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  sixty 
degrees,  and  gradually  to  one  hundred  and  forty-five  degrees. 
From  the  vacuum  pan  the  sugar  goes  to  a  heating  pan,  similar  to 
the  dissolving  pan,  where  it  is  raised  to  a  temperature  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  degrees,  being  constantly  stirred  during  the 
heating,  and  is  then  drawn  off,  and  poured  into  conical  iron 
moulds,  and  left  to  drain.  After  several  hours  the  loaves  are 
“liquored  ”  by  pouring  in  at  the  top  a  perfectly  clear  solution  of 
pure  sugar,  which  effectually  removes  every  remaining  particle  of 
coloring  matter.  If  necessary,  the  liquoring  process  is  repeated 
till  the  loaves  are  perfectly  blanched,  when  they  are  taken  to  a 
steam-heated  drying-room  for  two  or  three  days ;  are  then 
trimmed,  if  necessary,  in  a  lathe  ;  are  papered,  and  are  ready  for 
market  as  the  best  quality  of  “  loaf  sugar,”  The  drainings  from 
the  moulds,  trimmings,  etc.,  are  saved  for  the  manufacture  of 
inferior  grades  of  sugar. 

In  the  manufacturing  of  crystal  and  crushed  sugar,  the  prelimi¬ 
nary  processes  are  the  same  as  for  loaf  sugar,  but  raw  sugars  of 
an  inferior  quality  may  be  used.  The  vacuum  pans  are  larger, 
and  for  the  formation  of  large  crystals  the  pah  is  first  partially 
filled,  and,  as  crystallization  begins  and  continues,  fresh  liquor  is 
introduced  from  time  to  time,  till  the  process  is  complete.  The 
crystals,  while  in  a  semi-fluid  mass,'  are  separated  by  means  of  a 
“  centrifugal  machine.”  In  crushed  sugar  the  process  is  similar 
to  that  of  making  loaf  sugar,  excepting  that  the  filtration  is  less 
complete,  and  liquoring  is  dispensed  with,  ktucli  of  the  best 
wittte  sugar  now  sold  in  American  cities  is  sent  to  market,  not  in 
loaves,  but  in  small,  square-cut  lumps,  and  the  cut,  crushed,  and 
pulverized  sugar  is  put  up  in  barrels. 

15 


260 


SUGAR  REFINING. 


Maple  Sugar. 

The  manufacture  of  maple  sugar,  which  has  been  carried  on  for 
more  than  one  hundred  years  in  New  England,  has  now  attained 
considerable  importance  in  that  section,  in  New  York,  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  in  Ohio,  in  Michigan,  and  in  other  northern  and  western 
states.  The  sugar  is  made  in  February  and  March,  from  the  sap 
of  the  sugar  maple.  Holes  three  fourths  of  an  inch  in  diameter 
are  bored  in  the  trees,  not  more  than  half  an  inch  into  the  wood  ; 
elder  wood  split  tubes  are  inserted,  and  the  sap,  as  it  flows,  is 
caught  in  pails  or  troughs.  The  sap  is  boiled  over  an  active  fire, 
is  repeatedly  skimmed,  and  when  it  assumes  the  consistency  of 
sirup,  it  is  strained  through  woollen  cloths.  It  is  then  reboiled  to 
granulating  consistency,  when  it  is  poured  into  moulds,  from 
which  the  molasses  drains  away,  leaving  light-brown  cakes  of 
sugar.  Many  farmers  make  their  entire  supply  of  sugar  for  home 
consumption  from  the  maple  ;  it  is  11  run  ”  into  cakes,  for  sale  by 
grocers  and  confectioners  in  cities ;  and  it  is  susceptible,  by  refin¬ 
ing,  of  conversion  into  pure  white  sugar. 

In  1856  the  seed  of  the  Chinese  sugar-cane,  or  sugar  variety  of 
the  sorghum,  was  introduced  into  the  United  States,  and  its  culti¬ 
vation  was  begun  somewhat  extensively,  especially  at  the  West. 
It  grows  readily  in  soil  and  climate  where  Indian  corn  can  be 
raised,  but  will  not  ripen  perfectly  north  of  42°  north  latitude.  Like 
the  mulberry  and  petroleum,  sorghum  became  a  mania,  and  for  a 
year  or  two  the  papers  were  filled  with  accounts  of  its  production 
and  profit,  and  the  probability  of  its  ultimately  superseding  the 
sugar-cane  of  Cuba  and  the  South.  It  was  soon  discovered,  how¬ 
ever,  that  its  chief  value  was  for  sirup,  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  four  hundred  gallons  of  which  can  be  produced  to  the  acre, 
while  the  production  of  the  crystallized  cane  sugar  from  the  juice 
is  quite  small.  For  molasses,  or  sirup,  the  sorghum  cane  is  exten¬ 
sively  cultivated,  and  in  some  sections  of  the  country  it  furnishes 
almost  the  sole  supply  of  this  article. 

Quite  recently  successful  experiments  have  been  made  in  the 
United  States,  particularly  in  Illinois,  in  making  sugar  from  the 
French  white  sugar  beet.  The  manufacture  in  France  for  many 
years  past  has  been  extensive  and  profitable,  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  it  may  become  an  important  industry  in  this  country. 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


FIRE  AS  A  SERVANT,  AND  AS  A  MASTER.  —  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  BUILDING.  —  EX¬ 
AMPLES  OF  CONFLAGRATIONS.  —  THE  GREAT  FIRE  IN  LONDON.  — FIRES  IN 
ROME.  —  INVENTIONS  FOR  PUTTING  THEM  OUT.  —  THE  FIRST  FIRE  ENGINE 
OF  MODERN  TIMES.  —  THE  AIR  CHAMBER  INTRODUCED.  —  HOSE  FIRST  IN¬ 
VENTED.  —  FIRE  SYRINGES.  —  THE  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINE.  —  THE  FIRE  DEPART¬ 
MENT  OF  PARIS. - OF  LONDON. - IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. — THE  FIRST 

SUCCESSFUL  USE  OF  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. — THE  PRESENT  APPARATUS 
USED  BY  FIRE  DEPARTMENTS.  —  THE  INVENTIONS  OF  A.  F.  ALLEN,  OF 
PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. — THE  SPRAY  NOZZLE. —  AN  AUTOMATIC  BELIEF  VALVE. — 
TELEGRAPHING  THROUGH  THE  HOSE.  —  THE  NEW  ERA  IN  FIGHTING  FIRE. 

The  services  of  fire,  when  under  man’s  control,  are  so  important 
and  valuable,  that  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  ancients,  with  the 
child-like  tendency  of  personifying  the  objects  about  them,  should 
have  ascribed  its  discovery  to  the  agency  of  the  gods ;  or  that 
some  nations  of  the  East  should  have  worshipped  it  as  the  symbol 
of  the  divine  power  which  created  and  sustains  the  universe.  To 
the  race  of  mankind  while  still  in  the  pastoral  condition,  while 
living  in  tents,  and  in  sparsely-settled  communities,  this  benefi¬ 
cent  aspect  of  fire  is  more  readily  suggested.  But  when  with  in¬ 
creasing  numbers  men  became  aggregated  into  cities,  and  industry 
becoming  specialized,  greater  attention  and  labor  were  bestowed 
upon  their  dwellings,  while  the  fruits  of  their  varied  toil  came  to 
be  gathered  and  stored  in  vast  depositories,  the  terrors  of  fire  as  a 
master,  as  a  raging  devourer  of  all  that  they  prized,  became 
more  vividly  impressed  upon  their  minds,  and  fire  was  made  the 
attribute  of  demons  rather  than  of  divinities,  becoming  a  symbol 
of  destruction  rather  than  of  service. 

Though  there  is  hardly  any  modern  city  which  has  not  suffered 
from  a  conflagration  of  greater  or  less  extent,  and  in  whose 
history,  if  it  is  old  enough  to  have  a  history,  some  destructive 

(261) 

[ 

\ 


26S 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


fire  does  not  form  an  era  from  which  dates  are  computed,  and  the 
memory  of  which  is  still  preserved  among  the  old  survivors,  who 
never  tire  of  recounting  the  fearful  horrors  of  that  terrible  night 
when  the  horizon  was  lit  with  the  lurid  flames,  and  men  could 
wander  about  in  a  light  as  bright  as  day,  with  the  sad  conscious¬ 
ness  that  it  was  made  by  the  destruction  of  their  homes,  yet  still 
our’modern  cities  are  more  secure  than  those  of  olden  times. 

In  the  advancing  march  of  human  dominion  over  the  earth,  men 
have  come  to  use  for  the  construction  of  their  habitations  the 
more  incombustible  materials,  brick,  stone,  and  iron  replacing 
wood.  Yet  our  houses  are  still  very  far  from  being  incombustible, 
and  it  is  only  by  comparing  them  with  the  structures  made  en¬ 
tirely  of  wood,  which  formed  the  bulk  of  our  cities  during  the 
preceding  century,  that  their  advantage  in  this  respect  becomes 
apparent. 

The  number  of  cathedrals  built  of  stone,  which  have  been 
burned  by  the  woodwork  of  the  interior  finish,  together  with  the 
total  destruction,  in  about  half  an  hour  after  the  fire  was  dis¬ 
covered,  of  the  Crystal  Palace  in  New  York,  which  was  con¬ 
structed  of  iron  and  glass,  and  the  partial  burning  of  the  Crystal 
Palace  at  Sydenham,  built  of  the  same  material,  show  that  it  is 
difficult  to  construct  a  building  which  shall  be  really  indestructible 
by  fire.  In  York  Cathedral,  for  example,  though  the  solid  stone 
walls  were  uninjured,  yet  the  flames  from  the  woodwork  inside, 
the  pews,  the  choir,  and  the  screens,  set  fire  to  the  woodwork  of 
the  noble  oak  roof,  covered  with  slate,  and  on  the  two  occasions 
on  which  this  building  has  been  burned,  in  1829  and  in  1840, 
utterly  destroyed  it,  though  it  is  hung  at  an  elevation  of  over  one 
hundred  feet  from  the  main  floor. 

In  the  New  York  Crystal  Palace,  the  pine  floors,  the  wooden 
stairs,  and  the  tables  for  the  exhibitors,  made  such  an  intense  heat 
as  to  fracture  the  glass,  and  fuse  much  of  tlie.iron  used  in  the 
construction  of  the  outside.  The  rapidity  with  which  this  confla¬ 
gration  spread  was  surprising.  It  began  in  a  lumber-room,  used 
for  the  storage  of  benches  and  things  of  that  kind,  and  though  at 
irst  it  cduld  have  been  extinguished  with  a  pitcher  of  water,  yet 
in  less  than  a  half  hour  it  had  reduced  the  entire  building  to  a 
shapeless  mass  of  ruins.  Once  started,  the  flames  ran  along  the 
pitch  pine  floors,  which  had  been  drying  and  seasoning  for  a  year 
or  two,  as  though  they  were  so  much  tinder,  and  hardly  allowed 
time  for  the  throng  of  visitors  who  were  present  when  the  fire 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


263 


began,  to  save  themselves,  before  the  whole  building  fell  into 
ruins. 

The  great  fire  of  London,  in  1666,  lasted  four  days  and  four 
nights,. and  reduced  five-sixths  of  the  city  to  ruins;  nor  was  this  the 
only  time  that  London  had  suffered,  almost  as  severely,  from  con¬ 
flagrations  which  the  inhabitants  had.  found  too  powerful  to  re¬ 
strain,  though  since  then  no  such  terrible  lire  has  obtained  the 
mastery  of  means  in  use  for  controlling  it. 

In  this  country*  our  chief  cities  have  all  experienced  the  terrors 
of  a  great  fire;  and  the  recent  terrible  conflagration  in  Chicago,  oc¬ 
curred  so  little  while  ago,  that  the  impression  it  produced  upon 
the  public  mind  has  not  yet  died  away.  In  Rome,  as  we  learn 
from  its  mention  by  some  of  the  ancient  Latin  authors,  an  in¬ 
vention  called  a  sipho  had  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  putting 
out  fires  when  they  occurred.  As  none,  of  these  writers  has  hap¬ 
pened  to  describe  it,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  it  was  con¬ 
structed;  and  some  critics  have  therefore  thought  it  was  rather 
an  arrangement  for  supplying  water  to  the  houses  for  domestic 
.use,  than  an  apparatus  for  putting  out  fires.  Even  if  it  was,  how¬ 
ever,  the  germ  of  a  fire  department,  it  could  not  have  been  very 
effectual,  since  Seneca  remarks  that  the  houses  in  Rome  were  so 
high  that  when  they  took  fire  it  was  impossible  to  put  it  out. 

Though  the  Romans  built  aqueducts  for  the.  supply  of  their 
cities  with  water,  yet  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  properties 
of  this  fluid,  and  that  in  enclosed  pipes  it  will  rise  to  the  level,  of 
its  source,  so  that  their  aqueducts  were  carried  on  a  level,  often 
at  a  great  outlay  of  labor.  Yet  they  were  not  unacquainted  with 
the  use  of  pipes,  for  siphons  were  in  use  among  the  Egyptians  at 
a  very  early  age,  and  frequently  in  antiquity  were  used  for  drain¬ 
ing  lakes,  or  transferring  water  from  one  reservoir  to  another,  over 
an  intervening  obstacle. 

Though  the  houses  in  Rome  were  peculiarly  liable  from  their 
material  to  be  destroyed  by  fire,  and  thpy  had  a  supply  from  their 
aqueducts  which  was  much  larger  in  proportion,  to  the  number  of 
their  population  than  modern  cities  generally  have,  yet  the  first 
suggestion  for  using  water  as  a  defence  against  fire  was  made  as 
late  as  the  Empire,  by  the  architect  Apollodorus,  who  suggested 
the  use  of  a  kind  of  hose,  made  of  the  intestines  of  an  ox,  to 
which  was  attached  a  bag.  filled  with  water.  By  pressure  upon 
the  bag,  the  water  could  be  forced  through  the  tube,  thus  ob¬ 
tained,  and  raised  to  an  elevated  place.  His  suggestion  was 


264 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


originally  made  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  water  to  besieged 
places,  which  were  exposed  to  the  arrows  and  fiery  darts  of  the 
enemy,  but  was  most  probably  used  also  for  fighting  fire. 

In  Europe,  during  the  middle  ages,  the  chief  means  used  as  a 
protection  against  fire  was  prevention.  The  curfew  bell  was  the 
signal  given  in  the  early  evening  for  extinguishing  all  the  fires 
used  for  domestic  purposes.  The  term  is  derived  from  the  French 
couvre  feu,  meaning  cover  up  the  fire. 

In  Germany,  during  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  fires 
were  of  frequent  occurrence.  The  cities  of  that  country  were  in 
those  days  built  in  a  very  crowded  manner,  and  chiefly  of  wood. 
The  necessity  for  walling  the  towns  during  this  period,  in  order 
to  protect  their  inhabitants  from  the  raids  and  forays  of  the 
neighboring  barons,  who  maintained  their  wealth  by  preying  for¬ 
cibly  upon  every  industrious  community  within  easy  reach,  obliged 
the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  to  live  in  confined  quarters.  Besides, 
too,  at  this  time  the  sanitary  measures  used  in  our  cities  were 
ignored,  and  the  streets  were  so  narrow  as  to  be  frequently  little 
more  than  footpaths,  so  that  fire  was  easily  communicated  from 
the  houses  upon  one  side  to  those  on  the  other.  The  frequency 
of  destructive  fires  led  to  the  issue,  in  Germany,  during  these  cen¬ 
turies,  of  numerous  ordinances  regulating  the  construction  of 
houses,  and  the  methods  to  be  used  for  preventing  fires. 

The  first  machines,  however,  intended  to  put  out  fires,  of  which 
we  have  any  accurate  notice,  were  in  use  in  Augsburg  in  1518. 
These  were  called  “instruments  for  fires, tf  and  **  water  syringes 
useful  at  fires,”  this  last  name  pretty  effectually  describing  what 
these  u  fire  engines  ”  were.  The  Jesuit  Caspar  Schott  de¬ 
scribes  one  of  these  which  he  saw  in  Nuremberg,  in  165T,  and 
says,  that  forty  years  before  he  saw  a  similar  one,  though 
smaller,  in  Konigshofen,  his  natal  city.  lie  describes  the  one  in 
Nuremberg  as  having  a  barrel  for  the  water,  eight  feet  long,  four 
feet  high,  and  two  feet  wide.  The  piston  was  forced  up  by 
twenty-eight  men,  and  threw  a  stream  of  water,  one  inch  in  diam¬ 
eter,  a  distance  of  eighty  feet.  It  was  carried  about  on  a  sledge, 
ten  feet  long  and  four  feet  broad,  drawn  by  two  horses.  In  front 
it  had  a  short,  flexible  pipe,  by  which  the  stream  could  be  directed 
from  one  side  to  the  other. 

He  makes  no  mention  of  any  air  chamber  connected  with  it,  and 
evidently  it  was  simply  an  enormous  syringe,  with  which  the 
water  was  driven  by  the  force  applied  to  the  piston.  Such  a 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


•265 


machine  must  have  been  quite  clumsy  to  handle,  and  of  not  much 
efficacy,  since  it  had  mo  suction  pipe,  and  would  have  to  be  filled 
when  its  charge  was  expended. 

In  1684  Perrault  describes  engines  in  use  in  Paris  for  extin¬ 
guishing  fires.  One  of  these  he.  speaks  of  as  being  in  the  king’s 
library,  threw  a  continuous  stream  of  water,  though  it  had  but 
one  chamber ;  and  as  this  is  supposed  to  have  been  done  by  the 
use  of  an  air  chamber,  this  account  is  said  to  be  the  first  mention 
of  the  use  of  this  device  in  fire  engines.  In  1699,  a  special  officer 
was  appointed  by  the  King  of  France,  with  the  duty  of  construct¬ 
ing,  and  keeping  in  repair,  and  using  at  fires,  the  seventeen 
“portable  pumps, ”  which  then  constituted  the  force  in  the  royal 
service.  In  1722  the  number  of  these  pumps  had  increased  to 
thirty ;  but  as  none  of  these  were  provided  with  separate  air 
chambers,  it  is  most  probable  that  the  one  previously  spoken  of 
did  not  have  any.  This  opinion  is  strengthened  by  the  fact,  that 
in  the  Memoires  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  Paris,  for  the 
year  1725,  an  account  is  given  of  the  introduction  of  such  an  im¬ 
provement  in  the  engines  at  Strasburg,  while  no  intimation  is 
given  that  those  of  Paris  were  built  with  the  same  device. 

About  the  year  1670,  hose  made  of  leather  wer6  invented  in 
Amsterdam,  by  two  natives  of  that  country,  named  Van  der  Ileide, 
and  the  immediate  introduction  of  their  use  showed  how  much  the 
necessity  had  been  felt  for  some  such  appliance. 

Having  afterwards  invented  the  suction  pipe,  the  same  inven¬ 
tors,  in  1690,  published,  in  folio,  an  account  of  their  improve¬ 
ments,  under  the  title  Beschrijving  der  nieuwljkis  uitgevonden 
Slang- B rand- Spuiten.  This  volume  was  handsomely  illustrated 
with  plates,  the  first  seven  of  which  represented  conflagrations,  at 
which  the  old  engines  had  been  used  with  but  little  or  no  effect, 
while  the  last  twelve  depicted  more  recent  fires,  which  had  been 
extinguished  by  the  use  of  the  new  engine,  and  showed  the  work¬ 
ing  of  the  machines.  The  details  of  the  construction  of  the  new 
engine  are  not  given. 

In  England  it  was  a  long  time  before  the  improved  methods  of 
extinguishing  fires  were  introduced  from  the  continent.  At  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  only  apparatus  in  use  in  London 
was  a  kind  of  hand  syringe,  holding  about  two  or  three  quarts  of 
water.  Some  of  these  are  still  preserved  in  the  vestry-room  of 
St.  Dionis  Backchurch,  in  Fenchurch  Street,  London.  These  re¬ 
quired  three  men  to  work  them.  One  man  on  each  side  held  the 


.260 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


**  engine  ”  in  his  hands,  while  the  third  pressed  up  the  piston,  and 
forced  out  the  water  in  a  stream.  When  discharged,  they  were 
filled  by  taking  out  the  piston,  and  immersing  the  “  engine  ”  in 
the  water.  ,  •  , 

These  syringes  were  afterwards  fitted  into  a  portable  cistern, 
and  the  pistons  arranged  to  be  worked  with  levers.  This  arrange¬ 
ment  continued  in  use  until  they  were  supplanted,  about  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  by  a  new  engine,  invented  and 
patented  by  Ncwsham.  This  was  a  cistern  mounted  upon  wheels. 
It  was  provided  with  a  suction  hose,  pumps,  and  an  air  chamber. 
The  suction  pipe  was  furnished  with  a  spiral  of  metal  to  keep  it 
distended  when  the  air  in  it  was  exhausted,  so  as  to  prevent  its 
collapsing  before  the  water  was  drawn  up  into  it.  It  had  also  a 
strainer,  and  when  it  could  not  be  conveniently  used,  water  was 
supplied  to  the  cistern  by  being  brought  in  buckets. 

During  the  eighteenth  century,  and  until  the  commencement  of 
this,  the  fire  engine  remained  the  same,  in  general  character,  as 
the  one  just  described.  Several  improvements  were  made  in  the 
manner  of  working  it,  but  it  remained  the  same  in  principle.  An 
improvement  made  in  the  early  part  of  this  century  consisted  in 
arranging  twelve  force  pumps  about  a  central  air  chamber.  Each 
of  these  pumps  could  be  worked  separately,  and  only  one  man  was 
required  for  each  pump,  so  that  the  engine  could  be  operated 
without  waiting  for  the  entire  complement  of  men  to  arrive.  It  is 
said  to  have  surpassed  any  other  engine  of  the  time  in  its  capacity 
for  throwing  water,  even  when  working  with  a  smaller  number  of 
men. 

During  the  early  half  of  this  century,  and  before  the  successful 
application  of  steam  to  fire  engines,  as  still  in  many  of  the  small 
towns,  the  engines  in  use  consisted  of  two  vertical  double-acting 
force  pumps,  or  sometimes  four  single-acting  pumps,  wdtli  an  air 
chamber.  These  pumps  are  worked  by  brakes,  consisting  of  a 
long  handle,  worked  parallel  with  the  engine,  and  enabling  many 
men  to  work  them  together,  and  these  engines  arc  provided  with 
separate  hose  carrriages,  upon  which  a  longer  or  shorter  length 
of  hose  is  carried,  rolled  upon  a  reel  ;  and  with  them  are  also  pro¬ 
vided  long  ladders,  and  hooks  placed  upon  long  poles,  which  are 
carried  upon  separate  carriages,  and  are  used  for  pulling  down  the 
damaged  walls  of  a  fmilding,  or  for  other  purposes. 

In  the  United  States  these  engines  are  worked  generally  by 
volunteer  companies,  who  are  usually  made  exempt  from  military 


FIRE-ENGINE  ON  DUTY, 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


269 


duty,  and  are,  however,  more  or  less  dependent  upon  the  state, 
and  subject"  to  the  control  of  state  officers.  The  friendly  emulation 
encouraged  between  these  companies  has  led  to  their  taking-  great 
pride,  in  the  excellence  of  their  engines,  and  these  are  frequently 
admirable  specimens  of  mechanical  workmanship,  and  beautifully 
ornamented. 

In  Paris  the  service  at  fires  is  performed  by  a  regularly  con¬ 
stituted  body  of  men,  under  the  control  of  the  government.  They 
are  uniformed,  are  provided  with  various  apparatus  for  saving  the 
lives  of  persons  in  danger  from  a  conflagration,  and  are  trained 
systematically  in  all  kinds  of  gymnastics,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
afford  assistance  in  cases  of  difficulty.  Members  of  this  force  are 
detailed  at  each  of  the  theatres,  and  other  places  of  public  meet¬ 
ings,  in  order  to  be  on  hand  in  case  of  an  emergency. 

In  London  the  fire  service  is  in  the  pay  of  the  insurance  com¬ 
panies,  and  is  regularly  organized,  provided  with  apparatus,  and 
is  very  efficient.  At  first  the  suggestion  to  introduce  steam  fire 
engines  to  replace  those  worked  by  hand  met  with  great  opposi¬ 
tion  from  the-  organized  volunteer  fire  companies  of  this  country, 
but  the  indisputable  benefits  of  their  introduction  render  it  cer¬ 
tain  that,  in  time,  wherever  they  can  be  used,  they  will  replace 
the  old  method  of  hand  engines. 

The  first  attempt  to  produce  a  fire  engine  which  should  work 
by  steam  was  made  by  Mr.  Braithwaite,  of  London,  England,  in 
1830.  Ilis  first  engine  weighed  a  little  over  five  thousand  pounds, 
and  had  not  quite  six  horse  power.  The  boiler  was  upright,  and 
generated  steam  in  twenty  minutes.  It  could  throw  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  gallons  a  minute  from  eighty  to  ninety  feet  high. 
In  1832  Mr.  Braithwaite  built  a  second  engine,  constructed  upon 
the  same  general  principles,  for  the  King  of  Prussia. 

The  great  fire  of  1835,  in  New  York  city,  excited  attention  to 
the  inadequacy  of  the  means  then  in  use  to  control  a  conflagration, 
and  premiums  were  offered  for  plans  of  steam  fire  engines,  and 
in  1841  a  number  of  insurance  companies  associated  themselves 
together,  and  contracted  with  Mr.  Ilodges  for  the  construction  of 
such  an  engine.  This*  engine,  when  finished,  performed  excellent 
service  at  fires  upon  several  occasions,  but  was  found  too  heavy, 
and  it  was  therefore  sold. 

The  merit  of  having  first  successfully  introduced  the  use  of  the 
steam  fire  engine,  and  having  organized  the  fire  department  upon 
that  basis,  in  a  way  which  has  secured  an  efficiency  never  before 


270 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


attained,  belongs  to  the  city  of  Cincinnati.  The  first  steam  fire 
engine  used  there  was  designed  and  constructed  by  Mr.  A.  B. 
Latta,  in  the  early  part  of  1853.  This  was  a  very  powerful  engine, 
weighing  about  twelve  tons ;  and  though  its  own  steam  was  ap¬ 
plied  to  its  wheels  as  a  propelling  force,  yet  it  required  four 
horses  to  drag  it.  The  next  year  he  built  two  others  of  the  same 
kind,  but  the  machines  now  in  use  do  not  depend  upon  the  steam 
as  an  aid  to  their  propulsion,  while  the  weight  of  many,  in¬ 
cluding  the  water  in  their  boilers,  has  been  reduced  to  less  than 
five  tons,  so  that  they  are  easily  hauled  by  two  horses. 

In  1859  a  steam  fire  engine  was  built  in  New  York,  to  be  drawn 
by  hand.  Its  weight  was  but  little  over  five  thousand  pounds,  and 
yet  it  discharged  nearly  five  hundred  gallons  a  minute,  throwing 
a  stream  measuring  one  and  one-eighth  inches  to  a  height  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  feet.  The  use  of  steam  fire  engines,  being 
thus  successfully  inaugurated,  has  extended  in  every  direction,  and 
the  ingenuity  of  inventors  has  been  chiefly  turned  towards  improv¬ 
ing  the  appliances  used  in  connection  with  them,  so  that  the  effi¬ 
ciency  of  our  apparatus  for  controlling  fires  shall  be  increased,  and 
a  greater  economy  of  labor  be  secured,  with  the  same  or  less  ex¬ 
penditure  of  force. 

The  materials  now  at  hand  for  forming  the  stock  of  a  well  or¬ 
ganized  and  provided  fire  department  compare  with  those  in  use 
in  the  days  of  **  hand  syringes,”  very  much  as  the  modern  steam 
ship  compares  with  the  canoe  with  which  the  aboriginal  savage 
navigated  our  streams,  or  as  the  locomotive  with  its  train  of  palace 
cars  compares  with  the  journeys  on  foot  made  by  the  same  people. 

A  visit  to  the  establishment  of  Albert  F.  Allen,  of  Providence, 
would  furnish  the  reader  with  the  best  data  for  making  such  a 
comparison.  Here  a  fire  department  can  find  everything  needed 
for  their  purposes,  from  a  6team  fire  engine.  down  to  a  hose 
wrench.  Mr.  Allen  has  himself  done  much  to  improve  the  appli¬ 
ances  in  use  by  the  fire  department,  and  having  practical  experi¬ 
ence  of  what  was  needed  to  perfect  the  arrangements  for  subduing 
a  conflagration,  he  has  turned  his  inventive  abilities  towards 
supplying  them,  and  has  succeeded,  though  still  a  young  man,  in 
establishing  for  himself  a  reputation  as  the  leading  inventor  of  the 
country  in  this  department,  and  for  his  house  as  the  representa¬ 
tive  house  in  the  United  States  for  its  special  branch  of  business. 

In  1867  he  patented  an  lt  escape  valve  coupling,”  which 
operated  with  a  hand  wrench,  and  was  the  first  step  in  the  much 


WAFEROOMS  OF  ALBERT  F.  ALLEN,  PROVIDENCE, 


' 


Mi*  -r-.'h  vn?  ■  -u  • 

f 

•m  U  :  i  -  *'  »j  o'H^yis'  ix*  w'H  -  .^nMui  u  •*;«  * 

■ 

■ 

' 

u  1  9 

*•  ^  /h  l'  ^  J 

* 

'  ’ 

1  •“ 

i  VJ*Wm  i  to  y  tin^Y-  o 

«..  ;  ■-:  ;•>-...  yr  ••  '/■  •  v  fi'oifrjnab  »  '  '•  g  if 

,  A  " 

■ « •«(•  W&gnH 

■ 

* 


.  \\  \  'j  * 


fi^xtoa  rwtfAvr  k  ,0*fi/9  4i  i’>  ! 


i,  Kite-v 


ij  t«  OiiiHr  ,tn&*<u  \o 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


273 


needed  direction  towards  giving  the  hosemen  control  over  the  de¬ 
livery  of  water  from  the  pipe,  preventing  thus  the  unnecessary 
flooding  of  water,  and  also  diminishing  the  unnecessary  strain 
upon  the  hose.  Ilis  next  invention  was  a  “  signal  hose  wrench,” 
which  was  a  necessity  for  operating  the  escape-valve  coupling 
quickly  enough  to  establish  a  signal ;  the  signal  hose  wrench 
turning  either  way,  and  not  requiring  to  be  changed,  like  the  old 
form  of  wrench.  In  1869,  he  patented  an  improved  screw  coup¬ 
ling,  and  an  improved  spray  nozzle.  The  wide  acceptance  these 
have  met  with  show  at  once  the  need  there  was  for  such  improve¬ 
ments,  and  how  these  supplied  it. 

The  improved  screw  coupling  is  an  ingenious,  though  simple 
invention,  which  may  be  described  as  consisting  of  a  male  and 
female  “  butt,”  the  former  of  which  is  constituted  of  a  band  and 
a  “  tail-piece,”  the  latter  of  a  band,  tail-piece,  and  swivel ;  the 
bands  being  made  each  with  an  inside  shoulder,  on  which  fine 
threads  are  cut.  The  screw  ends  of  these  butts,  to  which  threaded 
shanks  to  match  are  attached,  are  firmly  screwed  together,  form¬ 
ing  a  perfectly  tight  joint,  through  which  it  is  impossible  for  a 
particle  of  leakage  to  occur,  and  effectually  capping  the  ends  of 
the  hose,  preventing  all  moisture  from  entering  either  from  the 
outside  or  inside  at  the  end  of  the  hose,  between  the  lining  and 
covering  of  a  rubber  hose,  for  example,  when  used,  thus  prevent¬ 
ing  the  destruction  of  the  same  by  mildew  and  rot.  The  coup¬ 
ling  is  also  provided  with  &  very  essential  guide,  or  “  blank,” 
which  protects  the  end  of  the  thread  when  dragged  over  pave¬ 
ments,  etc.,  and  which,  when  placed  in  the  swivelled  female 
coupling,  acts  as  a  guide,  preventing  the  crossing  of  the  threads, 
and  enabling  the  butts  to  be  coupled  instantly,  as  well  in  the 
dark  as  in  the  light.  The  screw  coupling  is  the  only  reliable  one, 
the  fancy-clutch  coupliug  and  like  devices  being  now  entirely  dis¬ 
carded  in  experienced  fire  departments.  The  improved  screw  and 
ring  coupling  of  Mr.  Allen  is  the  only  one  which  has  never  been 
“  blown  off,”  or  detached  from  the  hose  under  pressure. 

The  “  spray  nozzle  ”  is  a  most  admirable  contrivance,  by  which 
the  pipeman  is  protected  from  the  heat  of  a  raging  fire,  so  that  he 
can  approach  close  up  to  it,  and  direct  the  stream  of  water  where 
it  will  prove  most  effective.  The  spray  from  this  nozzle,  rising  in 
the  shape  of  a  cone,  places  a  watery  screen  between  the  pipeman 
and  the  heat  of  the  fire,  while  at  the  same  time  driving  back  the 
smoke,  and  securing  him  a  supply  of  fresh  air.  Nor  does  its  use 

\ 


274 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


injure  the  power  of  the  stream  of  water  from  the  pipe,  nor  affect 
its  volume.  Thus  the  fireman  is  more  effectually  protected  in  his 
dangerous  work,  in  a  purely  scientific  way,  than  if  he  were  clothed 
in  a  suit  of  asbestos,  since  at  the  same  time  his  sight  and  his 
breathing  are  in  no  way  obstructed. 


Mr.  Allen’s  next  important  invention  was  the  hose  and  ladder 
strap,  which  supplied  a  great  and  long  felt  need,  saving  an  im¬ 
mense  amount  of  hard  labor  to  firemen,  and  frequently  their  health 
and  lives.  This  device  is  now  in  general  use  throughout  the 
country. 

Mr.  Allen  has  also  invented  an  improved  suction  hose,  which 
combines  lightness  with  the  requisite  strength.  Perhaps,  how¬ 
ever,  the  most  important  of  his  inventions,  since  it  inaugurates 
almost  a  new  method  of  treatment  for  the  work  of  overcoming 
fires,  is  his  “Automatic  Relief  Valve,”  which  was  patented  in 
April,  1871.  It  is  evident  from  the  advantages  this  new  arrange¬ 
ment  gives  of  prompt  and  reliable  intercommunication  between 
the  pipeman  and  the  engineer,  no  matter  how  long  nor  how  de¬ 
vious  may  be  the  length  of  the  hose  which  separates  them,  that 
it  wants  only  to  become  known  to  be  brought  immediately  into 
general  use.  \  -  r  *va-  :  % 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


275 


Tlie  object  of  this  automatic  relief  valve  is  first' to  place  the 
control  of  the  supply  of  water  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the 
pipeman.  lie  is  stationed  at  the  point  where  he  can  see  how 
much  water  is  required,  or  whether  the  supply  is  too  great,  and 
by  a  simple  motion  of  the  hand  he  notifies  the  engineer  whether  to 
increase  or  diminish  the  supply  of  water,  or  the  force  of  the  stream. 
This  method  of  telegraphing  by  the  stream  of  water  was  first  sug¬ 
gested  to  Mr.  Allen’s  mind  when  he  invented  his  escape  valve 
coupling.  By  this  invention  the  hoseman  luiving  the  power  to 
instantly  lessen  or  increase  the  size  of  the  stream,  by  opening 
and  closing  the  coupling,  he  found  that  such  increase  or  diminu¬ 
tion  affected  in  a  few  seconds  the  fkrtherl  end  of  the  stream. 
With  the  invention  of  the  automatic  relief  valve,  this  system  of 
telegraphing  has  been  perfected.  The  pipeman  by  a  motion  of 
his  hand  can  instantly  stop  fthe  stream  of  water,  and  as  instantly 
commence  it  again,  and  with  the  stoppage  of  the  water,  the 
automatic  relief  valve,  which  has  been  kept  closed  by  the  velocity 
of  the  stream  upon  a  hydraulic  lever,  is  instantly  opened  by  the 

jaBf'  \ 

pressure  of  the  water  upon  the  relief  valve';  and  the  supply  of 
water  is  directed  from  the  relief  valve  to  tlie  suction  pipe,  and 
thus  circulates  without  entering  the  hose,  until  the  pipeman,  open¬ 
ing-  the  nozzle  again,  the  current  of  water  upon  the  hydraulic 
lever  closes  the  relief  valve  instantaneously,  and  the  water  again 
flows  through  the  hose  at  the  pipe. 

As  the  stream  is  cut  off,  and  the  valve  opened,  the  falling  of  the 
hydraulic  lever  moves  a  hammer  which  strikes  a  gong,  and  thus 
gives  notice  to  the  engineer.  By  a  simple  set  of  prearranged  sig¬ 
nals,  it  is  thus  easy  for  the  pipeman  to  communicate  with  the  en- 
gineer,  and  notify  him  either  to  increase  or  diminish  the  supply. 
At  the  same  time  also,  when  the  stream  is  cut  off  by  the  pipeman, 
the  action  of  the  automatic  valve  cuts  off  the  supply  to  the  hose, 
thus  stopping  the  strain  upon  it,  without  stopping  the  action  of 
the  engine:  The  importance  of  this  invention,  which  thus  intro¬ 
duces  a  unity  of  action  between  the  two’  ends  of  the  line  of  hose, 


practically,  enabling  the  pijpeman  and  the  engiueer;to  converse  with 
each  other,’ however  far  they  may  be  separated,  will  be  evident  at 
a  glance  to  any  one  practically  acquainted  with  the  working  of 
fire  engines,  while  its  value  will  be  equally  evident  to  those  who 
have  suffered  at  fires  by  the  destruction  of  goods  flooded  with 
water,1  on  accpunt  of  the.  delay  which  heretofore  existed  in  the 
communication  between  the  pipeman  and  the  engineer. 


h 


276 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  SUPPLIES. 


The  fire  department,  thus  armed  with  such  scientific  appliances 
as  the  spray  nozzle  and  the  automatic  relief  valve,  can  approach 
the  seat  of  the  fiercest  conflagration,  and  without  any  waste  of 
water,  apply  the  deluge  furnished  by  the  steam  engines,  in  the 
most  economic  and  efficacious  manner. 

Through  the  whole  range  of  modern  invention,  by  which  man¬ 
kind  to-day  apply  their  scientific  knowledge  of  the  properties  of 


AUTOMATIC  RELIEF  VALVE. 


matter  to  furthering  their  needs  for  comfort  and  protection,  there 
is  no  more  striking  and  pleasing  example  than  this,  by  which  the 
dominion  of  human  energy  over  the  raging  destruction  of  fire 
appears  to  be  almost  entirely  secured  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
extend  the  knowledge  of  such  valuable  inventions  among  those 
who  are  to  be  so  benefited  by  their  introduction  into  practical 
use. 


BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OP  THE  BRUSH.  —  ITS  USE  IN  DAILY  LIFE.  —  DERIVATION 
OF  THE  WORD.  —  SUPPLY  AND  DEMAND.  —  BRUSHES  IN  ANTIQUITY.  —  IN 
THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  —  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  BRISTLES.  —  THEIR  SUPPLY.  — 
OTHER  MATERIALS.  —  PREPARATORY  PROCESSES.  —  MANUFACTURE  OF 
BRUSHES.  —  THE  LEADING  MANUFACTORY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE 
VARIETY  OF  ITS  WARES.  —  THE  HISTORY  OF  ITS  FOUNDATION.  —  CHARAC¬ 
TERISTIC  ANECDOTE.  —  EARLY  IMPORTATION  OF  FINE  BRUSHES.  —  INTRO¬ 
DUCTION  OF  WORKMEN. —  THE  PRINCIPLES  UPON  WHICH  THE  MANUFACTORY 
IS  ORGANIZED.  —  ITS  SUCCESSFUL  RESULT.  1 

% 

The  brush,  as  a  utensil  in  modern  industry,  and  as  also  an 
appliance  of  daily  life,  holds  a  much  more  important  position  than 
is  usually  supposed.  The  cleanliness  and  propriety  of  modern 
civilization  can  almost  be  said  to  be  based  on  the  brush.  In  the 
care  of  our  persons,  our  clothes,  our  houses,  our  furniture,  our 
streets,  our  carriages,  our  public  conveyances,  our  live  stock,  we 
have  a  constant  need  of  brushes  ;  and  for  these  various  purposes 
they  are  prepared  in  as  various  forms,  and  from  as  various  ma¬ 
terials. 

We  rise  in  the  morning,  and,  —  prepared  to  meet  our  fellows 
by  the  use  of  the  flesh  brush,  the  hair  brush,  the  nail  brush,  the 
*  tooth  brush, — we  robe  ourselves  in  well-brushed  clothes,  put  on 
our  brushed  shoes,  and  descend  over  brushed  stairways  to  break¬ 
fast  in  a  room  that  has  been  well  brushed  and  swept.  In  the 
preparation  of  the  painted  china  upon  which  we  eat,  a  brush  has 
played  a  necessary  part ;  the  burnished  urn  is  an  evidence  of  its 
use ;  and  when  the  meal  is  eaten,  a  brush  removes  the  fragments 
that  remain.  Thence,  through  streets  which  have  been  cleaned 
with  brushes,  we  go  to  offices  kept  clean  by  the  use  of  similar 
appliances ;  and  thus  we  pass  down  the  well-brushed  pathway  of 

(277) 


278 


BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


life,  to  take  final  refuge  in  a  coffin  which  has  been  Tarnished  by  a 
brush. 

Our  brushes  are  often  made  of  bristles,  but  bristle  and  brush 
are  both  derived  from  the  same  root ;  and  the  fox’s  brush,  the 
bristling  bayonets  of  an  army,  the  fear  of  an  approaching  brush 
which  leads  us  to  brush  up  our  wits,  and*  devise  some  method  of 
escaping  it,  all  show  how  the  use  of  language  changes,  and 
words,  by  the  effect  of  imagination  or  comparison,  come  to  be 
used  in  metaphorical  and  fanciful  senses. . 

The  use  of  brushes  has  greatly  increased  in  modern  times  ;  and 
it  is  a  singular  fact  in  this  branch  of  manufacture,  that,  while  the 
demand  for  brushes  seems  to  be  capable  of  indefinite  extension, 
the  supply  of  the  bristles,  the  chief  material  of  which  they  are 
made,  does  not  appear  to  be  capable  of  anything  like  a  propor¬ 
tionate  increase.  This  difficulty  in  the  practical  working  of  the 
theory  of  supply  and  demand  is  met  by  an  increase  in  the  price 
of  brushes,  by  which  the  consumption  is  checked,  and  by  con- 
sfantly  impressing  into  the  service  new  materials  for  their  manu¬ 
facture. 

Among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  brushes,  as  we  have  them  now, 
were  unknown,  and  for  the  purposes  to  which  we  apply  them 
they  used  various  substitutes.  Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
the  comb  was  used  for  dressing  the  hair,  and  they  probably  had 
some  appliance  to  partially  take  the  place  of  the  brush.  The 
Roman  ladies  were  very  particular  in  their  head-dresses — plaiting, 
crimping  and  frizzling  their  hair,  and  supplementing  its  limited 
supply  with  even  a  greater  variety  of  materials  than  our  ladies 
now  use.  So  desirous,  also,  were  the  fashionable  ladies  of  that 
time  to  have  their  hair  dressed  always  in  the  latest  style,  that 
their  portrait  busts  were  so  arranged  that  the  portion  represent¬ 
ing  the  head-dress  could  be  removed,  and  replaced  with  a  portion 
made  to  fit  and  representing  the  latest  style  of  hair-dressing  as 
the  faslnons  changed. 

For  the  flesh-brush  which  wc  use,  the  Romans  had  a  metallic 
scraper,  called  a  strigil,  which  was  curved,  and  numerous  speci¬ 
mens  of  which  have  been  preserved,  and  are  now  to  be  seen  in 
our  museums. 

,  ji  -♦  *4  .  *  •  •  4  iM  •>•<**  4  '  .  *  #*  *  *  •  _«  • 

In  the  middle  ages  the  comb  was  also  the  chief  implement  used 
in  the  toilet  of  the  hair,  and  it  was  made  of  fine  materials, 

'  <•  •  •  i  *  •  1 1  ♦«  *  4  * .  >  •  -  •  U  *  *♦*  •  ’  J  .4*..**  ^  ^ 

such  as  iv-pry,  often  of  the  precious  metals,  and  was  handsomely 
carved  and  decorated. 


BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


279 


In  modern  times,  however,  brushes  are  made  of  a  great  variety 
of  materials,  according  to. the  purpose  for  which  they  are  to  be 
used,  and  varying  in  their  stiffness.  Brushes  for  scrubbing  the 
surfaces  of  metals  are  made  of  wire.  Brushes  of  twigs,  rattan, 
whalebone,  and  wood  are  used  for  coarse  work,  and  so  on  up  to 
those  made  of  the  finest  and  most  carefully  selected  hair,  for 
artists’  usq,  and  of  choice  feathers  for  dusting. 

Most  probably  many  of  these  materials  were  used  in  all  times 
for  similar  purposes  ;  but  the  use  of  bristles  belongs  to  quite  a 
modern  date  in  history. 

The  bristles  used  in  brushes  are  chiefly  those  obtained  from  the 
hog ;  and  of  these  the  best  are  obtained  from  the  wild  hogs  in 
the  north  of  Europe,  the  largest  proportion  coming  from  Russia, 
this  country  contributing  nearly  five-sixths  of  the  entire  supply. 

i 

The  demand  in  this  country  has  more  than  doubled  in  the  past 
three  years.  Besides  bristles,  the  hair  of  the  badger,  the  squir¬ 
rel,  the  sable,  the  bear,  the  horse,  and  other  animals,  is  used  for 
making  brushes.  For  artists’  pencils  the  hair  of  the  ichneumon  is 
used,  while  a  portion  of  the  supply  is  furnished  from  the  hair  cut 
from  the  ears  of  cows.  In  fact,  it  would  appear  that  the  hair 
from  any  animal  whose  skin  produces  straight  hair  may  yet  be 
used  for  this  purpose.  The  supply  may  be  so  much  increased, 
without  any  fear  of  outstripping  the  demand,  that  invention  and 
experiment  are  busy  at  work  devising  new  methods  of  treating 
the  hair,  so  as  to  overcome  the  technical  difficulties  which  have 
heretofore  stood  in  the  way  of  its  use  for  this  purpose. 

The  cheaper  materials  for  brushes,  which  do  not  require  much 
elasticity,  and  which  are  used  for  the  coarser  work,  such  as  rat¬ 
tan,  whalebone,  or  shavings  of  wood,  form  but  a  small  part  in 
the  general  trade  of  the  country. 

For  the  finer  brushes,  however,  the  first  thing  necessary  is  to 
secure  the  animal  which  is  to  furnish  the  material.  This  industry 
of  itself  furnishes  occupation  to  innumerable  hunters,  scattered 
all  over  the  surface  of  the  globe.  The  animal  being  caught,  and 
his  hair,  or  bristles,  as  the  case  may  be,  being  shaved  off,  only 
the  preliminary  step  has  been  taken  in  preparing  the  material 
obtained  for  being  converted  into  brushes. 

As  the  bristles  are  received  by  the  manufacturer,  though  they 
may  appear  to  have  been  carefully  washed  and  cleaned,  yet  they 
have  to  go  through  an  elaborate  cleansing  process  before  they 
are  really  fitted  for  his  purpose.  The  necessity  for  doing  this 
16 


280 


BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


thoroughly  makes  the  item  of  soap  a  by  no  means  inconsiderable 
one  in  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  production  of  brushes. 

Then,  or  before  being  washed,  the  bristles  are  sorted  according 
to  their  color,  unless  they  are  obtained  by  the  manufacturer  in 
this  condition.  The  classification  thus  made  is  into  white,  black, 
gray,  yellow,  and  lilies,  or  pure  white.  The  white  are  then 
bleached  with  sulphur,  or  by  other  chemical  agents,  and  the 
bristles  are  again  sorted,  according  to  their  length  and  their 
quality. 

The  process  for  doing  this  is  simpler  than  it  would  seem.  A 
bunch  of  them  is  taken  in  the  hand  and  passed  through  a  species 
of  comb,  which  catches  and  removes  the  coarser  bristles.  By 
repeating  this  process,  using  each  time  a  finer  comb,  the  bristles 
are  assorted  into  heaps  of  as  many  different  sizes  as  desired. 
Care  must  be  exercised,  during  this  process,  to  keep  them  always 
arranged  in  a  uniform  way,  all  of  the  large  ends  or  the  small  ends 
pointing  the  same  way.  This  process  of  combing,  which  is  tech¬ 
nically  called  dragging,  is  done  upon  benches,  upon  which  the 
combs  are  fixed. 

When  the  bristles  are  thus  assorted  they  are  then  ready  for  the 
brush-makers.  In  the  process  of  brush-making  each  operator 
makes  his  certain  special  variety  of  brush.  There  is  no  division 
of  labor,  but  the  entire  process  is  done  by  a  single  hand,  except 
in  the  cases  where,  as  with  hair  brushes  and  some  other  kinds, 
the  brushes  have  to  pass  afterwards  into  the  hands  of  a  cabinet¬ 
maker  to  be  finished  for  market,  by  having  backs  glued  on  them. 

The  packing,  papering,  labelling,  and  other  processes  of  pre¬ 
paring  them  for  shipment,  are  generally  done  by  boys  or  girls.  In 
arranging  the  fibres  for  paint  brushes  of  all  kinds,  the  chief 
object  is  to  so  place  them  that  their  ends  shall  come  to  a  central 
point ;  and  in  the  finer  kinds  of  brushes,  especially  those  to  be 
used  by  artists,  skill  in  manipulation  is  required  to  do  this  suc¬ 
cessfully. 

In  making  other  kinds  of  brushes,  in  which  the  bristles  are  set 
into  holes  bored  into  backs  of  any  various  material,  the  bunches 
of  bristles  are  dipped  into  hot  pitch  or  glue,  then  tied,  dipped 
again,  and  quickly  inserted  in  the  holes  prepared,  where  a  twist¬ 
ing  motion  is  given  them,  and  the  hardening  of  the  pitch  secures 
them. 

A  stiffer  brush  is  made  by  doubling  the  bristles,  so  that  it 
makes  a  loop,  with  the  two  points  projecting. 


SHUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


281 


In  other  brashes  the  bristles  are  fastened  with  wire.  The 
backs  having  been  prepared,  with  holes  bored  in  them,  a  bit  of 
wire  bent  into  a  loop  is  passed  through  the  hole,  and  a  number 
of  the  looped  bristles  being  placed  in  it,  the  wire  is  drawn  back, 
bringing  the  bristles  into  the  hole.  The  process  is  repeated  until 
all  the  holes  are  filled,  when  the  wire  is  secured. 

For  the  best  tooth-brushes  a  silver  wire  is  used. 

This  process  is  called  drawing  the  bristles ,  and  an  expert  hand 
can  fill  five  hundred  holes  an  hour,  though  one  hundred  is  nearer 
the  general  average.  Where  the  brush  is  to  be  used  for  acids,  or 
other  substances  which  would  tend  to  corrode  the  wire,  a  string 
is  used  in  its  place.  Another  method  of  drawing  the  bristles  is 
to  have  the  back  prepared  with  the  holes  bored  not  quite  through 
it,  and  crossed  by  other  holes  bored  transversely  through  the 
sides ;  the  bristles,  being  then  inserted  into  the  holes,  are  secured 
by  wires  thrust  through  the  transverse  holes.  These  holes  are 
then  stopped  up  by  plugs  of  the  same  material  as  the  backs,  so 
that  frequently  they  cannot  be  seen,  and  the  brush  appears  to  be 
made  of  a  single  solid  piece. 

The  delicate  brushes  for  artists  are  made  by  taking  the  delicate 
hairs  from  the  furs  of  animals,  which  are  sufficiently  soft,  and 
arranging  them  into  a  bundle  of  the  proper  shape  ;  they  are  then! 
fastened  and  run  through  the  larger  end  of  a  quill  until  they  pro-- 
ject  sufficiently  beyond  the  other  end.  The  quill  having  been- 
soaked  beforehand,  in  order  to  enlarge  it,  shrinks  sufficiently  on 
drying  to  hold  the  brush  securely.  Brushes  of  this  kind  are  also 
often  made  by  being  mounted  in  metallic  caps. 

Round  brushes,  for  washing  bottles  and  other  cylindrical1  ves¬ 
sels,  are  made  by  fastening  the  bristles,  which,  project  upon 
both  sides,  between  two  wires,  which  are  then  firmly  twisted 
together. 

The  chief  manufactory  of  brushes  in  the  United  States,  and, 
most  probably,  the  largest  single  establishment  of  the  kind  in  the 
world,  is  that  of  E.  Clinton  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia.  In  this 
establishment  brushes  of  every  sort  and  kind  are  made.  The  fol¬ 
lowing  items  from  Messrs.  Clinton  &  Go. ’s  price  list  will  show 
the  variety  of  the  wares  they  produce-:  ■  Ground  paint  brushes  of 
all  kinds,  wire-bound  varnish  brushes,  sash  brushes,  plasterers’ 
brushes,  nail  brushes,  painters’  dust  brushes,  kalsomine  brushes, . 
hand  scrubs,  shoe  brushes,  sweeping  brushes,  counter  dusters, 
double  dusters,  window  brushes,  shaving  brushes,  crumb  brushes, 


282 


BRUSHES  AND  TIIEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


stencil  brushes,  flesh  brushes,  hair  brushes,  cloth  brushes,  hat 
brushes,  hearth  brushes,  horse  brushes,  tanners’  scouring  brushes, 
jewellers’  brushes,  tooth  and  nail  brushes,  artists’  badger  blend¬ 
ers,  flat  and  round  lackering  brushes,  bear’s  hair  mottlers  or 
spelters,  red  and  black  sable  brushes  for  artists,  marking  brushes, 
varnish  brushes,  dusters  for  gilders,  camel’s  hair  tips,  graining 
brushes,  bristle  poonah  brushes,  fresco  brushes,  feather  dusters, 
carriage  dusters,  picture  dusters,  &c.,  &c. 

The  founder  of  this  well-organized  and  successful  manufactory, 
which  is  the  only  one  in  the  United  States  doing  a  general  busi¬ 
ness,  and  at  the  same  time  making  a  specialty  of  artists’  brushes, 
is  Mr.  E.  Clinton.  He  was  born  on  his  father’s  farm,  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts,  and,  having  migrated  to  Philadelphia  in  1838,  com¬ 
menced  working  at  the  brush-making  business,  at  wages  of  a 
dollar  a  week.  Having  become  interested  in  his  business,  he 
resolved  upon  commencing  the  manufacture  of  brushes  for  him¬ 
self,  despite  the  obstacle  of  want  of  capital  which  then  stood  in 
his  way. 

His  chief  dependence  for  success  was  in  his  resolve  to  introduce 
new  styles  of  brushes.  Having  succeeded  in  making  a  few  brushes 
of  new  designs,  he  managed  to  sell  them  to  the  dealors.  As  an  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  spirit  and  the  motives  with  which  he  entered  upon 
his  career,  and  the  firm  maintenance  of  which  has  led  to  his  suc¬ 
cess,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  some  of  the  brushes  he  thus  com¬ 
menced  with  are  in  use  still.  They  were  made  so  excellently 
that  thirty  years  of  service  has  not  destroyed  their  value  ;  and, 
in  fact,  it  would  seem  that  they  could  never  be  worn  out,  with 
proper  usage. 

At  this  time  the  brushes  made  in  America  were  poor  in  quality, 
as  well  as  in  grade  ;  and  it  was  this  condition  of  things  which 
Mr.  Clinton  sought  to  revolutionize.  Fine  brushes  at  that  time 
were  all  imported,  and  the  supply  was  small.  Dealers  maintained 
that  there  was  no  demand  for  fine  brushes  ;  and  it  was  this  mis¬ 
taken  opinion  which,  Mr.  Clinton  found,  presented  one  of  the  chief 
obstacles  to  the  increase  of  his  business.  By  steadily  persisting, 
he,  however,  was  enabled  to  dispose  of  some  fine  brushes  ;  and, 
by  economy  and  hard  work,  he  succeeded  finally  in  saving  some 
two  or  three  hundred  dollars,  with  which,  as  a  capital,  he  com¬ 
menced  a  regular  business  in  Second  Street,  Philadelphia. 

Ilis  first  step  was  to  secure  some  one  to  assist  him  ;  and,  with 
the  good  fortune  which  is  so  frequently  ascribed  to  chance,  but 


BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


283 


which  results  always  from  the  exercise  of  good  judgment,  he 
obtained  the  help  of  a  good  natural  mechanic  who  has  continued 
with  him  until  this  day. 

Having  met  with  the  success  which  attends  indomitable  busi¬ 
ness  energy,  when  united  with  conscientious  pride  in  maintaining 
the  excellency  of  the  work  produced,  Mr.  Clinton  felt  finally 
able  to  treat  his  family  to  the  luxury  of  a  piano.  As  it  was 
being  brought  into  his  store,  on  Chestnut  Street,  he  overheard 
one  of  his  workmen  saying,  "  There  goes  the  sweat  of  our  brows. ” 
**  No,  George,”  he  replied  ;  “  yours  goes  down  your  throat ;  this 
is  what  represents  mine.” 

Such  a  candid  statement  of  the  truth,  unaccompanied  with  any 
of  the  pretentious  dignity  which,  founded  simply  upon  pride  of 
purse,  fails  to  recognize  the  humanity  of  all  those  connected  with 
us,  regardless  of  their  different  social  conditions,  had  its  natural 
effect.  The  next  day  "George”  took  occasion  to  remark  to 
Mr.  Clinton  that  he  was  right ;  and  from  that  day  having  resolved 
upon  following  a  different  course  himself,  he  has  now  in  his  pos¬ 
session  a  comfortable  property  which  he  has  saved  instead  of 
squandering. 

The  course  of  thought  and  action  indicated  by  this  anecdote 
Mr.  Clinton  has  constantly  followed  in  his  relations  with  those  in 
his  employ.  Recognizing  the  rights  of  labor,  he  applauds  instead 
of  condemning  its  endeavors  to  improve  its  condition  ;  and,  feel¬ 
ing  that  the  interests  of  employers  and  employed  are  the  same, 
instead  of  being  antagonistic,  he  takes  an  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  his  workmen,  and  has  so  organized  the  work  in  his  manufac¬ 
tory,  that  each  workman  can  make  higher  wages  than  elsewhere. 
There  is  but  little  doubt  that  the  unity  of  purpose  thus  introduced 
into  all  the  operations  of  the  firm  has  been  in  a  great  measure  the 
chief  cause  of  the  successful  career  of  the  enterprise. 

The  supply  of  brushes  provided  by  the  government  for  its 
navy-yards,  its  forts,  workshops  and  offices,  is  chiefly  obtained 
from  Messrs.  Clinton  &  Co.;  and  this  test  of  their  excellence 
shows  how  highly  they  rank  in  the  market  of  the  world. 

In  the  commencement  of  his  industrial  career  Mr.  Clinton 
bought  imported  brushes,  of  certain  kinds,  at  the  rate  of  two  dol¬ 
lars  and  a  quarter  the  dozen ;  but  in  a  few  years,  by  the  organiza¬ 
tion  of  the  manufacture,  he  imported  the  material,  and  produced 
brushes  of  the  same  kind  which  he  sold  at  the  rate  of  nine  dol¬ 
lars  a  gross. 


284 


BRUSHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


At  first  it  was  necessary  to  import  the  workmen  who  were 
skilled  in  making  brushes  of  the  finest  kind;  but  now  that  the 
American  workmen  have  been  instructed  in  the  various  processes, 
they  have  acquired  a  skill  which  enables  them  to  make  better 
brushes  than  the  imported  ones. 

In  the  organization  of  this  industry  it  is  possible  to  employ 
only  such  workmen  as  can  be  relied  upon  implicitly  —  who  have 
an  industrial  conscience  and  a  pride  in  the  result  of  their  labor 
which  will  prevent  their  shirking  the  details,  or  doing  their  work 
in  a  slovenly  way. 

The  spirit  which  Mr.  Clinton  has  carried  into  the  whole  busi¬ 
ness  has  permeated  through  the  entire  establishment  and  influ¬ 
ences  every  one  engaged  in  it  ;  giving  them  the  collective 
conscience  which  makes  each  of  them  feel  that  the  reputation  of 
the  business  is,  in  ratio  to  the  part  he  performs,  dependent  upon 
himself.  Industry  thus  conceived  and  carried  on  resembles  more 
an  orchestra  than  the  usual  task-work  of  the  world.  As  in  an 
orchestra,  each  man  is  aware  that  his  part  is  important  in  the 
grand  result,  and  that  a  portion  of  the  credit  is  his  due  ;  and  in 
one  case  as  in  the  other,  the  result  is  harmony  instead  of 
discord. 

In  a  business  as  extensive  as  that  carried  on  by  Messrs.  Clin¬ 
ton  &  Co.  the  greatest  economy  can  be  realized  with  the  best 
excellence.  Engaged  as  they  are  in  making  brushes  of  every 
variety  and  every  grade,  the  material  can  all  be  employed  to  the 
very  best  advantage,  that  which  is  not  suited  for  one  branch 
being  consumed  in  another.  With  these  objects  in  view — excel¬ 
lence  and  cheapness  —  Messrs.  Clinton  &  Co.  will  in  the  future 
unquestionably  maintain  the  position  they  have  earned  as  the 
leading  house  in  the  country  in  the  important  industry  of  brush¬ 
making. 


CORDAGE. 


RUDE  ROPES  IN  ALL  AGES  AND  ALL  NATIONS.  —  INTRODUCTION  OF  ROPE¬ 
MAKING  IN  AMERICA.  —  CULTIVATION  OF  HEMP  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  WILD  HEMP 
IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  — INDIAN  NETS  AND  LINES. — CORDAGE  MADE  BY  THE 
COLONISTS.  — MANUFACTURES  IN  KENTUCKY.  — INTRODUCTION  OF  STEAM 

POWER.  - NEW  MACHINES.  - PRODUCTION  OF  EXTENSIVE  ESTABLISHMENTS. 

—  ROPE-MAKING  BY  HAND. - THE  MODERN  PROCESSES  DESCRIBED.  —  LARGE 

FACTORIES.  — -  COMPLICATED  MACHINERY.  —  SUPERIORITY  OF  AMERICAN 
CORDAGE.  —  AMERICAN  MACHINES  ABROAD.  —  WIRE  ROPE.  —  ADVANTAGES 
OVER  HEMPEN  ROPE.  —  ITS  USES. 

Cordage  is  the  general  term  for  all  kinds  of  hemp  rope,  from 
cables  twelve  inches  in  circumference,  and  weighing  more  than 
three  thousand  pounds  in  a  length  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
fathoms,  to  a  common  clothes  line,  and  is  especially  applied  to 
ship  rigging.  Rude  ropes  of  some  kind  —  made  from  bark,  wood 
fibres,  vines,  leathern  thongs,  willow,  flax,  and  other  materials  — 
have  been  known  in  all  ages,  and  among  all  peoples,  for  ropes  and 
cords  were  among  the  earliest  mechanical  necessities  of  man. 

The  history  of  the  introduction  and  progress  of  the  manufacture 
of  cordage  in  America  is  interesting.  It  was  one  of  the  first  in¬ 
dustries  that  engaged  the  attention  of  the  colonists.  Among  the 
occupatiows  laid  out  in  London,  in  1620,  for  the  Virginia  settlers, 
special  mention  is  made  of  the  manufacture  of  cordage  from  hemp, 
flax,  and  “  especially  silk  grass,”  which  was  superior  for  the  pur¬ 
pose,  and  was  so  esteemed  that  every  family  was  required  to  cul¬ 
tivate  it.  The  wild  hemp  of  New  England,  which  the  Indians 
used  in  making  their  nets  and  lines,  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
Puritan  settlers,  who  employed  it  for  the  same  purpose,  and  in 
1629  hemp  seed  for  cultivation  was  received  from  England.  It 
was  thirty  years  later,  however,  before  the  colonies  of  Massachu¬ 
setts  and  Connecticut  took  decided  steps  for  raising  hemp,  espe¬ 
cially  for  cordage  for  ship  rigging,  although  John  Harrison  had 

(285) 


286  *  CORDAGE. 

made  cordage  in  Boston  the  year  after  (1630)  hemp  was  intro¬ 
duced  ;  and  John  Iley man  was  “  authorized  ”  to  make  ropes  and 
lines  in  Charlestown  in  1662. 

The  business  spread  rapidly  through  the  colonies,  and  in  1698 
there  were  several  extensive  rope-walks  in  Philadelphia.  Provi¬ 
dence  and  Newport  were  early  engaged  in  cordage  manufacture, 
and  in  1730  had  several  manufactories.  In  1790  the  Maryland 
ship-yards,  at  Baltimore,  built  more  vessels  than  any  two  other 
states,  and  the  manufacture  of  cordage  was  in  proportion.  In 
1794  Virginia,  as  well  as  Maryland,  had  more  rope-walks  than  any 
two  of  the  northern  and  eastern  states.  A  spinning  and  twisting 
*  mill  for  making  cordage  was  patented  in  the  United  States  in  1804. 
In  1808  the  Massachusetts  manufacturers  of  twines  and  lines  peti¬ 
tioned  Congress  for  a  duty  on  the  imported  articles,  though  then, 
and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  much  of  the  hemp  and  flax  worked 
into  cordage  came  from  abroad. 

In  1810  the  domestic  manufacture  of  cordage  of  all  kinds  was 
claimed  to  be  equal  to  the  home  demand ;  and,  besides  the  manu¬ 
factories  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  Kentucky  at  that  time  had  no  less 
than  fifteen  rope-walks  —  at  Frankfort,  Shelbyville,  Louisville,  and 
Lexington.  In  1811,  though  the  country  was  still  importing  im¬ 
mense  quantities  of  hemp,  principally  from  Russia,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  advised  an  annual  appropriation  for  American  hemp 
for  the  use  of  the  navy.  In  1827  rope  factories  run  by  steam 
were  started  in  Wheeling,  Virginia,  and  at  Cincinnati,  Louisville, 
and  St.  Louis.  At  the  same  time  there  was  in  use  in  this  country  a 
machine  in  which  the  threads  on  revolving  spools  passed  through 
perforated  iron  plates,  and  then  through  an  iron  tube,  of  different 
diameters  for  various  sized  ropes.  In  1834  a  new  machine  was 
introduced  in  New  York  which  spun  rope-yarn  from  hemp  without 
the  preliminary  hatcheling,  and  saved  from  eight  to  tei?  per  cent, 
of  the  material.  And  so,  from  the  earliest  manufacture  of  cord¬ 
age  in  this  country,  rapid  progress  has  been  made,  —  from  hand¬ 
work  to  horse-power,  and  then  to  steam-power,  —  till  the  latest 
inventions  and  improvements  enable  large  ropes  to  be  made  as 
easily  as  twine,  and  a  single  establishment  in  three  days,  or  less, 
can  manufacture  a  complete  u  gang  ”  of  rigging  for  the  largest  ship. 

Rope-making  requires,  in  connection  with  the  main  building  or 
buildings  containing  the  material  and  machinery,  a  rope-walk  of 
twelve  or' thirteen  hundred  feet  in  length.  By  the  old  process  of 
rope-making  by  hand,  this  was  literally  a  “  walk,”  for  the  work- 


CORDAGE. 


287 


man  walked  from  one  end  to  the  other  and  back  again.  The 
method  was  as  follows  :  After  the  hemp  was  hackled  by  means  of 
a  steel  toothed  comb,  and  sometimes  a  series  of  combs,  to  straight¬ 
en  out  the  fibres,  the  spinner  wrapped  a  bundle  of  hemp  about  his 
body,  and.  drawing  out  the  fibres  in  front,  and  twisting  them  in 
his  hand,  which  held  a  woollen  cloth  to  compress  the  fibres  and 
keep  the  cord  of  uniform  size,  he  walked  along,  making  his  yarn 
as  he  went,  the  spinning  being  done  by  a  wheel  turned  by  an  as¬ 
sistant,  and  the  spinner  seeing  that  the  fibres  were  equally  supplied, 
and  joining  the  twisted  parts  at  the  ends.  Two-  or  more  spinners 
might  be  going  down  the  walk  at  the  same  time,  and  at  the  end 
two  spinners  joined  their  yarns  together,  each  then  beginning  a 
new  yarn,  and  returning  on  the  walk  to  the  end  where  the  second 
spinner  again  took  his  yarn  off  the  “  whirl  ”  and  joined  it  to  the 
end  of  the  first  spinner’s  yarn,  so  that  it  continued  it  on  the  reel. 
When  a  sufficient  number  of  yarns  were  spun,  they  were  wound 
from  one  reel  to  another,  passing  between  the  two  through  hot  tar, 
and  were  then  ready  to  be  twisted  into  ropes. 

This  was  the  process  of  rope-making  up  to  fifty  years  ago,  and 
horse-power  was  employed  to  twist  the  strands  into  ropes.  The 
first  machines  for  twisting  the  hand  spun  yarns  into  strands  and 
ropes  were  imported  from  England  ;  but,  in  1834,  American  inge¬ 
nuity  devised  a  machine  for  spinning  the  yarns,  and  numerous 
other  inventions,  greatly  facilitating  all  the  processes  which  are 
now  wholly  conducted  by  machinery,  soon  followed. 

The  modern  method  of  rope-making  by  the  latest  improved  pro¬ 
cesses  has  compelled  the  erection  of  large  factories,  in  which  the 
machinery  is  driven  by  steam  engines  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
horse  power,  while  in  some  establishments  as  many  as  three  hun¬ 
dred  hands,  many  of  them  women,  are  employed.  The  hemp  is 
hoisted  to  the  top  story,  where  it  is  oiled,  placed  in  layers,  and 
then  “  scutched  ”  by  a  machine  which  removes  the  tow.  From 
the  “  scutcher  ”  the  hemp  goes  to  another  cylindrical  machine 
called  the  “lapper,”  which  extends  the  fibres  and  lays  the  hemp 
in  a  long  bundle.  From  the  lapper  it  goes  to  the  “  drawing- 
frame,”  in  which,  by  a  series  of  rollers,  the  hemp  is  drawn  into  a 
“  sliver  ”  (of  the  size  for  the  particular  work  required),  which  goes 
with  other  slivers  to  a  second  drawing-frame,  and  from  thence  by 
a  conductor  to  the  floor  below  to  the  spinning-frames.  There  may 
be  a  hundred  or  more  of  these  frames  on  one  floor,  with  two  girls 
to  every  five  frames  to  see  that  the  sliver  is  regularly  supplied 


288 


CORDAGE. 


and  the  filled  bobbins  are  replaced.  By  this  machinery  each  full 
set,  consisting  of  one  scutcher,  one  lapper,  two  drawing-machines, 
five  spinning-frames,  attended  by  three  men  and  six  girls,  ought 
to  give  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  yarn  in  a  day’s  work, 
and  the  daily  product  of  a  factory  is  in  this  proportion,  according 
to  the  number  of  11  sets  ”  and  hands. 

The  next  process  (if  for  tarred  ropes)  is  to  pass  the  yarns 
through  a  trough  of  tar  at  the  temperature  of  boiling  water,  the 
yarns  passing  through  holes  in  a  plate,  thus  removing  the  super¬ 
fluous  tar.  The  yarns  are  then  twisted  by  machinery  into  strands, 
the  machine  running  on  rails  the  whoje  length  of  the  walk.  The 
machines  for  twisting  the  strands  into  ropes  of  various  sizes  are 
ingenious  and  complicated,  and  for  full  explanations  require  dia¬ 
grams.  The  final  process  is  coiling  and  tying  in  readiness  for  the 
ship  or  warehouse.  There  are  machines,  also,  for  making  flat  or 
band  ropes ;  and  for  ropes  of  all  sizes,  for  all  uses,  from  the 
smallest  to  the  largest  cable-laid  and  hawser-laid,  and  of  almost 
any  length. 

American  made  cordage  has  a  high  reputation,  and  is  largely 
exported,  and  American  machines  have  been  extensively  introduced 
into  Europe.  The  principal  factories  in  the  United  States  are  at 
Boston,  New  Bedford,  Plymouth,  New  York,  Brooklyn,  and  Phila¬ 
delphia  ;  and  cotton  rope  is  made  at  Norwich,  Connecticut,  and 
elsewhere.  Some  of  the  large  establishments  make  an  average 
of  nearly  ten  tons  of  hempen  and  other  rope  per  day. 

Wire  ropes  (see  Wire  Drawing)  have  been  in  use  in  some  of  the 
European  mines  for  the  past  forty  years,  and  the  manufacture  has 
been  extensively  carried  on  in  England  since  1838.  The  advan¬ 
tage  over  hempen  ropes  is  more  strength  and  durability,  with  less 
weight.  The  wire  ropes  are  made  of  iron  of  the  best  quality,  and 
sometimes  of  steel,  and  they  can  readily  be  spliced.  For  certain 
purposes  they  are  invaluable,  and  their  universal  application  in 
ship-rigging,  for  mines,  for  suspension  bridge  cables,  for  submarine 
telegraphs,  and  for  other  purposes,  has  led  to  their  extensive 
manufacture,  and  to  numerous  patents  and  improvements  in  the 
processes. 


CURTAIN  FIXTURES. 


THE  EARLY  NEED  FOR  CURTAINS.  —  BIBLICAL  DIRECTIONS  FOR  THEIR  MANU¬ 
FACTURE.  —  HOW  THEY  SHOULD  BE  HUNG.  —  TACHES,  WHAT  THEY  ARE.  — 
SUBSTITUTES  FOR  CURTAINS.  —  MODERN  INVENTION  APPLIED  TO  THEIR 
FIXTURES.  — THE  PENDULUM  FIXTURE.  —  THE  SELF-ADJUSTING  FIXTURE. — 
STATISTICS  OF  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

As  sood  as  the  human  race  had  sufficiently  progressed  to  feel 
the  promptings  of  modesty,  something  in  the  character  of  curtains 
was  contrived.  And,  too,  man  has  ever  possessed  a  love  for  orna¬ 
mentation.  His  taste,  which  first  found  expression  in  the  decora¬ 
tion  of  the  person  with  the  brilliant  plumage  of  birds  and  the  ele¬ 
gant  skins  of  wild  beasts,  led,  after  many  ages,  and  as  the  nomadic 
tribes  slowly  emerged  from  barbarism,  to  the  arts  of  weaving  and 
of  dyeing  fabrics.  These  fabrics  were  employed  first  for  draping 
the  body,  and  next  for  hanging  the  walls,  and  for  separating  apart¬ 
ments  of  human  habitations,  in  lieu,  probably,  of  skins,  which  were 
doubtless  before  employed. 

Thus,  far  beyond  the  confines  of  history,  among  the  nomadic 
tribes  of  the  Indo-European  and  Semitic  races,  the  use  of  curtains 
originated.  During  the  brilliant  civilizations,  which  were  devel¬ 
oped  in  a  very  remote  antiquity,  by  India,  China,  Babylonia,  and 
Egypt,  all  the  decorative  arts  took  great  steps  forward.  The 
manufacture  and  arrangement  of  tapestries  and  curtain  draperies, 
for  the  interior  walls  of  temples  and  houses,  then  received  as  much 
attention  as  any  of  the  nobler  arts.  The  truth  of  this  assertion, 
as  regards  the  last  named  nation,  is  demonstrated  by  the  interest¬ 
ing  bass-reliefs  which  still  remain,  rich  and  almost  indestructible 
pastorals  of  the  past  splendor  of  one  of  the  strangest  and  richest 

civilizations  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

»  * 

The  curtains  employed  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  were  made 
of  woollen  and  linen ;  they  were  ornamented  with  various  figures. 

/  .  (289) 


290 


CURTAIN  FIXTURES. 


These  people,  as  also  the  Hebrews,  attained  great  skill  in  orna¬ 
menting  textile  fabrics  by  embroidery.  The  ornaments  were  formed 
by  colored  yarns  worked  in  by  the  hand,  and  also  by  the  loom, 
and  in  the  finer  specimens  of  the  art  threads  of  gold  were  intro¬ 
duced.  Among  Eastern  nations  the  richest  fabrics  used  for  cur¬ 
tains  were  studded  with  precious  stones. 

The  author  of  Exodus,  recording  the  specifications  made  by  the 
Lord  to  Moses,  and  by  him  transmitted  to  the  people,  for  the 
manufacture  of  tabernacles,  w’rites  in  the  twenty-sixth  chapter  of 
the  book, — 

“  Moreover,  thou  shalt  make  the  tabernacle  with  ten  curtains  of 
fine  twined  linen,  and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet ;  with  cheru- 
bims  of  cunning  work  shalt  thou  make  them. 

“  The  length  of  one  curtain  shall  be  eight  and  twenty  cubits, 
and  the  breadth  of  one  curtain  four  cubits  ;  and  every  one  of  the 
curtains  shall  have  one  measure. 

“  The  five  curtains  shall  be  coupled  together  one  to  another; 
and  other  five  curtains  shall  be  coupled  one  to  another. 

“  And  thou  shalt  make  loops  of  blue  upon  the  edge  of  the  one 
curtain  from  the  selvedge  in  the  coupling  ;  and  likewise  shalt  thou 
make  in  the  uttermost  edge  of  another  curtain,  in  the  coupling  of 
the  second. 

“  Fifty  loops  shalt  thou  make  in  the  one  curtain,  and  fifty 
loops  shalt  thou  make  in  the  edge  of  the  curtain  that  is  in  the 
coupling  of  the  second ;  that  the  loops  may  take  hold  one  of 
another. 

“  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  taches  of  gold,  and  couple  the 
curtains  together  with  the  taches  ;  and  it  shall  be  one  tabernacle. 

“  And  thou  shalt  make  curtains  of  goat’s  hair  to  be  a  covering 
upon  the  tabernacle  ;  eleven  curtains  shalt  thou  make. 

“  The  length  of  one  curtain  shall  be  thirty  cubits,  and  the 
breadth  of  one  curtain  four  cubits  ;  and  the  eleven  curtains  shall 
be  all  of  one  measure. 

**  And  thou  shalt  couple  five  curtains  by  themselves,  and  six 
curtains  by  themselves,  and  shalt  double  the  sixth  curtain  in  the 
fore  front  of  the  tabernacle. 

“  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  loops  on  the  edge  of  the  one  cur¬ 
tain  that  is  outmost  in  the  coupling,  and  fifty  loops  in  the  edge  of 
the  curtain  which  coupleth  the  second. 

“  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  taches  of  brass,  and  put  the  taches 
into  the  loops,  and  couple  the  tent  together,  that  it  may  be  one.” 


CURTAIN  FIXTURES. 


291 


The  “  taches  ”  spoken  of  above  were  buttons,  or  knobs,  a  por¬ 
tion  of  the  curtain  fixtures  of  those  times.  It  is  evident  from  the 
foregoing  that  the  art  of  arranging  and  hanging  curtains  was 
quite  advanced  in  the  time  of  the  writer  of  Exodus,  if  not  of 
Moses,  about  whom  he  discourses.  Curtain  fixtures  doubtless 
existed  long  before  the  author  quoted  wrote,  otherwise  so  much 
would  not  have  been  written  in  a  style  which  implies  much  pre¬ 
vious  knowledge  of  the  curtain-making  art.  In  view  of  the 
.  special  honor  which  has  been  rendered  to  this  art,  by  its  being 
treated  or  regarded  as  having  been  worthy  of  divine  attention,  in 
the  manner  set  forth  in  the  book  from  which  we  take  the  directions 
cited,  the  curtain-makers  of  to-day,  and  the  curtain-fixture  makers 
as  well,  might  be  pardoned  if  they  were  to  consider  their  art  a 
very  select  one,  possessing  perhaps  aristocratic  or  hierarchic 
claims  to  consideration. 

Further  on  in  the  chapter  (v.  32)  we  find  that  gold  rings  con¬ 
stituted  a  portion  of  the  curtain  fixtures.  The  whole  work, 
according  to  the  description  therein  given,  must  have  been  very 
neat,  and  at  the  same  time  gorgeous,  evincing  a  very  far  pro¬ 
gressed  civilization  at  that  time,  and  which  must  have  had,  as  its 
precursors,  many  thousand  years  of  human  development.  The 
elaborate  construction  of  the  curtains  could  have  only  been  the 
outgrowth  of  the  mechanical  inventions  and  struggles  of  many 
ages,  and  the  metal  work  which  they  used  for  the  curtain  fixtures 
probably  required  for  its  development  still  many  more  ages. 

At  that  early  day  mankind  dwelt  mostly  in  tents,  and  their 
curtains  were  appropriate,  or  practical  and  convenient,  as  the  race 
was  divided  into  wandering  tribes.  They  could  easily  take  down 
and  transport  their  tents  and  their  appurtenances  as  occasion  re¬ 
quired.  In  more  modern  times  communities  have  become  more 
fixed,  so  that  permanent  dwellings  are  required,  furnished  with 
windows  to  admit  light  within,  and  to  permit  looking  out  there¬ 
through.  Many  substitutes  have  been  used  from  time  to  time  in 
place  of  expensive  and  elaborate  curtains  of  old,  among  which  we 
may  mention  those  made  of  rushes,  then  shavings  of  wood,  light 
strips  of  board,  muslin,  paper,  etc.,  with  many  contrivances  to 
fasten  them  in  place.  The  most  common  method  has  been  to 
affix  the  curtain  or  shade  to  a  roll  or  stick,  and  roll  it  up  to  the 
desired  height  and  secure  it  with  a  string,  dependent  from  the  top, 
or  by  moans  of  an  endless  cord  running  over  a  pulley  at  the  end 
of  the  sticks,  or  else  by  weights  to  balance  the  curtain  and  retain 


292 


CURTAIN  FIXTURES. 


it  in  the  desired  position,  so  as  to  obscure  or  obstruct  the  whole, 
a  part,  or  more  of  the  view.  These  methods  are  more  or  less 
objectionable,  very  liable  to  get  out  of  order,  and  thus  cause  con¬ 
tinual  trouble  and  annoyance. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  remedy  the  defects  of  the 
methods  we  have  spoken  of  above,  some  of  which  attempts  were 
in  a  degree  successful,  but  in  some  respects  lacking  perfection. 
Some  twenty  years  since,  Mr.  S.  S.  Putnam,  of  Boston,  invented 
and  patented  what  is  known  in  the  market  as  the  “  sell-adjusting  ” 

curtain  fixture,  which  is  so 
simple  and  neat  a  device 
of  mechanics,  that  we  have 
thought  it  worthy  of  repre¬ 
sentation  to  our  readers.  This  retains  the  shade  or  curtain  in  any 
desired  position  ;  never  gets  out  of  order ;  is  easily  put  up  with¬ 
out  the  aid  of  much  mechanical  ingenuity,  and  is  furnished  to  the 
public  at  a  very  moderate  expense  ;  thus  achieving  what  is  ever 
the  most  desirable  end  of  all  mechanical  contrivances,  namely, 
simplicity,  reliability,  and  cheapness. 

By  means  of  a  spiral  spring  inserted  in  the  end  of  the  roll, 
which  comes  in  contact  with  a  loose  wooden  pin  upon  which  the 
roll  revolves,  and  is  retained  in  its  place  b}r  the  cap  or  spool,  a 
pressure  is  obtained,  which,  acting  against  each  bracket  at  the 
separate  ends,  causes  a  friction,  which  is  sufficient  to  hold  the  cur¬ 
tain  at  any  desired  height.  By  pulling  the  cord  which  is  attached 
to  the  spool  the  curtain  is  drawn  or  rolled  up  ;  and  by  drawing  the 
curtain  down,  the  cord  is  wound  on  the  spool,  thus  always  being  in 
readiness  for  use.  The  extensive  demand  for  this  curtain  fixture,  is 
but  a  merited  compliment  to  its  success  as  a  mechanical  contrivance. 

In  addition  to  this,  Mr.  Putnam  has  invented,  and  secured  by 
letters  patent,  an  important  improvement,  whereby  the  curtain  or 
shade  is  attached  to  the  roll  without  the  use  of  either  tacks  or 
screw’s.  This  improvement  is  simply  the  cutting  in  the  roll  of  a 
groove  about  three-fourths  of  an  inch  square,  and  fitting  into  it 
a  movable  bar  of  wood.  Removing  this,  and  putting  the  end  of 
the  curtain  in  the  groove,  and  replacing  the  fastening  bar,  the 
curtain  or  shade  is  held  firmly  in  its  place  in  the  most  perfect 
manner.  The  curtain  can  be  easily  removed  from  the  roller  when 
necessary  to  be  cleaned  or  repaired.  So  extensively  have  these 
fixtures  come  into  use  that  they  can  be  found  in  nearly  every  city 
or  town  in  the  Union,  and  no  doubt  the  majority  of  the  readers  of 
this  article  are  familiar  with  them  in  their  own  dwellings. 


CURTAIN  FIXTURES. 


293 


Mr.  Putnam  has  received  many  letters  patent  for  improvements 
in  curtain  fixtures.  At  the  large  factory  of  S.  S.  Putnam  &  Co., 
at  Neponset,  Massachusetts,  now  in  one  of  the  wards  of  Boston, 
many  thousand  gross  are  annually  made,  consuming  in  their 
manufacture  not  less  than  five  hundred  thousand  feet  of  pine,  fifty 
thousand  feet  of  birch,  thirty  thousand  feet  of  bass  and  maple 
lumber  a  year.  Thirty  tons  of  metallic  castings  and  some  three 
tons  of  brass  spring  wire  are  also  used.  The  best  of  lumber, 
and  kiln  dried,  is  required  in  the  manufacture  of  the  curtain 
fixtures. 

This  company  also  manufacture  the  perfected  pendulum  fixture, 
which  is  so  made  that  by  removing  the  clutch,  by  raising  the  pen¬ 
dulous  portion  of  the  fixture,  the  curtain  falls  or  is  unwound  by 
its  own  weight,  and  is  held  in  such  position  as  is  desired  by  means 
of  the  clutch  upon  the  roll,  and  is  operated  by  the  suspended  cord. 
They  also  manufacture  the  balance  curtain  fixture  ;  in  these, 
weighted  or  loaded  tassels  balance  the  weight  of  the  shade  and 
retain  it  in  any  desirable  position. 

Though  not  precisely  pertinent  to  this  article,  yet  as  a  matter 
of  mechanical  interest,  and  the  invention  of  the  same  Mr.  Putnam 
of  whom  we  have  before  spoken,  we  notice  a  very  pretty  kind  of 
clothes  hooks,  which  is  manufactured  by  Messrs.  S.  S.  Putnam  & 
Co.  The  hooks  are  made  to  swing  on  a  bracket,  so  that  when  not 
required  for  use  they  can  be  turned  aside  flush  with  walls  or  par¬ 
titions,  and  thus  be  entirely  out  of  the  way.  They  are  made  of 
malleable,  or  very  strong  iron,  and  bronzed  or  silver-coated,  and 
are  very  neat  in  appearance.  The  hooks  are  mounted  on  black 
walnut  strips,  about  three  feet  in  length,  with  screw  eyes  therein, 
so  that  they  can  be  readily  hung  up  or  taken  down,  without  incon¬ 
venience  or  injury  to  the  wall  or  partition.  This,  though  a  recent 
invention,  is  rapidly  attracting  pub¬ 
lic  attention,  the  demand  for  it 
being  very  considerable  already ; 
thus  showing  that  a  really  good 
article,  however  simple,  may  grow 
into  vast  proportions  as  a  matter  of  manufacture,  and  become  one 
of  the  great  industries  of  a  country.  The  engraving  represents 
the  simple  design  of  the  clothes  hooks. 

Mr.  S.  S.  Putnam  was  born  in  Hartford,  Washington  County, 
New  York.  At  an  early  age  he  entered  the  store  of  a  jeweller 
and  watchmaker  in  Syracuse,  as  clerk,  where  he  remained  some 
four  years.  This  situation  developed  the  natural  mechanical  turn 


294 


CURTAIN  FIXTURES. 


of  his  mind  ;  for,  without  any  particular  instructions  from  his  em¬ 
ployer,  he  was  in  a  short  time  able  to  do  the  repairing  of  the  most 
delicate  watches.  Finding  this  employment  too  confining  for  his 
health  he  left,  and  went  to  Boston,  where  he  entered  a  dry  goods 
store  in  the  year  1843.  Whilst  in  this  situation  his  attention  was 
drawn  to  the  operation  of  an  upholsterer  in  putting  up  window 
shades,  and  the  difficulty  he  had  to  secure  the  shade  to  the  roll  to 
make  it  run  true.  This  led  him  to  think  upon  the  subject,  and  in 
a  short  time  he  invented  and  patented  his  celebrated  self-adjust¬ 
ing  curtain  fixture.  Seeing  in  this  a  prospect  to  build  up  a  large 
and  profitable  business,  he  quit  the  dry  goods  business  and  com¬ 
menced  the  manufacture  of  these  fixtures,  which  have  obtained  a 
very  extensive  reputation.  Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  this 
business  has  obtained,  may  be  had  when  it  is  understood  that  the 
quantity  of  brass  wire  annually  consumed,  and  which  forms  the 
small  spring  in  the  end  of  the  fixture,  if  laid  in  line  would  reach 
a  distance  of  3300  miles;  or  the  rollers,  if  laid  in  one  continuous 
line,  would  reach  half  around  the  globe. 


HORSE  SHOE  NAILS. 

m 


HORSE  SHOES. THEIR  IMPORTANCE.  —  THEIR  HISTORY.  —  EVIDENCE  CONCERN¬ 
ING  THEIR  USE  BY  THE  ANCIENTS.  -  FIRST  MENTION  OF,  IN  MODERN  TIMES. 

-  USE  AS  A  CHARM.  —  MADE  BY  MACHINERY.  -  HORSE-SHOE  NAILS.  - 

MADE  BY  HAND.  —  MACHINE  FOR  MAKING  THEM.  —  ITS  SUCCESS.  —  THEIR 
USE  IN  THE  LATE  CIVIL  WAR.  —  THE  WORKS  FOR  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

The  vast  importance  of  the  iron  protections,  or  shoes  for  the  feet 
of  working  horses  and  cattle,  is  obvious  to  every  one,  and  doubt¬ 
less  the  necessity  that  the  means  by  which  the  shoes  are  held  to 
the  feet  be  reliable,  in  order  that  shoes  may  be  made  most  useful, 
is  equally  obvious.  Perhaps  in  regard  to  no  one  simple  means  or 
power  in  mechanics  has  more  study  been  expended,  or  more  ex¬ 
periments  been  made,  than  concerning  the  horse-shoe  nail.  When 
the  horse  shoe  was  first  invented  history  leaves  wholly  in  obscurity. 
We  find  no  intimation  anywhere  that  the  ancient  Greeks  or  Romans 
were  in  the  practice  of  shoeing  horses,  or  otherwise  protecting  their 
hoofs  by  any  mechanical  means.  Indeed,  when  the  hoofs  of  war- 
horses  had  become  broken,  we  learn  that  they  were  allowed  to  rest ; 
sent  out  to  pasture  until  the  injured  hoofs  could  grow  and  become 
sound  again.  The  feet  of  camels  were  sometimes  encased  in  a  sort 
of  leathern  shoe,  and  the  feet  of  oxen  were,  sometimes  protected, 
or  dressed,  when  injured,  by  bandages  made  of  the  fibres  of  plants 
woven  together.  Suetonius  tells  us,  in  his  Life  of  the  Emperor 
Nero,  that  the  latter,  on  some  of  his  journeys,  but  not  long  ones, 
was  drawn  by  mules,  the  feet  of  which  were  provided  with  silver 
shoes  ;  indeed,  some  of  them  with  golden  ones.  But  these  were 
probably  simply  ornamental  bands  around  the  hoof,  and  not  in¬ 
tended  as  protections  to  the  feet. 

Many  have  contended  that  passages  in  Homer  prove  that  the 
art  of  shoeing  horses  was  in  practical  use  in  his  day,  but  others 
declare  that  the  phrases  supposed  to  indicate  this  are  metaphorical. 

37  (20.5) 


296 


HORSE  SHOE  NAILS. 


George  Fleming,  an  English  veterinary  surgeon,  has  issued  a  vol¬ 
ume,  in  which  all  the  evidences  on  the  subject,  from  Xenophon 
down,  are  carefully  collected  and  collated,  so  as  to  clearly  exhibit 
both  sides  of  the  question.  lie  makes  it  clear  that  the  daring 
experiment  of  driving  a  nail  into  a  horse's  hoof  was  not  ventured 
upon  in  classic  times. 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  different  coverings  were  in  use 
from  a  remote  period,  both  in  Greece  and  in  Italy,  to  protect  the 
hoof  when  sore  from  travel,  or  when  passing  over  rough  roads  ; 
but  there  is  much  negative  evidence  that  these  were  never  very 
generally  adopted,  and  that  they  were  awkward  and  clumsy  in 
construction,  and  were  only  used  from  sheer  necessity  upon  hard 
and  stony  ground,  or  in  cases  of  foot-soreness.  When  we  read  that 
Poppcea  or  Commodus  shod  their  horses  with  gold,  it  is  evident 
that  this  must  mean  (as  we  have  intimated  above  in  the  case  of 
Nero),  that  some  sort  of  gilt  sandal  or  sock  was  drawn  over  or 
fastened  to  the  hoof,  plated,  perhaps>  with  metal  in  the  sole. 

At  Pompei,  Poman  stables  have  been  excavated,  and  in  them 
have  been  discovered  the  bones  of  horses,  and  the  very  ring-bolts 
to  which  they  were  tied,  but  nothing  like  an  iron  shoe.  There  is 
nothing  in  ancient  literature  or  relics  to  prove  that  iron  plates  were 
nailed  lo  the  hoofs  of  horses  in  Greece  or  Italy  at  any  period  be¬ 
fore  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire.  The  first  mention  of  “  iron 
shoes  and  their  nails"  occurs  in  the  “Tacita”  of  the  Emperor 
Leo  VI.,  where  they  are  set  down  as  among  the  articles  requisite 
in  the  equipments  of  a  cavalry  soldier.  Leo  VI.  was  reigning  A.  D. 
900  ;  and  though  horse  shoes  were  doubtless  in  use  before  that  time, 
this  is  the  first  known  mention  made  of  them.  From  the  remains 
discovered  in  tumuli,  it  has  been  well  established  that  the  Celtic 
nations  used  metal  horse  shoes,  fastened  with  nails,  at  a  much 
earlier  date,  which  has  been  variously  conjectured  to  have  been 
at,  or  as  some  suppose,  before  the  Christian  era. 

It  is  supposed  by  some  writers  that  horse  shoeing  was  intro¬ 
duced  into  England  by  William  the  Conqueror.  Henry  de  Ferrers, 
who  accompanied  him  (and  whose  name  is  supposed  to  indicate 
the  fact),  held  the  office  of  inspector  of  farriers  to  William.  Six 
horse  shoes  were  displayed  upon  his  coat  of  arms.  Something 
mysterious  was  supposed,  at  a  very  early  age  in  the  history  of 
horse  shoes,  to  attach  to  them,  and  they  have  consequently  been, 
at  different  periods,  more  or  less  objects  of  superstition.  They 
have  been  considered  among  the  lower  classes  in  England,  and  in 


HORSE  SHOE  NAILS. 


297 


this  country  in  early  times,  and,  indeed,  it  may  be  said  by  many 
of  the  higher  classes,  as  protections  to  houses  against  “.witches  n 
when  nailed  upon  the  jambs  of  doors,  preventing*  the  poor  witches 
passing  in.  It  is  said  that  in  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century  nearly  all  the  houses  in  the  west  end  of  London  were  thus 
protected. 

Ilorse  shoes  have,  since  their  invention,  ever  been  made  by 
hand,  until  1835,  when  Henry  Burden,  of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  invented 
a  machine  for  making  horse  shoes,  which  from  time  to  time 
he  improved  upon.  As  was  the  case  with  horse  shoes,  so  with 
the  nails  for  fastening  them  to  the  hoofs.  They  have  always 
been,  until  of  late,  made  by  hand,  being  forged  out  on  the  anvil  by 
blacksmiths.  In  many  parts  of  Europe  whole  villages  are  devoted 
to  this  branch  of  business.  A  bundle  of  rods  of  iron  is  received 
from  the  chief  manufacturer  by  the  head  of  a  family,  who  takes  it 
to  his  home,  and  with  the  assistance  of  his  wife  and  children 
makes  it  into  nails,  the  product  being  returned  to  the  capitalist 
generally  after  a  depreciation  of  the  stock  in  weight  of  about 
twenty-five  per  cent,  for  waste.  For  many  years  these  nails  found 
•a  ready  market  in  this  country,  under  various  brands  or  marks, 
such  as  the  “  G  ”  or  “A  ”  horse  nails,  as  they  could  be  imported 
at  a  much  less  cost  or  expense  than  that  at  which  our  own  black¬ 
smiths  could  make  them. 

But  the  busy,  inventive  genius  of  the  country  was  constantly 
endeavoring  to  discover  some  mechanical  mode  by  which  horse 
nails  could  be  cheapened  in  price,  and  the  number  of  machines  by 
which  the  whole  nail,  or  a  portion  of  it,  could  be  made,  which  have 
from  time  to  time  been  set  in  operation,  is  not  inconsiderable. 
The  great  desideratum,  namely,  a  machine  by  which  not  only  the 
actual  labor  could  be  performed  and  the  nails  made,  but  by  which 
they  could  be  rapidly  made,  was  not  reached  at  once.  The  evo¬ 
lution  of  the  desired  machine  from  the  teeming  brains  of  inventors, 
guiding  the  hands  in  the  construction  thereof,  was  slow;  a  growth 
step  by  step,  rather  than  an  independent,  or  novel  and  perfect  in¬ 
vention  or  discovery  as  a  whole. 

Of  late  years  much  attention  and  large  amounts  of  capital  have 
been  devoted  in  this  country  to  the  manufacture  of  horse  nails  by 
machinery,  and  various  methods  and  devices  tried  to  produce  nails 
equally  as  good  as  those  made  by  hand.  Good  serviceable  horse 
nails  require  to  be  made  of  a  very  tough,  stiff,  strong  article  of 
iron,  and  free  from  flaws  of  the  slightest  kind,  for  in  driving  them 


203 


HORSE  SHOE  NAILS. 


into  the  horse’s  hoof,  which  is  less  than  one-half  of  an  inch  in 
thickness,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  no  sliver  oi  splinter 
shall  be  formed  from  them  and  be  driven  into  the  “  quick,”  or 
tender  portion  of  the  foot,  whereby  the  horse  would  be  lamed,  or 
perhaps  ruined.  No  kinds  of  iron  have  yet  been  found  to  possess 
the  proper  qualities  for  nails  uniformly  equal  to  the  Norway  and 
Swedish,  for  which  reason  these  are  the  most  generally  used. 

Machines  have  from  time  to  time  been  made  to  cut  or  punch 
the  nail  from  sheets  or  plates  of  iron  rolled  to  a  proper  thickness, 
either  hot  or  cold  ;  but  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  produce  a 
nail  as  compact,  firm,  tough,  and  strong  as  can  be  made  by 
hammering  it  out  on  the  anvil,  whereby  the  grain  of  the  iron  is 
compacted,  refined,  and  made  more  ductile  and  tenacious  ;  and 
though  many  nails  so  cut  or  punched  out  have  gotten  into  use,  yet 
the  best  order  of  smiths  refuse  to  use  them. 

In  the  j^ear  1850  Mr.  Silas  S.  Putnam,  of  Neponset,  Mass., 
conceived  the  plan  of  forging  horse  nails  by  machinery  from  the 
red-hot  rod,  in  a  manner  similar  to  that  of  the  blacksmith  ;  and 
devoted  much  time,  money,  and  severe  thinking  in  projecting  and 
perfecting  a  machine  which  would  make  nails  equal,  if  not  superior, 
to  those  made  by  hand.  After  several  unsuccessful  attempts,  each 
of  which  lacked  some  small  item  of  perfection,  he  at  last  con¬ 
structed  a  working  machine  capable  of  making  a  nearer  perfect  nail 
than  is  possible  to  be  made  by  hand,  and  possessing  all  the  desir¬ 
able  qualities  of  the  very  best  hand-made  nail,  at  a  much  less  cost. 

So  great,  however,  was  the  prejudice  among  smiths  generally 
against  any  machine-made  nail,  that  in  many  cases  they  refused 
to  use  Mr.  Putnam’s  nails,  even  when  given  to  them  without 
charge.  The  experience  which  nearly  every  inventor  of  a  matter 
of  real  merit  undergoes,  was  suffered  by  Mr.  Putnam.  It  is  a 
strange  fact,  that  a  meritorious  invention  usually  enjoys  less  early 
success  than  one  of  no  great  importance,  and  must  work  its  way 
into  public  adoption  or  approval  by  slow  stages,  and  through 
many  trials.  Before  it  becomes  well  established  in  the  public’s 
esteem  as  a  staple  article  of  the  popular  market,  a  dozen  novelties, 
invented  at  the  same  time  with,  or  after  it,  and  of  a  comparatively 
worthless  nature,  may  have  enjoyed  a  heyday  of  success,  bringing 
to  their  inventors’  pockets  considerable  sums  of  money,  sometimes 
fortunes,  and  have  gone  into  oblivion,  never  to  be  heard  of  again. 
In  the  order  of  human,  real  progress,  only  the  substantial,  worth¬ 
ful  things  survive  the  tests  of  time  and  use. 


PUTNAM  &  CO.’S  WORKS,  NEPONSET,  MASS 


. 


‘ 


; 

* 


HORSE  SHOE  NAILS. 


301 


By  dint  of  constant  perseverance  and  energy,  however,  these 
nails  were  .brought  into  public  notice,  and  at  last  their  superior 
excellence  commanded  for  them  due  recognition,  and  they  are  now 
in  use  in  all  sections  of  the  United  States. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  late  civil  war,  the  Boston  Light 
Artillery,  before  leaving  for  the  seat  of  war,  supplied  themselves 
with  “  Putnam’s  Horse  Nails,”  and  when  they  were  stationed  at 
Baltimore,  the  superiority  of  these  nails,  in  finish  and  quality  over 
others,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  government  officials,  who 
brought  them  to  the  notice  of  the  quartermaster-general  of  the 
army.  The  severe  tests  to  which  the  nails  were  subjected,  and 
the  complete  satisfaction  which  they  gave,  commanded  that 
officer’s  indorsement  of  them,  and  caused  their  adoption  into 
general  use  by  the  army,  as  the  “  Government  Standard  Horse 
Nail.”  Many  hundred  tons  of  them  were  used  by  our  cavalry  and 
artillery  forces  in  all  sections  of  the  country. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  defeat  of  General  Pope  in  Virginia,  the 
rebels  succeeded  in  capturing  a  government  train  of  quarter¬ 
master’s  stores,  among  which  were  several  hundred  boxes  of  these 
nails.  These  were  taken  to  Richmond,  and  were  considered  one 
of  the  most  valuable  articles  of  the  capture,  as  the  South  was 
greatly  deficient  in  horse  nails,  being  obliged  to  use  many  of 
their  horses  unshod.  In  fact,  had  it  not  been  for  the  horse  nails 
thus  captured  from  our  train,  the  Southern  cavalry  would  have 
been  a  weak  instead  of  a  strong  ally  to  the  Confederate  forces. 

Some  few  years  since,  finding  more  room  necessary  for  carrying 
on  this  rapidly  increasing  business  according  to  its  demands,  Mr. 
Putnam  purchased  a  tract  of  land  lying  on  the  Neponset  River,  and 
now  embraced  in  the  sixteenth  ward  of  Boston,  where  the  exten- 
give  works  of  S.  S.  Putnam  &  Co.  are  now  located.  These  works 
use  a  two  hundred  horse  power  Corliss,  engine  to  drive  their 
machinery,  and  employ  some  two  hundred  operatives  in  making 
these  now  staple  articles  in  the  market,  known  as  the  “  Putnam 
Forged  Horse  Nails.”  From  small  beginnings,  they  have  in¬ 
creased  their  yearly  consumption  to  about  one  thousand  tons  of 
Norway  iron,  using  in  their  manufacture  a  thousand  tons  of  coal. 
Eighty  thousand  boxes  are  required  annually  for  packing  these 
horse  nails  for  market. 

In  making  a  horse-shoe  nail  by  hand  the  blacksmith  gives  some 
twenty  blows  with  the  hammer  in  order  to  form  the  same  into 
shape,  and  can  make  but  from  ten  to  twelve  pounds  as  a  day's 


302 


IIOIiSE  SHOE  NAILS. 


work  ;  but  with  the  Putnam  machine  the  nail  receives  some  sixty 
blows  from  the  hammer,  leaving-  the  iron  much  more  compacted  in 
fibre,  and  more  nearly  perfect  than  is  possible  to  be  done  by  hand, 
while  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  are  made 
daily  by  a  machine. 

Mr.  Putnam  has  obtained  several  letters  patent  for  improvements 
on  his  machines,  and  is  still  constantly  making  new  improvements 
upon  the  machines,  whereby  the  manufacture  of  the  nails  is  simpli¬ 
fied  and  the  expenses  lessened.  The  company  use  only  machines 
of  Mr.  Putnam’s  invention,  the  first  of  which  was  put  in  operation 
in  1850.  The  influence  of  this  advanced  step  in  mechanics,  —  the 
making  by  machinery  of  a  better  article  of  nails  than  was  formerly 
made  by  hand,  or  by  manufacture,  in  its  proper  signification,  — 
must  yet  be  very  great  on  all  sorts  of  handicraft,  as  it  suggestively  • 
leads  to  the  invention  of  machinery  for  the  purpose  of  accomplish¬ 
ing  other  ends  in  the  constructive  arts,  which  it  has  heretofore 
been  thought  impossible  to  accomplish  except  by  actual  manipula¬ 
tion,  with  certainty  of  reaching  the  desirable  perfection.  Of  course 
the  machinery  which  secures  the  ends  attained  by  that  of  the 
Putnam  &  Co.  can  be  made  to  perform  like  work  in  other  branches 
of  art  than  nail-making,  and  will  work  valuable  revolutions  in  the 
manufacturing  arts  and  industries  of  the  country. 


PETROLEUM. 


WHERE  PETROLEUM  IS  FOUND.  —  KNOWN  TWO  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. — THE 
WELLS  OF  liURMAH.  —  SOURCE  OF  PETROLEUM.  —  DIFFERENCE  IN  SAMPLES. 

—  SUPPLIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  - HOW  THE  INDIANS  USED  THE  OIL. 

—  ITS  USE  IN  SURGERY.  — THE  FIRST  DISCOVERIES  IN  OHIO.  —  BORING  WELLS 
IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  — BREAKING  OUT  OF  THE  OIL  FEVER.  — ADVENTURERS, 
CAPITALISTS,  EXPLORERS,  AND  SPECULATORS.  —  FORTUNES  MADE  IN  A  DAY. 

—  FORTUNATE  FARMERS.  —  GROWTH  OF  THE  OIL  BUSINESS.  —  DEVELOP¬ 
MENT  OF  NEW  INDUSTRIES.  —  OTHER  KINDS  OF  BUSINESS  BENEFITED. — 
PROCESS  OF  SINKING  WELLS.  — YIELD. —  SUPPLY  UNLIMITED.  —  REFINING  \ 
PROCESS.  —  USES  FOR  PETROLEUM.  —  EXPORT. 

is  wBmw  '  ...  .  . K 

Petroleum,  as  the  name  indicates,  is  a  rock  oil,  which  exudes 
from  the  earth,  or  is  pumped  from  wells  or  bores  of  different 
depths.  It  is  found  in  many  parts  of  the  world.  It  was  known 
more  than  two  thousand  years  ago  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
For  centuries  the  springs  and  wells  of  the  Rangoon  district  on  the 
Irrawaddy  have  supplied  the  entire  Burman  empire  and  portions 
of  India  ;  B  ikoo,  in  Georgia,  on  the  west  shore  of  the  Caspian, 
supplies  Persia  with  the  means  of  artificial  light  ;  for  more  than 
two  hundred  years  Parma  and  Modena  have  furnished  petroleum 
f»r  lt;ijy  ;  it  is  found  in  the  island  of  Trinidad  ;  Cuba  produces  it; 
i!  is  soerl -floating  on  the  water  in  the  vicinity  of  volcanoes;  near 
Vesuvius  a  petroleum  spring  comes  up  through  the  sea;  and  new 
discoveries  are  constantly  occurring  in  different  parts  of  the  world. 

Whit  petroleum — which  is  known  also  in  trade  as  naphtha, 
sixolino,  cazeline,  and  b}'  many  more  names  —  really  is,  and  from 
what  it  is  derived,  is  a  matter  of  dispute.  By  some  it  is  believed 
to  be  of  animal  origin,  and  that  vast  deposits  of  once  existing 
m  nine  animals  have  been  converted  by  heat  and  pressure,  as  coal 
b  » Is  are  formed,  into  petroleum.  Analysis  shows  that  the  rock- 
oil  is  nearly  identical  with  the  fluids  distilled  from  bituminous  coal. 
Samples  from  different  regions  show  different  constituents,  or  dif- 

(303) 


i 


PETROLEUM. 


3i4 


fercnt  proportions  of  the  same  constituents.  The  Burmese  oil 
affords  about  eleven  per  cent,  of  paraffine,  which  has  been  suc¬ 
cessfully  employed  in  England  in  the  manufacture  of  candles.  Other 
samples  contain  neither  paraffine  nor  benzole  ;  various  oils  differ 
aUo  i:i  density;  but  an  ordinary  sample  will  give  filly  per  cent, 
of  burning  oil,  and  twenty-two  per  cent. of  lubricating  oil. 

in  the  United  States,  petroleum  is  found  in  great  profusion  in 
North-western  Pennsylvania,  in  New  York,  in  Ohio,  in  Virginia, 
in  Kentucky,  and  to  some  extent  in  Louisiana,  in  Utah,  and  in 
other  sections  of  the  country.  The  oil  near  the  head  of  the  Gen¬ 
esee  River,  in  New  York,  and  that  of  Venango  County,  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  was  known  from  a  remote  period  to  the  Indians,  who 
used  it  for  medical  purposes,  and  who  called  the  attention  of  the 
whites  to  it  more  than  a  century  ago.  Under  the  names  of  “  Gen¬ 
esee  oil 77  and  “  Seneca  oil,77  it  was  for  a  long  time,  and  still  is,  in 
some  sections,  a  popular  and  efficacious  remedy  for  rheumatism; 
and  petroleum  is  now  employed  in  washing  wounds,  and  its  cura¬ 
tive  properties  are  highly  commended.  But  for  a  long  time  after 
pet: oleum  was  known  to  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Vir¬ 
ginia,  and  New  York,  there  was  no  thought  of  it  in  connection 
with  the  many  uses  to  which  it  is  now  applied. 

In  sinking  wells  for  salt  water  in  Ohio,  in  1819,  petroleum 
exuded  in  such  quantities  that,  according  to  an  article  in  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Journal  of  Science,  in  1826,  it  began  to  be  in  demand  for  illu¬ 
minating  purposes,  and  was  used  to  a  considerable  extent  in 
factories  and  workshops.  Oil  Creek,  in  Venango  County,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania, —  the  most  prolific  source  of  petroleum  supply  in  the 
country,  —  was  so  named  by  the  earliest  settlers;  but  it  was  not 
until  1845  that  any  attempt  was  made  to  procure  the  oil  in  quanti¬ 
ties,  and  what  was  produced  was  used  almost  wholly  for  medical 
purposes.  Yet  in  this  region  there  arc  remains  of  old  oil  pits, 
which  may  have  been  dug  by  the  French  early  in  the  last  century, 
or  by  the  Indians,  showing  that  supplies  beyond  what  oozed  from 
the  ground  or  floated  on  the  streams  were  sought  for.  That  it 
existed  in  any  quantity,  or  that  there  might  be  regular  and  easily 
controlled  sources  of  supply,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  imagined 
till  1845,  when  a  bore  for  a  salt  well,  twenty-five  miles  distant 
from  Pittsburg,  developed  two  oil  springs  that  yielded  a  barrel  in 
twenty-four  hours. 

Thi  s  was  the  beginning  of  the  “oil  fever.77  Nine  years  latex 
companies  were  formed  in  New  York  ;  land  and  rights  were  pur- 


PETROLEUM. 


305 


chased,  and  experiments  were  made  in  the  purification  of  the  oil. 
In  1859  a  New  Ilaven  company  bored  a  well  at  Titusville,  on  Oil 
Creek,  which,  by  pumping,  gave  a  thousand  gallons  of  oil  a  day. 
Soon  after,  wells  of  from  five  hundred  to  six  hundred  feet  in 
depth  flowed  at  the  rate  of  three  thousand  barrels  a  day  from  each 
well.  An  immense  excitement  was  the  natural  consequence. 
Adventurers,  capitalists,  explorers,  and  speculators  flocked  to  the 
oil  region  of  Pennsylvania ;  farms  and  rights  were  sold  at  fabulous 
prices  ;  a  lew  farmeis,  who  were  the  fortunate  possessors  of  well- 
located  lands,  suddenly  found  themselves  in  receipt  of  incomes  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  and  the  country  went  1‘aiily 
wild  over  petroleum  speculations. 

Before  the  close  of  1863  more  than  two  thousand  wells  were 
sunk  in  the  vicinity  of  Oil  Creek,  seventy-four  of  which  were  re¬ 
ported  as  yielding  daily  eleven  hundred  and  sixty-five  barrels, 
which,  at  the  then  price  of  twenty  cents  a  gallon,  gave  ten  thou¬ 
sand  dollars.  Large  fortunes  were  made  —  and  lost  —  in  the  busi¬ 
ness.  The  trade  had  its  periods  of  success  and  depression  ;  but 
when  the  business  ceased  to  be  speculative,  and  settled  down 
upon  a  solid  basis,  with  a  large  home  demand,  and  an  extensive 
export  trade,  the  production  of  oil  steadily  increased,  new  wells 
were  dug  almost  daily,  and  a  new  and  most  important  source  of 
wealth  was  added  to  the  industries  of  the  country.  Every  busi¬ 
ness  in  any  way  connected  with  the  oil  received  an  immediate  and 
immense  impulse.  The  railroads  which  carried  the  oil  to  the  cities 
and  to  the  coast  were  busy  transporting  it  by  night  and  day.  New 
cars,  with  very  large  iron  tanks  for  conveying  the  crude  oil  in  bulk, 
were  constructed.  Oil  refineries  were  started  in  several  cities. 
Iron  founderics  found  work  in  casting  pipes  for  the  wells.  For  the 
pumps  there  was  a  large  demand  for  steam  engines.  And  thus, 
in  various  pursuits  apart  from  the  immediate  production  of  the  oil, 
employment  was  furnished  to  thousands  of  mechanics  and  laborers. 

The  process  of  sinking  the  wells  is  quite  simple,  and  is  similar 
to  that  of  boring  artesian  wells.  As  the  boring  descends,  iron 
pipes  of  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  length  are  driven  down  through  the 
bored  earth  and  rock  till  oil  is  “  struck. ”  Frequently,  when  a 
well  is  apparently  exhausted,  or  when  the  flow  is  feeble,  further 
and  more  abundant  supplies  are  obtained  from  the  same  well  by 
deeper  boring.  Of  course  the  oil  rises  by  the  pressure  of  water 
in  the  springs  beneath  ;  and  when  a  well  is  first  opened,  very  often 
the  flow  is  profuse  and  spontaneous,  though  after  a  while  to  nearly 


306 


PETROLEUM. 


every  well  a  pump  must  be  applied.  The  yield  of  wells,  even  of 
those  which  are  side  by  side,  differs  greatly,  and  wells  sunk  in 
what  promised  to  be  the  most  productive  section  have  been  any¬ 
thing  but  profitable.  The  best  localities,  without  reference  to  the 
precise  spot  for  particular  wells,  — for  this  is  beyond  human  ken,  — 
are  well  known  ;  and  so  far  as  discoveries  to  this  year  (1871)  ex¬ 
tend,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Virginia  offer  the  best  oil  grounds. 
The  supply  of  petroleum  may  reasonably  be  believed  to  be  inex¬ 
haustible. 

The  process  of  refining  petroleum  is  the  same  as  that  applied 
to  coal  oils,  and,  indeed,  most  of  the  establishments  formerly  em¬ 
ployed  in  the  rectification  of  crude  coal  oils  have,  since  1860, 
been  converted  into  petroleum  refineries,  which  do  a  large  and 
profitable  business.  The  crude  oil,  as  it  comes  from  the  wells,  is 
used  for  many  purposes,  and  the  refined  furnishes  oil  for  illumina¬ 
tion,  lubrication,  medical  purposes,  etc.  The  general  use  of 
petroleum,  which  has  almost  taken  the  place  of  sperm  oil,  has  also 
developed  a  new  and  remunerative  industry  in  the  manufacture  of 
lamps  adapted  to  the  fluid,  and  numerous  patents  have  been  taken 
out  in  the  United  States  for  inventions  which  make  petroleum  and 
its  products  subservient  to  domestic  purposes  in  generating  heat 
and  light. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  because  petroleum  has  ceased  to  be  an 
“  excitement, ”  or  a  mere  matter  of  speculation,  that  its  production 
has  been  diminished,  or  tiiat  its  importance  has  decreased  as  an 
article  of  foreign  and  domestic  use.  The  increase  in  the  flow  of  oil 
ldi  Pennsylvania  since  1867  has  been  nearly  fifty  per  cent.  The 
export  of  petroleum  in  1860  was  only  one  and  one-half  million  of 
gallons;  in  1868,  it  was  ninety-nine  million  gallons;  in  1870,  the 
export  was  one  hundred  and  forty-one  million  gallons. 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


THE  DERIVATION  OF  OUR  WORD  LAMP.  —  THE  HISTORY  OF  APPLIANCES  FOR 

LIGHTING.  - LAMPS  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.  —  LAMPS  IN  ST.  PETER’S.  —  GAS. 

—  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  GAS  FIXTURES.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  FACTORY 
OF  MESSRS.  CORNELIUS  AND  SONS. — BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  FOUN¬ 
DER  OF  THE  HOUSE. 


Lamp  —  from  the  Greek  word  lampein,  which  signifies  to  shine 
—  is  a  generic  term,  which  properly  includes  all  sorts  of  lights 
and  their  holders,  candlesticks,  gas  fixtures,  and  other  burners. 
In  close  proximity  to  the  axe  and  the  plow,  the  article  of  lamps, 
or  holders  of  the  materials  from  which  light  is  evolved,  has  place 
among  the  artificial  necessities  of  man.  The  enjoyment  of  light 
in  the  night  season  could  not  be  realized  practically  to  any  great 
extent  without  the  means  of  vessels,  or  other  mechanical  devices 
of  some  sort,  to  contain  in  place,  or  convey  to  the  action  of  heat, 
the  fuels,  oils,  gases,  etc.,  from  which  light  is  drawn.  We  have  no 
historic  account  of  any  article  of  utility  or  ornament  of  a  more 
remote  antiquity  than  the  lamp.  Fire-worship  would  seem,  from  all 
we  can  gather  from  the  meagre  intimations  of  history,  to  have 
been  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the  earliest,  of  cults,  —  sun-wor¬ 
ship,  perhaps,  •  preceded  it, — :and  probably  led  to  the  lamp  or 
can db  stick  be  ing  regarded  with  something  like  reverence  in  the 
early  historic  period. 

Lamps  of  varied  and  beautiful  shapes  have  been  found  among 
the  ruins  of  Poinpei  and  Herculaneum.  The  Museo  Borbonieo 
at  Naples,  is  rich  in  relics  of  beautiful  works,  among  which  are 
lamps  in  great  numbers,  taken  from  these  ruins.  According  to  the 
legends  of  the  Chinese,  their  ancestors  far  back,  thousands  of 
y-'ars  beyond  the  dawn  of  the  historic  period  of  the  Western 
nations,  must  have  been  familiar  with  the  lamp.  But  we  need 
m  dvvt  11  further  upon  its  remote  antiquity.  Some  of  the  ancients, 
w  no  told,  endeavored  to  make  a  lamp  which  should  burn  per- 

(307) 


308 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


petually  ;  which  should  need  no  replenishing  with  oil.  Strange 
as  must  have  seemed  to  their  contemporaries,  the  hallucinations 
of  these  ambitious  inventors,  something  akin  to  the  eternal-burner 
which  they  sought,  is  now  found  in  the  “  gas  fixture, ”  or  metal 
tube  of  to-day,  and  its  contents  of  bi-carbureted  hydrogen.  Had 
the  gas  fixtures  of  to-day  been  invented  in  antique  times,  we 
can  probably  hardly  conceive  to  what  power  they  would  have 
been  ascribed,  for  our  modern  illuminating  gas  supposes  a  deep¬ 
er  acquaintance  with  science  than  all  the  magicians  and  philos¬ 
ophers  of  antiquity  together  possessed.  In  St.  Peter’s  Church  at 
Rome,  as  well  as  in  many  other  Roman  Catholic  cathedrals  and 
churches  throughout  the  world,  lamps  are  kept  constantly  burn¬ 
ing.  The  custom  is  supposed  to  be  of  early  origin,  and  to  have 
been  borrowed  from  a  still  earlier  one,  the  object  of  which  was, 
among  the  superstitious,  to  keep  off  evil  "spirits,  who,  it  was 
thought,  could  only  flourish  or  do  harm  to  man  in  .the  dark.  But 
the  enlightenment  of  modern  times  demonstrates  that  the  most 
evil  spirits  among  men  may  walk  abroad  at  noonday,  and  do 
their  nefarious  work  in  the  full  light  of  the  sun,  to  say  nothing  of 
gas-light. 

The  manufacture  of  ga£  fixtures  is  of  modern  date,  and  has  be¬ 
come  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of  the  day,  considering 
both  the  utilities  it  serves  and  the  sense  or  love  of  beauty  to 
which  it  administers.  A  few  years  ago  the  majority  of  gas  fix¬ 
tures  used  throughout  the  world  were  manufactured  in  Europe, 
principally  in  England  and  France,  and  chiefly  by  small  manufactur¬ 
ers.  To-day  a  single  firm  or  establishment  in  this  country,  that  of 
the  Messrs.  Cornelius  and  Sons,  of  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  makes 
nearly  one-half  of  all  the  gas  fixtures  manufactured  in  the  United 
States,  which,  together  with  the  unsurpassed,  if  not  wholly  un¬ 
equalled  character  as  well,  of  their  wares,  renders  them  the  repre¬ 
sentative  manufacturers  in  their  line.  There  are  several  other 
manufacturers  of  gas  fixtures  in  the  United  States,  who  nrake  good 
wares,  both  as  to  quality  of  workmanship  and  the  ornamental 
character  of  their  designs,  but  it  would  be  almost  impossible,  if 
not  quite  so,  to  exercise  more  care  and  study  in  manufacture  and 
ornamental  designs  than  are  observed  by  the  Messrs.  Cornelius  in 
the  manufacture  of  their  goods. 

In  treating  of  the  great  industries  of  the  country,  it  is  a  matter 
of  extreme  satisfaction  to  the  writer,  as  interested  in  both  the  per- 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


309 


fection  of  a  specific  ware,  and  the  bearing  it  has  upon  the  weal  of 
the  nation,  to  be  able  to  find  among  the  manufacturers  thereof  men 
whose  pride  in  the  accomplishment  of  perfect  work,  for  sake  of 
the  pleasure  of  making  it,  seems  to  be  at  least  equal  to  their  ambi¬ 
tion  in  money-making.  The  Messrs.  Cornelius  would  seem  to  be 
so  circumstanced,  that  however  inclined  they  might  be  to  slight 
their  work  for  money-making  purposes,  they  cannot  willingly  do 
so  on  the  score  of  honor.  Having  a  reputation  for  making  per¬ 
fect  wares,  upon  which  their  vast  establishment  has  been  built  up, 
they  have  a  peculiar  pride  in  sustaining  it.  In  the  writer’s  large 
acquaintance  with  the  modes  of  manufacture,  he  knows  of  no 
establishment  for  the  production  of  any  ware  in  which  the  pro¬ 
cesses  of  work  are  more  systematized  and  nearer  perfect  than  in 
that  of  the  Messrs.  Cornelius’  Gas  Fixture  Manufactory. 

The  extent  and  importance  of  the  manufacture  of  gas  fixtures 
in  this  country  will  be  apparent  on  reflecting  that  in  nearly  all 
the  houses  of  the  great  cities,  and  in  nearly  every  village  having 
a  population  of  four  or  five  thousand,  they  are  now  in  use. 
There  are  a  great  number  of  isolated  residences  in  the  country, 
the  owners  of  which  manufacture  their  own  gas  by  private 
methods,  and  whose  houses  require  the  gas  fixtures.  The  de¬ 
mand  for  these  wares  is  increasing  every  day.  In  order  to  ac¬ 
quaint  himself  with  the  mode  of  manufacturing  the  gas  fixtures, 
the  writer  recently  paid  a  visit  to  the  establishment  of  Messrs. 
Cornelius  among  others.  All  the  processes  pursued  in  other  manu¬ 
factories,  and  which  are  of  any  worth,  are  to  be  found  in  operation  in 
this  establishment,  besides  many  improvements  secured  by  letters 
patent,  and  which  are  not  to  be  found  elsewhere.  A  description 
therefore  of  what  is  to  be  seen  at  this  establishment  will  cover  the 
whole  subject  for  the  general  reader. 

Messrs.  Cornelius  &  Sons’  principal  establishment  is  situated 
on  Cherry  Street,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  is  also  in  busi¬ 
ness  communication  with  another  large  establishment  of  theirs  on 
the  corner  of  Columbia  Avenue  and  Fifth  Street,  in  the  same 
city.  The  Cherry  Street  building  is  an  immense  structure, 
some  four  hundred  feet  in  length  of  its  facade,  and  vast  wings', 
and  is  five  stories  in  height.  It  is  built  entirely  of  brick  and  iron, 
is  in  the  form  of  a  hollow  square,  and  fire-proof  throughout. 
As  a  building  for  its  purposes  it  is  a  model  of  convenience,  and  is 
divided  into  some  eighteen  separate  and  distinct  departments,  or 
work  rooms,  all  well  lighted,  thoroughly  ventilated,  and  heated 


810 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


by  steam.  It  is,  without  doubt,  one  of  the  most  perfectly  organ¬ 
ized  establishments  in  the  United  States. 

Entering  the  establishment,  the  visitor  proceeds,  perhaps,  first 
to  the  modelling  rooms.  The  firm  have  in  their  employ  several 
designers  or  artists  who  occupy  separate  rooms,  in  different  parts  * 
of  the  building,  and  who  do  not  intercommunicate,  each  depending 
upon  his  own  unaided  genius  in  devising  sketches  for  the  models. 
Thus  greater  originality  of  design  is  accomplished.  Following  a 
design  which  is  given  him,  sketched  upon  paper,  the  modeller  pro¬ 
ceeds  to  mould  into  required  shape  a  mass  of  prepared  wax. 
Alter  the  design  is  “  roughed  out,”  he  consummates  his  task  with 
the  aid  of  tools  made  of  hard  wood  or  steel.  When  the  pattern, 
frequently  the  work  of  weeks,  is  completed,  it  goes  in  the  hands 
of  the  “  caster,”  who  makes  a  mould  of  it  in  brass,  which  is  sent 
to  the  “  chaser,”  and  is  elaborated  into  a  standard  pattern,  from 
which  the  caster  may  multiply  an  infinitude  of  copies.  It  is  a  very 
nice  operation  to  make  a  mould  from  the  original  wax  pattern,  the 
fragile  material  rendering  it  necessary  to  use  every  precaution  in 
obtaining  a  brazen  fac-simile  of  the  original.  Much  depends  upon 
the  “  chaser.”  When  the  first  brazen  copy  of  the  pattern  is 
placed  in  his  hands,  the  embellishments  on  its  surface  are  f  int, 
and  require  to  be  deepened.  The  partially  developed  fibres  and 
veins  of  leaves  and  flowers,  the  feaihers  of  birds  arid  fur  of  ani¬ 
mals,  are  by  him  made  distinct.  lie  uses  small  steel  chisels,  of 
various  shapes,  with  which  the  necessary  indentations  are  made 
by  sharp  blows  of  a  light  hammer.  The  completed  pattern  is  re¬ 
turned  to  the  caster.  In  casting  a  drooping  feather  or  a  crumpled 
vine  leaf,  for  instance,  it  is  found  more  expeditious  to  flatten  the 
pattern.  After  the  casting  is  finished,  the  proper  curves  are  given 
to  the  hitherto  flat  surfaces  by  means  of  wooden  mallets  and  other 
tools. 

In  the  casting-rooms,  where  many  men  are  emplojmd,  the  heat 
from  the  furnaces  is  very  great,  and  becomes  almost  stifling,  in 
conjunction  with  the  sulphurous  fumes  of  the  liquid  mass  of 
mingled  copper  and  spelter,  forming  brass,  which  is  glowing  and 
seething  in  black-lead  crucibles  placed  in  the  midst  of  fiery  anthra¬ 
cite.  Each  caster  works  at  a  wooden  trough,  into  which  he  care¬ 
fully  silts  prepared  sand,  slightly  moistened.  This  sand  is  of  a 
kind  peculiarly  fitted  for  moulding,  and  found  in  the  region  of 
Philadelphia.  Thus  prepared  the  sand  is  placed  in  flasks,  and  the 
process  ol  moulding,  sufficiently  understood  by  general  readers,  is 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


311 


proceeded  with.  After  the  crucibles  have  been  emptied  into  the 
moulds  a  few  minutes  suffice  for  the  lately  molten  brass  to  chill 
into  a  hardness  which  permits  the  flasks  to  be  opened,  by  remov¬ 
ing*  the  clamps,  when  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  note  how  faith¬ 
fully  the  finest  chased  work  has  been  transferred  from  the  original 
pattern  to  the  copy. 

The  castings  are  conveyed  from  the  foundery  to  the  filing  depart¬ 
ment.  Here  scores  of  files  create  a  constant  din,  not  musical  to 
all  ears.  The  castings  are  first  “  edged  up  ”  with  course  rasps, 
and  then  finished  with  finer  tools.  In  many  instances  a  number  of 
castings  must  be  joined  to  form  one  piece.  The  several  parts  are 
conveyed  to  the  soldering  room,  where  they  are  properly  fitted  to¬ 
gether,  care  being  taken  to  leave  one  edge  more  prominent  than 
the  other.  The  sections  are  then  put  into  their  proper  places,  and 
retained  in  position  by  iron  wire.  Particles  of  brass  solder,  which 
look  like  brazen  saw  dust,  are  wet  with  water  and  carefully  ap¬ 
plied  along  the  projecting  edge  of  the  section.  The  entire  piece 
is  then  placed  in  a  furnace,  where  the  solder  is  melted.  The  work 
then  undergoes  another  filing.  The  joints  must  be  made  with  the 
utmost  care,  for  the  subtle  gas  would  escape  through  any  tiny 
opening  left  in  the  work.  Before  the  castings  leave  the  filing  and, 
soldering  rooms,  there  is  frequently  much  to  be  done  in  the  way 
of  the  twisting  of  branches,  crumpling  of  leaves,  drilling  of  holes, 
etc.,  etc. 


The  castings  are  taken  after  the  re-filing,  etc.,  to  the  dipping 
room.  Here  everything  is  done  by  means  of  chemical  agents. 
The  room  is  a  perfect  laboratory  in  itself.  There  are  ranges  of 
monstrous  stone  jars  filled  with  divers  colored  acids,  of  different 
degrees  of  strength  ;  pans  and  kettles  filled  with  various  liquids  ; 
and  hot,  lukewarm,  and  cold  water  is  flowing  in  abundance.  When 
the  castings  leave  the  hands  of  the  filers  they  are  dirty  and  dis¬ 
colored,  and  more  or  less  sand  or  other  foreign  matter  clings  to 
them.  The  first  act  of  the  dipper  is  the  taking  up  of  a  casting 
with  a  pair  of  tongs,  and  dipping  it  into  a  jar  of  acid.  Only  a 
moment  is  required  to  remove  by  this  process  every  particle  of 
dirt  from  the  surface  of  the  piece.  The  chemical  would  soon 
de  vour  the  piece  itself  if  sufficient  time  wTere  given  it.  But  the 
dipper  speedily  takes  out  the  cleansed  metal  and  places  it  in 
water,  which  arrests  the  ravages  of  the  acid. 

This  operation  of  plunging  the  metal  into  acid  is  called  “pick¬ 
ling.”  The  color  of  the  metal  is  rendered  by  it  essentially  brass- 


312 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


like,  as  the  “  pickle  ”  lias  devoured  the  foreign  substances  on  its 
surface.  The  article  thus  cleaned  is  then  dipped  into  a  jar,  the 
contents  of  which  are  a  mystery  to  us.  This  has  the  effect  to 
give  the  surface  a  rich  sulphur  color.  This  operation  occupies  but 
a  moment.  The  piece  of  metal  is  again  washed  in  clean  water, 
and  is  then  plunged  into  a  chemical  combination  called  an  “  or¬ 
molu  ;  ”  in  a  few  minutes  the  color  of  the  metal  is  changed  to  a 
dii-ty*  yellow.  The  ormolu  is  then  washed  off,  and  the  surface  of 
the  metal  is  found  to  have  been  eaten  into  minute  molecules.  One 
more  dip  into  an  acid,  which  gives  the  brass  a  rich,  pale  gold  color, 
finishes  the  chemical  ordeal.  After  the  piece  is  again  cleansed  in 
water,  it  presents  a  rich  and  uniform,  though  dull  gold  color.  This 
dulncss  forms  a  good  foil,  and  contrasts  finely  with  the  prominent 
parts  of  the  design,  which  are  afterwards  richly  burnished,  the  or- 

molu  having  prepared  the  surface  of  the  metal  for  that  operation. 

% 

In  an  apartment  adjoining  the  dippers  is  another  one  in  which 
the  coating  of  the  brass  which  has  passed  the  ormolu  process  is 
carried  on.  The  galvanic  battery  is  here  put  in  use.  The  piece 
of  brass  is  put  in  connection  with  the  battery,  and  is  made  to 
form  the  negative  pole  of  the  instrument.  A  bar  of  pure  silver 
acts  as  the  positive  pole.  The  brass  is  then  held  in  a  solution, 
and  the  bar  of  silver  is  played  around  it  under  the  surface  for  a 
few  seconds,  which  suffices  to  precipitate  upon  the  negative  pole, 
or  piece,  a  coat  of  silver  thick  enough  to  bear  without  injury  the 
action  of  the  burnishing  instrument. 

Burnishing  is  an  important  process  in  the  manufacture  of  gas 
fixtures.  In  the  burnishing  room  of  Messrs.  Cornelius  &  Sons, 
a  little  army  of  burnishers  is  employed.  The  tools  used  are  of 
a.  great  variety  of  shape,  and  during  the  process  of  burnishing  are 
frequently  dipped  into  a  dark-colored  liquid,  which  on  inquiry  we 
find  to  be  simply  small  beer.  The  parts  of  the  surface  of  the 
metal  which  are  not  burnished  are  “  dead,”  or  “  matted,”  as  they 
come  from  the  ormolu.  Much  of  the  beauty  and  character  of  the 
work  depends  upon  a  judicious  selection  of  the  parts  to  be  bur¬ 
nished.  It  is,  to  the  proper  development  of  the  design,  what 
lights  and  shades  are  to  a  good  picture. 

The  process  of  lacquering,  which  is  a  very  important  one,  is 
carried  on  in  a  room  supplied  with  stoves,  which  are  kept  in  all 
seasons  constantly  heated.  Here  the  various  articles  are  placed 
upon  hot  iron  after  being  carefully  brushed.  When  heated  to  a 
certain  degree,  the  articles  are  taken  to  a  table,  where  the  lacquer  is 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


313 


applied  with  fine,  flat  brushes.  Some  articles  are  dipped  into  the 
lacquer,  and  11  slung  ”  backwards  and  forwards,  in  order  to  make 
it  certain  that  the  lacquer  is  properly  spread  over  their  surfaces. 
The  lacquer  must  be  scientifically  prepared  and  skilfully  applied 
to  insure  a  rich  and  lasting  gold  color,  unaffected  by  the  action 
of  the  atmosphere.  t 

The  different  parts  and  ornaments  after  undergoing  the  processes 
described  are  ready  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  fitter  or  finisher, 
and  are  selected  and  taken  to  the  respective  places  for  putting  them 
together.  One  room  is  occupied  entirely  by  a  number  of  men  who 
are  constantly  employed  in  fitting  together  such  gas  work  as  chan¬ 
deliers,  pendants,  brackets,  etc.  ;  another  room  is  devoted  to  the 
numerous  class  of  solar  lamps  designed  for  standing  upon  the 
table,  or  to  be  suspended  from  the  ceiling  or  against  the  wall. 
Some  of  the  ornamental  work  is  painted  in  party-colors,  to 
please  fanciful  tastes  ;  some  is  bronzed  in  different  shades,  while 
other  work  is  covered  with  a  coating  of  fine  gold,  or  tastefully 
enamelled. 

We  have  now  noted  the  processes  by  which  blocks  of  spelter 
and  of  copper  are  converted  into  articles  of  use  and  taste.  But 
many  of  them  to  which  we  have  alluded  are  only  th6  branches  or 
outer  flourishes  of  a  grand  design.  The  construction  of  a  chan¬ 
delier  involves  much  more  than  we  have  noted.  The  main  body 
of  a  chandelier  is  a  hollow  shell  of  metal,  technically  called  a 
“  bowl.”  Formerly  the  making  of  the  bowls  was  a  tedious  pro¬ 
cess.  A  plate  of  brass  was  hammered  into  shape  by  hand,  and 
often  .occupied  eight  or  nine  hours  for  the  forming  of  a  bowl. 
Now,  by  the  improved  machinery  of  Messrs.  Cornelius  &  Sons, 
one  man  can  turn  out  several  hundred  a  day.  A  plate  of  brass  is 
cut  or  stamped  out  in  a  circular  form,  a  small  hole  being  also  cut 
in  its  centre.  It  is  then  taken  to  a  turning  lathe.  A  block  of 
wood  of  the  desired  shape  is  fixed  firmly  in  the  lathe,  and  the 
brass  plate  is  secured  at  its  centre  to  the  block.  The  “  spinner” 
then  lubricates  the  surface  of  the  plate,  that  his  tools  may  work 
easily.  The  lathe  is  set  in  motion,  and  the  wooden  block,  with  the 
brass  plate  attached,  is  made  to  revolve  rapidly ;  and  the  “  spin¬ 
ner,'”  by  means  of  a  smooth  iron  tool,  presses  the  plate  over  the 
wooden  mould,  until  it  covers  it  closely  in  every  part.  This  forms 
one  half  of  a  “bowl.”  The  process  is  expeditious,  but  requires 
both  strength  and  skill  in  the  operator.  After  being  spun,  the  bowl 
then  undergoes  the  processes  of  turning,  filing,  fitting,  dipping, 
18 


8 14 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMFS. 


burnishing,  and  lacquering,  and  is  ready  to  form  the  body  or  centre 
of  the  chandelier,  to  which  the  branches,  etc.,  are  fastened  by 
means  of  several  vases,  and  a  variety  of  other  articles  are  spun  in 
the  same  manner. 

There  is  a  vast  amount  of  turning  of  metals  required  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  immense  business.  The  drilling  machines, 
tapping  machines,  and  screw  cutters,  would  of  themselves  form 
the  interesting  subject  of  a  long  article.  One  apartment  is  de¬ 
voted  to  the  grinding  of  keys,  or  faucets  of  the  gas  fixtures. 
This  work  requires  the  utmost  care,  as  an  aperture  almost  imper¬ 
ceptible  would  occasion  a  serious  leak.  There  are  other  rooms  on 
which  tin  and  coppersmiths  are  engaged  at  their  special  branches 
of  business.  The  packing  rooms  of  this  establishment  reveal  the 
vastness  of  the  business  ;  tons  of  paper  being  annually  used  to 
wrap  the  goods  for  transportation. 

The  “  Pattern  Room  is  a  museum  of  art.  It  is  large  and  well 
stocked,  kept  under  lock  and  key,  and  watched  with  jealous  care. 
Here  a  copy  is  preserved  of  every  pattern  worthy  of  being  re¬ 
tained  made  by  the  proprietors  since  the  commencement  of  their 
business.  The  collection  is  valued  at  a  high  rate.  The  articles 
could  not  be*  replaced. 

The  gas  fixtures  of  this  establishment  arc  to  be  found  in  the 
majority  of  dwelling-houses  lighted  by  gas  throughout  the  land, 
and  their  lamps  are  everywhere  seen,  while  nearly  every  capital 
in  the  United  States,  together  with  most  of  the  large  public  build¬ 
ings  and  churches  in  the  cities,  are  lighted  with  chandeliers  made 
by  the  Messrs.  Cornelius.  Their  work  enjoys  no  less  high  repu¬ 
tation  for  its  faithfulness,  than  for  the  conscientious  manner  in 
which  it  is  constructed  throughout.  The  large  aorona  chandelier 
for  the  Columbus  Avenue  Church,  Boston,  in  Gothic  style,  gilt  re¬ 
lieved  with  blue  and  crimson,  with  a  cross  pendant,  may  be  cited 
as  an  example  of  the  great  beauty  in  form  and  finish  of  their 
work.  But  it  is  needless  to  specify  the  magnificent  works  of  this 
establishment.  The  public  favor  which,  in  recognition  of  the 
great  art,  skill  of  the  establishment,  and  the  fair  dealings  of  the 
high-toned  gentlemen  who  conduct  it,  has  made  the  establish¬ 
ment  the  first  in  importance  in  the  world,  is  assurance  enough 
that  the  wares  of  this  house  are  of  the  highest  character  possi¬ 
ble  to  the  art. 

About  five  hundred  workmen  are  employed  in  this  vast  estab¬ 
lishment,  and  with  the  splendid  improvements  in  the  machinery 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMPS. 


315 


which  they  operate,  and  the  perfect  arrangements  for  combination 
of  labor  which  the  establishment  possesses,  are  able  to  complete 
annually  an  amount  of  work,  which,  under  the  processes  that 
obtained  a  few  years  ago,  it  Would  require  an  army  of  thousands 
of  men  to  perform. 

Christian  Cornelius,  the  founder  of  the  house,  was  born  in  Am¬ 
sterdam,  Holland.  His  father  was  a  mathematical  instrument 
maker,  and  he  learned  the  trade  of  a  silversmith.  He  came  to 
this  country,  landing  in  Philadelphia,  about  1800,  where  he  soon 
acquired  a  reputation  as  a  very  skilful  worker  in  metal.  He  soon 
commenced  business  upon  his  own  account  as  a  manufacturer  of 
silver  plated  ware ;  and  having  associated  with  him  his  son  Robert, 
the  present  senior  partner  of  the  house,  the  firm,  about  1827,  added 
to  their  specialty  the  making  of  lamps  and  chandeliers.  Robert 
Cornelius  was  born  in  1809,  in  Philadelphia,  and  after  passing 
through  the  schools  of  that  city,  commenced  to  take  part  in  his 
father’s  business,  going  practically  through  every  department  of  it. 
At  the  same  time  he  studied  chemistry  under  Dr.  Troost,  of  Nash¬ 
ville  University,  and  drawing,  under  James  Cox,  the  artist.  The 
good  result  of  this  training  was  seen  in  the  improvements  he  sug- ' 
gested  in  many  of  the  operations  of  the  business,  and  in  the 
mechanical  devices  he  invented  to  facilitate  many  of  the  processes 
of  manufacture. 

In  1831,  Robert  was  admitted  to  the  partnership,  under  the 
style  Cornelius  and  Son  ;  and  as  soon  as  the  use  of  gas  was  intro¬ 
duced,  the  firm  began  to  turn  their  attention  to  supplying  the 
necessary  appliances  for  its  consumption.  Robert  Cornelius  had 
also  invented  and  patented  a  solar  lamp,  for  burning  lard  or  sperm 
oil,  which  was  largely  used  ;  and  besides  his  attention  to  the  in¬ 
crease  and  perfection  of  the  processes  in  his  own  business,  his  in¬ 
terest  in  chemical  studies  led  him  to  experiment  with  the  daguer¬ 
reotype,  when  that  new  art  was  first  suggested,  and  he  was  the 
first  who  made  use  of  bromine,  by  which  the  time  needed  for 
taking  a  picture  was  reduced  from  ten  minutes  to  ten  seconds. 
He  also  experimented  with,  and  improved  many  of  the  processes 
of  plating,  by  electric  and  galvano-electric  methods,  and  applied 
the  “  electrophorus,”  —  an  arrangement  by  which  the  gas  is  lighted 
by  electricity,  and  which  is  not  affected  by  the  weather,  and  works 
only  with  the  simplest  movement. 

The  firm  at  present  consists  of  Robert  Cornelius  and  his  three 
sons.  (Christian,  the  founder  of  the  house,  died  in  1851.)  The 


316 


GAS  FIXTURES  AND  LAMFS. 


younger  members  of  the  firm  have  received  all  the  advantages  of 
education  and  careful  scientific  training  which  our  modern  times 
afford,  and  then  entering  the  manufactory,  have  acquired  a  thorough, 
practical  knowledge  of  all  the  mechanical  and  chemical  processes 
of  the  business,  and  thus  are  fully  able  to  take  part  in  keeping  the 
organization  of  their  enterprise  abreast  with  the  new  demands  of 
the  time,  and  the  growing  love  of  artistic,  as  well  as  other  merits. 
The  wisdom  of  this  course  is  proved  by  the  success  which  the 
firm  has  made,  and  the  universal  demand  which  they  have  created 
for  their  wares. 


/ 


PIANO-FORTES. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ART  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  INVENTION  OF  THE  FULL 
IRON  FRAME,  THE  OVERSTRUNG  SQUARE  AND  GRAND  PIANO.  —  INTRODUC¬ 
TION  OF  THE  IMPROVED  UPRIGHT  PIANO.  —  THE  MANUFACTORY  AND  WARE- 
ROOM  OF  MESSRS.  STEINWAY  AND  SONS,  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  HOUSE  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  STEINWAY  HALL.  —  THE  AMERICAN  PIANO  TRADE  AND 
INTERNAL  REVENUE  STATISTICS. 

The  state  alike  of  civilization  and  education  of  a  people  must 
undoubtedly  be  measured  by  the  degree  in  which  it  cultivates  the 
fine  arts.  If  these  premises  be  correct,  the  United  States  have 
attained  a  development  of  civilization  which,  but  a  few  years  since, 
would  have  been  regarded  as  impossible ;  since,  notwithstanding 
the  existence  of  the  most  gigantic,  sanguinary,  and  destructive 
civil  war  which  the  world  has  ever  witnessed, — a  war  which  caused 
the  American  continent  to  tremble  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  which  raged  with  uncontrollable  fury  for  the 
space  of  four  years, — the  United  States  have  succeeded  in  bringing 
to  perfection  an  art  industry,  the  inventive  creations,  developments, 
and  culminating  results  of  which  are  devoted  to  the  Muses.  The 
true  place  of  this  art  is  at  the  altar  tff  “  home,”  where  it  shines 
calm  and  effulgent,  animating  or  soothing,  in  turn,  in  the  form  of 
domestic  musical  harmony. 

For  the  elevation  and  development  of  this  class  of  music,  so 
genially  acceptable,  and  so  intrinsically  valuable  in  the  home  circle, 
America  received  the  instrumental  medium  from  Europe  —  that 
medium  was  “The  Piano-forte,”  to  which  this  educating  and  enno¬ 
bling  mission  was  intrusted. 

Until  the  commencement  of  the  present  century  the  attempts  at 
piano-forte  making  in  the  United  States  were  few,  and  the  results 
achieved  without  any  practical  significance.  From  the  year  1825 
the  first  steps  of  improvement  in  American  piano  making  may  be 

(319) 


320 


PIANO-FORTES. 


traced.  In  that  year  the  first  attempts  were  made  to  give  "the 
body”  of  the  instrument  more  durability  and  increased  power  of 
resistance  against  "the  pull”  of  the  strings,  by  the  application  of 
a  full  frame  of  cast-iron  in  place  of  wood.  These  experiments 
were  naturally  first  tried  on  Square  Pianos,  as  these  instruments 
were  the  most  used,  and  those  almost  exclusively  manufactured  in 
America,  for  the  imported  "  Upright  ”  Pianos  did  not  satisfy  even 
the  most  moderate  requirements  under  existing  circumstances. 
Hence  there  arose  a  strong  and  deep-rooted  prejudice  against  this 
class  of  piano-forte,  and  it  is  only  within  the  past  five  years  that 
Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons  of  New  York,  and  one  or  two  other 
firms,  are  manufacturing  Upright  Pianos  in  large  numbers  to  meet 
the  growing  demand  for  this  class  of  instrument. 

In  the  year  1825  Alpheus  Babcock,  of  Philadelphia,  obtained  a 
patent  for  the  construction  of  a  cast-iron  ring  in  a  Square  Piano,  for 
the  purpose  of  increasing  its  power  of  resistance  to  the  pull  of  the 
strings.  By  this  invention  the  principle  was  first  practically  intro¬ 
duced  of  casting  the  iron  hitch  pin-plate,  together  with  that  por¬ 
tion  which  supported  the  wrest-plank,  in  one  piece. 

In  1833  Conrad  Meyer,  of  Philadelphia,  exhibited  at  the  fair  of 
the  Franklin  Institute,  in  that  city,  a  Square  Piano,  .which  was 
constructed  with  a  full  cast-iron  frame. 

The  introduction  of  the  full  iron  frame  was  aided  to  a  great 
extent  by  the  excellence  of  the  quality  of  American  iron,  and  the 
perfection  which  the  art  of  casting  had  already  attained  at  that 
period.  The  fact  was  indisputable  that  the  pianos  thus  made  stood 
better  in  tune  than  those  previously  constructed;  but  one  great 
defect  was  their  thin  and  disagreeably  nasal  character  of  tone. 
For  these  salient  reasons  the  new  invention  soon  had  quite  as 
many  opponents  as  admirers,  so  that  until  the  year  1855  a  large 
majority  of  the  American  piano-forte  manufacturers  made  no  at¬ 
tempt  to  use  it. 

The  New  York  piano-makers  achieved  in  their  instruments  the 
capacity  of  standing  in  tune,  at  least  to  a  degree  not  previously 
accomplished,  by  great  solidity  of  construction,  and  a  heavy  bra¬ 
cing  of  the  case,  and  more  particularly  by  the  use  of  a  solid  bottom, 
or  bed  (of  a  thickness  of  fully  five  inches),  which,  however,  to  some 
extent  marred  the  elegant  appearance  of  the  instrument.  By  de¬ 
grees  a  new  difficulty  manifested  itself  in  the  instruments  thus 
made,  for  as  their  compass  gradually  extended,  and  finally  reached 
seven  or  seven  and  one  third  octaves,  it  was  found  impossible  to 


PIANO-FORTES. 


321 


obtain  the  necessary  power  of  resistance  against  “the  pull”  of 
the  strings,  even  by  the  most  solid  construction  of  the  case,  when 
wood  alone  was  the  material  used. 

It  therefore  became  necessary  to  apply  the  iron  frame,  but  in 
such  a  manner,  however,  as  to  avoid  the  deleterious  influence,  pre¬ 
viously  ascribed  to  it  as  so  objectionable,  in  order  that  the  piano 

might  lose  none  of  its  fulness  and  power  of  tone.  This  successful 

% 

result  was  first  achieved  by  the  firm  of  Steinway  &  Sons,  of  New 
York,  who  in  1855  constructed  a  piano  with  a  solid  front  bar  and 
full  iron  frame,  the  latter  covering  the  wrest-plank;  the  wrest- 
plank  bridge,  however,  being  made  of  wood.  The  brace,  which 
in  the  treble  connected  the  “hitch-pin  plate”  with  the  wrest-plank 
plate,  was  slightly  elevated  above  the  strings,  and  ran  in  a  differ¬ 
ent  direction  to  the  latter;  namely,  exactly  to  the  angle  at  which 
the  wrest-plank  had  to  sustain  the  pull  of  the  strings.  The  bridges 
of  the  sounding-board  were  grouped  in  such  a  manner  that  they 
were  moved  considerably  nearer  to  the  middle  of  the  latter,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  lineal  length  of  these  bridges  was  increased 
by  placing  the  bass  strings  of  the  instrument  —  or  over-stringing 
them — over  the  others,  over  three  nearly  parallel  bridges,  increas¬ 
ing  the  length  of  the  latter,  over  the  sounding-board,  viz.,  from 
forty  to  sixty-eight  inches,  their  position  being  removed  from  the 
iron-covered  edges  of  the  case,  nearer  to  the  centre  of  the  sound¬ 
ing-board.  The  results  achieved  from  this  novel  construction  were 
in  every  way  most  successful.  The  first  instrument  made  on  this 
plan  received,  by  a  unanimous  verdict  of  the  jury,  the  first  prize, 
a  gold  medal,  at  the  exhibition  of  the  American  Institute,  at  the 
Crystal  Palace  in  New  York,  in  1855.  This  new  method  of  con¬ 
struction  very  soon  became  the  standard  for  all  manufacturers  in 
that  and  other  cities,  and  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained  all  Square 
Pianos  manufactured  in  the  United  States  at  the  present  time 
are,  to  a  more  or  less  extent,  constructed  in  accordance  with  this 
system. 

In  1859  an  improvement  of  great  importance  was  made  in  Square 
Pianos  by  Messrs  Stein  way  &  Sons,  and  patented  by  them.  This 
consisted  of  an  iron  frame  with  a  downward  projection,  which  ran 
'parallel  with  the  wrest-plank,  abutting  against  the  same  —  thus 
giving  it  an  extraordinary  degree  of  firmness  and  solidity.  Into 
this  projection  “  The  Agraffes  ”  (invented  by  the  gifted  Sebastian 
Erard,  of  Paris,  and  first  applied  in  his  Grand  Pianos)  were  screwed 
—  this  being  the  first  successful  application  jff  Agraffes  to  the 


322 


PIANO-FORTES. 


treble  of  a  Square  Piano.  This  application  of  the  Agraffes  only  be¬ 
came  practically  possible  after  the  invention  of  a  drilling  machine, 
peculiarly  constructed  to  achieve  the  object  in  view.  This  new 
Agraffe  arrangement  was  used  in  all  Grand,  and  the  highest  priced 
Square  Pianos,  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons,  and 
subsequently  in  all  their  Square  Pianos.  This  firm  has  for  years 
past  manufactured  and  sold  the  average  number  of  forty  Square 
Pianos  per  week. 

The  Grand  Piano,  beyond  a  doubt  the  most  perfect  and  magnifi¬ 
cent  of  the  three  ordinary  species  of  piano-fortes,  had,  up  to  a 
comparatively  .recent  period,  received  but  little  attention  from 
either  the  manufacturers  or  public  of  the  United  States,  until 
towards  the  year  1840.  The  sale  of  a  Grand  Piano  was  an  event 
of  rare  occurrence,  and  European  pianists,  visiting  the  United 
States,  almost  invariably  brought  their  concert  instruments  with 
them. 

Several  piano  makers  of  New  York  and  Boston  made  Grand 
Pianos  occasionally,  but  the  demand  for  this  class  of  instruments 
was  so  very  limited  that  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons,  prior  to  the  year 
1856,  did  not  deem  it  advisable  to  give  a  new  impulse  to  this  class 
of  instruments  by  commencing  its  manufacture.  The  first  Grand 
Pianos  made  by  this  firm  were  constructed  with  a  straight  stringed 
scale  and  full  iron  frame,  a  treble  piece  of  brass  or  iron,  and  with 
Agraffes  in  the  middle  tones  and  the  bass,  screwed  in  the  wood. 
These  Grand  Pianos  soon  became  extensively  popular,  and  were 
so  favorably  regarded  by  professional  artists  and  the  public,  that 
they  were  soon  brought  into  extensive  use  in  the  concert-room, 
and  large  numbers  of  them  were  made  and  sold. 

The  firm  obtained,  subsequently,  several  patents  for  new  Grand 
Piano  actions  and  improvements;  but  the  most  important  improve¬ 
ment  of  all  in  the  construction  of  these  instruments  was  patented 
by  Messrs.  Stein  way  &  Sons  on  the  20th  of  December,  1859. 
This  improvement  consisted  of  the  introduction  of  a  complete  cast- 
iron  frame,  the  projection  for  the  Agraffes  lapping  over  and  abut¬ 
ting  against  the  wrest-plank,  together  with  an  entirely  new  arrange¬ 
ment  of  the  strings  and  braces  of  this  iron  frame,  by  which  the 
most  important  and  advantageous  results  were  achieved.  The 
strings  were  arranged  in  such  a  position,  that  in  the  treble  register 
their  direction  remained  parallel  with  the  blow  of  the  hammers, 
whilst  from  the  centre  of  the  scale  the  unisons  of  the  strings  were 
gradually  spread  from  right  to  left  in  the  form  of  a  fan,  along  the 


PIANO-FORTES. 


323 


bridge  of  the  sound-board, —  the  covered  strings  of  the  lower  oc¬ 
taves  being  laid  a  little  higher  and  crossing  the  other  ones  (in  the 
same  manner  as  the  other  strings),  and  spread  from  left  to  right  on 
a  lengthened  sound-board  bass  bridge,  which  ran  in  a  parallel  direc¬ 
tion  to  the  first  bridge.  By  this  arrangement  several  important 
advantages  were  obtained  ;  by  the  longer  bridges  of  the  sounding- 
board  a  greater  portion  of  its  surface  was  covered — the  space 
between  the  unisons  of  the  strings  was  increased,  by  which  means 
the^sound  was  more  powerfully  developed  from  the  sounding- 
board — the  bridges,  being  moved  from  the  iron-covered  edges 
nearer  to  the  middle  of  the  sounding-board,  producing  a  larger 
volume  of  tone,  whilst  the  oblique  position  of  these  strings  to  the 
blow  of  the  hammers  resulted  in  obtaining  those  rotating  vibra¬ 
tions  which  gave  to  the  thicker  strings  a  softness  and  pliability 
never  previously  known.  The  new  system  of  bracing  was  also  far 
more  effective,  and  the  power  of  standing  in  tune  greatly  increased. 

The  first  Grand  Piano  constructed  in  this  novel  manner  was 
played  on  publicly,  for  the  first  time,  at  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Music,  on  the  8th  of  February,  1859,  and  created  a  great  and 
marked  sensation. 

The  best  proof  that  can  be  adduced  of  the  success  achieved  by 
these  new  Grand  Pianos  (in  which  many  subsequent  improvements 
were  introduced)  is  the  fact  that  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons,  during 
the  last  ten  years,  have  manufactured  and  sold  an  average  of  ten 
of  these  instruments  every  week,  and  that  in  1871  the  demand  for 
these  pianos  became  so  extensive  in  America*  as  well  as  abroad, 
that  the  firm  was  unable  to  manufacture  even  half  of  the  Grand 
'  Pianos  demanded  by  the  public. 

The  valuable  improvements  in  Upright  Pianos  made  by  Messrs. 
Steinway  &  Sons,  the  most  important  of  which  were  patented 
June  5,  1866  —  are  essentially  .as  follows,  viz. :  the  introduction 
of  a  complete  double  iron  frame  —  the  front  plate  and  back  brace- 
frame  being  connected  with  each  other,  and  cast  in  one  solid  piece. 
One  side  of  this  double  iron  frame  is  left  open,  and  into  it  the  sound¬ 
ing-board  is  inserted,  being'  received  and  sustained  in  its  position 
by  an  apparatus  consisting  of  a  number  of  screws,  which  press  the 
outer  edges  of  the  sounding-board  towards  its  centre.  A  clear, 
powerful,  as  well  as  unusually  long  and  singing  tone,  of  pure  and 
sympathetic  quality,  combined  with  unexampled  durability  and 
capacity  of  standing  in  tune,  are  the  important  results  obtained 
by  this  new  invention. 


324 


PIANO-FORTES. 


The  application  of  the  same  species  of  apparatus  to  Grand 
Pianos  has  resulted,  in  an  equally  favorable  manner,  in  largely 
increasing  the  “  singing  ”  quality  and  beauty  of  the  tone  ;  for,  by 
its  use,  the  necessary  pressure  against  the  inner  portion  of  the 
sounding-board  can  be  readily  regulated  to  the  greatest  nicety,  and 
the  tension  of  the  sounding-board  placed  forever  under  control. 

Another  most  important  improvement  applied  by  Messrs.  Stein¬ 
way  &  Sons  to  their  Grand  and  Upright  Pianos  since  1868,  is 
their  Patent  Metallic  Tubular  Frame  Action,  by  which  the  touch 
of  these  instruments  has  been  brought  to  its  present  perfection. 
The  sensation  which  has  been  created  and  the  demand  that  has 
arisen  for  these  new  Upright  Pianos  is  so  large  that  the  firm  has 
found  it  impossible  to  fill  the  orders  received  for  them  ;  and  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  Upright  Pianos  will,  in  course  of  time,  be 
as  generally  used  in  the  United  States  as  this  class  of  instrument 
is  in  Europe. 

Piano-Forte  Manufactory  of  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons. 

The  Piano-forte  Manufactory  of  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons  is 
located  on  Fourth  Avenue,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  on  which  its 
frontage  occupies  the  entire  block  between  Fifty-second  and  Fifty- 
third  Streets  (201  feet),  the  depth  of  the  front  building  being  40 
feet.  The  wings  of  the  main  building,  extending  down  Fifty- 
seQond  and  Fifty-third  Streets,  are  each  165  feet  in  length  by  40 
feet  in  depth ;  the  entire  building,  including  the  basement,  is  six 
stories  high.  Adjoining  the  Fifty-third  Street  wing  is  located  a 
building  of  100  feet  front  and  four  stories  high.  These  factory 
buildings  have  an  uninterrupted  frontage  extent  on  the  avenue 
and  streets  named  of  631  feet. 

The  architecture  of  the  building  is  of  the  modern  Italian  style ; 
it  is  built  in  the  most  solidly  substantial  manner,  of  the  best  brick, 
with  lintel  arches  of  the  same,  and  brick  dental  cornices.  The 
basement  walls  are  two  feet  thick,  set  in  concrete  ;  the  first  story 
walls  20  inches,  and  the  upper  walls  16  inches,  in  thickness.  The 
factory  buildings  proper  cover  seventeen  city  lots  of  ground,  twelve 
others  being  used  for  seasoning  lumber,  etc.  The  side-wings  are 
separated  from  the  main  front  building  by  solid  walls,  extending 
from  basement  to  roof,  passage-ways  running  through  them,  each 
of  which  is  provided  with  double  iron  doors  on  either  side,  so  that 
in  the  event  of  a  fire  occurring,  only  that  portion  of  the  building 
in  which  it  originated  can  be  destroyed. 


PIANO-FORTES 


325 


In  the  yard,  which  is  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  the  front 
building  and  the  wings,  are  two  independent  buildings,  two  stories 
in  height,  the  dimensions  of  which  are  respectively  40  by  78  feet* 
and  100  by  20  feet ;  the  lower  floors  of  which  are  devoted  to  the 
steam  drying-rooms  and  the  packing-box  factory.  In  the  upper 
floors  of  these  buildings  all  the  actions  and  dampers  are  manufac¬ 
tured  by  the  most  skilful  workmen  to  be  obtained,  and  aided  by  a 
series  of  the  most  perfect  and  ingenious  machinery  that  exists  for 
the  construction  of  these  parts. 


STEINWAY  &  SONS’  PIANO-FORTE  FACTORY. 

The  floors  of  the  factory  buildings  have  a  surface  of  160,480 
square  feet.  In  the  rear  of  the  buildings  there  is  an  open  space 
of  ground  containing  an  area  of  40,000  square  feet,  on  which 
3,000,000  feet  of  lumber  are  constantly  stored  in  the  open  air,  for 
seasoning  purposes ;  each  separate  piece  of  which  is  exposed  to 
all  the  atmospheric  changes  for  two  years,  and  then  kept  in  the 
steam  drying-rooms  for  three  months,  prior  to  being  used.  These 
drying-rooms  are  divided  into  five  compartments,  each  of  which 
contains  about  80,000  feet  of  timber,  so  that  about  400,000  feet 
are  constantly  under  the  process  of  kiln-drying.  Each  of  the  com¬ 
partments  is  heated  by  2000  feet  of  steam-pipe.  Beneath  the  yard 
alluded  to,  there  are  fire-proof  vaults  for  the  storage  of  coal,  and 


326 


PIANO-FORTES. 


here  also  are  placed  four  steam  boilers,  of  the  aggregate  power 
of  320  horses,  by  which  the  necessary  amount  of  steam  is  gener¬ 
ated  for  the  70,000  feet  of  pipe  used  in  heating  the  drying-rooms, 
as  also  heating  the  workshops  and  driving  three  steam  engines  of 
respectively  125,  50,  and  25  horsepower;  these,  in  turn,  putting 
in  motion  no  less  than  102  different  machines. 

The  entire  factory  is  built  on  a  foundation  of  solid  rock,  and  the 
largest  and  heaviest  portions  of  the  machinery  are  placed  in  the 
basements  of  the  building,  and  bedded  on  this  immovable  founda¬ 
tion.  Beneath  the  wing  on  Fifty-third  Street,  no  less  than  five 
planing-machines  are  /located,  which  prepare  the  thoroughly  sea¬ 
soned  and  kiln-dried  wood  for  the  use  of  the  workmen.  The 
largest  of  these  machines  (Daniels’s  patent)  makes  1200  revolu¬ 
tions  a  minute,  and  planes  a  superficial  surface  of  16  feet  in  length 
and  42  inches  in  width,  requiring  seven-horse  power  to  drive  it ; 
this  machine  alone  represents  the  labor  of  27  workmen.  A  second 
machine,  of  three-horse  power,  planes  boards  16  feet  in  length  and 
34  inches  in  width,  making  3200  revolutions  a  minute,  representing 
the  labor  of  28  workmen.  It  would  require  the  extent  of  a  goodly- 
sized  volume  to  describe  the  102  different  planing,  sawing,  jointing 
drilling,  mortising,  turning,  and  other  machines  used  in  this  fac¬ 
tory,  and  to  elucidate  their  various  objects ;  it  therefore  must  suf¬ 
fice  to  state,  that,  from  careful  and  moderate  estimate,  they  replace 
the  hand-labor  of  at  least  500  skilful  workmen  ;  added  to  Which, 
they  do  all  the  hard  and  difficult  work,  which  formerly,  to  so  great 
an  extent,  endangered  the  health,  and  even  the  lives,  of  the  work¬ 
men  employed  in  this  description  of  labor. 

On  the  first  floor  of  the  wing  on  Fifty-third  Street,  the  bottoms, 
wrest-planks,  and  other  portions  of  the  piano  are  glued  up  and 
shaped  by  machinery,  ready  to  be  put  together.  In  the  second 
and  third  stories  the  finer  machinery  is  located.  The  floor  above, 
as  well  as  the  wing  on  Fifty-second  Street,  is  occupied  by  the  case- 
makers,  who  fit  together  all  the  parts  made  below,  veneer  the  cases, 
and  prepare  them  for  varnishing.  On  each  floor  of  the  case-mak¬ 
ers’  department  there  are  three  large  heating-boxes,  constructed 
of  sheet-iron  and  lined  on  the  inside  with  a  sufficient  amount  of 
steam-pipe  to  produce  a  heat  of  200  degrees.  The  varnishing- 
rooms  occupy  the  entire  top  floors  of  the  front  building  and  side- 
wings,  and  extend  a  length  of  531  feet. 

From  these  last  described  floors  the  completely  finished  and 
varnished  cases  are  transferred  to  the  floor  beneath,  in  the  front 


PIANO-FORTES. 


32* 


building,  where  the  sounding-boards  are  fitted  into  the  cases;  on 
the  next  floor  below  the  pianos  are  strung,  and  the  action  and  key¬ 
boards  are  fitted  in,  which  latter  are  manufactured  on  the  corre¬ 
sponding  floor  of  the  wing  on  Fif’ty-second  Street.  Here,  also,  the 
ready-varnished  tops,  the  legs,  and  the  lyres  of  the  instrument  are 
adjusted  and  put  on ;  after  which,  on  the  next  floor,  the  action  and 
touch  are  carefully  regulated  and  equalized  to  the  greatest  degree 
of  accuracy.  After  this  is  completed,  the  thoroughly  finished  Piano 
is  sent  to  the  sales-rooms,  where  it  receives  its  final  polish  prior  to 
being  delivered  to  the  purchaser.  On  the  same  floor  of  the  build¬ 
ing  on  Fifty-third  Street,  the  office  of  the  establishment  is  located, 
from  which,  by  the  medium  of  a  private  magnetic  telegraph,  the 
manufactory  is  brought  into  direct  communication  with  the  ware- 
rooms  on  Fourteenth  Street. 

Next  to  the  office  is  the  store-room,  where  the  actions,  felt, 
leather,  screws,  ivory,  strings,  tuning-pins,  etc.,  used  in  the  con¬ 
struction  of  the  inner  portions  of  the  piano,  are  stored.  Of  these 
articles  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons  invariably  keep  a  vast  supply  on 
hand,  the  average  value  of  which  is  from  $40,000  to  $50,000.  The 
basement  of  the  building  contains  the  iron  and  the  machinery  neces¬ 
sary  for  shaping  its  use  to  the  various  portions  of  the  instrument. 

Throughout  the  entire  building  no  fire  is  used,  every  portion  of 
it  being  heated  by  steam-pipes,  and  lighted  throughout  with  gas. 
Four  large  steam  elevators  —  two  in  the  front  building  and  one  in 
each  wing — are  used  for  the  transportation  of  all  heavy  articles, 
either  up  or  down.  In  the  three  extreme  points  of  the  building 
“tell-tale  clocks”  are  placed,  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  trust¬ 
worthiness  of  the  night-watchman ;  from  these  clocks  wires  are 
carried  to  every  floor,  which,  if  not  touched  at  certain  prescribed 
intervals  of  time,  the  watcher  has  neglected  his  rounds,  and  the 
fact  is  recorded  on  the  face  of  the  dials. 

This  vast  manufacturing  business  is  divided  into  eighteen  de¬ 
partments,  each  of  which  is  placed  under  the  control  and  constant 
personal  inspection  of  a  skilled  foreman,  these,  in  turn,  being  con¬ 
trolled  by  a  head  foreman.  No  workman  is  permitted  to  work  at 
more  than  one  branch  of  the  business  ;  thus,  from  the  fact  that 
every  workman  is  continually  making  only  one  and  the  same  arti¬ 
cle,  he  achieves  an  absolute  perfection  in  his  work,  unattainable  in 
small  factories,  where  such  strict  subdivision  of  labor  cannot  exist. 
Again,  in  this  great  and  Strictly  adhered  to  division  of  labor,  the 
article,  until  it  is  finally  completed,  passes  through  the  hands  of  a 


828 


PIANO-FORTES. 


number  of  different  workmen,  none  of  whom  receive  it  from  the 
previous  workman  in  that  stage  of  manufacture  unless  it  is  per¬ 
fectly  faultless  in  every  respect. 

The  control  of  the  factory,  the  warerooms,  the  various  pur¬ 
chases,  is  under  the  direct  personal  supervision  of  the  members 
of  the  firm  of  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons.  All  inventions  and 
changes  in  the  manufacture  of  pianos,  and  all  other  important 
business  acts,  are  the  result  of  common  consideration  and  debate 
among  the  members  of  the  firm,  and  to  this  harmonious  coopera¬ 
tion  and  unanimity  of  action,  a  large  proportion  of  the  unexampled 
success  which  the  firm  has  achieved  may  be  attributed. 

/ 

The  Warerooms  and  Concert  Hall  of  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons. 

This  building  is  located  on  East  Fourteenth  Street,  between 
Union  Square  and  the  Academy  of  Music  (Italian  Opera  House). 
It  has  a  frontage  of  white  marble,  four  stories  high,  and  50  feet 
wide,  by  a  depth  of  84  feet  ;  from  this  point  the  buildings  are  100 
feet  wide,  extending  to  Fifteenth  Street,  a  distance  of  123  feet. 

The  entire  first  floor  from  Fourteenth  to  Fifteenth  Streets,  a 
depth  of  207  feet,  is  exclusively  devoted  to  the  exhibition  and  sale 
of  the  piano-fortes  manufactured  by  the  firm.  At  the  left  of  the 
entrance  on  Fourteenth  Street  is  a  room  for  Square  Pianos,  17  feet 
high,  23  feet  wide,  and  84  feet  deep.  Contiguous  to  this  room  is 
the  office  of  the  firm,  from  which  a  private  telegraph  extends  to 
the  factory,  two  miles  distant.  From  this  office  doors  lead  to  the 
room  devoted  to  Grand  Pianos,  which  is  17  feet  high,  25  feet  wide, 
and  80  feet  deep.  In  connection  with  this  hall  are  two  smaller 
rooms  for  the  tuning  and  regulating  of  Grand  Pianos. 

On  the  opposite  or  westerly  side  of  the  building  are  the  ware- 
rooms  for  Upright  Pianos,  rooms  for  tuners  and  polishers,  and  the 
regulating  room,  where  every  piano  is  carefully  examined,  pre¬ 
pared  for  the  climate  of  its  destination,  and  thoroughly  regulated, 
prior  to  being  shipped  or  sent  home. 

The  main  entrance  to  the  warerooms  and  upper  floors  of  the 
front  building  is  through  an  elegant  marble  portico  on  Fourteenth 
Street,  17  feet  in  width,  supported  by  four  Corinthian  columns, 
leading  to  a  large  vestibule,  from  which  a  door  on  the  left  con¬ 
ducts  to  the  warerooms,  and  one  on  the  right  to  the  ticket  office, 
which  is  located  in  a  large  vestibule  with  two  wide  entrances 
from  Fourteenth  Street.  From  this  latter  vestibule  a  staircase, 
14  feet  wide,  and  from  the  other  vestibule  a  staircase  7  feet 


« 


PIANO-FORTES*  329 

wide,  lead  direct  to  a  large  vestibule  on  the  next  floor  above,  42 
feet  in  height,  thoroughly  lighted  and  ventilated. 

From  this  latter  vestibule  three  large  doors  lead  to  the  main 
floor  of  the  Concert  Hall,  and  two  separate  stairways  to  each 
of  the  two  balconies  above. 

The  hall  is  123  feet  long  by  75  feet  wide,  and  42  feet  high,  and 
has  2000  numbered  seats.  The  lighting  by  two  patent  sun-burner 
apparatuses  of  Defries  &  Son,  London,  is  brilliant  in  the  extreme. 
The  hall,  as  well  as  the  whole  building,  is  heated  entirely  by  steam, 
and  the  ventilation  is  most  complete.  The  hall,  with  its  splendid 
ontfit  and  frescoing,  and  its  boldly  arched  galleries,  at  once  creates 
the  impression  that  it  is  an  opera  hall,  without  its  losing  the  noble 
simplicity  of  a  grand  concert-room  ;  and  according  to  the  unani¬ 
mous  verdict  of  artists,  the  musical  public,  and  the  newspaper 
press  in  regard  to  its  perfect  acoustic  qualities,  is  admitted  to 
surpass  every  other  music  hall  in  the  United  States. 

In  connection  with  this  large  hall,  which  is  supplied  with  an 
organ  of  forty-two  registers,  there  is  also  a  smaller  hall,  on  the 
same  floor  and  level,  opposite  the  stage,  25  feet  wide  and  84  feet 
long,  which,  by  means  of  colossal  sliding  partitions,  can  either  be 
opened  into  the  large  hall  or  shut  off  from  it.  In  this  smaller  hall 
400  persons  find  comfortable  accommodation. 

The  American  Piano  Trade. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  manufacture  of  pianos  in  the  United 
States  is  a  marvel  alike  to  those  who  study  the  industrial  resources 
of  our  own  country,  and  those  European  makers  who  once  nearly 
monopolized  the  piano  trade  of  America.  Now  the  reverse  is  the 
case  :  instead  of  being  large  importers,  we  are  large  exporters  of 
pianos,  and  since  the  Paris  Universal  Exposition  of  1867,  the  fame 
of  American  pianos,  especially  those  of  Steinway  &  Sons’  make, 
has  spread  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe,  and  large 
numbers  of  Steinway  Grand  and  Upright  Pianos  are  now  annually 
sold  in  Berlin,  Stockholm,  Madrid,  Paris,  Odessa,  and  other  Euro¬ 
pean  musical  centres. 

The  following  Official  Certificate  of  the  International  Jury  on 
Musical  Instruments  (Class  X),  and  extract  from  the  Official  Re¬ 
port,  will  show  how  complete  was  the  triumph  of  American  Pianos 
at  the  Paris  Universal  Exposition,  in  competition  with  over  400 
instruments  of  all  the  celebrated  piano  makers  of  Europe  :  — 


t 


330 


PIANO-FORTES. 


“  Paris,  July  20,  1867. 

“  I  certify  that  the  First  Gold  Medal  for  American  Pianos  has  been  unani¬ 
mously  awarded  to  Messrs.  Steinway,  by  the  Jury  of  the  International  Exposi¬ 
tion.  First  on  the  List  in  Class  X. 


Melinet,  President  of  the  International  Jury. 
Fetis,  Official  Reporter ,  “  “ 

t  r  _ _ 


The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  Official  Report  of  the  In¬ 
ternational  Jury  on  Musical  Instruments,  published  by  the  Impe¬ 
rial  Commission  in  August,  1868,  comparing  the  relative  merits 


of  the  pianos  exhibited  :  — 


“  The  Pianos  of  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons  are  endowed  with  the  splendid 
sonority,  and  that  seizing  largeness  and  volume  of  tone  hitherto  unknown, 
which  fills  the  greatest  space.  Brilliant  in  the  treble,  singing  in  the  middle, 
and  formidable  in  the  bass,  this  sonority  acts  with  irresistible  power  on  the 
organs  of  hearing.  In  regard  to  expression,  delicate  shading,  variety  of  accen¬ 
tuation,  the  instruments  of  Messrs.  Steinway  have  over  those  of  their  competitors 
an  advantage  which  cannot  be  contested.  The  pianist  feels  under  his  hands  an 
action  pliant  and  easy,  which  permits  him  at  will  to  be  powerful  or  light,  ve¬ 
hement  and  graceful.  These  pianos  are  at  the  same  time  the  instrument  of  the 
virtuoso,  who  wishes  to  astonish  by  the  eclat  of  his  execution,  and  of  the  artist 
who  applies  his  talent  to  the  music  of  thought  and  sentiment  bequeathed  to  us 
by  the  illustrious  masters ;  in  one  word,  they  are  at  the  same  time  the  pianos 
for  the  concert  room  and  the  parlor,  possessing  an  exceptionable  sonority.” 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  list  of  piano  firms  given  on  page  331,  that 
they  are  residents  of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Baltimore,  and  that 
the  aggregate  total  of  their  sales  amounts  to  $5,248,571. 

Besides  those  given  in  tabular  form,  there  are  a  number  of  small 
firms  in  the  three  cities  named,  and  also  several  in  Philadelphia, 
Albany,  Indianapolis,  St.  Louis,  and  even  San  Francisco,  which 
will  increase  the  total  amount  of  annual  production  and  sales  of 
pianos  in  the  United  States  to  fully  25,000  instruments,  netting 
over  seven  millions  of  dollars  ($7,000,000). 

New  York,  the  Empire  City  of  the  Union,  possesses  in  the 
world-famed  mammoth  manufactory  of  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons 
not  only  the  most  extensive  establishment  in  the  United  States, 
but  by  far  the  largest  in  the  world,  as  shown  by  the  fact  of  this 
firm  returning,  as  made  and  sold  during  the  year  1869,  no  less 
than  2200  pianos,  for  the  aggregate  sum  of  $1,205,463,  while  for 
the  year  1871  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons  manufactured  and  sold  2410 


PIANO-FORTES. 


331 


piano-fortes,  the  proceeds  of  which  reached  the  sum  of  $1,352,000. 
The  demand  for  these  celebrated  instruments  for  America,  as  well 
as  Europe,  is  so  great  that  Messrs.  Steinway  are  compelled  to 
constantly  increase  their  manufacturing  facilities. 

Boston,  the  renowned  "  Hub,”  possesses  the  second  largest 
piano  manufactory  in  the  United  States,  and  Baltimore  has  the  third. 

The  following  statistics  of  the  gross  amount  of  sales  of  new 
pianos  made  and  sold  by  the  twenty-six  most  prominent  piano  makers 
in  the  United  States,  for  and  during  the  year  1869  — the  amount 
being  given  by  each  manufacturer  under  oath,  and  taxes  paid 
thereon,  —  were  officially  published  by  the  New  York  Tribune  of 
March  15,  1810  :  — 

Sales  for  the  Year  1869. 


Names. 

Location. 

Amounts. 

Steinway  &  Sons, 

New  York, 

$1,205,463 

Chickering  &  Sons, 

Boston, 

822,402 

William  Knabe  &  Co., 

Baltimore, 

383,511 

Haines  Brothers, 

New  York, 

281,051 

William  P.  Emerson, 

Boston, 

232,119 

Albert  Weber, 

Ne.w  York, 

221,444 

Joseph  P.  Hale, 

New  York, 

201,355 

Hallet,  Davis  &  Co., 

Boston, 

118,549 

C.  F.  Lighte  &  Co., 

New  York, 

155,000 

Ernest  Gabler, 

New  York, 

149,484 

H.  F.  Miller, 

Boston, 

148,359 

George  Steck  &  Co., 

New  York, 

145,500 

Hallet  &  Cumston, 

Boston, 

131,998 

G.  W.  Vose, 

Boston, 

118,413 

Decker  Brothers, 

New  York, 

118,000 

Hazelton  Brothers, 

New  York, 

104,661 

Grovesteen,  Fuller  &  Co., 

New  York, 

96,825 

Stieff  Brothers, 

Baltimore, 

81,410 

Marshall  &  Mittauer, 

New  York, 

80,112 

J.  &  C.  Fischer, 

New  York, 

69,308 

Lindeman  &  Sons, 

New  York, 

62,980 

Kaven,  Bacon  &  Co., 

New  York, 

51,531 

Calenberg  &  Vaupel, 

New  York, 

51,381 

Gaehle  &  Co., 

Baltimore, 

44,903 

Central  Piano  Company, 

New  York, 

44,000 

Kranich,  Bach  &  Co., 

New  York, 

42,622 

19 

Total  $5,248,511 

MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


THE  SLOW  PROGRESS  OF  MECHANICAL  INVENTIONS  RELATING  TO  AGRICULTURE.  — - 
FITZHERBERT’S  “  BOKE  OF  IIUSBANURIE  ”  CITED.  —  TIIE  PRIMITIVE  SICKLE  AND 
THE  MOWER,  A  CONTRAST.  —  VARIOUS  METHODS  OF  GATHERING  GRAIN  AND 
GRASS,  FROM  REMOTEST  ANTIQUITY  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME.  —  REPRESENTA¬ 
TIONS  IN  BAS  RELIEF  ON  THE  TOMBS  OF  EGYPT.  -  THE  “  ANI  ANI  ”  OF  JAVA. 

- THE  REAPER  IN  ANCIENT  GAUL;  PLINY  THE  ELDER’S  ACCOUNT,  PALLADIITS, 

ARTHUR  YOUNG,  WALKER.  - FIRST  LETTERS  PATENT  GRANTED  IN  ENGLAND 

FOR  A  REAPER,  1799.  - OTHER  PATENTS.  —  TIIE  FIRST  MOWING  AND  REAPING 

MACHINES  VERY  COMPLICATED.  —  SALMON’S,  BELL’S,  AND  OTHER  MACHINES. 
— AMERICAN  REAPERS.  —  HUSSEY’S  MACHINE.  —  ONE- WHEELED  MACHINES 

SUPERSEDED  BY  TIIE  TWO-WHEELED.  - MR.  RUFUS  DUTTON’S  INVENTION.  — 

GREAT  TRIAL  OF  MACHINES  AT  AUBURN,  NEW  YORK,  18G6. - REPORT  THEREOF. 

—  MR.  DUTTON’S  GREAT  VICTORY.  - TIIE  “CLIPPER  MOWER  AND  REAPER 

COMPANY”  NOW  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  MANUFACTURERS.  -  THE  NUMBER  OF 

MOWERS  AND  REAPERS  ANNUALLY  MANUFACTURED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — 
THE  SELF  RAKE. 

Whatever  relates  to  agriculture  must  be  of  primal  interest  to  . 
man,  “  of  the  earth,  earthy  ;  ”  and,  in  fact,  the  history  of  agri¬ 
culture  from  the  remotest  period  down  to  this  time  would  neces¬ 
sarily  involve  what  has  been  most  important  to  the  race  in  all 
time.  It  is  a  natural  law,  that  man  shall  live  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow  ;  that  from  the  bosom  of  the  earth  he  shall,  by  greater  or 
less  toil,  draw  his  sustenance.  And  when  surveying  the  wide 
field  of  manufactures,  one  is  struck  with  astonishment  at  the  com¬ 
paratively  few  inventions  and  improvements  which  have  been  made 
in  the  field  of  labor-saving  machinery  adapted  to  agriculture.  In  a 
large  portion  of  the  world,  the  primitive  or  simplest  forms  of  im¬ 
plements  of  husbandry  are  still  in  use.  The  plow  now  used  gen¬ 
erally  in  the  Roman  states,  and,  indeed,  throughout  Italy,  is  but 
a  slight  improvement  on  that  there  used  two  thousand  years  ago; 
and  the  straps  or  ropes  by  which  it  is  attached  to  the  cattle  which 
draw  it  are  fastened  about  their  horns,  the  shoulder  yoke  not 
(332) 


MOWERS  AND  REARERS. 


383 


being’  much  employed.  But  the  experiences  of  one  country,  or 
climate,  are  not  like  those  of  another  ;  and  the  customs  of  hus¬ 
bandry  adapted  to  one  portion  of  the  earth  are  seldom  suited  to 
another  portion  ;  so  that  one  nation  has  not  borrowed  so  much 
from  another,  or  profited  so  much  from  its  real  progress  in  the 
line  of  agricultural  inventions,  as  in  those  of  many  other  arts  of 
peace,  or  of  the  art  of  war,  especially  ;  for  in  the  latter,  one  na¬ 
tion  must  keep  pace  with  another,  or  consent  to  be  reckoned  as 
an  inferior  power,  and  suffer  the  consequences  of  weakness  or 
want  of  skill —  be  “  absorbed,”  “  annexed,”  or  “  trampled  out  of 
existence,”  it  may  be. 

We  have  not  the  space,  to  indulge  in  speculation  or  philoso¬ 
phizing  as  to  the  various  reasons  which  have  retarded  progress 
in  the  line  of  labor-saving  implements  of  husbandry  ;  but  we 
may  remark,  en  passant,  that  in  ancient  times  more  than  now, 
man  seems  to  have  been  more  of  a  pastoral  animal  than  an  agri- 
culturist  proper.  He  lived  more  with  and  upon  his  flocks,  and 
upon  the  fruits  of  trees  and  vines,  and  less  upon  the  cerealia  and 
cultivated  vegetables,  than  the  race  now  does.  We  find  Sir  An¬ 
thony  Fitzherbert  declaring  himself  as  follows  in  his  “  Boke  of 
Ilusbandrie,”  in  1534  (the  first  agricultural  work  published  in 
England)  :  “  A  housebande  cannot  thryve  by  his  cornc  without 
cattell,  nor  by  his  cattell  without  corne  ;  shepc,  in  myne  opinion, 
is  the  most  profitablest  cattell  that  any  man  can  have.”  Sir 
Anthony  had  then  had  forty  years'  experience  as  a  farmer,  and 
undoubtedly  uttered  the  then  prevalent  opinion  on  the  subject. 

The  contrast  between  the  primitive  Sickle  and  the  Mower  and 
Reaper  of  these  days  is  as  wide  almost  as  between  that  of  dark¬ 
ness  and  light ;  or  more  fitly  perhaps,  and  less  exaggeratedly, 
may  be,  between  the  classic  “fig  leaf”  of  the  primal  garden,  and 
the  toilet  of  the  modern  belle  with  her  deftly  woven  silks,  her 
laces  subtly  wrought  by  aching  fingers,  her  cashmere  shawl  made 
of  the  exquisite  wool  of  unborn  lambs,  and  her  diamonds,  found 
after  years  of  the  discoverer's  ceaseless  searching,  and  set  in 
braided  gold. 

A  pertinent  comparison  or  contrast  of  the  past  condition  with: 
the  present  state  of  mechanics  as  related  to  agriculture  might  be 
made  between  the  Norman  Plow  and  its  driver  (as  represented  in 
the  article  on  “Axes  and  Plows  ”p.  114,)  and  the  Mower  “  at  work  ” 
in  the  field,  as  it  appears  in  this  article,  with  its  wondrous  con¬ 
junction  of  power  and  celerity  of  operation,  “  its  weird  icombina- 


334 


MOWERS  AND  REARERS. 


tion  of  mechanic  powers,”  and  its  marvelous  adaptation  of  means 
to  the  ends  of  victory. 

But  we  cannot  probably  better  serve  the  reader  at  this  point, 
than  by  presenting  him  with  the  various  methods  of  gathering 
grain,  grass,  etc.,  from  the  remotest  antiquity  to  this  time,  in  a 
description  which,  we  trust,  will  not  be  found  wanting  in  pleasing 
interest  and  positive  value. 

The  time-honored  sickle,  still  in  use,  is  the  earliest  known  reap¬ 
ing  implement.  We  find  it  mentioned  both  in  the  Hebrew  legends, 
and  the  Christian  scriptures.  That  it  was  used  by  hand  only,  and 
not  as  a  part  of  a  machine,  may  be  inferred  from  a  passage  in  Isaiah 
xvii.  5.  This  was  obviously  the  case  in  Egypt,  judging  from  the 
has  reliefs  upon  some  of  the  buildings  and  tombs,  where  reapers 
are  represented  using  sickles,  some  with  smooth,  and  others  with 
serrated  edge.  Two  of  these  ancient  Egyptian  iron  sickles,  much 
rusted,  are  displayed  in  the  11  Gallery  of  Egyptian  Antiquities/’ 
in  the  British  Museum,  London.  In  Java,  an  instrument  has  been 
in  use  from  time  immemorial  for  reaping  grain,  which  is  described 
in  Sir  Thomas  S.  Raffles’  history  of  that  island.  The  description 
of  the  “  ani  ani  ”  being  very  vague,  it  is  difficult  to  form  a  correct 
opinion  of  the  manner  in  which  it  is  used  ;  and  the  figure  does 
not  remove  the  doubt.  We  surmise,  however,  that  the  reaper 
takes  one  of  the  parts  in  each  hand,  and  in  passing  them,  like  the 
blades  of  shears,  over  each  other,  the  straw  is  cut,  and  by  the 
same  act  the  head  of  grain  is  thrown  into  a  basket  or  apron  worn 
by  the  reaper. 

The  first  account  of  a  machine  to  reap  grain  appears  to  be  that 
given  by  Pliny  the  elder,  who  was  born  A.  D.  23.  He  says,  11  In 
the  extensive  fields  in  the  lowlands  of  Gaul,  vans  (carts)  of  large 
size,  with  projecting  teeth  on  the  edge,  are  driven  on  two  wheels 
through  the  standing  grain,  by  an  ox  yoked  in  a  reverse  position. 
In  this  manner  the  ears  are  torn  off  and  fall  into  the  van.”  Such 
an  idea  of  a  reaping  machine  is  very  like  that  of  the  ancient  war- 
chariots,  to  the  sides  of  which  great  blades  were  fastened,  and 
the  horses  thereof  driven  into  the  ranks  of  the  opposing  army, 
thus  to  reap  a  harvest  of  human  heads.  As  Palladios  (an  Eastern 
prelate,  born  A.  D.  391)  gives  a  similar  account  of  this  machine 
in  the  following  words,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  its  use 
was  continued  through  centuries.  After  describing  the  forms 
of  the  van  and  the  attachment  of  the  animal,  he  continues,  “  All 
tly'  ears  are  caught  by  the  teeth,  and  fall  in  a  heap  into  the 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS.  335 

A 

cart,  the  broken  stalks  being  left  behind.  The  driver,  who  fol¬ 
lows,  generally  regulates  the  elevation  or  depression  of  the  teeth, 
and  thus,  by  a  few  courses  backwards  and  forwards,  the  whole 
crop  is  gathered  in  the  space  of  a  few  hours.  This  system 
is  useful  in  open  level  places,  and  in  those  where  straw  is  not 
absolutely  wanted. ”  In  vol.  iv.  p.  205  of  the  “  Annals  of 
Agriculture  and  other  Useful  Arts,”  collected  and  published  in 
1785,  by  Arthur  Young,  F.  R.  S.,  etc.,  appears  what  is  believed 
to  be  the  earliest  proposal  for  a  mechanical  reaping  machine  in 
Great  Britain.  In  vol.  viii.  p.  161  of  the  same  work  (1787), 
there  is  an  account  of  a  reaping  machine,  suggested  by  the  de¬ 
scriptions  in  Pliny  and  Palladius,  and  invented  by  William  Pitt, 
of  Pendeford.  It  consisted  of  a  reaping  or  rippling  cylinder,  com¬ 
posed  of  numerous  parallel  rows  of  curved  teeth.  This  tooth 
cylinder  is  suspended  in  front  of  a  two-wheeled  car,  and  motion 
communicated  by  means  of  a  pinion  and  cog-wheel,  connected  to 
the  car-wheel  by  a  band  and  pulley  ;  the  iron  combs  of  the  cylin¬ 
ders  hatcheling  off  the  heads  of  grain  and  dropping  them  into  the 
box  behind.  In  “Walker’s  System  of  Philosophy  in  Twelve 
Lectures  ”  (1799),  there  is  a  description  of  a  reaping  machine, 
though  by  whom  invented,  or  when,  does  not  appear.  The  move¬ 
ment  of  the  cutters  is  represented  as  being  circular.  The  knife 
wheel  is  put  in  motion  by  a  pulley  fixed  on  its  axle,  and  made  to 
cut  like  shears  against  the  sharp  edges  of  steel  points  projecting 
beyond  it  into  the  standing  grain,  the  cut  wheat  being  removed 
from  the  platform  by  a  lever  attached  to  the  axle  of  the  cutter- 
wheel.  The  whole  is  pushed  forward  by  a  horse. 

The  first  patent  for  a  reaping  machine  in  England  was  obtained 
by  Joseph  Boyce,  of  Pine  Apple  Place,  Mary-le-bone,  on  the  4tli 
of  July,  1799.  On  the  20th  of  May,  1800,  letters  patent  were 
granted  to  Robert  Mears,  of  Somersetshire,  for  a  machine  reaper. 
This  was  an  apparatus  worked  by  hand,  although  propelled  upon 
wheels.  On  the  15th  of  June,  1805,  Thomas  J.  Plucknett,  of  Kent, 
England,  obtained  a  patent  for  a. reaping  machine,  in  which  the  mo¬ 
tive  power  or  “  team  ”  was  placed  behind,  and  the  cutting  apparatus 
suspended  beneath  and  forward  of  an  axle  connecting  two  large 
driving  wheels,  and  worked  by  gearing.  The  cutter  was  a  plain, 
circular,  smooth-edged  plate.  The  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,  vol.  i. 
p.  262,  gives  a  description  of  a  reaping  machine,  having  an  ar¬ 
rangement  for  gathering  grain,  and  delivering  it  in  small  sheaves, 
produced  in  1806,  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  of  Castle  Douglass.  In  this 


336 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


macliine,  “  the  horse  goes  in  front  beside  the  uncut  grain.”  This  is 
the  first  mention  of  a  harvesting  machine  where  the  horses  go  before 
the  machine,  and  beside  the  uncut  grain  ;  and  it  is  the  first  reap- 
i.;o’  machine  we  have  an  account  of  which  had  an  arrangement  for 
gathering  the  grain,  and  delivering  it  on  the  ground  in  sheaves  or 
bundles.  The  cutter  was  a  smooth-edged  circular  knife,  acting  upon 
the  grain  confined  against  strong  wooden  teeth  which  projected 
forward  and  above  the  blade.  The  cutting  edge  was  kept  sharp  by 
means  of  two  small  circular  pieces  of  wood,  coated  over  with 
emery  placed  below  and  above  it,  and  made  to  revolve  rapidly 
against  it. 

On  page  422  of  Loudon’s  “  Encyclopaedia  of  Agriculture,”  there 
is  an  account  of  a  reaping  machine  designed  by  a  Mr.  Salmon,  in 
180U  Its  cutting  operation  is  like  that  of  a  pair  of  shears,  to 
which  power  is  transferred  from  the  driving  wheels  by  gearing 
similar  to  that  very  generally  adopted  in  reapers  at  the  present 
day. 

Up  to  this  time  all  the  different  devices  for  reaping  machines 
were  very  complicated.  The  invention  of  Ilenry  Ogle,  school¬ 
master  of  Remington,  in  1822,  marks  the  commencement  of  a  new 
era  in  reaping  machines.  Mr.  Ogle  seems  to  be  the  first  who  in¬ 
vented  and  used  a  reciprocating  cutter.  His  machine  was  one 
of  extreme  simplicity.  From  a  trial  of  this'  machine,  it  was  esti¬ 
mated  that  it  would  cut  fourteen  acres  per  day  with  ease  ;  but 
Mr.  Ogle,  schoolmaster,  says,  “  Some  working  people  threatened 
to  kill  Mr.  Brown  (the  maker  of  the  machine)  if  he  persevered 
any  further  in  it,  and  it  has  never  been  more  tried.”  Up  to  this 
period,  notwithstanding  the  ingenuity  which  had  been  expended 
upon  reaping  machines,  none  had  been  produced  which  has  stood 
the  test  of  time,  or  which  embraced  all  the  principles  that  have 
been  incorporated  in  the  effective  reapers  of  the  present  day ; 
but  in  1826,  the  Rev.  Patrick  Bell,  of  Scotland,  invented  an 
apparatus  for  reaping  grain,  which  is  the  oldest  known  ma¬ 
chine  that  is  still  in  use.  This  may  be  said  to  be  the  advent 
of  successful  reaping  by  machinery.  In  this  (Bell’s)  machine 
there  was  the  adjustable  reel,  as  in  Ogle’s  clipping  cutters  ;  a 
method  of  raising  the  cutters,  and  also  a  mode  of  delivering  the 
cut  grass  in  line  on  the  ground,  to  allow  any  number  of  bind¬ 
ers  to  work  after  it.  Various  trials  were  made  with  this  ma¬ 
chine  in  1828  and  1829.  One  made  in  September,  1828,  in  the 
presence  of  fifty  farmers,  elicited  from  them  a  signed  declara- 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


337 


tion,  that  moved  by  one  horse  it  cut  an  acre  per  hour  of  oats. 
In  September,  1829,  the  same  machine  was  worked  at  Monckie, 
in  the  presence  of  a  large  number  of  persons,  who  also  attested 
that  it  cut  half  an  acre  of  heavy  lodged  oats  in  half  an  hour. 
It  was  also  tried  in  a  number  of  other  places  in  the  same  year. 
It  is  described  in  Loudon’s  Encyclopsedia  of  Agriculture. 

Although  there  is  unquestionable  proof  respecting  the  success¬ 
ful  working  of  this  machine  in  1828,  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
attracted  much  attention,  as  it  was  lost  sight  of  entirely,  until 
England  was  awakened  to  the  utility  of  reaping  machines,  in 
1851,  at  the  Great  Exhibition.  “  The  credit  of  effecting  this  (the 
whole  English  press  has  declared). is  undoubtedly  due  to  American 
inventors,  whatever  may  be  the  ground  for  disputing  the  novelty 
of  the  two  rival  American  reapers”  (McCormick’sand  Hussey’s). 
After  the  accounts  regarding  the  American  reapers  at  the  World’s 
Fair  were  published  abroad,  it  was  claimed  that  the  American 
reapers  were  no  more  than  copies  of  British  reapers,  and  that  one 
of  Bell’s  machines  had  been  early  sent  out  to  America,  from 
which,  it  was  hinted,  the  American  inventors  had  supplied  them¬ 
selves  with  ideas.  One  of  Rev.  P.  Bell’s  horse  power  reaping 
machines  was  imported  by  John  B.  Yates,  in  1834,  who  used  it 
about  two  years,  until  the  time  of  his  death,  after  which  we  have 
no  account  of  its  being  continued  in  use.  It  is  not  probable, 
therefore,  that  the  inventors  of  American  machines  are  at  all  in¬ 
debted  to  Mr.  Bell  or  any  other  foreign  inventors  for  their  ideas. 

About  this  time  the  attention  of  inventors,  in  different  parts  of 
the  world,  seems  to  have  been  awakened  to  the  importance  of 
harvesting  machinery.  One  was  invented  in  Odessa,  in  1831, 
one  in  Vienna,  in  1839,  and  one  in  Australia,  in  1845.  From  this 
period  up  to  the  time  of  the  Great  Exhibition  in  London,  in  1851, 
there  were  nine  letters  patent  issued  in  England  for  reaping  ma¬ 
chines  and  improvements  thereon.  The  World’s  Fair  was  the 
commencement  of  a  new  era  in  the  department  of  agricultural 
machinery  —  of  reaping  machines  particularly.  From  the  clos¬ 
ing  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  in  1851,  to  the  end  of  the  year  1852, 
there  were  no  less  than  twenty-eight  inventions  registered,  and 
English  patents  granted  for  inventions  relating  solely  or  partially 
to  reaping  and  mowing  machines.  Few  of  them  are  of  sufficient 
interest  and  present  importance  to  demand  a  notice. 

The  foregoing  descriptions  embrace  the  history  of  reaping  ma¬ 
chines  in  foreign  countries  up  to  the  year  1853. 


338 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


American  Reapers. 

The  attention  of  our  countrymen  was  directed  at  an  early  period 
to  the  importance  of  reaping*  machines,  and  we  find  that  a  patent 
was  granted  on  May  17,  1803,  to  Richard  French  and  J.  T.  Haw¬ 
kins,  of  New  Jersey.  In  a  letter  written  by  the  son  of  the  in¬ 
ventor,  he  says  that  his  father  constructed  a  working  machine, 
and  tried  it  in  a  field  of  rye,  and  that  it  cut  a  large  quantity  of  the 
grain.  Why  it  was  dropped  he  cannot  tell.  The  reaper  was  sup¬ 
ported  on  the  wheels  —  one  wheel  extending  into  the  grain.  The 
horses  drew  in  front,  or  rather  at  one  side,  opposite  the  cutters, 
which  were  a  series  of  scythe-knives,  revolving  on  a  vertical  spin¬ 
dle  —  a  rotary  reaper.  Beneath  the  cutters  were  long  wooden 
fingers,  extending  some  distance  into  the  grain,  and  supporting 
the  grain  to  the  action  of  the  revolving  cutters.  Directly  behind 
the  cutters  were  fingers  that  passed  between  the  cradle  fingers, 
and  removed  the  cut  grain,  which  fell  to  the  ground  ready  for 
binding. 

Obed  Hussey's  machine  was  patented  in  1833,  and  contained 
nearly  all  the  main  features  of  those  used  at  the  present  time. 
His  machine  was  intended  to  cut  both  grain  and  grass,  and  had 
a  reciprocating  knife  and  a  slotted  guard  finger,  both  of  which 
are  now  used  on  all  harvesters. 

As  Hussey's,  therefore,  is  still  in  use,  and  was  a  successful 
machine  from  the  first,  it  must  embrace  features  peculiarly  fitted 
to  accomplish  its  work.  The  first  public  trial  in  the  harvest-field 
with  Hussey's  reaper  took  place  on  the  2d  of  July,  1833,  before 
the  Hamilton  County  Agricultural  Society,  near  Carthage,  Ohio. 
Dr.  Wallace,  secretary  of  the  society,  gave  a  certificate,  dated  the 
20th  of  November,  of  that  year,  in  which  he  states,  11  that  he  saw 
the  machine  operate  on  a  field  of  wheat,  which  it  cut  clean  and 
with  great  rapidity,  and  that  it  established  one  point  satisfactorily, 
namely,  that  it  was  constructed  on  a  principle  to  operate."  There 
was  also  a  certificate  of  nine  witnesses  of  the  same  trial,  in  which 
they  state,  “  that  although  the  machine  was  not  well  constructed 
(mechanically  merely),  its  performance  far  exceeded  their  ex¬ 
pectations."  In  1834  this  machine  was  introduced  into  Illinois 
and  New  York,  and  in  1835  into  Missouri,  .in  1837  into  Penn¬ 
sylvania;  and  in  1838  Mr.  Hussey  removed  from  Ohio  to  Baltimore, 
Md.,  where  he  continued  to  manufacture  his  reapers. 


MO  WE  IIS  A2sD  REAPERS 


339 


We  will  now  let  Mr.  Hussey  speak  for  himself.  “  There  is  no 
account  of  any  successful  reaper  in  ancient  times,  and  it  is  well 
known  that  England  and  Scotland  never  produced  any  up  to  the 
time  of  the  London  Exhibition  of  all  Nations,  in  1851  ;  it  conse¬ 
quently  follows  that  the  claim  of  priority  is  clearly  confined  to  tho 


United  States.  The  question  therefore  is,  who  originated  the  suc¬ 
cessful  reaping  and  mowing  machine  ? 

“  I  do  not  desire  to  urge  any  unjust  claim  for  myself,  but  I  wish 
to  maintain  the  credit  which  is  justly  due  to  me.  It  is  known  to 
the  country,  and  by  farmers  in  particular,  that  there  are  at  the 
present  day  several  successful  reaping  machines, ’which  are  known 


840 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


by  different  names  ;  but  it  is  not  generally  known  that  all  of  them, 
without  exception,  embrace  substantially  the  principle  invented 
by  me,  and  exhibited  by  myself  in  successful  operation,  in  the  • 
harvest  field,  as  long  ago  as  1833  ;  and  however  surprising  and 
unexpected  this  statement  may  appear,  it  is  nevertheless  true, 
that  there  is  no  successful  reaping  and  mowing  machine  now  in 
use  without  it.  Most  of  the  reaping  and  mowing  machines  ol  the 
present  day  are  of  recent  date  ;  nearly  all  of  them  are  little  more 
than  copies  of  my  invention.  The  old  Rortia*  machine  seems  to 
have  been  little  more  than  a  cart,  backed  up  to  the  wheat.  This 
mode  of  approaching  the  grain  was  followed  by  the  Scotch  and 
English  inventors  from  the  remotest  period  in  the  history  of 
reapers  down  to  1854.  The  earliest  of  these  English  and  Scotch 
machines  appear  to  have  been  constructed  on  the  rotary  principle, 
the  cutting  instruments  being  placed  on  the  periphery  of  a  large 
horizontal  wheel,  which  revolved  near  the  ground.  Bell,  of  Scot¬ 
land,  at  a  later  period  used  scissors.  His  machine  presented  to 
the  grain  a  row  of  pointed  blades,  which  operated  like  a  series 
of  tailors’  shears,  but  it  was  soon  pronounced  a  failure. 

“  Tiie  American  reaper  woke  up  from  a  long  sleep  in  1851.  It 
was  resuscitated,  and  flourished  for  a  brief  season,  took  the  English 
and  Scotch  prizes  in  1851,  by  especial  favor,  and  was  again  con¬ 
demned  at  the  late  meeting  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,  held 
in  Lincoln  (England),  the  present  year  (1854).” 

The  first  machine  made  by  Hussey,  as  well  as  others  made  at  that 
time,  were  what  might  be  called  two-wheeled  machines  ;  that  is, 
having  two  large  wheels  to  support  the  frame,  of  equal  or  nearly 
equal  size,  and  with  the  finger-bar  extending  out  from  the  side  of 
the  machine. 

Hussey  afterwards  changed  his  machine  by  substituting  one 
wheel  for  the  two-wheel  previously  used  :  so  did  McCormick. 

The  two-wheel  machines  seem  at  that  time  to  have  gone  out 
of  use  (1850),  and  came  into  use  again  about  the  year  1854,  or 
1855,  when  two-wheeled  machines  having  the  lunged  finger-bar 
were  introduced,  foremost  among  which  were  the  “  Buckeye  ”  and 
the  “  Cayuga  Chief.” 

There  are  other  improvements  connected  with  the  two-wheeled 
machine,  such  as  making  both  wheels  drivers,  regulating  the  height 
of  finger-bar,  etc.  ;  and  although  the  one-wheeled  machines  are  still 
used  to  some  extent  as  reapers,  those  having  twro  wheels  have 
already  almost  entirely  superseded  them  as  mowers,  and  are 
largely  used  as  reapers. 


CLIPPER,  MEDIUM  SIZE. 


<* 


•  . 


* 


•3 

* 


. 


•i  •*  - .  .  • 


1 


. 

. 


. 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


343 


The  leading  principles  in  the  operation  of  harvesting  machinery, 
may  now  be  considered  as  fulty  established,  and  the  attention  of 
inventors  and  manufacturers  will,  no  doubt,  be  directed  to  further 
simplifying  the  construction  of  the  parts,  and  adding  to  their  con¬ 
venience  and  ease  of  management. 

In  the  application  of  principles  already  established,  there  are 
now  used  in  all  first-class  mowers,  two  driving  wheels,  which  sup¬ 
port  the  body  of  the  machine,  and  give  motion  to  the  knives, 
through  the  gearing ;  a  frame  which  supports  the  gearing,  and 
to  which  is  attached  the  cutting  apparatus  and  the  draught-pole  ; 
the  gearing ;  the  cutting  apparatus,  consisting  of  a  reciprocat¬ 
ing  knife,  operating  in  and  supported  on  a  finger-bar,  with  shoes 
at  each  end,  and  having  guards  or  fingers  projecting  in  front  to 
protect  the  knives  and  assist  in  cutting.  In  addition  to  these, 
the  reaping  machines  have  reels  and  platforms  for  the  purpose  of 
gathering  the  grain,  and  delivering  it  on  the  ground  in  gavels 
suitable  for  binding. 

Although  the  general  arrangement  of  these  parts  is  similar  in 
the  machines  now  most  prominent  before  the  public,  there  are 
many,  and  in  some  instances  material  points  of  difference  in  their 
construction  ;  and  we  mention,  as  some  of  these  points,  the  style  of 
driving  wheels,  some  being  made  of  cast  and  wrought  iron,  others 
of  cast  only  ;  the  manner  of  connecting  the  driving  wheels  to  the 
geariiig,  so  as  to  best  admit  of  throwing  the  machine  in  and  out 
of  gear;  the. number  of  gears,  some  having  two,  and  others  three 
pairs ;  the  frame,  some  using  iron  only,  others  wood  ;  besides  dif¬ 
ferent  devices  for  uniting  the  finger-bar  to  the  frame,  so  that  it  will 
conform  to  the  inequalities  of  the  ground,  and  be  raised,  to  clear 
obstructions,  while  at  work,  and  secure  convenience  in  transporta-, 
tion.  Some  finger-bars  are  made  of  iron,  and  some  of  steel,  and 
differ  in  shape.  The  guards  or  fingers  also  differ  in  shape,  and 
are  made  from  different  kinds  of  metal.  The  manner  of  attaching 
the  draught  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  in  order  to  avoid,  as  far 
as  possible,  what  is  called  “  side  draught/7  and  differs  in  some  of 
the  leading  machines  ;  also  the  location  of  hand  levers  convenient 
to  the  driver,  to  enable  him  to  adjust  the  cutting  apparatus,  with 
as  little  inconvenience  as  possible,  to  the  surface  of  the  ground, 
and  to  raise  it  over  obstructions. 

Particular  attention  has  been  given  within  the  last  few  years 
to  the  cutting  apparatus,  which  includes  the  finger-bar,  knife, 
and  fingers.  The  first  finger-bars  were  made  of  wood,  but  now 


344 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


wrought  iron  and  stool  are  exclusively  used.  The  knives  have 
been  the  subject  of  many  experiments,  to  determine  the  proper 
motion,  and  the  best  size  for  a  blade  or  section.  The  fingers  or 
guards  were  first  made  of  wood,  next  of  cast  iron,  then  of  wrought 
and  malleable  iron,  afterwards  improved  by  the  use  of  steel  cut¬ 
ting  plates.  A  solid  cast-steel  guard  is  used  on  the  so-called  “  Clip¬ 
per”  machine. 

The  earliest  machines  made  would  cut  only  dry  and  coarse 
grass,  and  work  on  uplands  ;  and  it  was  thought,  until  within  a  few 
years,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  mow  grass  while  the  dew 
was  on.  A  good  machine  of  the  present  day,  however,  will  mow 
in  all  kinds  of  grass,  whether  wet  or  dry,  coarse  or  fine  ;  and  some 
builders  warrant  their  machines  to  work  well  in  any  place,  where 
the  farmer  is  willing  to  ride  or  drive. 

The  competition  among  builders  has  been,  and  is  now,  very  great, 
and  has  stimulated  invention,  until  more  than  two  thousand  patents 
pertaining  to  harvesting  machinery  have  been  granted  in  this 
country. 

Probably  the  machine  which  has  been  brought  to  the  greatest 
perfection  at  the  present  time  is  the' Clipper  mower.  It  is  the 
invention  of  Mr.  Rufus  Dutton.  We  quote  from  the  report  of 
the  great  trial  held  at  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  in  1866,  when  fifty-four 
different  machines  were  on  exhibition,  including  nearly  every  har¬ 
vesting  machine  of  any  importance  in  the  country.  ■“  Among  the 
candidates  for  the  favor  of  the  agricultural  public,  few  have  made 
more  determined  or  more  ingenious  efforts  to  carry  away  the 
palm,  than  the  inventor  of  this  machine.  ITe  has  proposed  to 
himself  to  construct  a  machine  which  shall  have  the  greatest 
strength  with  the  lightest  material,  aided  by  the  best  possible 
workmanship,  combining  security  for  the  driver,  convenience  of 
management,  and  adaptation  to  uneven  surfaces  ;  and,  in  short, 
which  shall  meet  all  the  wants  of  the  farmer  in  the  greatest  pos¬ 
sible  degree.  .  .  .  The  mechanical  execution  of  this  machine 

reflects  the  highest  credit  upon  Mr.  Dutton,  the  inventor ;  in  this 
respect  it  surpasses  all  the  rest.  All  the  bearings  are  as  smooth 
as  machinery  can  make  them,  all  the  joints  are  closely  fitted,  all 
the  working  parts  are  mathematically  in  line,  all  the  materials  of 
which  it  is  composed  are  of  the  best  that  can  be  procured.” 

In  1867  the  “  Clipper  Mower  and  Reaper  Company”  was  or¬ 
ganized,  with  a  large  capital  and  ample  facilities  for  manufacturing 
these  machines,  and  has  already  become  the  representative  house 


WORKS  OF  THE  CLIPPER  MOWER  AND  REAPER  COMPANY,  YONKERS, 


I 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


347 


in  this  line  of  manufactures.  The  company  constructed  exten¬ 
sive  and  expensive  machinery  expressly  for  this  purpose,  and  now 
manufacture  the  “Clipper”  machines,  greatly  improved  in  every 
respect,  both  in  materials  used  and  in  workmanship,  also  in  style 
of  finish,  over  those  used  at  the  Auburn  trial  in  1866.  The 


engravings  represent  this  celebrated  machine  in  the  field  at  work. 
Their  manufactory,  of  which  we  present  a  view,  is  at  Yonkers, 
N.  Y.,  the  company’s  business  centre  being  New  York  city. 

For  four  or  five  years  past,  from  eighty  to  ninety  thousand 
machines  have  been  made  annually  in  the  United  States,  and  the 


348 


MOWERS  AND  REAPERS. 


capital  employed  is  not  less  than  ten  million  dollars.  A  large 
number  of  establishments  are  now  engaged  in  this  business, 
among  which  may  be  mentioned,  as  the  most  prominent,  those 
making  the  “  McCormick,”  the  “  Buckeye,”  the  “  Kirby,”  the 
“  Wood,”  and  the  “  Clipper”  machines,  each  of  which  turns  out  a 
number  of  thousand  every  year. 

But  perhaps  one  of  the  best,  among  the  late  improvements  on 
mowing  machines,  is  the  steel  guards,  controlled  by  letters  patent, 

and  used  exclusively  on  the  11  Clipper  ”  machines.  These  have 

» 

been  perfected  at  a  great  cost  of  time  and  money,  and  are  worthy  of 
especial  notice.  They  are  forged  from  solid  cast  steel,  and  after 
being  shaped  under  a  drop-hammer,  the  slots  are  cut,  by  milling 
machines,  perfectly  smooth  and  uniform  in  all  respects.  The  cut¬ 
ting  surfaces  aud  points  are  then  hardened,  while  the  remaining 
parts  of  the  guards,  to  secure  the  greatest  strength,  are  left  un¬ 
tempered.  The  hardened  points  do  not  become  dulled  or  bent  by 
stones,  or  other  obstructions,  so  as  to  catch  fine  or  dead  grass, 
or  anything  else  ;  after  being  ground  and  polished  they  are  ready 
for  the  finger-bar.  No  arguments  are  required  to  convince  any 
one  of  the  superiority  of  steel  for  this  purpose,  as  it  is  more  than 
twice  as  strong  as  the  best  wrought  iron,  and  three  times  stronger 
than  malleable  iron.  These  guards  will  not  break  with  the  rough¬ 
est  usage.  On  over  twelve  thousand  machines,  hardly  an  extra 
one  has  been  required  to  supply  breakage  —  a  fact  which  will  suf¬ 
fice,  we  think,  to  demonstrate  these  steel  guards  as  an  advanced 
and  needed  step  in  the  line  of  a  great  progress. 


t 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  IRON.  — ITS  GENERAL  DIFFUSION.  —  AMONG  THE  EGYP¬ 
TIANS.  —  MENTIONED  IN  THE  BIBLE.  —  AMONG  THE  GREEKS.  — AMONG  THE 
ROMANS.  — IN  MODERN  TIMES.  — CAST  IRON.  — ITS  FIRST  PRODUCTION.  — 
IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  PROCESS.  — PUDDLING  IRON.  —  INVENTION  OF  THE 

BLAST.  — THE  USE  OF  ANTHRACITE.  —  THE  ORES  OF  IRON. - THE  MAKING 

OF  IRON  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  EARLY  ATTEMPTS  IN  VIRGINIA.  — IN 

MASSACHUSETTS.  — THE  FIRST  FURNACE.  - WORKMEN  EARLY  ENGAGED  IN 

THE  MANUFACTURE.  — CASTING  IN  SAND.  —  PROHIBITION  BY  PARLIAMENT. 
—  THE  COST  OF  A  FURNACE.  —  THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  — THE  POL¬ 
ICY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.  —  THE  BESSEMER  PROCESS. — APPLICATION  OF 
SPECTRAL  ANALYSIS. 

Iron,  while  being  the  most  useful  of  all  the  metals  for  the  vari¬ 
ous  arts,  is  also  one  of  the  most  generally  diffused  of  the  products 
of  nature.  In  one  form  or  another,  it  is  almost  universally  dif¬ 
fused  through  the  organic  and  inorganic  world.  Not  a  stone  or  a 
rock  can  be  found  without  a  trace  of  this  metal.  Nothing  is  visi¬ 
ble  around  us  which  is  wholly  devoid  of  it.  It  is  found  in  our 
blood,  and  intensifies  the  brilliant  colors  of  the  rose,  while  spec¬ 
tral  analysis  has  traced  its  presence  in  almost  all  the  stars. 

The  history  of  its  discovery  and  use  is  lost  in  the  remoteness 
of  antiquity,  since,  from  its  affinity  for  oxygen,  and  its  consequent 
tendency  to  rust,  and  thus  lose  its  form,  it  can  hardly  be  expected 
that  any  tangible  evidence  of  its  use  in  ancient  times  should  have 
been  preserved  to  our  day. 

It  appears,  however,  from  Layard’s  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  that 
the  Assyrians  were  well  acquainted  with  the  manufacture  of  iron, 
and  that  they  employed  it,  together  with  bronze,  in  useful  and  in 
ornamental  works.  They  had  also  the  art  of  coating  iron  with 
bronze,  and  objects  thus  prepared  have  come  down  to  us,  the  iron 
having  been  preserved  in  its  metallic  state  by  its  bronze  covering. 
The  East  Indian  natives  still  prepare  iron  so  excellently,  though 

20  *  '  (349) 


350 


IKON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


their  methods  and  appliances  arc  of  the  rudest  and  simplest  kind ;  and 
as  we  know  that  they  have  had  this  ability  from  before  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  it  is  probable  that  the  use  of  iron  was  known 
quite  generally  at  a  very  early  stage  of  history.  In  the  tombs  of 
Thebes,  which  date  about  four  thousand  years  ago,  pictorial  in¬ 
scriptions  are  found  which  represent  persons  using  iron  utensils. 

•Iron  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  and  from  the  mention 
of  the  "  frying-pan  ”  in  this  verse  from  Leviticus  vii.  9  :  “  And 
all  the  meat-offering  that  is  baked  in  the  oven,  and  all  that  is 
dressed  in  the  frying-pan,  and  in  the  pan,  shall  be  the  priest’s  that 
offereth  it,”  and  other  similar  passages,  it  has  been  supposed  that 
the  art  of  preparing  sheet  iron  was  known  at  this  time.  Though 
this  is  questionable,  since  the  frying-pan  used  by  the  priest  may 
not  have  been  made  of  iron,  but  of  some  other  metal,  yet  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Hebrews  learned  of  the  Egyptians  the 
art  of  preparing  iron  from  the  ore,  since  an  ancient  mine  worked 
by  the  Egyptians  has  been  found  in  Egypt,  at  Ilammauri,  between 
the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea.  The  iron  of  this  mine  is  in  the  form 
of  specular  and  red  ore. 

Layard  found  iron  weapons  of  various  kinds  at  Nimroud,  but 
they  fell  to  pieces  on  exposure  to  the  air.  Iron  is  mentioned  by 
Homer,  and  from  what  he  says,  it  is  inferred  that  it  was  scarce 
and  valuable  then,  and  that  it  was  only  as  malleable  iron  that  the 
Greeks  of  his  time  were  acquainted  with  this  metal. 

In  Sparta,  however,  Lycurgus  is  said  to  have  enforced  by  law 
the  sole  use  of  iron  as  money,  on  account  of  its  abundance.  From 
Plutarch  we  gather  an  idea  of  the  value  of  this  iron  currency,  lie 
tells  us  that  it  required  a  two-ox  cart  to  carry  a  wagon  load  of 
the  value  of  ten  minm  ;  the  value  of  a  mina  being  estimated  at  about 
fifteen  dollars. 

Aristotle  speaks  in  his  works  of  the  iron  mines  of  Chalybia,  and 
of  their  methods  of  working  the  ores.  These  mines  were  famous 
in  antiquity,  and  from  them  was  derived  the  term  chalybs,  given 
by  the  Greeks  to  steel,  which  has  continued  in  use  until  this  day, 
forming  as  it  does  the  root  of  our  term  chalybeate  water,  for  those 
waters  which  contain  iron  in  solution.  Strabo,  who  wrote  about 
the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  speaks  of  the  various  iron 
mines  then  known,  and  among  them  mentions  those  of  England, 
from  which  it  is  supposed  that  the  native  Britons  understood  the 
working  of  iron  some  time  before. 

Various  other  Latin  writers  mention  iron.  Pliny  speaks  of  its 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


351 


magnetic  properties,  but  it  does  not  appear  from  any  such  record 
that  the  ancients  were  acquainted  with  the  process  of  making  cast 
iron,  or  that  their  production  of  steel  was  anything  else  than  acci¬ 
dental.  This  will  appear  more  evident  when  we  remember  that 
they  were  totally  unacquainted  with  any  of  the  chemical  processes 
of  analysis  in  use  to-day,  and  that  their  only  method  of  industry 
was  traditional  and  empirical. 

During  the  first  seven  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  we  have 
but  little  record  of  iron  making  in  Europe ;  yet  in  the  sixteenth 
century  the  discovery  of  slag  heaps  in  Sweden  and  Norway,  in 
France  and  Silesia,  and  elsewhere,  overgrown  with  trees,  which  ex¬ 
amination  proved  were  frequently  six  centuries  old,  showed  that  the 
mining  and  working  of  iron  must  have  been  extensively  practised 
at  an  early  age.  Yet  the  process  used  in  extracting  iron  from  the  ore 
was  most  probably  a  very  rude  one,  and  it  was  a  long  time  before 
any  improvements  were  introduced  into  it,  and  then  they  were  dif¬ 
fused  with  the  slowness  which  marked  the  dissemination  of  intelli¬ 
gence  during  those  times  when  the  methods  of  circulation  were  so 
tardy  and  inadequate. 

The  first  production  of  cast  iron  took  place  in  the  fifteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  when  larger  furnaces  were  introduced.  The  first  articles 
mentioned  as  being  cast  were  guns,  and  in  1490  stoves  were  thus 
made  in  Alsace. 

In  1550  George  Agricola  published  his  work  De  lie  Metallica, 
which  was  the  first  modern  treatise  devoted  to  the  manufacture 
of  iron. 

The  high  blast  furnace  is  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  by 
the  Belgians.  In  England,  cannon  were  cast  by  John  Owen  in 
1535,  and  by  Ralph  Iloge  in  1540,  though  the  high  blast  furnace 
is  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  there  only  in  1558. 

On  the  continent,  with  the  improved  method  of  blasting,  it  was 
found  that  the  refuse  heaps  from  the  old  Roman  workings,  and 
those  of  the  ancient  inhabitants,  could  be  most  profitably  re-worked. 
Some  of  these  supplies  are  said  to  have  furnished  material  for  the 
new  furnaces  for  a  period  of  two  hundred  years.  In  England  the 
progress  of  the  iron  manufacture  was  more  rapid.  The  iron  was 
melted  with  charcoal  as  a  fuel,  until,  in  1612,  a  patent  was  granted 
to  Simon  Sturtevant  for  the  use  of  bituminous  coal  for  this  pur¬ 
pose.  Next  year  another  patent  was  granted  for  the  same  im¬ 
provement  to  John  Ravenson,  and  in  1619  another  to  Lord  Dudley, 
who  was  so  successful  that  his  patent  was  taken  away,  and  the 


m 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


conservatism  of  his  opponents  prevented  the  use  of  his  process, 
putting  back  the  general  introduction  of  this  improvement  for 
nearly  one  hundred  years. 

In  1784  a  second  patent,  the  first  one  being  dated  the  year  be¬ 
fore,  was  granted  to  Henry  Cort,  for  “  shingling,  welding,  and 
manufacturing  iron  and  steel  into  bars,  plates,  and  rods,  of  purer 
quality  and  in  larger  quantity  than  heretofore,  by  a  more  effectual 
application  of  fire  and  machinery. ” 

This  was  the  invention  of  the  art  of  puddling  iron,  for  the  in¬ 
vention  of  which  Cort  has  been  called  the  “  father  of  the  iron 
trade  of  the  British  nation,”  and  the  use  of  which  is  estimated  to 
have,  during  this  century,  given  employment  to  six  million  persons, 
and  added  $3,000,000,000  to  the  wealth  of  Great  Britain.  *  Yet 
Cort  himself  died  poor,  the  government  having  involved  him  in  law¬ 
suits,  on  account  of  his  partner,  which  beggared  him.  The  only 
restitution  given  him  was  a  pension  of  one  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
which  he  received  six  years  before  his  death,  and  which  was  re¬ 
duced  to  six  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  to  his  widow.  In  his 
experiments  to  perfect  his  process  Cort  had,  however,  spent  from 
his  private  fortune  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  next  great  improvement  in  the  manufacture  of  iron  was  the 
introduction  of  heated  air  to  the  blast,  which  was  first  applied  by 
Mr.  Neilson  to  the  Muirkirk  furnaces.  The  date  of  this  applica¬ 
tion  is  variously  given  by  different  authorities  as  1824,  1827,  and 
1828.  The  patent  for  it,  however,  is  said,  upon  the  authority  of  a 
letter  from  the  inventor  himself,  to  have  been  issued  in  1829, 
Neilson  was  more  fortunate  than  Cort  in  obtaining  the  benefits  <>f 
his  invention.  From  a  single  infringer  of  his  rights  he  received  a 
check  on  the  Bank  of  England  for  $750,000. 

In  his  invention,  however,  Neilson  used  a  separate  fire  for  heat¬ 
ing  the  air  used  in  his  blast,  and  thus  the  saving  of  fuel  in  the 
manufacture,  though  important,  was  not  all  that  could  be  made. 
In  1837,  M.  Faber  du  Four,  at  Wasscralfingen,  in  Wurtemberg, 
introduced  successfully  a  method  for  using  the  waste  gases  from 
the  iron  ore  subjected  to  the  smelting  process,  for  the  purpose  of 
heating  the  air  used  in  the  blast,  and  also  for  generating  the  steam 
for  the  boiler. 

The  use  of  anthracite  coal  as  fuel  for  the  smelting  furnace  was 
tried  as  early  as  1820  at  Maucli  Chunk,  Pennsylvania,  but- without 
success.  In  1827—8  it  was  tried  on  the  borders  of  France  and 
Switzerland,  at  Vizelle.  An  account  of  these  experiments  may  bo 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


353 


found  in  the  third  and  fourth  volumes  of  the  Annulus  des  Mines, 
in  the  third  series  of  that  work,  and  also  in  Johnson’s  Notes  on  fie 
use  of  Anthracite  in  the  Manufacture  of  Iron. 

In  1833  Frederic  W.  Geisenhainer,  a  minister  of  Schuylkill,  Pa., 
having  experimented  with  the  use  of  the  hot  blast  with  anthracite, 
obtained  a  patent  for  the  process,  and  in  1835  produced  the  first  iron 
so  made. 

In  1841  the  process  of  consuming  the  gases  generated  in  the 
process  of  smelting,  was  adapted  to  the  use  of  anthracite  by  C. 
E.  Detmold,  and  has  since  come  to  be  used  very  generally  in  the 
United  States,  producing  a  saving  of  from  two  to  three  dollars  a 
ton  in  the  use  of  fuel. 

The  ores  from  which  iron  is  obtained  are  various.  Iron  in  its 
native  state  is  rarely  met  with,  especially  when  of  terrestrial  ori¬ 
gin.  Meteoric  iron  is  not  so  uncommonly  found,  and  is  generally 
an  alloy  of  iron  and  nickel.  In  the  cabinet  of  Yale  College  is  a 
mass  of  this  composition,  weighing  1635  pounds,  which  was  found 
on  the  Red  River  in  Texas.  The  meteors  of  this  description  are 
generally  supposed  to  be  portions  of  matter  which  are  revolving 
in  space,  outside  of  our  planet,  but  which,  by  the  attraction  of  the 
world,  are  finally  drawn  to  its  surface.  Though  not  of  frequent 
occurrence,  yet  the  numbers  which  have  been  found  is  very  large. 

The  only  place  in  this  country  where  native  iron,  not  meteoric 
in  its  origin,  has  been  found,  is  in  Canaan,  Conn.  ;  and  as  the  pre¬ 
cise  locality  cannot  be  designated,  it  is.  still  a  mattfer  of  uncertainty 
whether  it  has  been  thus  found. 

The  iron  ores  are  alloyed  with  sulphur,  arsenic,  or  phosphorus. 
The  first  of  these  is. a  sulphuret  of  iron,  and  is  called  'pyrites.  This 
rock  occurs  abundantly  in  rocks  of  all  ages,  from  the  oldest  crys¬ 
talline  to  the  most  recent  alluvial,  and  often  in  fine  crystallizations, 
which,  from  their  yellow  color,  are  mistaken  for  gold.  For  its  iron 
this  ore  is  of  no  use,  though  its  other  compounds  afford  valuable- 
materials  for  commerce. 

White  iron  pyrites  is  a  similar  compound  of  iron,  but  its  crys¬ 
tals  are  of  a  different  form.  It  is  called  Marcasite. 

Still  another  sulphuret  of  iron  is  called  magnetic  pyrites.  It. 
consists  of  about  forty  per  cent,  of  sulphur  and  sixty  of  iron. 

Leucopyrite,  an  arseniuret  of  iron,  and  Mispickel,  a  sulpharseni- 
uret,  are,  as  their  names  indicate,  combinations  of  iron  with  arse¬ 
nic  and  sulphur.  They  are  both  of  common  occurrence,  but 
neither  are  of  any  value  as  iron  ore. 


I 


354  IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 

Schreibersite,  or  phosphate  of  iron,  is  found  only  in  the  me¬ 
teorites. 

Specular  iron  is  an  oxide  of  iron,  with  two  atoms  of  iron  to 
three  of  oxygen.  When  pure,  it  consists  of  seventy  per  cent,  of 
iron  and  thirty  of  oxygen.  It  is  widely  diffused,  and  has  re¬ 
ceived  many  different  names.  The  cost  of  working  it  prevents  it 
being  generally  used. 

Magnetic  iron  ore  is  a  magnetic  oxide  of  iron.  It  is  the  native 
loadstone,  is  widely  diffused,  and  yields  an  unrivalled  ore.  It 
differs  from  specular  iron  in  its  crystalline  form,  in  being  magnetic,  • 
and  in  giving  a  black  powder  instead  of  a  red  one. 

Franklinite  is  an  ore  of  iron  containing  zinc  and  manganese.  It 
may  be  considered  both  as  an  ore  of  iron  and  of  zinc. 

Limonile  is  a  hydrated  peroxide  of  iron,  which,  when  pure, 
contains  85.58  peroxide  of  iron  and  14.42  water.  This  ore,  under 
various  names,  forms  the  coloring  matter  of  so  many  stratified 
rocks,  and  is  so  universally  disseminated  through  the  geological 
formations,  that  it  is  more  difficult  to  say  where  it  does  not  exist 
than  where  it  does. 

Of  the  carbonates,  phosphates,  and  arseniates  of  iron,  the  vari¬ 
ety  is  very  great,  but  the  only  important  one,  as  an  ore,  is  Spathic 
iron.  This  is  a  carbonate  of  iron,  with  37.94  of  carbonic  acid, 
and  62.06  of  protoxide  of  iron.  It  is  almost  never  found  pure, 
but  contains  manganese,  and  generally  more  or  less  alumina,  lime, 
and  magnesia.  'This  is,  perhaps,  the  most  important  ore  of  iron, 
not  generally  in  its  sparry  state,  but  as  a  mixture  with  clay  and 
the  hydrated  oxide  which,  resulting  from  its  decomposition,  and 
constituting  a  part  of  the  great  carboniferous  formation,  occurs, 
consequently,  with  the  coal  required  for  its  reduction,  and  makes 
it  of  great  importance. 

The  arseniates  and  phosphates  are  not  ores,  but  on  the  contrary 
are  highly  injurious  to  the  quality  of  those  with  which  they  are 
found  occurring. 

The  manufacture  of  iron  in  the  United  States  dates  from  a  pe¬ 
riod  very  soon  after  the  settlement  of  the  country.  From  a  tract 
entitled  A  True  Declaration  of  Virginia,  published  in  1610,  only 
three  years  after  the  successful  settlement  of  a  colony  at  James¬ 
town  by  the  London  Company,  we  find  that  in  this  year  Sir 
Thomas  Gates  testified  before  the  Council  in  London  that  in  the 
country  there  were  diverse  minerals,  especially  “  iron  oare,”  some 
of  which  having  been  sent  home,  had  been  found  to  yield  as  good 
iron  as  any  in  the  world. 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


355 


From  A  Declaration  of  the  Slate  of  Virginia ,  published  in  1620, 
we  find  that  among  those  recently  sent  out  to  the  colony,  there 
were  **  out  of  Sussex  about  forty,  all  famed  to  iron  workes.” 

In  his  History  of  Virginia,  Beverly  speaks  of  an  “  iron  work  at 
Falling  Creek,  in  Jamestown  River,  where  they  made  proof  of  good 
iron  ore,  and  brought  the  whole  work  so  near  a  perfection,  that 
they  writ  word  to  the  Company  in  London  that  they  did  not  doubt 
but  to  finish  the  work,  and  have  plentiful  provision  of  iron  for 
them  by  the  next  Easter.”  This  was  in  1620.  In  1621,  three  of 
the  master  workmen  having  died,  the  company  sent  over  Mr.  John 
Berkeley,  with  his  son  Maurice,  with  twenty  other  experienced 
workmen.  On  the  22d  of  May  following,  Berkeley  and  all  his 
company,  except  a  boy  and  a  girl,  who  managed,  by  hiding  them¬ 
selves,  to  escape,  were  massacred  by  the  Indians,  together  with 
three  hundred  and  forty-seven  others  of  the  settlers.  By  this  un¬ 
toward  event  the  manufacture  of  iron  was  stopped,  and  was  not 
revived  until  about  IT  12. 

It  is  a  singular  coincidence,  and  one  which  should  modify  our 
judgment  of  the  barbarism  of  the  Indians,  that  about  the  same 
time,  in  England,  a  mob  destroyed  the  works  erected  by  Edward 
Lord  Dudley,  for  smelting  iron  ore  by  the  use  of  coal  in  his  pro¬ 
cess  patented  in  1621,  and  that  this  similar  employment  of  violence 
put  off  the  general  introduction  of  this  process  for  nearly  one  hun¬ 
dred  years. 

In  a  pamphlet  written  by  Edward  Williams,  and  published  in 
London  in  1650,  with  the  title  of  Virginia,  more  especially  the 
Southern  Part  thereof,  etc.,  the  author,  speaking  of  iron,  says, 
“  Neither  does  Virginia  yield  to  any  other  province  whatsoever  in 
excellency  and  plenty  of  this  oare ;  and  I  cannot  promise  to  my¬ 
self  any  other  than  extraordinary  successe  and  game  if  this  noble 
and  useful!  staple  be  but  rigorously  followed.” 

To  check  too  excessive  attention  to  the  raising  of  tobacco,  which 
at  the  time  ruled  at  very  low  prices  in  England,  where  it  was 
sent  to  be  sold,  and  to  encourage  the  consumption  of  iron,  and  its 
manufacture  into  the  various  articles  needed  for  their  own  use,  in 
ship-building  and  other  industries,  the  exportation  of  iron  was,  in 
1662,  prohibited,  on  penalty  of  ten  pounds  of  tobacco  for  each  pound 
of  iron  exported.  This  prohibition  was  removed  in  1682. 

With  the  enterprise  for  colonizing  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  Court 
of  Assistants  in  London,  who  took  an  actiye  part  in  this  measure, 
contemplated  the  production  of  iron.  The  journal  kept  of  the 


356 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


proceedings  of  the  court  states  that  at  a  meeting  held  on  March 
2d,  I  028,  “also  for  Mr.  Malbon  it  was  propounded,  he  having 
skill  in  iron  works,  and  willing  to  put  in  twenty-five  pounds  in 
stock,  it  should  be  accounted  as  fifty  pounds,  and  his  charges  to 
be  borne  out  and  home  from  New  England  ;  and  upon  his  return, 
and  report  what  may  be  done  about  iron  works,  consideration  to 
be  had  of  proceeding  therein  accordingly,  and  further  recompense 
if  there  be  cause  to  entertain  him.77  • 

Three  days  after,  an  arrangement  was  made  with  Thomas  Graves, 
of  Gravesend,  Kent,  to  visit  New  England,  at  the  expense  of  the 
company,  as  “a  man  experienced  in  iron  workes,  in  salt  workes, 
in  measuring  and  surveying  of  lands,  and  in  fortifications,  in  lead, 
copper,  and  alum  mynes.77 

On  his  part,  Graves  agreed  to  serve  the  company  six  or  eight 
months  for  a  free  passage  out  and  home,  and  five  pounds  a  month 
with  board.  If  he  remained  three  years,  the  company  were  to 
transport  his  family,  and  support  them  until  the  next  harvest,  pay 
him  fifty  pounds  a  year,  give  him  a  house  and  one  hundred  acres 
of  land,  with  a  share  in  the  land  allotment ;  while  any  additional 
compensation  w7as  at  the  company7s  discretion. 

Whether  Graves,  who  settled  at  Charlestown,  discovered  any 
mines,  does  not  appear.  No  steps  were  taken  towards  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  iron  until  fifteen  years  after  this  date. 

In  November,  1  GST,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  granted 
to  Abraham  Shaw  one  half  of  any  “  coles  or  yronjstone  wth  shall 
bee  found  in  any  comon  ground  wch  is  in  the  countrye’s  disposing.77 

At  an  early  period,  the  bog  iron  ore,  which  is  deposited  in  the 
peat  bogs  and  ponds  of  Eastern  Massachusetts,  was  discovered  at 
Saugus  or  Lynn.  These  ponds,  which  are  abundant  on  the  sea¬ 
board  of  New  England,  are  scooped  out  of  the  drift  and  tertiary 
formation  ;  and  at  their  bottoms,  the  water  which  has  percolated 
through  the  surrounding  hills  of  gravel  and  sand  deposits  large 
quantities  of  the  sesquioxide  of  iron.  This  sediment,  mingled 
with  vegetable  mould,  and  partially  solidified  by  combining  with 
the  water,  forms  masses  of  soft  and  spongy  bog  iron  ore,  or  crys¬ 
tallizes  into  a  more  compact  hydrate.  When  this  is  removed,  the 
deposit  is  re-formed,  at  intervals  of  time  varying  according  to  the 
impregnation  with  iron  of  the  springs  by  which  the  ponds  or  bogs 
are  formed.  These  deposits  are  quite  frequent  in  the  county  of 
Plymouth,  Massachusetts.  .  ’ 

The  necessity  of  iron  for  various  purposes,  and  the  difficulties 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


9  r  -r 
OOi 


in  the  trade  with  England,  led  soon  to  the  attempt  to  introduce 
the  manufacture  into  the  colony.  In  1643  Mr.  Bridges  carried 
with  him  to  England  specimens  of  the  ore  from  the  ponds  near 
Lynn,  and,  in  connection  with  Winthrop  and  others,  formed  a 
“  Company  of  Undertakers  for  the  Iron  Works. 77  The  sum  of 
one  thousand  pounds  was  subscribed,  and  with  this  Winthrop, 
with  a  corps  of  workmen,  returned  to  New  England  the  same  year. 
Others  joined  in  the  enterprise,  and  on  March  7th,  1663,  the  Gen¬ 
eral  Court  granted  them  the  exclusive  privilege  of  making  iron 
for  twenty-one  years,  provided  that  within  two  years  they  made 
sufficient  for  the  use  of  the  colony.  They  were  allowed  the  use 
of  any  six  places  not  already  granted,  provided  that  within  ten 
years  they  set  up  in  each  place  a  furnace  and  a  forge,  and  “  not  a 
bloomery  onely.77  The  stockholders  were  exempted  from  taxation 
on  their  stock,  their  agents  from  public  charges,  and  they  and 
their  workmen  from  trainings. 

It  has  been  questioned  whether  their  first  forge  was  set  up  at 
Braintree  or  Lynn,  but  Lewis,  the  historian  of  Lynn,  avers  that 
the  first  works  were  erected  there,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Saugus, 
upon  land  purchased  from  Thomas  Hudson,  and  near  a  chain  of 
ponds  abounding  in  ore.  The  village  about  the  works  was  called 
Hammersmith,  from  the  native  place  in  England  of  some  of  the 
workmen.  Operations  were  continued  here  with  varying  degrees 
of  success  for  more  than  one  hundred  years,  and  the  heaps  of 
scorirn  about  the  place  still  mark  the  spot  in  which  this  important 
industrj'  was  commenced  and  carried  on. 

Not  the  least  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  successful  working  of 
the  iron  works  established  by  the  company  was  the  want  of  ready 
money  among  the  undertakers  of  the  project,  and  also  the  want 
of  money  among  the  inhabitants  to  purchase  the  wares  produced. 
The  court,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  proprietors  in  1646,  wrote, 
“  If  your  iron  may  not  be  had  here  without  ready  money,  what 
advantage  will  that  be  to  us  if  we  have  no  money  to  purchase  it  ?  77 

In  August,  1648,  Governor  Winthrop  wrote  concerning  it :  11  The 
iron  work  goctli  on  with  more  hope.  It  yields  now  about  seven 
tons  per  week,  but  it  is  most  out  of  that  brown  earth  which  lies 
under  the  bog  mine.  They  tried  another  mine,  and  after  twenty- 
four  hours  they  had  a  sum  of  about  five  hundred,  which,  when 
they  brake,  they  conceived  to  be  a  fifth  part  silver.  There  is  a 
grave  man  of  good  fashion  come  now  over  to  see  how  things  stand 
here.  He  is  one  who  hath  been  exercised  in  iron  works.'7 


358 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


The  company,  in  1677,  after  having  been  several  times  sued  for 
debt,  succumbed  to  the  force  of  adverse  circumstances,  and  the 
property  passed  out  of  their  possession  into  the  hands  of  Samuel 
Appleton,  who  sold  them  about  ten  years  after  to  James  Taylor. 
The  chief  importance  of  the  establishment  of  these  works  was, 
that  they  introduced  the  industry  into  the  country,  and  brought 
over  to  the  colony  many  skilful  mechanics,  the  result  of  whose 
labors  have  not  yet  entirely  disappeared. 

Among  the  first  workmen  engaged  at  the  foundery  were  Henry 
and  James  Leonard,  who  aided  in  making  the  first  castings  in  the 
United  States,  and  were  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  iron  masters  of 
their  name  who  have  been  scattered  all  over  the-  country.  Joseph 
Jenks,  of  Hammersmith,  near  London,  was  another  skilful  work¬ 
man  who  was  connected  with  this  undertaking  from  its  commence¬ 
ment.  Mr.  Lewis,  in  his  History  of  Lynn ,  says  of  him  :  l<  Joseph 
Jenks  deserves  to  be  held  in  perpetual  remembrance  in  American 
history  as  being  the^/trs/  founder  who  worked  in  brass  and  iron  on 
the  western  continent.  By  his  hands  the  first  models  were  made, 
and  the  first  castings  taken  of  many  domestic  implements  and  iron 
tools.  The  first  article  said  to  have  been  cast  was  a  small  iron 
pot,  capable  of  holding  about  a  quail.  Thomas  Hudson,  of  the 
same  family  with  the  celebrated  Hendrick  Hudson,  was  the  first 
proprietor  of  the  lands  on  the  Saugus  River,  where  the  iron  foun¬ 
dery  stood.  When  the  forgo  was  established,  he  procured  the  first 
casting,  which  was  the  famous  old  iron  pot,  which  he  preserved  as 
a  curiosity,  and  handed  down  in  his  family  ever  since. ” 

In  March,  1739,  Joseph  Mallison,  who  was  interested  in  the 
management  of  a  furnace  in  Duxbury,  memorialized  the  Legislature 
for  a  grant  of  unimproved  land  in  consideration  of  his  having  in¬ 
troduced  the  use  of  sand  moulds  for  casting  hollow  ware,  such  as 
pots  and  kettles,  of  which  he  claimed  to  be  “  the  sole  promoter, 
whereby  the  province  saved  annually  at  least  twenty  thousand 
pounds  importations. ”  This  improvement  he  had  made  some  years 
before,  and  the  General  Court,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  claim, 
granted  him  two  hundred  acres  of  unimproved  land. 

The  introduction  of  casting  in  sand  instead  of  clay  moulds  has 
been  ascribed  also  to  Jeremy  Florio,  an  Englishman,  who  practised 
it  at  Kingston. 

Among  the  early  settlers  of  this  country,  and  during  even  the 
last  century,  many  domestic  utensils  of  iron,  which  are  now  to  be 
met  with  in  the  humblest  dwelling,  were  quite  unknown,  or  else 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


359 


highly  prized  for  their  rarity.  The  wills  and  inventories  of  per¬ 
sons  who  were  among  the  well  to  do,  frequently  enumerate  such 
articles  as  iron  pots,  and  their  entire  stock  consisted  often  of 
only  one  or  two,  and  these  were  bequeathed  to  relatives  or  friends 
as  marks  of  affectionate  esteem.  A  century  ago  tea-kettles  were 
made  of  wrought  iron  exclusively,  and  the  rarity  of  cast  iron  ves¬ 
sels  shows  how  limited  was  their  production,  even  in  England, 
from  whence  the  supply  was  chiefly  obtained.  The  plentiful  sup¬ 
ply  of  these  conveniences  at  the  present  time  is  due  chiefly  to  the 
introduction  of  anthracite  in  the  place  of  charcoal  for  fuel  in  the 
furnaces. 

In  1750,  when  the  act  was  passed  by  Parliament  for  encouraging 
the  importation  from  the  colonies  of  pig  and  bar  iron,  and  prohib¬ 
iting  the  erection  of  any  slitting  or  rolling-mills,  plating  forges, 
or  steel  furnaces,  there  were  found  to  be  in  existence  in  the  colo¬ 
nies  two  slitting-mills  in  Middleboro’,  one  in  Hanover,  and  one  in 
Milton,  as  also  a  plating  mill  with  a  tilt  hammer,  and  one  steel 
furnace.  The  rolling-mills  were  chiefly  employed  in  making  nail 
rods,  to  be  worked  up  by  hand. 

This  account  of  the  early  growth  of  the  manufacture  of  iron  in 
Massachusetts,  will  serve  as  an  indication  of  how  the  same  indus¬ 
try  became  established  in  other  of  the  colonies.  To  treat  it  with 
the  same  detail  for  each  of  the  states  would  require  too  much  of 
our  space,  and  it  is  sufficient  to  remark  that  this  industry  was,  at 
the  time  of  the  revolution,  carried  on  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
in  each  one  of  the  thirteen  colonies. 

An  idea  of  the  general  character  of  the  furnaces  used  in  the 
last  century  can  be  best  gathered  from  an  account  written  in  1804 
by  Dr.  James  Thatcher,  who  was  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
Federal  furnace,  erected  in  1794,  in  Carver,  a  town  seven  and  a 
half  miles  from  Plymouth,  and  which  is  printed  in  the  Massachu¬ 
setts  Historical  Collections.  At  the  time  this  description  was 
written,  pig  iron  had  about  ceased  to  be  produced  in  this  country, 
but  the  blast  furnaces  were  in  operation  for  casting.  Ten  forges 
were  also  employed  for  making  bar  iron  from  scraps  and  old  cast 
iron,  to  the  extent  of  about  two  hundred  tons  annually. 

The  furnace  was  about  twenty  feet  high  above  the  hearth,  and 
eight  feet  wide  in  the  boshes.  The  blast  was  produced,  as  was 
then  usual,  by  two  bellows,  twenty-two  feet  long  and  four  wide. 
These  were  driven  by  a  water-wheel  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter, 
and  worked  alternately.  Every  six  months  two  or  three  blasts,  of 


3G0 


IRON  AND  ITS  PEEP  A  R  AT  I  ON. 


sixteen  or  eighteen  weeks  each,  were  made,  producing  about  tlirce 
hundred  and  sixty  tons  of  hollow  ware,  with  other  articles,  the 
whole  estimated  at  about  1200  pounds  a  ton.  The  cost  was  :  — 

2130  cords  of  wood,  making  1420  loads  of  charcoal,  at  $2.50,  $3550  00 


72G  tons  of  ore,  at  $6, .  435(5  00 

Two  sets  of  stones  for  hearth, .  153  32 

Wages  of  founder,  at  $1  a  ton, .  SG0  00 

Wages  of  other  workmen, .  2331  CO 


Total . $10,750  32 


This  furnace  produced  also  iron  cylinders  for  slitting  mills,  pot¬ 
ash  kettles,  stoves,  fire  backs  and  jambs,  plates,  gudgeons,  anvils, 
large  hammers,  cannon  balls,  and  a  great  variety  of  machinery  for 
mills. 

With  the  war  of  the  revolution,  the  legislative  interference  of 
Parliament  with  the  industry  of  the  colonics  ceased.  It  was  this 
narrow-sighted  policy  of  interference  which. had  forced  the  colonies 
to  appeal  to  arms,  after  having  exhausted  every  method  of  peace¬ 
ful  protest,  and  reasonable  attempts  to  vindicate  their  rights. 
During  the  continuance  of  the  war,  the  increased  demand  for  iron 
in  the  manufacture  of  weapons,  and  for  domestic  consumption,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  total  stoppage  of  all  foreign  supply,  caused  a  great 
increase  in  the  production,  and  led  to  the  successful  inauguration 
of  many  branches  of  manufacture.  The  general  congress  and  the 
local  state  legislatures  recommended  to  the  people  that  greater  at¬ 
tention  should  be  paid  to  the  development  of  the  natural  resources 
of  the  country,  and  encouraged  many  branches  of  manufacture  by 
bounties. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  many  kinds  of  industry  which  had 
been  stimulated  by  the  previously  existing  unnatural  condition  of 
isolation,  and  by  the  attendant  legislation,  were  ruined  by  the  im¬ 
portations  of  cheaper  products  from  Europe  ;  and,  under  the  then 
existing  confederation,  there  being  no  harmony  or  uniformity  of 
action  between  the  states,  their  conflicting  legislation,  actuated  by 
narrow  and  selfish  views  of  their  individual,  instead  of  the  general 
interest,  produced  such  a  depression  of  commerce  as  made  it  evi¬ 
dent  that  a  better  political  organization  must  replace  the  old  con¬ 
federation. 

Fortunately,  however,  the  war  had  strengthened,  instead  of 
weakening,  the  convictions  of  the  people  in  the  necessity  for  free- 
ch  m  in  their  political  relations,  and  intensified  their  wise  jealousy 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


361 


of  too  much  governmental  interference  with  their  individual  condi¬ 
tions  for  social,  political,  and  industrial  development.  They  had 
been  trained  to  self-reliance,  and  desired  to  be  citizens,  not  sub¬ 
jects  ;  to  be  members  of  a  commonwealth,  and  organize  a  govern¬ 
ment  for  their  own  purposes,  to  be  their  servant,  not  their  master. 

Especially  fortunate  was  it  that,  at  the  same  time,  the  financial 
policy  of  the  government  was  in  the  hands  of  Alexander  Hamil¬ 
ton.  The  credit  of  the  government  was  destroyed,  its  circulation 
was  almost  worthless,  and  being  without  any  national  traditions, 
with  no  organization  of  the  national  service,  the  crisis  looked 
grave,  and  it  needed  a  man  with  a  mind  comprehensive  enough  to 
embrace  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  with  a  logic  sure  enough 
to  see  that  by  the  industry  of  the  country  alone  could  the  stability 
of  the  new  nation  be  assured,  and  that'  the  duty  of  the  govern¬ 
ment  was  to  foster  and  direct,  not  to  control  and  hamper,  the  play 
of  the  energies  of  those  to  whom  it  owed  itself,  its  existence,  and 
authority. 

If  ever  at  any  time  an  attempt  upon  the  part  of  a  government 
to  interfere  with  the  natural  development  of  industry  was  justifia¬ 
ble,  it  was  just  at  the  period  succeeding  the  revolution.  Not  only 
were  the  circumstances  at  home  such  as  would  seem  to  call  for 
governmental  protection,  but  the  course  of  the  mother  country 
was  such  as  would  seem  to  have  justified  it  as  a  measure  of  re¬ 
taliation. 

By  an  act  of  1785,  Parliament  prohibited,  under  severe  penal¬ 
ties,  the  enticing  of  artificers  or  workmen  skilled  in  the  iron  and 
steel  manufactures  out  of  the  British  kingdom,  or  the  exportation 
of  any  tools  used  in  these  arts,  and  also  all  machinery,  engines, 
or  parts  of  such,  or  all  models  or  plans  of  such. 

Hamilton’s  report  upon  manufactures,  as  Secretary  .of  the  Treas¬ 
ury,  and  his  suggestions  for  the  protection  of  those  branches 
which  required  it,  is  an  admirable  document  for  its  careful  and 
temperate  tone.  But  it  was  chiefly  to  his  administration  of  the 
treasury,  his  introduction  of  order  and  method  into  this  depart¬ 
ment  of  the  public  service,  to  which  all  industry  must  be  subser¬ 
vient,  and  to  the  freedom  of  our  political  relations  which  fostered 
the  enterprise  of  individuals,  that  the  wonderful  growth  of  our 
industry  during  this  century  is  due.  Labor  was  taught  to  depend 
more  upon  itself,  its  energy,  and  its  ingenuity,  than  upon  govern¬ 
mental  protection  ;  and,  as  the  history  of  almost  any  special 


362 


IRON  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 


branch  of  industry  will  show,  it  is  to  these  qualities  that  American 
industry  owes  its  successful  and  independent  character. 

During  this  century  the  iron  manufacture  has  steadily  increased, 
though  its  progress  has  fluctuated  in  consequence  of  the  changes 
in  the  tariff.  Yet  American  industry  has  contributed  its  share  to 
the  improvements  in  the  methods  of  manufacture  which  have  been 
detailed  above  ;  and  the  furnaces  of  the  United  States  will  com¬ 
pare  favorably  with  those  of  any  country  for  their  appliances  to 
attain  excellence  and  economy  in  the  process  of  manufacture. 

One  of  the  most  important  improvements  in  the  manufacture  of 
iron  has  been  introduced  by  some  of  the  founderies  of  the  West, 
and  consists  in  the  welding  of  cast  iron.  This  is  done  by  pouring 
molten  iron  on  the  edge  of  the  shaft,  or  other  fractured  surface  to 
be  mended,  until  it  becomes  melted,  and  then,  the  mould  being 
closed,  the  needed  part  is  cast  upon  it.  This  most  important  dis¬ 
covery  is  entirely  American. 

The  chief  improvement  of  late  date  is  that  known  as  the  Besse¬ 
mer  process,  which  is  described  in  the  article  upon  Steel.  Per¬ 
haps  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  by  this  process,  in  due  time, 
the  whole  method  of  manufacture  will  be  changed,  and  the  in¬ 
creased  demand  of  our  growing  industry  be  supplied  at  much 
cheaper  rates  than  we  have  yet  seen.  The  last  suggestion  in  the 
process  is  the  use  of  the  spectral  analysis  of  the  light  from  the 
combustion  of  the  gases  from  the  furnace,  as  a  test  of  when  the 
decarbonization  of  the  ore  has  been  carried  to  the  desired  point. 
Thus  the  most  delicate  ahd  accurate  discoveries  of  pure  science 
arc  found  to  be  the  allies  of  the  rudest  industry. 


SAWS,  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

• 

SPECULATIONS  AS  TO  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SAW.  —  THE  GREAT  PART  IT  PLAYS 
IN  CIVILIZATION.  —  SCRAPS  OF  ANTIQUE  HISTORY.  —  THE  INVENTION  OF  THE 
SAW  ASCRIBED  BY  THE  GREEKS  TO  DAEDALUS,  OR  PERDIX,  EMINENT  SCULPTORS 
WHOM  THEY  DEIFIED.  —  THE  SAW  AMONG  THE  ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS.  —  DE¬ 
SCRIPTION  OF  THE  EARLIEST  KNOWN  SAWS.  —  BECKMANN,  EMY,  HOLTZAPFFEL, 

KARMARSCH,  WRITERS  UPON  THE  SAW.  - APPLICATION  OF  WATER,  WIND,  AND 

STEAM  AS  MOTIVE  POWERS  OF  THE  SAW.  —  INTRODUCTION  OF  SAW-MILLS 
INTO  ENGLAND  VIOLENTLY  OPPOSED  BY  THE  PEOPLE,  AND  THE  MILLS  RAZED 
TO  THE  GROUND  BY  THE  MOB.  —  SUPPRESSION  OF  MILLS  BY  ACT  OF  PARLIA¬ 
MENT.  —  REVIVAL  OF  MILLS,  AND  INCREASED  DEMAND  FOR  SAWS.  —  THE 

SAW  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  - THE  CHIEF 

MANUFACTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  KEYSTONE  SAW,  TOOL,  STEEL, 
AND  FILE  WORKS.  —  BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  ON  MR.  IIENRY  DISSTON,  THE 
EMINENT  FOUNDER  OF  THE  KEYSTONE  WORKS.  * 

The  saw  has  ever  played  a  most  conspicuous  part  in  the 
economy  of  manufactures,  and  its  importance  will  readily  be 
admitted,  when  we  consider  how  essential  a  bearing  it  has  upon 
our  every-day  life,  and  how  conducive  it  is  to  the  development 
of  those  useful  arts  upon  which,  to  a  great  extent,  the  very  ex¬ 
istence  of  civilized  humanity  depends.  Its  extended  and  univer¬ 
sal  employment  in  the  higher  class  of  industrial  art  Iras,  in  great 
measure,  contributed  to  the  advancement  of  civilization  and  pros¬ 
perity,  by  administering  to  the  production  not  only  of  those 
things  which  are  necessary  to  our  being,  but  of  those  which 
tend  to  cultivate  the  taste  and  to  refine  the  mind.  The  art  of 
sawing  must  have  been  known  at  an  exceedingly  remote  period  9 
(even,  it  is  probable,  in  prehistoric  times),  as  it  is  impossible  to 
suppose  that  such  magnificent  and  gorgeous  structures  as  are 
described  in  the  Hebraic  Scriptures,  and  elsewhere,  could  have 
been  formed  without  some  knowledge  of  the  use  of  the  saw  ;  but 
the  full  extent  to  which  that  knowledge  existed,  and  the  modes  of 
its  practical  application,  cannot  be  educed  from  the  insufficient 

(36  3J 


3G4 


SAWS  AND  TIIEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


evidence  at  our  command  in  these  times.  The  ancient  Greeks 
ascribed  the  invention  of  the  saw  —  as  also  the  chisel,  compasses, 
and  auger,  with  other -implements  —  to  Dmdalus  (or,  as  some 
say,  Talus)-,  or  his  disciple  Perdix,  renowned  architects  and  sculp¬ 
tors,  who  were  accustomed  to  employ  these  instruments  in  the 
production  of  the  Dmdali  —  wooden  images  of  the  gods,  orna¬ 
mented  with  gilding  and  real  drapery,  and  usually  represented 
standing  with  the  feet  in  an  advancing  posture.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the  derivation  of  saws  is  infinitely 
more  remote,  as  they  have  been  discovered  clearly  represented 
in  the  midst  of  the  hieroglyphics  inscribed  on  the  obelisks  of 
Egypt.  According  to  the  hypotheses  of  sundry  ancient  writers, 
the  jaw-bones  of  the  snake  with  its  teeth,  or  the  vertebrae  of  a 
fish  with  its  protruding  small  points,  first  sugg-ested  the  plan  of 
the  saw  ;  but  it  is  equally  as  likely  that  a  common  brier  upon 
Which  some  antique  “  genius  "  may  have  torn  his  flesh,  or  his 
fig  leaves,  if  he  wore  any,  may  have  suggested  the  idea.  The 
great  wonder  is,  so  useful  an  implement  is  the  saw,  that  we  have 
not  been  assured  by  some  ancient  writer  that  the  notion  of  the 
saw  was- divinely  inspired.  The  Greeks  did  indeed  deify  the  sup¬ 
posed  inventor  of  the  saw,  thus  intimating  that,  in  their  opinion, 
the  conception  of  it  was  beyond  the  powers  of  the  human  mind. 

The  saws  used  by  the  Grecian  carpenters  were  made  like  the 
•straight  frame  instruments  qf  modern  days,  the  blade  having  been 
*$et  across  the  middle  of  the  frame,  with  the  teeth  perpendicular  to 
the  plane.  The  block  of  wood  was  held  down  upon  a  liable  or 
bench  by  clamps,  and  the  sawyers,  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
bench,  at  each  end  of  the  saw,  pulled  it  back  and  forth. 

The  investigation  of  the  history  of  the  saw  affords  an  interest¬ 
ing  field  to  the  archaeologist,  although  the  materials  or  means  of 
information  are  limited,  so  far  as  specific  facts  are  concerned  ;  but 
there  is  wide  scope  for  intelligent  inference.  But  such  investiga¬ 
tion,  thoroughly  carried*  out,  and  the  results  thereof  stated,  would 
hardly  come  within  the  purview  cf  this  article,  which  is  intended 
in  the  main  to  be  utilitarian.  Those  who  desire  to  make  more  ex¬ 
tended  researches,  are  referred  to  Beckmann's  “  History  of  Inven¬ 
tions,"  containing  an  account  of  the  earlier  saw-mills,  together 
with  certain  speculations  on  the  origin  of  the  saw.  Emy,  in  his 
“  Traite  de  l'Art  de  la  Charpenterie,"  also  makes  some  allusions  to 
the  same  subject  of  an  instructive  character,  as  likewise  does 
Iloltzapffel,  in  the  second  volume  of  “Turning  and  Mechanical 


365 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

Manipulation,”  and  Karmarsch  in  the  “  Handbuch  der  mecha- 
nischen  Technologic,”  vol.  i.  Ilanover,  1866. 

Saws  are  made  of  the  many  forms  and  sizes  required  by 
thousands,  according  to  the  particular  purposes  for  which  they  are 
designed  ;  and  hardly  any  instrument  for  man’s  use  is  more  varied 
in  size  than  the  saw,  when  we  consider  the  full  range  of  its 
species,  so  to  speak,  from  the  watchmaker’s  delicate  saw  for 
piercing  and  inlaying,  which  measures  about  one  thirtieth  of  an 
inch  in  width,  and  one  hundredth  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  up 
to  the  immense  mill  and  mulay  (mullet?)  saws  in  use  in  cer¬ 
tain  portions  of  America,  and  the  peculiar  band-saws  in  com¬ 
bination  with  rack-benches,  employed  in  ripping  logs  of  timber  of 
almost  any  dimensions. 

The  oldest  forms  of  the  saw  are  made  of  a  straight  piece  of 
steel,  “  toothed,”  and  set  in  a  frame,  or  with  handles  on  either  end, 
to  be  moved  by  one  or  two  persons,  according  to  the  form  given  ; 
or  the  saw-plate  is  made  sufficiently  stiff  to  be  propelled  by  one 
handle,  and  worked  by  a  single  person  holding  it  in  one  hand,  like 
tin'  saw  most  in  use  among  joiners  and  carpenters  in.  general.  In 
modern  times  has  been  invented  the  circular  saw-blade,  which  re¬ 
volves,  and  with  its  teeth  in  the  periphery,  .may  be  made  to  cut  with 
incredible  speed ;  a  saw  of  two  feet  in  diameter,  for  example, 
being  driven  at  the  speed  of  from  two  thousand  to  twenty-four 
hundred  revolutions  a  minute. 

But  the  chief  important  improvement,  for  a  long  time,  relating 
to  saws,  is  one  recently  devised  by  Mr.  Henry  Disston,  of  Phila¬ 
delphia  (and  patented  January  14,  1868),  which,  since  it  com¬ 
prehends  one  of  the  most  valuable  achievements  of  progress,  in 
any  art,  namely,  economy  of  means  or  in  products,  is  highly 
worthy  of  note.  To  make  this  great  improvement  most  clear  to 
the  reader,  it  should  first  be  observed  that  the  rapid  wear  of  cir¬ 
cular  saws  demands  the  frequent  sharpening  of  their  teeth  ;  and 
that  this,  in  ordinary  saws,  not  only  requires  tedious  manipula¬ 
tion,  but  results  in  the  rapid  reduction  of  the  saw  in  diameter. 
To  rescue  the  saw  from  tin’s  rapid  reduction  is  the  object  of  Mr. 
Disston’s  successful  invention. 

The  better  to  explain  this  great  improvement,  we  introduce  the 
two  accompanying  cuts,  designated  “  Fig.  1  ”  and  41  Fig.  2,” 
respectively.,  (For  the  use  of  the  plate  of  the  latter  we  are  in¬ 
debted  to  the  courtesy  of  Messrs.  Henry  Disston  &  Son,  of  Phil¬ 
adelphia.)  Fig.  1  represents  a  portion  of  a  circular  saw  with  or- 
21 


366 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


dinary  teeth,  which  must  be  sharpened  by  reducing  both  the  front 

edge  a  and  back  b  of 
each  tootli ;  a  duty  which 
requires  much  time,  and 
which  cannot  bo  per¬ 
formed  without  much 
waste  of  material,  as  will 
be  readily  understood  by 
reference  to  the  dotted  lines,  which  illustrate  the  condition  of  the 
blade  and  waste  of  material  after  frequent  sharpening. 

To  obviate  these  objections  or  difficulties  was  devised  the  plan 
above  alluded  to,  and  shown  by  Fig.  2  (on  next  page),  by  which  it 
will  be  observed  that  the  back  of  each  tooth  is  a  continuation  of 
a  curved  line,  Z,  spirally  arranged  on  the  blade,  and  that  the 
sharpening  of  the  tooth  is  accomplished  by  the  reduction  of  a 
portion  of  the  front  or  throat  only  ;  thus,  in  reducing  the  tooth, 
the  course  pursued  by  the  cutter  (the  contrivance  by  which  the 
tooth  is  cut)  is  spiral,  so  that  while  the  rotary  cutter  is  in  the  act 
of  reducing  the  front  of  the  tooth,  D,  it  is  at  the  same  time  pro¬ 
longing  the  back  of  the  tooth,  C,  prior  to  the  reduction  of  the 
front  of  the  same. 

The  teeth  can  be  sharpened  from  time  to  time,  by  simply  filing 
the  bevelled  ends  (as  seen  in  Fig.  2)  ;  and  this  mode  of  sharpen¬ 
ing  may  be  continued  until  the  bevelled  point  of  cach*tooth 
reaches  nearly  to  the  end  of  the  throat,  when  by  means  of  a  ro¬ 
tary  cutter  a  further  portion  of  the  throat  may  be  removed. 

Fig.  2  (representing  the  so-called  “  Patent  Gullet-Tooth  Circular 
Saw,”  secured  by  patent  to  Messrs.  Ilenry  Disston  &  Son)  fur¬ 
ther  illustrates,  in  its  double  capacity,  a  saw,  B,  as  worn  down 
from  a  larger  saw,  A,  the  teeth  having  been  11  carried  back,” 
or  cut  (by  the  use  of  the  same  firm’s  patent  “  gummers  ”),  on  the 
periphery  lines,  Z,  instead  of  on  the  centre  line,  G,  by  the  old 
method  of  filing.  The  engraving  represents  a  two  inch  tooth 
or  gullet.  When  the  saw  has  been  worn  down  by  this  method 
from  C  to  F,  on  centre  line,*  it  has  been  reduced  but  six 

9 

inches,  but  has  presented  a  point  or  cutting  surface  on  the  pe¬ 
riphery  line  from  G  to  Y,  a  distance  of  twenty-four  inches. 
The  majority  of  saws,  however,  arc  run  successfully  with  a  one 
and  one-fourth  inch  tooth  ;  and  of  course  the  smaller  the  gullet 
the  less  the  waste  of  the  saw. 

Anterior  to  the  adaptation  of  mechanism  to  the  saw,  large  timber 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


3G7 


was  universally  converted  through  the  agency  of  the  pit  or  whip¬ 
saw.  This  instrument  varies  in  size  from  about  six  feet  to  eight 
feet  in  length,  and  is  furnished  at  the  upper  end  with  a  tiller,  and 
at  the  lower  with  a  box  to  adapt  it  to  the  hands  of  the  saw¬ 
yers.  The  balk,  or  beam,  after  being  sorted  and  lined  out  by  the 
converter,  is  then  placed  over  the  saw-pit,  in  order  that  the  saw 


Fig.  2. 


may  be  used  in  a  vertical  position  by  two  men,  called,  respectively, 
the  topman  and  the  pitman.  The  men  are  favorably  stationed  so 
that  their  positions  shall  enable  them  to  give  the  saw  a  nearly 
perpendicular  traverse  of  three  or  four  feet ;  but  in  the  up-stroke 
it  is  withdrawn  a  few  inches  from  the  end  of  the  cut,  so  as  to 
allow  the  sawdust  free  escape,  and  likewise  to  avoid  blunting 
the  teeth. 


3G8 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


It  is  customary,  when  deals  or  expensive  woods  of  moderate 
dimensions  are  required  to  be  sawn,  to  make  use  of  the  pit-frame 
saw,  which  is  much  thinner  than  the  whip-saw,  and  therefore  less 
wasteful  of  the  material.  The  saw  is  attached  to  a  wooden  frame 
of  a  parallelogrammic  figure,  by  means  of  two  iron  buckles  or 
shackles  riveted  to  the  blade,  and  arranged  so  as  to  embrace  the 
top  and  bottom  cross-heads  of  the  frame.  The  lower  buckle  is 
cleft  for  the  insertion  of  a  pair  of  equal  or  folding  wedges,  the 
office  of  which  is  to  draw  the  saw-web  stiff' and  tense,  and  retain  it  in 
proper  position. 

We  clearly  have  in  this  apparatus  the  germs  of  the  saw-frame, 
and  mill-saws,  and  it  only  required  popular  demands  and  sufficient 
time  to  perfect  them  into  the  varied  and  complete  instruments  of 
the  present  day.  We  cannot  fix  the  exact  date  at  which  saws  by 
other  than  hand  force  first  came  into  operation,  although  it  may 
be  affirmed,  on  reliable  authority,  that  mills  driven  by  water-wheels 
and  the  wings  of  wind-mills  existed  in  Germany  as  early  as  the 
fourteenth  century.  They  subsequently  made  their  way  in  a  very 
crude  state  into  Germany  and  Holstein.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
year  159G,  a  saw-mill  worked  by  water  power  was  erected  at 
Saardam,  in  Holland.  Saw-mills  were  not  introduced  in  England 
prior  to  the  seventeenth  century,  on  account  of  the  prejudice  ex¬ 
isting  against  them  on  the  part  of  sawyers,  who,  like  many 
members  of  various  handicrafts,  repulsed  any  innovation  likely  to 
interfere  with  their  trade,  and  lessen,  as  they  maintained,  their 
means  of  subsistence.  In  fact,  so  high  arose  the  antipathy  and 
obstructiveness  of  the  sawyers,  that  Parliament  was  obliged  to 
pass  a  law  to  appease  them,  whereby  the  use  of  saws  driven  by 
wind  or  water  power  was  prohibited.  For  this  reason,  a  mill 
erected  by  a  Dutchman  near  London,  in  1633,  was  abandoned. 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  this  stubborn  opposition,  efforts  were 
not  wanting,  persevering  ones,  and  another  mill,  impelled  by  the 
force  of  the  wind,  was  built  in  Limehouse,  by  a  Mr.  Houghton,  in 
the  year  PiGO.  Unfortunately,  this  only  served  to  arouse  in  a 
still  greater  degree,  the  rage  of  the  populace,  who  ended  by 
throwing  the  mill  to  the  ground,  and  demolishing  the  entire 
works. 

Efforts  to  introduce  the  water  or  wind  mills,  were  suppressed  from 
that  time  for  a  period  of  about  sixty  years,  when  an  opulent  and  en¬ 
terprising  merchant,  encouraged  by  the  Society  of  Arts,  caused  a 
wind  power  saw-mill  to  be  erected  again  at  Limehouse,  under  the 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


369 


supervision  of  an  able  and  experienced  millwright  by  the  name  of 
Stansfield,  who  had  learned  in  Holland  and  Norway  the  art  of 
constructing  and  managing  works  of  this  nature. 

The  attempt  proved,  however,  as  futile  as  those  that  had  pre¬ 
ceded  it.  Crowds  of  the  disaffected  once  more  mustered  around 
the  building,  and  under  the  guidance  of  two  or  three  desperadoes, 
irretrievably  destroyed  it,  and  ruthlessly  scattered  the  debris. 
It  is  satisfactory,  however,  to  add,  that  the  government  came  for¬ 
ward,  and  indemnified  the  spirited  entrepreneur  for  the  loss  he 
sustained  by  this  flagrant  act  of  injustice.  It  is  a  pitiful  fact  in 
the  history  of  the  arts,  and  sciences, — and  the  remark  may  be 
justly  extended  so  as  to  embrace  matters  of  agriculture  and 
commerce  as  well,  —  that  governments  do  not,  far  more  than  they 
have  ever  done,  interest  themselves  in  projects  which  are  calculated 
to  advance  the  general  well-being  of  their  respective  bodies  politic, 
and  to  succor  individual  enterprise.  The  tendency  of  the  age  is 
to  cooperative  enterprise.  This  is  emphatically  the  age  of  guar¬ 
antee,  of  mutual  insurance,  and  united  effort  —  the  palpable  pre¬ 
cursor  of  those  days  of  enlightenment  which  are  to  succeed 
civilization,  in  which  shall  be  witnessed  no  more  such  violent 
struggles  as  we  record  above  between  impoverished  labor  strug¬ 
gling  in  its  witless  way  to  preserve  food  for  its  hungering  mouth 
against  the  suggestions  of  genius  attempting  to  lessen  the  general 
burdens  of  labor  for  humanity,  and  pushed  on  by  capital.  The 
war  between  labor  and  capital  must  ever  continue,  till  an  intelli¬ 
gent,  inventive  genius,  equal  to  that  which  prompts  and  perfects 
the  mechanical  enterprises  of  individuals,  is  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  improvement  and  reorganization  of  that  old  machine  which 
hac  so  clumsily  run  on  for  the  ages,  ever  getting  out  of  repair, 
often  violently  checked  in  its  course,  and  making  fearful  couhter- 
revolutions,  - — breaking  its  shafts,  with  ever  a  "  screw  loose*” 
here  and  there,  and  sometimes  tottering,  and  swaying,  and  break¬ 
ing  down  with  a  crash  of  war  and  its  attendant  wrongs  and  hor¬ 
rors,  and  which  miserable  machine  we  are  wont  in  its  parts  to 
call  “  Government,”  "Society,”  —  semi-developed,  or  further  ad¬ 
vanced,  and  which,  with  a  general  term,  we  curiously  enough 
name  “  Civilization.” 

Shortly  after  the  destruction  of  the  mill  which  we  note  above, 
another  one  was  erected  in  its  place,  and  was  permitted  to  flourish 
unmolested ;  and  in  a  few  years  the  general  establishment  of  mills 


370 


SAWS  AND  TIIEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


in  the  vicinage  of  London  followed  as  a  corollary.  Beckmann 
asserts  that  a  saw-mill  of  a  most  outre  description,  had  been  in 
action  at  Leith,  in  Scotland,  some  time  antecedent  to  those  erected 
about  London. 

To  General  Bentham  is  commonly  accorded  the  honor  of  hav¬ 
ing  been  the  first  to  apply  steam  as  a  motive  power  for  driving 
saw-frames  ;  and  in  a  patent  taken  out  by  him  in  1793,  a  machine 
of  this  class  is  specified  for  operating  on  wood,  previous  to  its 
conversion  into  scantling  for  “  block  shells,”  etc.  Since  then, 
great  progress  has  been  made  in  this  branch  of  mechanical  indus¬ 
try.  Iron  and  steel  have  supplanted  wood  for  constructive  de¬ 
tails,  thereby,  as  English  manufacturers  assure  us  as  the  result  of 
their  experience,  insuring  greater  stability  and  superior  work,  as 
well  as  conferring  a  simple  and  more  elegant  appearance  upon  the 
whole  structure  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  ample  strength  and  solid- 
it}'  are  provided  to  preserve  it  free  from  vibration  and  fracture.  But 
in  this  country  wood  as  a  constructive  material  largely  continues  to 
find  favor  with  sawyers,  who  maintain  that  its  elasticity  absorbs 
or  counteracts  the  vibration  of  the  saws,  cutters,  etc.,  and 
that  thereby  higher  rates  of  speed  may  be  attained  than  would 
be  consistent  with  iron  and  rigid  frame-work.  But  the  writer’s 
observations  lead  to  the  contrary  opinion,  and  practical  English¬ 
men,  who  speak  from  experience,  assure  him  that  iron  and  steel 
are  found  preeminently  qualified  for  the  purposes  of  erection,  and 
are,  as  well,  greatly  superior  to  the  softer  and  more  yielding  mate¬ 
rial,  by  reason  of  the  greater  durability  and  freedom  from  in¬ 
herent  decay. 

It  was  the  application  of  water,  wind,  and  steam,  as  motive 
powers,  to  the  saw,  which  created  that  large  demand  for  its  use 
which  has  characterized  the  nineteenth  century  over  all  its  pred¬ 
ecessors,  and  which  extended  its  operations  into  many  thereto 
untried  fields  of  enterprise  ;  and  for  the  perfect  operations  of  the 
saw,  as  perfect  settings  or  frames  as  may  be,  are  necessary.  In¬ 
deed,  the  saw  and  the  frame  are  only  necessary  and  co-operative 
parts  of  a  whole,  and  must  go  together — as  essential  to  each 
other  as  teeth  to  the  masticating  animal  man,  or  as  the  man  to  the 
masticating  teeth. 

The  introduction  of  the  saw  into  America  was  coincident  with 
its  settlement,  the  saw  at  that  time  being  as  feeble  and  simple,  as 
an  instrument,  as  were  the  colonies  as  bodies  politic  —  and  as 
out  of  small  beginnings  has  grown  one  of  the  foremost  nations  of 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


371 


the  world,  so  equally  has  the  science  of  the  saw  in  its  mechanical 
improvements  and  manufacture  grown  until  to-day,  when  in  the 
United  States  the  best  saws  of  the  world  are  made.  The  capital 
invested  in  the  manufacture  of  saws  in  this  country  is  many  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars,  employing  large  numbers  of  artisans. 

The  process  of  manufacturing  saws  may  be  described  in  a  few 
words.  An  ingot  of  steel  is  prepared,  from  which  the  plates  are 
to  be  manufactured,  and  being  heated  to  a  requisite  heat,  is  placed 
under  a  ponderous  steam  hammer,  and  subjected  to  severe  manip¬ 
ulation,  which  tends  to  refine,  densify,  and  toughen  the  grain  of 
the  steel  ;  it  is  then  re  heated,  and  placed  under  powerful  rollers, 
and  flattened  out  to  the  required  thickness,  and  thereafter  cut  up 
into  slits  if  need  be.  The  edge  intended  for  the  teeth  is  then 
made  true  by  trimming,  and  the  plate  is  next  taken  to  a  toothing 
machine,  a  fly  press,  suitably  provided  with  punches,  regulated  by 
gauges  so  that  a  suitable  and  uniform  distance  apart  may  be  secured 
for  the  teeth,  and  then  the  plate  is  “  toothed  ”  rapidly.  The  punch 
or  “  die  ”  leaves  somewhat  rough  edges  to  the  teeth,  which  edges 
are,  as  the  next  process,  removed  by  files,  and  the  teeth  sharpened. 
The  blades  are  next  made  to  undergo  the  hardening  or  tempering 
process,  which  consists  in  their  first  being  heated  in  large  ovens,  over 
an  intense  fire,  to  a  red  heat,  whence  they  are  withdrawn  at  a  certain 
degree  of  heat,  and  plunged  into  vats  containing  oil,  together  with 
certain  ingredients,  such  as  resin,  tallow,  and  bees-wax,  in  certain 
proportions.  Of  the  precise  proportions  of  these,  together  with 
anything  like  a  minute  description  of  the  tempering  process,  it 
would,  in  every  case,  be  difficult  to  assure  the  reader ;  for  the 
art  of  tempering,  especially  in  instances  where  it  is  a  peculiar 
success,  is  kept  a  secret  in  the  temperer’s  own  bosom.  By 
this  process  the  blades  acquire  great  hardness ;  and  he  now 
subjects  them  to  a  new  heat,  until  portions  of  the  oil  not  wiped 
off  begin  to  burn.  This  latter  process  is  known  as  “blazing 
off.”  The  temperer  regulates  the  degree  of  hardness  according 
to  the  purpose  for  which  the  given  saw  is  intended.  That  the 
stiffness  of  the  plate  may  be  uniform  throughout,  it  is  next  ham¬ 
mered  thoroughly  upon  a  large  anvil :  this  is  called,  in  manufac¬ 
turing  parlance,  “  smithing.”  The  next  step  is  to  grind  the  plate, 
so  that  it  shall,  commencing  at  a  given  thickness  of  teeth,  grow 
slightly  and  gradually  thinner  to  the  back  (or  to  the  centre,  in 
case  of  circular  saws).  The  process  of  grinding  was  exclusively, 
till  of  late,  that  of  placing  the  plate  upon  a  stiff  board  for  a  back, 


372 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


and  pressing  one  side  of  it  at  a  time  against  a  grindstone  ;  but 
in  the  leading  establishment  in  the  United  States,  the  “  Keystone 
Saw,  Tool,  Steel,  and  File  Works”  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  the  grinding 
of  saws  is  to  a  large  extent  done  by  a  patented  process,  by  which 
the  plate  is  ground  on  both  sides  at  once,  with  far  more  uni¬ 
formity  in  regard  to  thickness,  as  well  as  more  expertly  and  eco¬ 
nomically  than  when  ground  on  one  side  at  once. 

After  the  saw  is  ground,  it  is  taken  back  to  the  anvils  for  ro- 
il  hammering,”  in  order  to*  take  out  whatever  distortions  may  have 
occurred  by  the  pulling  and  friction  it  has  received  in  grind¬ 
ing  ;  then  back  again  to  the  grindstones,  where  it  is  “  drawn,”  as 
it  is  called.  It  is  now  ready  for  the  **  glazing  ”  or  polishing  pro¬ 
cess,  which  being  done,  it  is  carried  back  to  the  anvils  once  more 
to  be  straightened,  after  it  is  11  grained  ”  with  emery,  after 
which  it  is  set.  It  is  next  passed  through  the  process  of  stiffen¬ 
ing,  or  having  the  requisite  11  spring”  or  elasticity  given  it,  which 
is  done  by  a  heating  process.  After  it  comes  from  this  process, 
and  is  cooled  off,  whatever  discoloration  it  may  have  received  from 
the  process  of  heating,  or  otherwise,  is  removed  by  acid,  and  then 
it  is  oiled.  (At  this  point  devices  or  names  are  etched  or  stamped 
on  the  saw.)  It  is  now  ready  for  sharpening,  which  done,  it  is 
“  handled”  (if  of  the  kind  needing  handles),  and  is  inspected, 
and  then  packed  for  market. 

The  most  extensive,  and  without  doubt  the  best  manufactory 
of  saws  in  the  United  States,  and  probably  in  the  world,  as  the 
writer  is  confidently  assured  by  one  whom  he  deems  to  possess  a 
larger  knowledge  of  the  saw  and  its  manufacture  than  almost  any 
other  person  living,  is  that  of  the  world-famed  “  Keystone  Saw, 
Tool,  Steel,  and  File  Works,”  established  originally  by  Mr.  Henry 
Disston,  whose  name  is  known  throughout  the  world  wherever  a 
saw  is  used. 

The  process  of  manufacture  at  the  Keystone  Works  is  sub¬ 
stantially  as  described  in  the  general  description  above  ;  but  it 
should  be  remembered,  in  honor  of  the  intelligence  that  is  made  to 
bear  upon  the  manufacture  of  saws  at  this  establishment,  thpt 
many  of  the  details  of  the  several  processes  are  the  inventions  of 
Mr!  Disston  and  his  associates,  and  are  secured  to  them  by  letters 
patent.  These,  in  good  measure,  enable  them  to  outvie  other 
works  in  the  accuracy  of  their  manufactures,  as  well  as  in  their 
cost  of  production.  The  Keystone  Works  successfully  compete 
in  all  respects  with  foreign  manufacturers,  and  in  some  respects  sur- 


KEYS  I  ONE  SAW  WORKS;  HENRY  DISSTON  &  SON,  PHILADELPHIA. 


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SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


375 


pass  them.  For  example,  the  so-called  “  No  7  ”  saw,  manufac¬ 
tured  by  these  works,  is  said  by  the  best  authorities  to  be  worth 
forty  per  cent,  more  than  the  best  English  saw. 

And  here,  in  the  not  illaudible  pride,  we  trust,  of  Americans 
in  our  victories  over  other  countries,  especially  in  the  “  con¬ 
tests  of  peace, ”  it  is  our  great  pleasure  to  note  the  following  evi¬ 
dence  of  an  American  triumph  not  only  over  English  skill,  but 
that  of  the  whole  world  in  the  matter  of  saws.  Mr.  Disston, 
some  time  in  1867,  forwarded  a  circular  saw  blade  to  the  great 
London  dealers,  Messrs.  Holloway  &  Co.,  and  received  from 
them  a  voluntary  and  appreciative  testimonial  in  the  letter  be¬ 
low,  which  we  have  been  permitted  to  copy. 

“  London,  England,  Nov.  23,  1867. 

“  Mr.  Henry  Disston. 

“  Dear  Sir  :  You  will  be  pleased  to  learn  that  your  circular 
saw  blade  reached  us  yesterday  safely.  We  have  tried  it  to-day, 
and  it  is  more  than  all  we  expected  of  it.  In  every  respect  it  is 
the  best  saw  we  have  ever  seen,  and  its  equal  cannot  be  produced 
in  Europe.  We  beg  to  thank  you  for  all  your  kind  attention  to 
our  wishes,  and  are  your  obliged  and  obedient  servants, 

“Holloway  &  Co.” 

% 

A  testimonial  like  the  above,  and  so  well  merited,  should 
satisfy  the  professional  ambition  of  any  manufacturer  in  the 
land.  It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  Keystone  Works  frequently 
receive  perhaps  equally  good  testimonials  of  the  perfection  of 
their  wares,  in  the  shape  of  large  boulders  cut  entirely  through 
by  their  saws  without  breaking  the  latter,  which  boulders  have 
by  some  means  become  imbedded  in  the  huge  trees  of  California 
or  Oregon,  it  may  be,  and  which  as  cut  in  twain,  are  forwarded  to 
them  by  some  admiring  sawyer  ;  and  in  the  largest  iron  saw-dogs 
cut  completely  in  two  by  their  matchless  saws. 

The  Keystone  Works  not  only  manufacture  all  kinds  of  saws, 
from  the  common  wood  and  hand  saw  up  to  the  largest  circular 
saws  ever  made,  inclusive,  —  mill,  mulay,  gang,  cross-cut,  drag, 
pit-saw,  patent  combination  saws,  etc. — but  also  do  a  large 
business  in  setting,  sharpening,  gumming,  and  hammering  circu¬ 
lar  and  other  saws  for  other  establishments  which  have  not  the 
requisite  facilities,  and  also  do  their  own  (silver  or  gold)  plating, 
and  plate  for  others.  It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  they  make, 


376 


SAWS  AND  TIlEIIt  MANUFACTURE. 


for  their  own  consumption,  the  steel  ingots  Ihey  need  for  their 
saws,  etc.,  after  a  perfect  and  patented  process;  and  it  is  due 
greatly  to  this  fact  that  their  saws  take  precedence  of  all  others. 

Their  establishment  is  immense,  covering  over  eight  acres 
of  ground,  and  employing  upwards  of  six  hundred  laborers. 
They  pay  always  over  nine  thousand  dollars  per  week,  the  em¬ 
ployees  receiving  from  six  dollars  per  week  for  boys,  who  do 
the  lighter  work,  to  thirty  and  one  hundred  dollars  per  week  for 
skilled  workmen.  Before  our  late  civil  war,  wages  averaged 
about  one-half  of  what  they  do  now.  Workmen  at  the  same  trade 
in  England  get  about  one-half  of  what  the  Keystone  Works  paid 
before  the  war.  The  prices  of  the  saws  made  by  the  establish¬ 
ment  remain  about  the  same  as  before  the  war,  the  superior  and 
patented  machinery  of  the  Keystone  Works  enabling  them  to 
manufacture  to  such  excellent  advantage. 

Mr.  Disston,  the  founder  of  this  establishment,  is  a  strong  ad¬ 
vocate  of  “  protection, ”  as  against  free  trade,  and  believes  that 
the  success  of  the  works,  and  the  lucrative  employment  which 
it  has  been  enabled  to  give  to  its  large  number  of  employees, 
providing  thus  f  r  hundreds  of  families,  have  been  secured  by  the 
protective  tariff,  as  well  as  by  the  eminent  care  and  skill  exer¬ 
cised  in  the  manufacture  of  its  wares. 

Not  only  do<5s  Mr.  Henry  Disston  stand  pre-eminent  in  this 
country  as  the  successful  pioneer  in  the  manufacture  of  saws,  but 
his  career  is  one  of  marvellous  successes,  secured  through  great 
intelligence,  by  untiring  perseverance  and  the  conscientious  fulfil¬ 
ment  of  professional  duties ;  and  a  short  biography  of  this 
eminent  manufacturer  can  be  fitly  made  here,  as  instructive  and 
encouraging  to  the  earnest  young  men  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Disston  is  an  Englishman  by  birth,  but  came  here  at  an 
early  age,  and  is  an  American  in  sentiment  and  active  energy. 
Tic  commenced  business  in  a  small  cellar  in  the  vicinity  of  Second 
and  Arch  Streets,  Philadelphia;  and  the  first  coal  he  ever  used 
for  the  purpose  of  hardening  and  tempering  his  work  was  wheeled 
by  himself  from  Willow  Street  Wharf,  nearly  a  mile  distant,  to 
his  little  workshop. 

The  manufacture  of  hand  saws  had  already  been  attempted  by 
other  parties,  all  of  whom,  however,  failed,  and  it  was  reserved 
for  Mr.  Disston  to  establish  that  important  and  useful  branch  of 
industry  in  this  country.  But  this  was  not  accomplished  with’ 
out  many  severe  trials  and  struggles,  and  in  order  to  prove  to 


SAWS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


377 


the  merchant  that  he  was  determined  to  compete  with  the  foreign 
market,  he  was  frequently  compelled  to  sell  his  saws  at  an  advance 
of  only  one  per  cent,  over  the  cost  of  production. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  years  Mr.  Disston  became  foreman  of 
the  shop  in  which  he  served  his  apprenticeship,  and  was  fre¬ 
quently  the  recipient  of  presents  from  his  employers  for  the  im¬ 
provements  he  made  in  machinery,  tools,  etc.  At  this  time  it 
was  the  custom  to  send  back  to  England  all  the  scrap  or  waste 
steel  made  in  cutting  out  saws,  for  the  purpose  of  being  re-manu¬ 
factured  into  sheets.  On  this  material  there  had  already  been 
paid  a  duty  of  thirty  per  cent.,  in  addition  to  freights  and  other 
charges.  The  same  steel,  after  its  re-manufacture,  would  be  re¬ 
turned  to  this  country,  and  again  subjected  to  duties  and  charges. 
This  told  so  heavily  against  the  American  manufacture,  that  Mr. 
Disston  determined  that  such  a  state  of  affairs  should  no  longer 
exist ;  and  about  twenty  years  ago  he  commenced  to  make  waste 
steu-1  into  ingots,  which  he  caused  to  be  rolled  into  sheets  for  the 
manufacture  of  the  cheaper  qualities  of  goods.  The  experience 
and  confidence  thus  gained  have  proved  to  be  ^f  immense  benefit, 
and  although  millions  of  dollars  had  been  vainly  spent  in  trying 
to  produce  sheet  steel  in  this  country,  yet  when  our  civil  war 
broke  out,  and  gold  commenced  its  upward  flight,  Mr.  Disston 
assumed  the  risk  ;  and  a  success  more  flattering  than  his  most 
sanguine  hopes  had  pictured  has  crowned  his  efforts,  the  works 
now  producing  upwards  of  thirty  tons  of  sheet  steel  per  week, 
the  whole  of  which  is  consumed  in  the  establishment.  The  finest 
qualities  are  made  into  saws,  which  far  excel  those  of  foreign 
manufacture. 

One  of  the  great  secrets  of  Mr.  Disston’s  success  is  his  prac¬ 
tical  knowledge  of  every  department  incident  to  the  manufacture 
of  saws.  There  is  not  a  process,  even  the  most  minute,  through 
which  a  saw  passes  from  the  crude  and  raw  material  to  its 
finished  state,  but  what  can  be  successfully  accomplished,  in  a 
mechanical  point  of  view,  by  Mr.  Disston  himself. 

In  the  year  1846  Mr.  Disston  removed  his  small  establishment, 
and  rented  a  room  in  the  factory  of  Mr.  William  Miles,  then  sit¬ 
uated  on  part  of  the  site  of  the  present  works.  In  1849  lie  was  - 
unfortunately  burned  out  through  the  explosion  of  Mr.  Miles's 
boiler  —  a  disaster  which  might  have  cost  him  his  life,  as  he  was 
thrown  a  considerable  distance  by  the  concussion,  but  fortunately 
without  sustaining  any  serious  personal  injury. 


378 


SAWS  AND  TIIEIll  MANUFACTURE. 


Tliis  event  caused  him  to  take  up  a  small  lot  adjoining,  sixty 
by  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  on  which,  in  the  short  space  of  fif¬ 
teen  days,  his  first  factory,  thirty  by  sixty  feet,  and  four  stories 
high,  was  erected,  and  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  present  immense 
establishment. 

As  the  rapidly  increasing  business  demanded,  it  has  been  from 
time  to  time  enlarged,  until  it  has  assumed  its  present  colossal 
proportions  —  covering  an  area  of  over  eight  acres. 

Mr.  Disston  now  enjoys  the  laudable  pride,  as  one  reward  of  his 
great  industiy  and  professional  ambition,  of  witnessing  all  the 
operations  incidental  to  the  making  of  saws  of  every  description 
carried  on  here  on  a  scale  of  unsurpassed  magnitude;  and  not  only 
saws,  but  all  their  constituent  parts,  together  with  all  machines 
and  tools  used  in  their  manufacture,  are  planned  and  fashioned 
within  the  works. 

Mr.  Disston  ma}^  indeed  be  classed  as  one  of  the  celebrated 

men  of  this  generation.  Born  in  England,  in  1819,  he  came  to 

this  country  at  the  age  of  fourteen  3rcars,  in  company  with  his 

father,  who  died  fcliree  days  after  their  arrival  in  Philadelphia. 

Friendless  and  without  means,  with  no  one  to  advise  or  guide 

♦ 

his  youthful  steps,  he  was  indeed  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land. 

After  many  trials,  vicissitudes,  and  struggles  with  poverty,  he 
bound  himself  apprentice  to  the  saw-making  business,  believing 
that  the  manufacture  of  saws  was  destined,  at  no  ver}'  distant 
future,  to  become  one  of  immense  importance  in  a  young  and 
rapidly-growing  country  abounding  in  almost  trackless  forests  of 
lumber,  and  where  new  cities  rise  up  as  if  by  magic.  The 
foretlrought  and  shrewdness  which  at  that  tender  age  seemed  to 
guide  him  in  the  selection  of  a  trade,  fully  developed  themselves 
in  after  years,  and  combined  with  great  energy  of  character,  have 
placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  saw-manufacturing  business  in 
America,  and  perhaps  the  world.  The  labor  market  of  Europe 
has  been  carefully  scanned,  and  the  most  skilled  and  experienced 
workmen  obtained,  without  regard  to  cost.  The  beneficial  effects 
of  this  enterprise  are  now  becoming  visible,  as  some  of  the  finest 
workmen  in  the  world  owe  their  efficiency  to  the  instruction  re¬ 
ceived  in  the  “  Keystone  Saw,  Tool,  Steel,  and  File  Works,”  of 
Philadelphia. 


* 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  WORK  AND  BRONZE  CASTINGS. 

THE  WORLD’S  PROGRESS  OYER  IRON.  —  IRON  THE  CHIEF  “  PRECIOUS  METAL.”  — 
FIVE  DOLLARS’  WORTH  OF  IRON  IN  ITS  CRUDE  STATE  CAPABLE  OF  RECEIVING 
A  VALUE,  THROUGH  ART,  OF  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  THOUSAND  DOL¬ 
LARS.  -  IRON  SPOKEN  OF  BY  THE  EARLIEST  WRITERS.  —  A  SLIGHT  PICTURE 

OF  THE  DESOLATE  STATE  OF  MANKIND,  SHOULD  IRON  BE  STRICKEN  FROM 
AMONG  “  THE  THINGS  THAT  BE.” -  IRON  IN  ITS  STAPLE  USES,  AND  CON¬ 

SIDERED  AS  A  MEANS  OF  ORNAMENTATION.  —  ITS  USE  FOR  THE  LATTER 

PURPOSE  IN  EUROPE.  -  ORNAMENTAL  IRON  WORK  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  - 

BRONZE  CASTING  IN  EUROPE.  —  SUCCESSFUL  COMPETITION  WITH  THE  SAME 

AT  LAST  ACHIEVED  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  -  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  HOUSE  IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES  FOR  ORNAMENTAL  IRON  WORK  AND  BRONZE  CASTINGS, 
ROBERT  WOOD  &  CO.,  OF  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.  ;  MR.  ROBERT  WOOD  THE 
FOUNDER. 

The  progress  of  civilization  may  be  said  to  be  over  iron  ;  for 
iron  is  not  only  a  column  upon  which  civilization  rests,  but  lit¬ 
erally  lies  along  the  road,  like  rails,  upon  which  it  moves  ;  and 
there  can  be  nothing  more  pleasing  to  the  student  of  the  arts,  or 
the  lover  of  humanity  who  is  interested  in  the  material  elements, 
which,  commingled,  add  so  much  to  human  happiness,  and 
without  which  misery  only  would  be  the.  normal  condition  of  the 
races,  than  the  subject  of  iron  in  its  million  ramifications.  Not¬ 
withstanding  the  customary  classification  or  nomenclature,  iron 
is  the  chief  precious  metal.  It  can  be  made,  even  for  the  most 
delicate  purposes,  many  fold  more  valuable  than  gold.  A  piece 
of  iron  worth  but  five  dollars  in  the  market  in  its  simple  state, 
may  become,  it  is  said,  when  combined  with  a  proportion  of  car¬ 
bon,  varying  from  one-half  to  one  and  a  half  per  cent.,  as  steel, 
and  wrought  into  balance-springs  for  watches,  worth  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  By  no  process  could  five  dollars’ 
worth  of  gold  in  the  ingot  bo  wrought  up  to  such  a  value,  espe¬ 
cially  for  practical,  mechanical,  or  other  possible  purposes. 

Indeed,  in  the  study  of  iron  and  its  uses,  along  the  line  of  his- 

(379) 


382 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


tory,  the  student  finds  much  which  is  sublime  as  well  as  beautiful. 
With  the  very  heart  of  the  races  is  iron  blent  —  in  fact,  it  courses 
in  the  life-blood  or  spirit  of  the  races,  as  truly  as  it  mingles, 
as  the  physiologists  tell  us,  in  the  life-blood  of  the  individual 
man.  In  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  Genesis  of  the  Hebraic  Scrip¬ 
tures,  which  is  one  of  the  oldest,  if  not  the  oldest,  of  historical 
writing,  we  find  even  the  “  the  artificer  of  iron  ”  was  the  noted 
character  or  genius  of  his  time  ;  and  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the 
book  of  Deuteronomy  of  the  same  Scriptures,  we  are  told  of  **  a 
land  whose  stones  arc  iron.”  So,  from  the  very  beginning  of 
historic  times,  iron  has  been  a  precious  metal  indeed  to  man. 
Every  particle  of  gold  and  silver  might  be  destroyed,  and  except 
in  a  few  chemical  preparations,  useful  in  the  fine  arts,  their  ab¬ 
sence  would  not  be  practically  felt  by  the  world.  Even  the  world 
of  beauty  would  not  appreciatively  lose  its  gems  ;  for  iron  in 
these  days  can  be  wrought  into  as  many  beautiful  shapes  as  gold 
and  silver,  and  the  pigments  in  the  hands  of  the  chemic-artist 
may  be  made  to  supply  their  fast  colors  or  shades,  while  adding 
colors,  too,  as  beautiful  as  their  own,  and  which  they  cannot  be 
made  to  imitate. 

But  take  away  the  gift  or  blessing  of  iron  to  man,  and  a  moral 
chaos  would  ensue,  equal  to  the  phyTsical  one  of  which  Milton 
sings,  and  falling  in  its  horrors  and  gloom  but  little  below  that 
which  the  most  poetic  geologist,  in  his  rapt  moods,  is  wont  to 
picture,- when  brooding  upon  the  “  birth  of  creation.”  Not  only 
would  the  nations^  be  obliged  to  revert  to  the  lowest  forms  of 
civilization,  but  so  long  and  in  so  many  countless  ways  have 
mankind  been  in  the  habit  of  depending  upon  iron  as  an  essential 
means,  in  some  form  or  other,  of  securing  their  daily  happiness, 
and  of  conserving  their  best  interests  as  well,  that  in  the  revul¬ 
sion  which  the  sudden  withdrawal  of  iron  from  human  goods  would 
cause,  a  lower  depth  than  the  old  barbaric  life  would  be  their 
fate  —  “confusion  worse  confounded  ;  ”  for  iron  is  as  essential  a 
“  staple  ”  as  bread,  and  the  teeming  races  of  the  earth  with¬ 
out  it,  would  be  at  a  loss  how  to  create  the  grains  from  which 
the  latter  is  made,  and  starvation  to  millions  on  millions  must 
ensue  ;  and  the  earth  might  witness,  in  densely-populated  coun¬ 
tries,  the  dreadful  spectacle  of  thousands  of  the  hardly  living 
feeding  upon  the  carcasses  of  their  dead  brothers.  In  fact  there 
are  no  bounds  too  great  for  possibility,  which  the  picturing  im¬ 
agination  can  reach,  when  contemplating  the  subject  in  this  light. 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


381 


But  even  were  not  such  a  dreadful  state  reached  at  once,  yet 
all  progress  or  development  would  be  arrested  ;  commerce  would 
pall  under  the  ruins  of  the  wares  upon  which  it  thrives,  and  the 
fleets  of  the  world  fall  to  pieces  in  mid  ocean,  or  crumble  along 
the  docks.  All  manufactures  must  cease,  —  all  travel  be  sus¬ 
pended,  and  the  travellers  themselves  imprisoned  in  herds  in  their 
own  temporary  homes,  and  in  a  short  time  find  themselves  naked, 
without  further  means  of  re-dressing  than  had  Adam  and  Eve  ; 
for  without  the  iron  or  steel  needle,  they  would  want  even  the 
means,  not  only  of  keeping  clothes  upon  their  limbs,  but  the 
clothes  themselves.  And  such  as,  perchance,  should  catch  some 
lower  animal  for  food,  would  be  compelled  to  tear  its  flesh  with 
their  teeth  and  hands.  Far  more  desolate  and  fearful  to  contem¬ 
plate  would  be  the  condition  of  men  now,  if  suddenly  deprived 
of  iron,  than  anything  which  in  the  past  the  world  has  witnessed. 
Next  to  air  and  light,  iron  is  a  necessity  to  man,  since  it  in  some 
way  helps  him  to  work  out  all  his  other  goods.  And  without 
these,  what  would  even  the  air  and  light  be  worth  to  the  denizens 
of  the  temperate  zones  in  particular  ?  —  and  in  these  zones  crowd 
the  vast  majority  of  the  races.  The  astonished  world  would,  in 
short,  stand  aghast,  and  each  man,  in  his  utter  impotence,  with 
uplifted  hands  inquire  of  the  other,  “  What  shall  we  do  to  be 
saved  ?  —  not  from  the  perils  which  may  environ  a  future  of  this 

life,  but  from  the  demoniac  starvation,  and  the  countless  possible 
diseases  which  must  come  rushing  in  the  train  of  such  a  revul¬ 
sion  of  the  wheels  of  present  progress,  as  it  bears  along  the  vans 
of  civilization. 

Thus  little  of  iron  in  its  staple  uses  for  man  as  regarding  its 
employment  in  the  wares  of  every-day  use  ;  in  the  plows  which 
cut  the  furrows  in  which  grow  the  gimins  for  man’s  consumption  ; 
in  the  hoes  with  which  the  army  of  weeds  and  tares  is  kept  from 
stifling  the  growing  cereals  ;  and  in  the  rivets,  bolts,  nails,  and 
bands  which  hold  the  parts  of  those  plows  and  hoes  together  ;  and 
in  the  knives,  and  draw-shaves,  and  lathes  by  which  their  wooden 
parts  are  shaped  ;  in  the  axles  upon  which  even  the  grindstones, 
which  sharpen  these  domestic  weapons  revolve  ;  in  the  means  by 
which  the  motive  powers,  the  horses  and  cattle  which  work  the 
plows  are  joined  to  it ;  the  whiffletree  hooks,  the  harness  buckles  and 
chains.  But  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to  recite  in  detail  the  forms 
which  iron  takes,  and  the  necessities  which  it  supplies,  even  in 
the  basilar  stratum  of  civilization.  But  there  is  another  need  of 


382 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK 


man  than  that  which  simply  supplies  the  wants  of  the  stomach, 
and  protects  against  cold  or  heat.  The  love  of  beauty  is  one  of 
the  chief  elementary  impulses  to  his  progress  ;  and  iron,  ns  a 
substance  out  of  which  countless  ornamental  devices  are  wrought, 


Iron  Fountain. 


plays  as  large  a  part  in  the  advancement  of  man’s  moral  nature 
as  it  enacts  in  his  physical  preservation  and  well-being,  and  is 
far  more  capable  of  serving  the  multitudinous  purposes  of  artists 
than  are  the  miscalled  precious  metals.  Besides,  iron  is  a  cheaper 
substance  than  those,  and  in  this  respect  more  available  for  the 
purposes  of  beauty,  administering  to  the  delight  of  a  vaster  num¬ 
ber  of  beholding  eyes  than  they  ;  adorning  more  households,  more 
public  buildings,  parks,  streets  of  cities,  in  brackets,  and  balco- 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


383 


uies,  and  posts,  and  mouldings,  and  turrets,  etc.,  etc.,  than  could 
all  the  other  “  precious  metals  ”  combined,  to  say  nothing  of  its 
ten  thousand  other  uses. 

In  the  older  countries,  in  many  portions  of  Europe  especially, 
is  everywhere  seen  in  altar  railings,  gates,  and  gateways,  palisades, 
fountains,  and  in  other  forms,  gorgeous  even,  many  of  them,  the 
wondrous  skill  of  the  blacksmith’s  art  —  greatly  the  creations  of 
other  centuries ;  and  the  exhumations  of  Pompei  show  that  no 
mean  skill  in  the  blacksmith’s  field  of  art  was  exercised  nearly 
two  thousand  years  ago  among  the  Roman  races.  In  fact,  it  is 
impossible  to  note  the  time  in  the  history  of  the  art  when  the 
element  of  beauty  did  not  enter  into  more  or  less  of  the  black¬ 
smith’s  work.  And,  indeed,  to  such  heights  has  this  art  been 
carried,  that  out  of  iron  have  been  called  forth  the  most  exquisite 
representatives  of  the  tendrils,  sprigs,  and  leaves  of  daintiest 
flowers,  — vieing  with  those  wrought  with  even  the  braided  gold 
of  Malta,  —  as  well  as  the  most  elegant  and  slender  twisted  columns 
sustaining  great  weights,  and  mounted  with  volutes  more  beauti¬ 
ful  than  any  which  can  be  cut  from  stone  by  the  subtlest  art  of 
the  sculptor.  And  the  art  of  ornamental  iron  work  of  elegance 
and  great  merit  is  not  confined  to  the  hammer  of  the  blacksmith, 
but  is  seen  in  the  foundery  as  well. 

In  the  United  States,  the  use  of  iron  for  architectural  purposes 
has  been  carried  to  a  great  extent.  Immense  capital  is  invested 
here  and  there,  over  the  country,  in  the  manufacture  of  iron  into 
houses,  and  various  ornamental  work  for  the  same,  as  well  as  for 
the  fencing  of  public  parks  and  cemeteries,  and  private  grounds. 
Indeed,  so  extensive  is  becoming  its  use  for  ornamental  purposes, 
that  nearly  every  village  in  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  containing 
a  population  of  five  thousand  inhabitants,  boasts  its  little  foundery, 
or  its  machine  shop,  or  smithery,  where  ornamental  iron  work  is 
made;  or,  lacking  these,  has  its  depot  for  the  sale  of  ornamental 
iron  fabrics  of  some  kind.  And  the  art  is  now  as  well  understood 
in  some  portions  of  the  country  as  in  Europe,  — though  it  must 
be  acknowledged,  that  the  higher  grades  of  work  are  yet  mainly 
made  by  artisans  of  foreign  birth  and  rearing,  imported  here  by 
American  manufacturers  ;  but  the  genius  of  the  American  mind 
is  fast  accomplishing  the  Histories  of  the  art. 

Much  of  the  work  which  now  emanates  from  American  shops  com¬ 
pares  favorably  with  the  very  best  of  the  middle  ages  work  of  Eu¬ 
rope  in  all  respects,  and  is  given  to  the  public  at  cheaper  rates,  thus 
22 


334 


ORNAMENTAL  IKON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


carrying  the  comforts  and  solaces  of  a  fine  art  into  a  large  number 
of  houses  and  homes  which  could  not  afford  to  enjoy  them  at 
the  prices  which  ruled  for  the  imported  wares  before  American 
enterprise  entered  this  field  of  iron  ornamentations.  In  excellence 
of  workmanship,  flowing  lines,  graceful  curves,  and  that  exquisite 
“  touch  ”  of  high  art  which  cannot  be  told  in  the  printed  line, 
and  which  only  the  engraver’s  art  can  fitly  illustrate,  and  which  is 
always  so  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  any  creation  of  the  high 
arts,  American  artisans  have  become,  in  the  manufacture  of  orna¬ 
mental  iron  work,  equal  to  the  best  of  the  old  masters.  The  iron 
railings,  for  example,  which  some  of  these  manufacturers  pro¬ 
duce  vie  with  the  palisades  of  the  king’s  tomb  in  Westminster 
Abbey ;  and  their  spiral  staircases  equal,  in  graceful  convolutions 
and  facial  ornamentations,  the  famous  water-tower  of  the  Crystal 
Palace — while  other  of  the  stairways  are  fully  equal,  in  scope 
and  proportion,  as  well  as  grandeur,  to  the  grand  Scala  of  the 
Famese  Palace  at  Rome.  And  in  the  more  aerial  styles  of  the  art, 
so  deftly  formed  of  iron  wire,  and  wrought  into  a  thousand  orna¬ 
mental  shapes  for  counters,  office  railings,  window  guards,  flower 
vases,  and  every  conceit  which  human  ingenuity  has  devised  for 
human  comfort,  and  to  administer,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  love 
of  beauty,  perfect  success  has  been  achieved  —  so  much  so, 
that  the  art  of  making  ornamental  iron  work  may  be  said  to  be 
as  truly  a  solid  business  of  America,  as  is  the  growing  of  to¬ 
bacco,  or  the  building  of  railways.  Greater  amounts  of  orna¬ 
mental  iron  work  are  made  in  this  country  now,  and  distributed 
to  a  greater  number  of  people,  than  are  made  and  sold,  perhaps, 
to  domestic  purchasers  in  all  Europe. 

A  visit  to  one  of  the  manufactories  of  those  wares  well  repays 
one.  The  leading  manufactory  of  the  country  is  situated  in  Phil¬ 
adelphia,  Pa.,  and  is  the  property  of  Robert  Wood  &  Co.,  who, 
as  manufacturers  of  twenty-five  years’  standing,  may  be  called 
the  pioneers  of  the  art  in  this  country,  as  well  as  the  representa¬ 
tive  manufacturers  in  their  line.  The  perfect  character  of  their 
work  for  so  long  a  time  has  left  them  no  real  competitors  in  the 
field,  though  they  have  many  imitators  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasing 
phase  of  the  American  character,  which  the  writer  is  happy  to 
diverge  to  notice  here,  that  whenever  real  merit  has  made  its 
mark  and  taken  the  vanguard  in  any  pursuit,  all  engaged  in  like 
pursuits,  however  much  they  may  quarrel  with  each  other,  are 
ever  ready  to  acknowledge  it  —  so,  everywhere  is  it  that  the 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


385 


house  and  works  of  Robert  Wood  &  Co.  are  the  boast  and  pride 
of  other  ornamental  iron  workers. 

—  •  •  •  i  X.  ..1  #  *.  t  -  »  - 

The  same  house  has  of  late  years  added  to  its  ornamental  iron 
making  another  branch  of  art,  which,  in  some  respects  may  be 
said  to  be  a  kindred  one,  in  which,  however,  they  have  less 
imitators,  and  may  be  regard¬ 
ed  as  standing  almost  alone  in 
this  country.  In  fact,  when 
considering  the  variety  of  the 
work  which  they  have  accom¬ 
plished  under  this  head,  as 
well  as  the  perfect  success  they 
have  attained  therein,  it  may 
be  said  that  they  stand  alone 

—  and  this  branch  is  the  cast¬ 
ing  of  life-sized  figures,  single 
and  in  groups  ;•  of  animals, 
together  with  the  pedestals 
upon  which  they  are  placed, 
and  plinths,  and  columns, 
which  add  so  much  to  the 
charming  effects  of  garden 
scenery  and  landscape  art. 

These  are  modelled  on  the  best 
copies  of  the  antique  ;  and  the 
wealthy  man  of  taste  may 
decorate  his  grounds  with 

everlasting  ornaments  which  Brevoort  Vase. 

would  have  graced  the  gardens 

of  the  Ilesperides  — a  delight  to  himself,  and  pleasing  attrac¬ 
tions  to  every  eye.  Sharp,  clean  copies  of  the  famous  War¬ 
wick  and  other  vases  are  produced  by  this  house  ;  and  they  also 
accomplish  everything  beautiful  in  the  line  of  garden  chairs, 
settees,  and  fountains,  together  with  complete  summer  houses, 
in  a  profusion  of  styles  to  satisfy  the  taste  of  the  most  critical, 
and  fastidious. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked,  in  an  article  like  this,  that  in.  the 
line  of  ornamental  iron  work,  made  for  the  pleasure  as  well 
as  use  of  man,  may  be  comprehended  many  things  made  for  the 
use  of  man’s  chief  servants  among  the  lower  orders  of  animals 

—  the  horse  and  the  cow ;  and  these  articles  take  upon  them 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


386 

more  or  less  fanciful  shapes.  The  matter  of  stable  furniture  and 
fittings,  such  as  elegant  racks,  neatly-moulded  mangers  and 
troughs,  unique  posts  for  stalls,  rings,  peculiar  devices  for  insur¬ 
ing  cleanness  to  the  favorite  beasts,  as  well  as  to  administer  to 
their  general  comfort,  is  by  no  means  an  unimportant  branch  of 
iron  work,  and  in  the  factory  of  Messrs.  Robert  Wood  &  Co.  has 
received  the  best-merited  attention. 

Bronze  statuary  is  a  branch  of  art  which  is  legitimately  united 
to  that  of  ornamental  iron  work,  in  the  uses  of  conserving  beauty 
to  which  it  is  put,  and  in  the  founding-phase  of  its  construction  ; 
and  it  fell  naturally  to  the  lot  of  the  house  of  Robert  Wood  & 
Co.,  after  having  achieved  their  leading  successes  in  America  in 
the  line  of  ornamental  iron  work,  to  undertake  its  manufacture  In 
this  country.  With  larger  facilities  for  accomplishing  such  work 
than  are  possessed  by  any  other  house  in  the  United  States,  as 
the  writer  is  confidently  assured,  while  there  is  but  one  other 
house  which  attempts  it,  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  with 
all  their  experience  in  administering  to  the  love  of  beauty,  or  taste, 
and  the  excellent  skill  which  their  time-old  workmen  had  for  more 
than  a  score  of  years  attained  in  the  modelling  of  hard  substances 
into  exquisite  forms  of  beauty  —  that  this  house  should  have  at 
once,  on  entering  upon  it,  carried  the  art  of  bronze  statue-making 
on  to  a  complete  success.  Their  reputation  as  accomplished  artists 
in  this  line  of  work  has,  in  the  short  space  of  five  or  six  years, 
become  not  only  commensurate  with  the  bounds  of  the  country, 
but  has  reached  the  ears  of  sculptors  and  designers  in  Europe. 

It  is  proper  here  to  note,  that  the  colossal  bronze  statue  of 
Lincoln,  which  stands  on  Union  Square,  New  York,  was  cast  by 
Messrs.  Robert  Wood  &  Co.  Whatever  critics  may  think  of  the 
modelling  itself  of  the  statue,  there  the  statue  stands,  a  proud 
evidence  of  the  skill  which  took  it  from  the  designer’s  hands  in  its 
crumbling  materials,  and  g'ave  it  perpetual  life  in  bronze  —  a  tri¬ 
umph  of  American  art  of  which  every  American  should  be  proud, 
so  far  as  the  work  of  the  founders  is  concerned.  The  ill  or  good 
taste  of  the  designer,  Brown,  the  sculptor,  can  neither  detract 
from  nor  add  to  the  merits  of  the  founders.  Hitherto,  till  of  late, 
it  had  been  believed  by  many  wise  in  their  ethnological  studies 
and  observations,  that  we,  as  a  people,  were  not  old  enough  by  a 
century  to  accomplish  such  work  ;  but  thanks  to  the  enterprise 
and  faith  of  these  founders,  the  work  has  been  accomplished  in  a 
style  which  is  not  surpassed  by  the  world-famous  founders  ol 
Munich. 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


387 


A  chief  importance  of  bronze  statuary  among  the  historic  and 
decorative  arts  is,  that  when  it  is  properly  composed  and  scien¬ 
tifically  cast,  it  resists  the  deteriorating  action  of  the  elements, 
and  gains,  with  time,  that  sombre  dignity  which  is  its  artistic  peculi¬ 
arity  ;  while  statues  cut  from  the  finer  stones  are  apt  to  deterio¬ 
rate  rapidly  when  carried  into  other  climates  than  that  in  which 
are  situated  the  quarries  From  whence  their  materials  were  taken. 
The  bronze  statuary  is  also  less  liable  to  fracture,  and,  if  injured, 
can  be  restored  to  its  original  brilliancy.  The  ancients  understood 
this,  and  bronze  statuary  flourished  in  the  highest  civilization  of 
the  Greeks  and  the  Romans.  The  famous  Apollo  Belvidere  of  the 
Vatican  Museum  at  Rome,  though  a  marble  statue,  is  evidently 
only  a  copy  of  a  bronze  figure.  The  preference  must,  for  various 
reasons,  be  given  to  statuary  in  bronze  over  that  in  marble  ;  and 
in  view  of  the  remarkable  progress  in  public  favor  which  the 
plastic  art  has  made  in  the  United  States  within  the  last  few 
years,  nothing  can  be  more  pleasurable  to  note  than  this  great 
triumph  of  casting  bronze  statuary  in  perfection. 

Ward's  <l  Soldier  of  the  Seventh  Regiment/7  a  figure  measur¬ 
ing  a  few  inches  over  ten  feet,  and  which  stands  in  the  New  York 
Central  Park,  is  from  the  foundery  of  Robert  Wood  &  Co.,  and, 
like  the  statue  of  Lincoln,  does  honor  to  the  house. 

The  vast  expense  which  leading  manufacturers  in  ornamental 
iron  work,  and  especially  founders  of  statuary,  incur  annually, 
would  surprise  the  uninitiated  ;  but  there  is  not  space  in  this 

% 

article  to  notice  it  in  detail.  Suffice  it,  that  the  making  of  new 
patterns  and  designs  alone  is  an  item  of  extreme  cost ;  and  the 
people,  at  large  should  be  grateful  to  the  enterprising  manufactu- 
rers-who  afford  them  wares  at  such  comparatively  cheap  rates. 

Robert  Wood  and  his  Establishment. 

The  establishment  of  Robert  Wood  &  Co.  eloquently  illustrates 
that  great  results  may  be  obtained  by  aptitude  to  business,  strict 
integrity,  and  unswerving  perseverance.  Mr.  Robert  Wood,  the 
originator  of  tl^e  great  firm  of  Robert  Wood  &  Co.,  has  been  in 
business  only  about  thirty  years,  and  is  now  (1871)  in  his  fifty- 
fourth  year.  Mr.  Wood  was  a  poor  boy,  and  began  life  as  an 
ordinary  blacksmith,  in  a  little  one-story  shop  in  Ridge  Avenue,  in 
Philadelphia,  which  shop  occupied  a  portion  of  the  site  of  the 
extensive  ornamental  iron  and  bronze  works  now  owned  by  Robert 
Wood  &  Co,  At  that  time,  most  kinds  of  scroll  and  iron  ornament- 


588 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


al  work  wore  made  by  hand,  of  spelter  and  zinc.  True  genius  is 
never  at  rest ;  it  is  always  aspiring.  No  matter  if  the  emulated 
“goal”  be  reached, — beyond  it  ever  lies  an  “excelsior;  ”  and 
Mr.  Wood  conceived  the  design  of  a  foundery  for  casting  such 
ornamental  work  from  iron,  believing  that  such  work  only  would 
meet  the  growing  public  want,  and  with  his  great  energy  went 
forward  to  put  his  conception  into  practical  working,  achieving  at 
last,  though  step  by  step,  each  wisely  taken,  the  great  successes 
which  have  made  this  establishment  the  leading  house  of  its  kind 
in  America. 

Among  the  large  number  of  the  employees  of  this  house  are 
comprised  some  six  designers,  constantly  at  work,  and  believed  to 
be  second  to  none  in  the  world.  These  artists,  in  a  measure,  give, 
tone  to  the  establishment,  securing  the  perfection  of  beauty  for 
its  work  —  a  thing  essential  to  the  success  of  such  a  house,  how¬ 
ever  worthy  for  faithful  and  substantial  work  it  might  be.  The 
chief  difficulty  which  Mr.  Wood  and  his  partners  have  ever  had 
to  contend  with,  is  the  procuring  of  skilled  workmen  enough  to 
accomplish  their  extensive  orders.  Making  it  a  rule  of  their 
business  career  —  from  which  they  never  swerve  —  not  to  let  an 
article  of  slighted  or  imperfect  workmanship  go  out  of  their 
establishment  (although  in  thousands  of  instances  purchasers 
would  declare  themselves  satisfied  with  less  meritorious  work), 
they  have  found  no  little  trouble  in  securing  employees  of  suffi¬ 
cient  skill,  in  several  branches  of  their  work.  About  two-thirds 
of  their  workmen  have  served  their  apprenticeships  with  them  ; ' 
and  these,  continuing  with  them,  make  a  strong  available  force. 
The  other  third  are  mostly  foreigners,  and  are  more  or  less  mi¬ 
gratory  in  their  habits.  But  not  unfrcquently  some  new  device 
calls  for  its  execution  a  greater  number  of  skilled  hands  than  are  at 
the  time  available.  But  gradually  this  trouble  is  being  overcome. 
The  firm  pay  their  laborers  always  fair  wages,  and  so  never  suffer 
from  so-called  “strikes”  among  their  men  —  a  fact  which  has 
proved  advantageous  to  the  firm,  and  might  well  be  imitated  by 
employers  in  every  branch  of  industry  and  art. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  note  the  mode  of  found¬ 
ing  even  the  bronze  statuary, — which  this  firm  is  the  first  in 
America  to  bring  into  successful  competition  with  that  of  the 
founders  of  the  old  world,  or  to  note  the  processes  of  their  iron 
work,  —  for  founding  is  a  process  which  is-  elsewhere  in  this  book 
sufficiently  described  for  the  general  reader’s  information.  Suffice  it 


ORNAMENTAL  IRON  AND  BRONZE  WORK. 


380 


that  Messrs.  Wood  &  Co.’s  foundery  and  ornamental  iron  works  are 
complete  in  their  several  parts,  for  the  ends  which  each  is  designed  to 
accomplish  ;  that  their  bronze  foundery  contains  an  air  furnace  capa¬ 
ble  of  melting  three  tons  of  bronze  at  once ;  and  that  a  large  fire¬ 
proof  “  pattern-building,”  of  three  stories  and  a  basement,  in  dimen¬ 
sions,  barely  suffices  to  hold  their  patterns,  though  packed  away  with 
the  greatest  regard  to  economy  of  space,  and  the  reader  may  fill  out 
for  himself  the  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  establishment  over 
which  Mr.  Robert  Wot>d,  the  once  poor  boy,  now  one  of  the  recog¬ 
nized  substantial  men  of  the  great  city  of  Philadelphia,  presides 
—  a  man  upon  whom  the  good  William  Penn  would  have  cast 
approving  smiles,  could  he  have  looked  through  the  “  horoscope 
of  the  coming  days  ”  down  to  these  times ;  for  it  is  to  such  men 
as  Mr.  Wood  that  the  solid  wealth  and  happiness  of  Philadelphia 
are  due. 

And  while  the  writer  of  this  article  is  noting  the  value  to  their 
respective  communities,  as  well  as  to  the  world,  of  such  intelligent 
mechanics  as  Robert  Wood,  he  cannot  forego  the  gratification  of 
recording  a  pleasurable  fact  which  he  noticed,  while  visiting 
the  great  establishment  of  Robert  Wood  &  Co.  The  power  used 
in  the  establishment  is  steam.  The  engine  and  the  engine-room 
are  kept  marvellously  clean  by  the  engineer,  who  reigns  here  su¬ 
preme,  keeping  his  iron  gateways  locked  against  all.  Even  the 
proprietors  must  ask  his  consent  to  enter,  so  careful  and  laudably 
rigid  in  their  rules  are  the  firm.  Master  of  all,  and  secure  as 
Cyclops  in  his  cave,  here  the  engineer  rules  in  his  perfect  apart¬ 
ments,  and  has  fitted  up  for  himself  bath-tubs,  and  a  book-case 
filled  with  choicest  works,  and  a  writing-table,  at  which  he  finds 
much  time  to  devote,  —  showing  that  literary  tastes  are  not  in¬ 
compatible.  with  mechanical  pursuits,  and  thus  tending  to  elevate 
the  latter. 


BILLEVEDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 

BILLIARDS.  — A  NATIONAL  GAME.  —  BILLIARD  TABLES. — THE  EXTENT  OF  THEIR 
USE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  -  THEIR  INDUSTRIAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  IM¬ 
PORTANCE. - THE  MORALE  OF  AMUSEMENTS  CONSIDERED.  —  THE  COMPARA¬ 

TIVE  MERITS  OF  BILLIARDS.  —  THE  PSEUDO-MORALISTS,  AND  THEIR  FALSE 

POSITIONS.  — THE  NECESSITY  OF  SOME  RELAXATION  FROM  SEVERE  LABOR.  - 

THE  OPPRESSED  CLASSES.  - THE  OLD  ROMAN  AND  THE  EGYPTIAN  STSTEMS 

OF  AMUSEMENT.  —  CHESS  AND  BILLIARDS  COMPARED.  —  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE 
CAME.  —  ITS  SUPPOSED  INTRODUCTION  PROM  PERSIA  INTO  EUROPE.  —  THE 

KNIGHTS  TEMPLARS  IN  THEIR  CONNECTION  WITH  BILLIARDS.  - THE  GAME 

NURSED  IN  THE  MONASTERIES  OF  EUROPE.  - LOUIS  XI.  AND  IIENRY  III.  OF 

FRANCE,  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS,  AND  QUEEN  ELIZABETH,  GREAT  PATRONS 

OF  BILLIARDS.  —  SHAKESPEARE  AND  BILLIARDS.  - THE  MANUFACTURE  OF 

BILLIARD  TABLES.  — THE  VAST  FACTORY  OF  THIS  LEADING  MANUFACTURERS 
OF  BILLIARD  TABLES,  MESSRS.  PHELAN  AND  COLLENDER,  OF  NEW  YORK.  — 
THE  PARLOR  BILLIARD  AND  DINING  TABLE.  — MR.  MICHAEL  PHELAN  AS  AN 
ARTIST,  MANUFACTURER,  AND  INVENTOR. 


The  game  of  billiards  may  properly  be  said  to  have  become  a 
national  one  in  the  United  States,  exercising  no  small  influence  in 
moulding  the  morals  of  our  people,  and  evoking  a  manufacturing 
and  commercial  enterprise  hardly  second  to  that  which  the  piano¬ 
forte  creates.  In  almost  every  village  of  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
and,  indeed,  in  many  with  less  population,  a  billiard  table  (with 
usually  an  accompanying  one)  is  to  be  found  in  some  public  house, 
the  favorite  hotel,  or  the  most  elegant  “saloon”  of  the  village; 
and  here  and  there  numerous  “  village  lords,”  emulating  the  ele¬ 
gant  amusements  of  the  rich  denizens  of  cities,  boast  their  private 
billiard-rooms,  and  their  favorite  tables ;  while  throughout  the 
larger  towns  and  cities  of  the  Union,  from  the  capital  of  Maine  to 
the  remotest  southern  and  western  boundaries  of  the  republic, 
billiard  tables  are  found  in  large  numbers  ;  and,  as  the  game  con¬ 
stantly  increases  in  public  favor,  so,  in  consequence,  the  number 
of  billiard  tables  multiplies  at  a  vigorous  rate.  That  the  game 

gives  strength  to  the  muscles  when  temperately  and  wisely 

(390) 


ill- 


BILLIARDS  AXD  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


391 


dulged  in,  and  bestows  upon  the  mind  at  the  same  time  a  healthy 
discipline,  while  its  fascinations  are  so  great  as  to  give  a  charm 
to  its  pursuit,  not  a  few,  who  would  otherwise  spend  their  time  in 
gambling-houses  and  liquor-saloons,  and  cultivate  therein  perni¬ 
cious  and  destructive  habits,  cannot  safely  be  denied. 

It  is  hardly  within  the  purview  of  this  work  to  discuss  the 
moral  bearings  of  any  industry,  or  its  adjuncts,  upon  which  it  dis¬ 
courses.  The  history  of  an  art,  together  with  the  means  and 
modes  of  manufacture  of  the  wares  which  it  creates,  constitutes  the 
chief  object  of  this  work  ;  but  it  will  not  be  out  of  place,  in  an 
article  upon  a  matter  of  so  great  importance  as  billiards  and 
billiard  tables,  to  give  some  consideration  to  the  question  of 
morals  therewith.  It  may,  in  the  first  place,  be  safely  remarked, 
that  so  long  as  the  low  standard  which  civilization  at  the  best  has 
only  attained,  so  that  labor  in  all  its  branches,  labor  necessary 
both  to  human  existence,  per  se,  and  to  the  healthful  well-being 
of  the  race,  remains  unattractive  to  ninety-nine  hundredths  at 
least  of  the  wood’s  population,  some  mode  of  amusement,  more 
or  less  worthy,  more  or  less  temperately  or  intern perately  ex¬ 
hilarating  or  recreating,  will  prevail,  in  spite  of  all  the  mawkish 
philosophy  of  morals  which  the  anchorites  and  cynics  may  dis¬ 
seminate  in  the  way  of  fragmentary  reforms,  or  by  attempting  to 
subdue  the  proclivities  of  man  to  freedom  from  excessive  burdens, 
in  the  field  of  amusement  and  playful  relaxation.  The  healthful 
infant  in  his  cradle  even,  and  especially  when  he  has  obtained  the 
skill  to  creep,  usually  expends  more  of  vital  power  in  proportion 
to  his  general  strength,  and  consumes  more  of  his  muscular  fibre, 
in  his  gambols,  than  does  the  adult  workman  expend  of  his  in  his 
daily  labors  ;  yet  we  call  the  infant’s  labor  or  exercise  “  play,” 
and  speak  of  the  workman’s  as  “  toil,”  wearisome,  onerous,  ex¬ 
hausting.  The  infant’s  “  labor  ”  is  full  of  cheer  ;  that  of  the 
workman  pitiable  indeed,  especially  when  long  pursued.  The 
difference  in  these  two  instances  would  seem  to  lie  in  the  fact 
that  the  labor  of  the  one  is  attractive,  desirable,  healthful,  and 
prompted  by  nature  ;  that  of  the  other  distasteful,  undesirable, 
not  healthful  in  the  best  sense,  and  artificial  ;  for  the  same  means 
are  used  to  accomplish  the  one  and  to  perform  the  other.  Here, 
then,  is  a  matter  for  the  consideration  of  the  social  philosopher  — 
how  to  so  organize  the  labor  forces  of  the  world,  or  a  given  com¬ 
munity,  that  the  labors  of  the  adult  yeoman  or  artisan  shall  be¬ 
come  as  genial  to  them  as  are  those  of  the  infant  to  itself.  Until 


392 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


some  intelligent  effort  shall  be  made  by  the  self-elected  “moralists ” 
and  social  philosophers  of  the  world  to  solve  the  problem  of  such 
an  organization  of  society,  in  connection  with  its  industrial  forces, 
as  shall  make  the  tilling  of  the  soil,  and  manufacture  of  all  possi¬ 
ble  wares,  as  attractive  and  congenial  to  the  laborer  as  is  the 
reading  of  books,  for  example,  to  the  scholar,  the  petty  philos¬ 
ophers  and  preachers,  and  the  fragmentary  reformers,  will  “prate, 
and  prate  on,”  to  but  little  purpose.  The  general  good  sense  of 
the  people  is  superior  to  their  philosophy,  even  though  the  latter 
be  clothed  in  the  dignified  solemnity  of  the  Puritan,  or  wear  the 
soft  graces  of  the  purely  religious  enthusiast. 

But  on  the  subject  of  “  morals,”  properly  speaking,  as  related 
to  the  game  of  billiards,  it  might  be  tersely  said  that  this  amuse¬ 
ment  is  already  without  the  pale  of  discussion  ;  for  “  morals  ” 
properly  imports  no  more  than  “  custom,”  as  its  etymology  dis¬ 
tinctly  shows,  it  being  derived  from  the  Latin  mos  (gen.  moralw), 
which  means  only  custom.  Whatever,  in  short,  is  customary, 
generally  permitted,  or  in  use,  is  in  itself  “  moral  ;  ”  and  if  not 
conducive  to  the  well-being  of  a  given  “society,”  cannot  be  said 
to  be  destructive  of  the  same,  since  it  is  but  the  legitimate  out¬ 
growth  of  such  society  itself. 

But  in  civilization,  as  it  is  with  its  countless  unattractive  forms 
of  labor,  whatever  system  of  political  economy  does  not  embrace 
some  hours  of  daily  relaxation,  and  certain  methods  of  amusement, 
is  a  false  and  pernicious  idolatry  of  Mammon,  having  man’s  best 
energies  and  happiness  as  the  victims  to  be  sacrificed  upon  its 
unholy  altar. 

There  are  two  extremes  of  population,  especially,  in  which  the 
sanitary  uses  of  amusements  are  apt  to  be  overlooked,  and  their 
consideration,  as  needs  of  humanity,  expelled  by  the  so-called 
“  sterner”  necessities  of  life.  Where  the  population  is  so  dense 
as  we  find  it  in  some  portions  of  Europe,  especially  in  the  manu¬ 
facturing  districts  of  England,  not  a  moment  can  be  spared  from 
the  incessant  demands  which  competition  (“  the  life  of  business,” 
but  the  death  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  the  individual  con¬ 
testants  and  strugglers)  makes  on  labor.  Labor  is  so  redundant 
there  that  it  loses  its  proper  value,  and  nothing  but  strictest  and 
most  unremitting  devotion  to  business  can  secure  even  the  barest 
necessaries  of  life  ;  yet  this  is  but  a  sad  fact  in  the  “  Christian 
civilization  ”  of  one  of  the  most  elevated  nations  of  the  earth, 
nineteen  hundred  years  after  the  Founder  of  the  new  religion  or 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


393 


the  “sublime  heresy,”  which  broke  upon  the  Jewish  world  and 
the  old  faith,  as  a  new,  enlightened,  and  startling-  revelation  of 
the  King  of  kings  fromoutof  Nazareth,  —  nineteen  hundred  years 
after  that  Founder  first  announced  to  his  followers,  as  the  law  of 
their  moral  and  economical  polity,  that  they,  should  “  take  no 
thought  for  the  morrow”  as  to  “what  3re  shall  eat,  or  what  ye  shall 
drink,  or  wherewithal  ye  shall  be  clothed  ;  ”  evidently  intimat¬ 
ing  in  this  the  coming  of  a  time,  and  the  practicability  of  the  life 
thereof,  when  the  general  good  will  of  the  Christian  world  should 
be  such  that  no  individual  need  take  greater  care  for  the  morrow’s 
needs  than  docs  the  beloved  little  child  in  the  home  of  his  loving 
parents.  How  little  has  the  moral  standard  of  the  world  advanced 
meanwhile  !  When  wealth  is  monopolized  in  the  hands  of  a  few, 
while  the  millions  are  forever  hovering  on  the  brink  of  starvation, 
it  would  be  absurd  to  look  either  for  a  general  diffusion  of  intelli¬ 
gence,  or  for  any  system  of  amusement  superior  to  that  afforded 
by  the  rum-shop,  the  dog-fight,  or  the  lower  scenes  of  the  “  prize¬ 
ring,”  which  kind  of  amusements  the  oppressed  classes  will  have 
when  unable  to  procure  better. 

On  the  other  hand,  where  the  population  is  disproportionally 
small,  when  compared  with  the  large  resources  which  lie  around 
it,  in  a  new  and  undeveloped  country,  where  wealth  lies  unenjoyed, 
or  runs  to  waste  on  every  hand  for  want  of  labor  to  collect  and 
garner  it,  —  where  every  man  is,  in  a  sense,  his  own  master,  and 
is  free  to  create  a  future  for  himself’independent  of  others’  aid,  — 
in  such  a  condition  of  society  toil  rises  to  unnatural  importance; 
time  is  then  reckoned  not  by  hours,  but  by  dollars ;  and  hence  it 
is  we  find  that  in  the  earlier  settlement  of  the  United  States  the 
grim,  puritanical  spirit  of  the  original  immigrants  into  the  eastern 
portion  of  the  land  in  particular,  not  only  discouraged  “  unprofit¬ 
able  amusements  ”  (meaning  thereby  anything  which  moved  the 
spirit  to  aught  but  serious  thought  and  rigid  economy)  by  preach¬ 
ing  and  denunciations  from  the  pulpit,  and  long  and  bitter  homilies 
at  the  fireside,  but  went  so  far  as  to  prohibit  innocent  recreation 
by  penal  enactments. 

This  short-sighted  policy  revealed  great  ignorance  of  man’s  real 
nature  ;  for  the  desire  for  pleasures  exists  in  man,  as  well  as  in 
the  lower  order  of  animals,  as  an  innate  instinct,  prompting  to  the 
most  important  purposes.  It  teaches  the  child  the  use  of  his 
various  faculties,  inspires  him  with  ambition,  and  gives  him  dex¬ 
terity  ;  and  in  manhood  it  is  one  of  the  best  promoters  of  bodily 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


health,  and  so  strengthens  the  mind  as  to  enable  it  to  sustain 
those  serious  toils  which,  unrelieved  in  some  way,  would  succeed 
in  degrading  all  mankind  to  that  level  which,  alas  !  is  the  su¬ 
preme  height  of  too  many  of  our  fellow-mortals — that  of  mere 
human  machines. 

True  wisdom  would  seek  to  encourage  the  desire  for  pleasures, 
and  direct  it  into  such  channels  as  would  best  promote  the  objects 
for  the  accomplishment  of  which  we  were  endowed  with  it  by 
nature  ;  and  true  policy  would  suggest  that  instead  of  following  a 
plan  of  amusements  like  that  of  the  old  Romans,  in  which  the 
public  games  embraced  the  mortal  struggles  of  the  gladiators,  and 
deadly  contests  between  wild  beasts  and  men,  we  should  rather 
adopt  the  older  Eg}7ptian  system,  whereby  the  public  recreations 
were  made  the  vehicles  of  imparting  all  the  most  scientific  truths, 
in  a  form  so  agreeable  and  simple,  that  the  merest  intellect  was 
enabled  to  appreciate  and  store  them  up.  Thus  the  original  game 
of  cards,  as  taught  by  the  builders  of  the  Pyramids,  conveyed  a 
knowledge  of  the  whole  system  of  practical  astronomy  —  the 
“  court  cards/7  as  they  are  now  called,  representing  the  different 
constellations  which  rule  the  year,  and  the  numerals  being  marked 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  indicate  precisely  the  different  periods  for 
the  overflow  and  subsidence  of  the  Nile,  and  the  various  agri¬ 
cultural  operations  dependent  thereon.  But  cards  have  long  since 
lost  their  character  of  primitive  simplicity  and  instruction,  and 
degenerated  to  far  different  service,  though  still  valuable,  in  some 
degree,  for  the  arithmetical  combinations  which  they  illustrate. 
But  it  is  generally  felt  that  they  are  fraught  with  peril  ;  and  that 
they  do  not  encourage  that  bodily  exercise,  without  which  amuse¬ 
ments  fail  to  be  healthful,  is  true. 

The  splendid  game  of  chess,  which  may  be  denominated  a 
tournament  of  intellect,  and  which  affords  a  field  for  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  highest  efforts  of  genius,  is,  for  the  reason  that  it 
does  not  exercise  the  body  as  well  as  the  mind,  so  serious  a  game 
that  it  fails  to  be  an  amusement  proper.  It  often  exhausts  the 
brain-power ;  and  the  most  noted  victors  in  its  field  have  been 
forced  to  shun  its  fascinating,  though  destructive,  enticements. 
It  is  too  rigorous  and  concentrated  to  be  suited  to  the  general 
intellect. 

But  we  have  not  space  herein  to  dilate  at  greater  length  upon 
the  comparative  merits  of  various  amusements  ;  suffice  it  that  no 
amusement  is  precisely  suitable  for  man,  unless,  in  the  first  place, 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


395 


it  exercises  and  disciplines  the  faculties,  and  calls  upon  the  re¬ 
sources  of  both  the  body  and  the  mind,  without  wearying  the  one 
or  disgusting  the  other  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  amusement 
should  contain  within  itself  sufficient  mental  excitement  to  keep 
up  the  spirits  without  the  stimulus  of  extraneous  inducement  to 
pursue  it,  such  as  bets  of  money.  The  game  of  billiards  (so  ap- 
pears  to  be  the  popular  testimony)  answers  the  requirements  of 
the  above  twofold  rule. 

The  precise  origin  of  the  game  of  billiards  is  involved  in  that 
obscurity  which  enshrouds  a  great  portion  of  the  inventions,  etc., 
of  antiquity.  The  speculators,  rather  than  historians,  who  have 
written  upon  the  subject,  universally  agree  that  billiards  of  a 
crude  nature  was  an  antique  game  ;  although  it  .must  be  admitted 
that  as  a  scientific  employment,  affording  an  exercise  of  the  most 
pleasing  kind,  and  natural  to  both  the  mental  and  physical  energies, 
the  game  of  billiards  is  a  modern  invention.  By  some  writers  it 
is  held  that  the  game  was  imported  into  Europe  from  Persia  dur¬ 
ing  the  consulate  of  the  Roman  Lucullus  ;  while  by  others  its 
introduction  (from  the  East)  is  ascribed  to  the  Emperor  Caligu¬ 
la,  during  the  first  half  of  the  first  century  of  our  era.  But  bo 
thi3  as  it  may,  there  is  no  authentic  record  of  its  existence  until 
the  return  of  the  Knights  Templars  to  Europe,  on  the  termination 
of  the  first  crusade,  in  the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  century  ;  so 
that,  if  known  at  all  to  the  Romans  in  the  days  of  Caligula,  it  must 
have  perished,  along  with  many  other  arts,  on  the  overthrow  of 
the  empire  ;  and  unless  the  excavators  of  Herculaneum  and 
Pompei  shall  exhume  the  remains  of  a  billiard  table,  the  matter  of 
Roman  understanding  of  the  game  must  forever  remain  a  subject 
of  uncertain  speculation.  In  all  probability,  however,  the  game, 
like  that  of  chess,  is  of  Eastern  origin.  When  the  Templars 
brought  it  back  with  them  from  the  Holy  Land,  it  soon  became 
the  favorite  amusement  arid  means  of  health  to  which  the  cloistered 
monks  of  that  period  were  permitted  by  their  superiors  to  have 
recourse  ;  and  however  much  it  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  “  carnal 
amusement  ”  in  later  times,  we  have  abundant  evidence  that  it 
was  cradled  in  the  monasteries,  which  were  the  fountain  heads,  or 
at  least  the  chief  depositories,  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  games 
so  introduced  by  the  Templars  shared  their  fate,  and  disappeared 
along  with  their  fortunes  ;  and  it  was  not  revived  again  until  the 
peaceful  disposition  of  Louis  XI.  of  France  (about  the  year  1445) 
induced  him  to  prefer  its  pleasing  strifes  to  the  bloody  tournaments 


396 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES.  ’ 


which  were  then  the  pastimes  of  his  court.  One  of  his  successors, 
Henry  III.,  largely  patronized  the  amusement,  and  from  him  it  re¬ 
ceived  the  appellation  of  “  the  noble  game.”  Further  on,  we  find 
that  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  complained  in  a  letter  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  written  the  very  evening  before  her 
death,  that  her  “  billiard  table  had  just  been  taken  away  from  her 
as  a  preliminary  step  to  her  punishment.”  Mary,  having  been 
married  to  the  Dauphin  of  France,  was  probably  introduced  to 
the  game  during  her  stay  in  Paris.  Doubtless,  too,  Queen  Eliza¬ 
beth  was  a  passionate  votary  of  the  game,  as  well  as  her  beautiful 
cousin  Mary  ;  and  with  this  suggestion  can  we  alone  explain  the 
anachronism  which  Shakespeare  commits  when  he  makes  Cleopatra 
(Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  II.  Scene  5)  exclaim  to  Charniian, 
“  Let  us  to  billiards  !  ”  for  beyond  question,  we  think,  this  was 
one  of  the  compliments  to  the  caprices  and  habits  of  his  royal 
mistress  with  which  the  great  dramatist  wras  wont  to  interlard 
such  compositions  as  he  wished  should  find  favor  in  her  eyes. 

Before  dismissing  the  matter  of  the  history  of  billiards,  it  should, 
perhaps,  be  added,  that  the  early  history  of  billiards  indicates  a 
number  of  games  which  had  been  called  by  the  same  appellation. 
Some  of  them  were  played  on  the  ground,  others  on  elevated 
platforms  and  tables,  —  the  latter  of  various  shapes,  round,  square, 
oval,  and  oblong.  The  accessories,  it  would  seem,  were*  more 
varied  than  the  tables  ;  and  among  other  things  we  read  of  iron 
arches,  miniature  castles,  churches,  and  other  buildings,  figures 
of  men  and  animals  which,  as  well  as  balls  and  pins,  were  placed 
on  the  table. 

As  has  been  before  remarked  in  this  article,  the  manufacture  of 
billiard  tables  in  the  United  States  is  a  matter  of  great  industrial 
and  commercial  importance  —  a  fact  which  we  cannot  perhaps  so 
well  illustrate  otherwise,  as  b}r  taking  the  reader  with  us  through 
the  extensive  and  completely  appointed  works  of  the  leading 
manufacturers  in  this  country  (and,  as  we  believe,  in  the  world), 
the  Messrs.  Phelan  &  Collender,  of  New  York.  There  are  sev¬ 
eral  extensive  manufactories  in  the  United  States,  each  doing  a 
good  business  financially,  and  producing  more  or  less  worthy 
wares.  It  should  be  noted  here  that  in  no  other  country  is  the 
'  game  of  billiards  so  extensively  practised  as  in  the  United  States, 
and  probably  nowhere  else  can  be  found  so  many  great  experts 
in  this  fascinating  art  and  healthful  recreation. 

For  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an  insight  into  the  mode  of  manu- 


PHELAN  AND  COLLENDER S  WORKS,  TENTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 


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BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


3  99 


facturing  the  tables,  balls,  cues,  etc.,  the  writer  visited  the 
billiard  manufactory  of  the  Messrs.  Phelan  &  Collender  in  the 
latter  part  of  1810,  and  there  took  notes  for  the  purposes  of  this 
article. 

Their  new  and  admirably  appointed  warehouse,  at  *138  Broad- 
wa}r,  New  York,  is  five  stories  in  height,  and  covers  a  ground  area  of 
twenty-five  feet  wide  by  one  hundred  and  six  in  length  ;  the  first 
and  second  floors  being  for  the  business  offices  and  warerooms, 
the  third  for  the  ivory  room,  and  the  fourth  for  the  stock  room. 

The  manufactory  of  Messrs.  Phelan  &  Collender  is  in  10th 
Avenue,  extending  from  30th  to  37  th  Streets,  the  grounds  being 
one  hundred  by  two  hundred  feet  in  area,  and  the  building  being 
five  stories  high,  amply  supplied  with  light  on  all  sides,  and  com¬ 
manding  from  the  upper  stories  a  fine  view  of  the  Hudson  River 
for  miles.  The  factory  is  specially  adapted  for  its  manufactures, 
and  furnished  with  the  best  improved  machinery  and  tools,  and 
has  a  capacity  for  the  employment  of  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  men,  comprising  about  a  dozen  different  classes  of  expert 
mechanics.  From  seven  hundred  to  one  thousand  billiard  tables 
are  here  made  in  a  year,  besides  an  immense  amount  of  balls, 
markers,  cues,  etc.,  the  value  of  stock  on  hand  being  usually 
about  $100,000.  The  value  of  the  billiard  tables  varies  from  one 
hundred  to  one  thousand  dollars  each,  according  to  size  and  style 
of  finish.  The  more  costly  tables,  however,  are  most  in  vogue  ; 
and  the  size  of  the  table  now  most  popular  is  five  feet  in  width  by 
ten  feet  in  length,  suitable  to  a  room  fifteen  feet  wide  by  twenty 
feet  long. 

On  the  first  floor  are  situated  the  office,  from  which  an  electric 
telegraph  communicates  with  their  warehouse  at  738  Broadway  ;  the 
packing  room  ;  the  engine  room,  supplied  with  a  twenty-five-liorse 
stationary,  cut-off  engine  ;  the  veneer  room  ;  blacksmith’s  shop  ; 
the  section  for  reception,  sawing,  and  planing  of  lumber  ;  and 
that  for  drilling  the  slate  beds.  Here  is  in  operation  a  horizontal 
drilling  machine,  the  only  one  of  the  kind  in  existence,  invented 
and  made  by  the  superintendent  of  the  machinery  in  this  factory. 
By  this  ingenious  labor-saving  machine,  about  fifty  slate  slabs  can 
be  drilled  in  a  day,  —  four  slabs  being  required  for  a  bed,  each 
bed  containing  fifty-six  holes.  In  other  factories  this  is  done  by 
slow  and  imperfect  hand-work.  The  slabs  are  brought  chiefly  from 
the  quarries  in  Vermont.  In  the  veneer  room  there  is  generally 
on  hand  about  $5,000  worth  of  stock,  embracing  the  choicest 


400 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


descriptions  of  wood,  such  as  rose,  walnut,  birch,  and  mahogany  ; 
the  other  kinds  of  woods  used  in  the  tables  being  California  laurel, 
maple,  ash,  oak,  satin,  etc.  The  value  of  the  lumber  used  yearly 
is  about  $100,000.  By  means  of  two  circular  saws,  on  this  door, 
it  is  cut  into  broad  rails,  heads,  stretchers,  cushion-rails,  and  bed- 
frames,  before  being  transferred  to  the  second  door  by  a  safety 
elevator,  which  reaches  to  every  upper  door.  As  a  preventive 
against  dre,  the  boiler  room,  containing  a  thirty-horse-power  boiler, 
is  in  an  adjoining  building.  In  the  extensive  yard  of  the  factory, 
the  lumber  is  seasoned  for  one  and  a  half  to  two  years  before 
being  manufactured. 

On  the  second  door  the  lumber  is  received  from  the  sawing 
room  and  piled  up,  and  when  completely  seasoned  it  is  planed  by 
a  large  planing  machine  ;  after  which  it  passes  through  various 
improved  machines  for  tenoning,  grooving,  boring,  and  moulding. 
In  another  section  is  the  setting-up  room,  where  the  various  parts 
of  the  tables  are  completely  fitted  together,  about  eight  at  a  time, 
the  slabs  and  cushions  being  here  carefully  dtted  to  the  frames. 

On  the  third  door  a  section  is  devoted  to  the  cushion  room. 
Here  are  piles  of  variously  shaped  rubber,  moulded  and  cut,  and 
here  they  are  added  to  the  cushions  by  a  process  requiring  great 
care  and  ingenuity.  The  cue,  ball  turning,  and  coloring  rooms 
occupy  other  sections.  Collender’s  patent  lathe,  for  turning  billiard 
balls,  is  an  ingenious  machine,  by  which  the  balls,  used  by  ex¬ 
perts  in  their  matches,  are  made  perfectly  uniform  in  size  and 
weight.  Here,  about  six  thousand  markers  can  be  turned  in  a 
day,  and  dfty  dozen  cues  can  be  made.  Here,  also,  are  various 
tenoning,  mortising,  and  turning  machines,  a  steam-box  for  stock, 
a  newly  invented  scroll  saw,  etc.,  etc.  On  this  door  there  is  at 
all  times  stuff  for  at  least  five  hundred  tables  ;  and  although  con¬ 
sidered  sufficiently  seasoned  before  it  reaches  this  door,  it  here 
remains  until  the  larger  seasoned  lots  are  first  manufactured.  Wo 
here  saw  about  30,000  cues  seasoning  in  piles.  This  apartment, 
like  all  the  rest  of  the  building,  is  heated  by  steam,  and  amply 
supplied  with  daylight  and  gaslight. 

On  the  fourth  door  is  a  section  devoted  to  the  dnishing  of  all 
the  parts  of  the  cabinet  work  ;  the  veneers  are  put  on,  the  heads 
made,  etc.  Another  section  comprises  the  store  room  for  dnished 
stock  of  all  parts  of  tables ;  and  in  another  the  cushions  are 
covered  with  the  due  green  billiard  cloth,  the  best  in  the  world, 
made  in  France  and  Belgium. 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


401 


The  fifth  floor  has  two  sections  ;  one  is  for  polishing  and  fine 
varnishing  the  various  parts  —  the  best  of  piano  copal  varnish 
being  used  ;  the  other,  where  the  scraping,  rubbing,  and  coarse 
varnishing  are  performed.  All  the  markers  and  counters  are  here 
finished,  about  100,000  being  constantly  on  hand.  Over  two  hun¬ 
dred  sets  of  rails  and  legs  (sixteen  hundred  of  the  former  and 
twelve  hundred  of  the  latter)  are  usually  found  in  this  floor,  on 
the  east  side  of  which  is  a  balcony,  which,  with  the  roof,  is  used 
for  drying  purposes. 

From  two  to  three  hundred  tables,  of  all  sizes,  are  constantly  in 
process  of  construction  at  this  factory,  which  is  three  times  as 
large  as  any  other  in  the  world,  and  is  capable  of  turning  out  four 
times  as  many  as  any  other,  owing  to  the  large  number  of  ex¬ 
perienced  mechanics  employed,  aided  by  improved  machinery,  by 
means  of  which  a  mechanical  accuracy  is  insured  equalled  by  no 
other  establishment.  It  is  the  only  one  in  the  United  States 
where  all  work  pertaining  to  the  business  is  performed,  with  the 
exception  of  the  iron-work. 

Nine  different  letters  patent,  for  improvements  in  billiard  tables 
and  cushions,  have  been  awarded  Messrs.  Phelan  &  Collender 
by  the  United  States,  and  similar  ones  have  been  granted  them  by 
the  French  and  English  governments,  showing  their  great  devo¬ 
tion  to  their  art.  The  superiority  of  their  tables  and  combination 
cushions  is  now  generally  admitted  by  professional  players  and 
impartial  judges.  The  combination  cushion  was  invented  and 
patented  by  Messrs.  Phelan  &  Collender,  and  none  of  the  many 
attempts  to  imitate  it,  we  are  assured,  have  proved  anything 
but  failures  —  a  good  evidence  that  it  is  as  near  perfection  as 
possible. 

The  “  parlor  billiard  and  dining  table  ”  is  one  of  the  specialties 
of  this  house,  originated  by  them  ;  and  by  means  of  portable 
leaves  and  an  easily  operated  crank,  it  is  made  to  subserve  the 
purposes  of  the  two  tables  in  one.  Its  price  is  about  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  dollars  ;  those  of  less  size  than  five  and  a  half  by 
eleven  feet  being  designed  for  the  use  of  ladies  and  children. 
Like  all  the  carom  tables,  it  unites  durability  with  elegance  of 
design  and  finish. 

About  six  months  are  required  for  the  completion  of  a  billiard 
table.  The  proprietors  are  gentlemen  of  long  experience  and  ce¬ 
lebrity  in  their  line,  and  for  years  have  sent  their  manufactures 
throughout  the  United  States,  Canada,  West  Indies,  Mexico,  Cen- 
23 


402 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


tral  and  South  America,  the  Pacific  coast,  Europe,  and  to  China 
and  other  parts  of  Asia. 

They  claim  to  have  never  made  an  inferior  article,  and  their 
standard  tables  are  to  be  found  in  nearly  all  first-class  hotels  in 
the  country,  as  well  as  in  the  private  residences  of  our  opulent 
merchants  and  other  citizens. 

By  strict  attention  to  business,  and  their  conscientious  dealing 
with  customers,  this  firm  has  conduced  largely  to  the  creation  and 
recognition  of  a  great  industry  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Michael  Phelan,  the  founder  of  the  house,  was  one  of  those 
men  of  mark,  strong,  self-poised,  and  energetic,  who  have  added 
so  much  lustre  to  the  progress  of  manufactures  in  this  country, 
and  his  career  deserves  a  more  extended  notice  than  the  limits  of 
this  article  permit ;  but  we  have  room  for  a  partial  sketch  of  the 
man  and  his  successful  career. 

Michael  Phelan,  who  died  October  7,  1871,  was  a  native  of 
Ireland.  Ilis  father  emigrated  to  this  country  in  1819,  and 
established  himself  in  the  billiard  business,  he  having  as  many 
as  three  or  four  rooms  in  different  parts  of  the  city  of  New 
York  at  the  same  time,  and  is  still  remembered  by  some  of  its 
older  inhabitants.  Succeeding  well,  and  liking  the  country,  in 
1825  Mr.  Phelan  sent  for  his  family ;  and  the  above  yoar  dates  the 
advent  of  Michael  Phelan  to  American  citizenship.  Although 
only  seven  years  old  at  the  time,  he  remembers  his  arrival  per¬ 
fectly.  He  also  remembers  the  billiard  table  in  one  of  his  father^ 
rooms,  and  how  captivated  he  was  when  allowed  to  shove  the 
balls  around  with  the  mace  ;  and  thus  he  has  always  dated  his 
billiard  experience  from  that  time.  Although  he  had  stated  terms 
in  which  he  could  practise,  it  was  not  until  he  had  completed  his 
fourteenth  year  that  he  was  allowed  to  use  the  cue,  and  then, 
almost  immediately,  became  a  good  player. 

When  he  arrived  at  the  proper  age,  his  father  bound  him  ap¬ 
prentice  to  learn  the  art  of  manufacturing  jewelry,  to  which  call¬ 
ing  he  served  his  full  term,  and  became  a  good  workman.  On 
attaining  his  majority,  the  attractions  to  billiards  became  so  strong 
that  he  finally  determined  to  adopt  the  business  for  a  livelihood. 
Ilis  father  having  previously  deceased,  Michael  procured  a  situa¬ 
tion  as  an  attendant  to  a  billiard  room. 

Being  attentive,  industrious,  and  obliging  to  all,  he  soon  be¬ 
came  an  expert  player,  as  well  as  a  general  favorite  ;  thus  he  was 
early  enabled  to  secure  the  means  of  going  into  business  on  his 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


403 


own  account.  One  of  his  first  resolves  was,  that  his  rooms  should 
be  conducted  on  an  entirely  new  basis  ;  his  establishment  was  for 
practising'  the  game  of  billiards  as  an  elegant  amusement,  and  not 
as  a  vehicle  for  gambling  operations ;  sharpers  and  loungers  were 
ignored,  and  gentlemen  patrons  soon  found  that  on  retiring  from 
a  visit  at  Mr.  Phelan’s,  their  pockets  were  only  minus  the  small 
amount  paid  for  the  game  lost  and  refreshments  used.  This  was 
certainly  a  new  experience,  and  from  the  rapid  increase  of 

patronage  Mr.  Phelan  soon  found  it  was  a  popular  and  a  profit- 

»•  •  • 

able  one. 

In  1850  Mr.  Phelan  had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  most 
expert  and  scientific  player  in  the  country  ;  and  in  the  same  year 
he  prepared  a  work  entitled  “  Billiards  Without  a  Master,”  which 
enjoyed  a  large  sale. 

There  can  be  no  better  testimonial  of  the  value  of  individual 
services  to  the  mercantile  world  than  that  furnished  by  rivals  in 
trade.  One  has  conceded  this  much  :  ((  Billiards,  probably,  owes 
more  to  Michael  Phelan  than  to  any  other  man  ;  ”  while  another 
remarks,  “  The  '  World  of  Billiards  ’  might  almost  be  said  to  have 
been  a  world  of  his  own  creation  in  America.”  Michael  Phelan’s 
mission  was  purely  creative.  It  was  his  aim  to  develop  the  billiard 
art,  and  maintain  it  as  a  fashionable  amusement  as  fast  as  it  should 
be  developed.  Thus  he  created  the  demand  for  tables,  leaving  it 
to  others  to  supply  that  demand.  No  manufacturer  has  supplied 
it  so  acceptably  in  public  estimation  as  Michael  Phelan’s  own 
business  partner,  if  overwhelmingly  large  and  steadily  increasing 
sales  are  any  criterion.  Hugh  W.  Collender  was  born  Decem¬ 
ber  19,  1829,  in  Cappoquin,  County  Waterford,  Ireland.  In  Au¬ 
gust,  1849,  having  become  involved  in  the  revolutionary  occurrences 
of  that  period,  he  was  forced  to  fly  from  Ireland  to  avoid  arrest. 
Arriving  in  New  York,  January  9,  1850,  he  for  four  years  worked 
at  cabinet-making  —  in  this  field  acquiring  the  knowledge  which 
afterwards  became  so  useful  in  the  manufacture  of  billiard  tables. 
At  the  close  of  1854  he  was  solicited  by  the  late  General  Thomas 
Francis  Meagher,  who  proposed  to  make  the  tour  of  California,  to 
accompany  him  as  secretary  and  business-agent.  They  journeyed 
through  the  state  together,  returning  to  New  York  via  New  Or¬ 
leans,  and  visiting  the  leading  southern  cities  en  route. 

In  1855  Michael  Phelan  returned  from  San  Francisco  to  New 
York,  intent  upon  introducing  to  public  notice  an  improved  model 
of  a  billiard  table.  Having  in  1854  married  Mr.  Phelan’s  eldest 


404 


BILLIARDS  AND  BILLIARD-TABLES. 


daughter,  Mr.  Collender  was  the  first  person  to  whom  the  inventor' 
communicated  his  ideas  as  to  the  improved  table  ;  and  with  the 
view  of  bringing  it  before  the  public,  Mr.  Collender  formed  a  part¬ 
nership  with  Christopher  O’Connor,  still  prominent  in  metropolitan 
billiard  circles,  and  whose  father  had  been  among  the  first  in  Amer¬ 
ica  to  manufacture  billiard  tables. 

The  firm  of  O’Connor  &  Collender  continued  to  make  tables  for 
about  six  years  —  Mr.  Phelan  being  paid  a  royalty  on  each  table. 
In  1857  Mr.  Collender  was  granted  a  patent  for  the  since  famous 
Phelan  &  Collender  “Combination  Cushion. ”  In  I860  Mr.  O’Connor 
retired  from  the  firm,  Michael  Phelan  taking  his  place  ;  and  the 
firm  of  Phelan  &  Collender,  thus  formed,  continued  until  Octo¬ 
ber  7,  1871,  on  which  date  Michael  Phelan  died,  generally  regret¬ 
ted.  Early  in  1871  the  firm  introduced  a  novel  design  of  billiard 
table,  the  invention  of  Mr.  Collender,  and  since  popularly  known 
as  “  The  Bevel.”  This  improvement,  illustrated  below,  has  already 
made  quite  as  great  a  revolution  in  the  shape  of  billiard  tables  as 
the  “  Phelan  Combination  ”  did  in  billiard  cushions.  In  addition 
to  the  patents  heretofore  spoken  of,  Air.  Collender,  who  as  successor  to 
Phelan  &  Collender,  conducts  the  business  at  738  Broadway,  N.  Y.  City, 
was  on  November  26,  1867,  granted  one  for  an  improvement  in  billiard 
cushions.  In  the  same  year  he  received  another  for  (he  combined  Li¬ 
brary,  Dining,  and  Billiard  Table  ;  and  in  1871  he  was  accorded  a  pat¬ 
ent  for  what  is  now  known  as  the  Eureka  (Wire)  Cushion. 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 

PARTIAL  HISTORY. — ETYMOLOGY.  - CONSECRATION  OF  BELLS. - THE  “PASS¬ 

ING  ”  BELL.  —  THE  “  CURFEW  ”  BELL.  —  FEAST  OF  OSIRIS.  —  THE  CODONOPIIO- 
RUS  :  HIS  DUTIES.  —  SCHILLER’S  “  BELLS.”  —  POE  AND  OTHER  POETS.  —  ELEC¬ 
TRICAL  BELLS.  —  MUSICAL  BELLS.  — LARGE  BELLS.  —  GREAT  BELL  OF  MOSCOW. 
—  MANUFACTURE  OF  BELLS.  - INSCRIPTIONS  ON  BELLS,  ETC. 

In  civilization  the  bell  has  played  an  important  part,  and  its 
history  is  among  the  most  interesting  of  narratives,  whether  it  be 
of  its  rude  early  state,  or  of  that  period  when  science  added  to 
its  vibrations  the  tones  and  harmonies  of  music.  While  the 
founding  of  bells  is  not  so  complicated  a  process  as  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  watches  or  steam-engines,  yet  it  requires  the  exercise  of 
the  nicest  discrimination  ;  for  the  delicacy,  exactness,  and  perfect 
sense  of  adjustment  of  that  sensitive  organ,  the  ear,  is  to  be  grat¬ 
ified  or  displeased  by  the  bell  to  be  made ;  and  in  its  power  to 
produce  agreeable  sounds  lies  all  its  utility.  The  first  manufac¬ 
ture  of  bells  was  necessarily  very  imperfect,  —  little  better  than 
common  kettles,  —  since  nothing  was  then  known  of  that  nice 
combination  of  sounds  with  reference  to  the  effect  of  each  and  all 
upon  the  sound  produced,  or  of  the  shaping  of  the  instrument  to 
modify  the  vibrations,  or  of  the  elevation  and  kind  of  tower  in 
which  to  hang  it  —  all  affecting  sound.  To  the  genius  of  a  later 
day  was  it  left  to  develop  these  scientific  facts,  and  fix  their  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  efficiency  of  the  bell. 

History  gives  us  no  definite  account  of  the  origin  of  bells. 

*  Small,  tinkling  instruments  are  mentioned  by  the  old  Hebrew 
writers  as  having  been  used  as  appendages  to  the  dress  worn  by 
high  priests  and  persons  of  distinction  ;  but  of  their  shape  nothing 
is  recorded.  The  origin  of  the  name  “  bell ”  is  the  antique  Saxon 
word  bellan,  to  bawl  or  bellow.  The  Hebrew  word  translated  by 
our  word  “bell”  is  susceptible  of  other  translations.  The  bell  is 
used  to  this  day  in  Catholic  countries  for  a  similar  purpose  to  that 
recorded  in  Scripture.*  Perhaps  no  instrument  of  music  (for  it  is 

(405) 


406 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


ranked  by  musicians  among  the  musical  instruments  of  percus¬ 
sion)  is  more  intimately  associated  with  the  religious  and  imagi¬ 
native,  as  well  as  with  the  most  joyous  and  most  sad  feelings  of 
the  human  heart.  A  quaint  old  writer  has  described  the  bell’s 
threefold  duties  thus  :  — 

“To  call  the  fold  to  church  in  time, 

We  chime. 

When  joy  and  mirth  are  on  the  wing, 

We  ring. 

When  we  lament  a  departed  soul, 

We  toll.” 

Small  bells  were  used  in  the  early  ages  for  civil,  military,  and 
religious  purposes,  and  bells  of  a  larger  size  are  in  our  day  exten¬ 
sively  used  for  similar  purposes. 

The  first  use  of  bells  in  Christian  churches  to  call  people  to 
service,  of  which  we  have  records,  was  by  St.  Paulinus,  in  Campa¬ 
nia,  about  the  year  395  of  our  era.  By  the  Roman  church,  bells 
are  solemnly  blessed  and  consecrated  for  the  work  of  summoning 
worshippers  to  their  religious  rites.  The  consecration  of  bells 
dates  back  to  a  very  early  period.  In  Charlemagne’s  capitulary 
of  787  we  find  the  injunction,  ‘ 1  ut  cloccce  baptizentur  ”  (let  bells 
be  baptized)  ;  and  in  the  old  liturgies  of  the  Catholic  church  is 
a  form  of  consecration  directing  the  priests  to  wash  the  bell  with 
water,  anoint  it  with  oil,  and  mark  it  with  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
in  the  name  of  the  Trinity.  The  practice  of  naming  bells  is  also 
an  early  one.  The  Vesper  bell,  which  has  been  immortalized  by 
poets,  is  the  call  to  evening  prayer.  The  “  passing  bell  ”  was 
rung,  among  the  ancient  customs,  in  order  to  remind  the  hearers 
to  pray  for  the  soul  that  was  leaving  the  world.  From  this  old 
custom  is  probably  derived  that  of  tolling  bells  at  funerals,  as 
practised  to-day. 

Some  historians  tell  us  that  William  the  Conqueror  introduced 
into  England  from  France  the  custom  of  ringing  the  Curfew  bell, 
which  “  tolled  the  knell  of  parting  day.”  Others  say  that  King 
Alfred  introduced  the  custom.  It  consisted  of  ringing  a  bell  at 
eight  or  nine  o’clock  in  the  evening,  when  every  one  was  com-  « 
manded  to  extinguish  lights  and  cover  up  the  fires  in  the  house. 
(“Curfew  ”  is  derived  from  the  French  words  couvre  feu  —  cover 
fire.)  The  practice  of  ringing  a  bell  at  certain  hours  was  not 
peculiar  to  England,  but  obtained  to  considerable  extent  on  the 
Continent.  Most  buildings  being  then  of  wood,  it  was  intended 
as  a  precaution  against  fires,  which  were  common.  The  passing 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


407 


and  curfew  bell  ar6  still  represented  in  some  American  villages, 
especially  in  New  England. 

As  a  signal  to  call  people  together  in  any  concerted  action,  the 
bell  has  been  used  from  remote  times.  The  feast  of  Osiris,  among 
the  Egyptians,  was  announced  by  the  ringing  of  bells  ;  and  the 
same  sound  to  this  day  notifies  hungry  mortals  of  the  time  to  sat¬ 
isfy  their  appetites.  The  Romans  announced  the  time  of  bathing 
by  the  ringing  of  bells  ;  and  the  early  Christians  made  use  of  the 
method  to  designate  the  hour  of  prayer.  In  Britain,  bells  were 
applied  to  church  purposes  before  the  end  of  the  seventh  century. 
In  England,  as  formerly  at  Rome,  bells  were  frequently  made  of 
brass.  .  In  times  of  public  danger  the  bells  were  rung  to  alarm 
the  country.  Among  the  Greeks,  those  who  went  the  nightly 
rounds  in  camps  or  garrisons,  carried  with  them  little  bells,  which 
they  rung  at  each  sentry-box,  to  see  that  the  soldiers  on  watch 
were  awake.  A  codonophorus,  or  bellman,  also  walked  in  funeral 
processions,  a  little  in  advance  of  the  corpse,  not  only  to  keep  off 
the  crowd,  but  to  advertise  the  flamen  dialis  to  keep  out  of  the 
way,  lest  he  should  be  polluted  by  the  sight,  or  by  the  funerary 
music.  The  priest  of  Proserpine  at  Athens  rung  the  bell  to  call 
the  people  to  sacrifice.  There  were  also  bells  in  the  houses  of 
the  great,  to  call  the  servants  in  the  morning.  Bells  were  put 
upon  the  necks  of  criminals  going  to  execution,  to  warn  persons 
to  avoid  so  ill  an  omen  as  the  sight  of  the  hangman  or  the  con¬ 
demned  man.  We  find  in  history  the  mention  of  bells  on  the 
necks  of  brutes,  and  taking  them  away  was  construed  as  theft  by 
the  civil  law.  The  custom  in  this  country  of  putting  bells  on 
cows  and  sheep,  in  order  the  better  to  find  them  if  they  stray 
away,  doubtless  grew  out  of  this  practice  of  the  ancients.  The 
various  early  uses  of  the  bell  have  been  summed  up  in  the  follow¬ 
ing  old  Latin  distich  :  — 

“  Laudo  Deum  verum,  plebem  voco,  eongrego  clerum, 

Defunctos  ploro,  pestera  fugo,  festa  decoro.” 

(I  praise  the  true  God,  call  the  people  and  convene  the  clergy, 
mourn  the  dead,  drive  away  the  pestilence,  and  grace  the  feast.) 

Schiller  has  given  us  a  “  Song  of  the  Bell,”  the  motto  of 
which  is  more  terse  :  — 

“  Vivos  voco,  mortuos  plango,  fulgura  frango.” 

In  his  poem  all  the  joys,  sorrows,  pangs,  emotions,  terrors,  and 
blessings,  attendant  on  humanity,  in  connection  with  the  part 


408 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


which  the  bell  plays,  are  most  vividly  portrayed.  The  poem  is  so 
touchingly  beautiful  that  we  reproduce  a  portion  of  it  here. 

“  What  we  are  forming  in  the  mould 
By  dint  of  hand  and  melting  flame, 

High  in  the  church  tower  shall  be  tolled, 

And  far  and  wide  our  work  proclaim. 

“To  distant  days  it  shall  remain; 

Its  notes  on  many  an  ear  shall  fall ; 

Its  chimes  with  sorrow  shall  complain, 

And  ring  abroad  devotion’s  call. 

“  Whatever  to  us  mortals  here 
A  shifting  destiny  e’er  brings, 

Is  struck  upon  its  metal  clear, 

Which  to  all  ears  the  lesson  rings. 

Clear  and  full  with  festal  sound, 

It  hails  the  lovely  infant  child 
First  entering  on  his  earthly  round, 

Borne  in  the  arms  of  slumber  mild. 

“  When  the  manly  and  the  fair. 

When  strength  and  beauty  form  a  pair, 

Then  rings  it  out  a  merry  song ; 

Lovely  in  the  young  bride’s  hair  • 

Shines  the  bridal  coronal ; 

While  the  church-bell-cliimes  so  fair 
Summon  to  the  festival, 

From  the  dome, 

Heavy  and  long 
Sounds  the  bell  — 

A  funeral  song ; 

Solemnly  with  measured  strokes,  attending 
Weary  wanderer  on  his  last  way  wending.” 

None  the  less  beautiful,  though  of  a  different  vein  of  senti¬ 
ment,  is  the  poem  of  Edgar  A.  Poe,  so  familiar  to  nearly  all  read¬ 
ers.  Whittier  has  also  immortalized,  in  rich  verse,  the  ringing  of 
bells,  to  arouse  the  feelings  of  patriotism  in  the  breast,  on  the 
passage  of  the  constitutional  amendment  abolishing  slavery. 

“  It  is  done  ! 

Clang  of  bell  and  roar  of  gun 
Send  the  tidings  up  and  down. 

How  the  belfries  rock  and  reel, 

How  the  great  guns,  peal  on  peal, 

Fling  joy  from  town  to  town !  ” 

Longfellow,  in  one  of  his  most  delicious  poems,  has  sounded 
the  praises  of  the  Christmas  bells.  And  England’s  poet  laureate, 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


409 


Tennyson,  has  given  to  the  bells  some  of  his  choicest  imagery,  on 

the  death  of  the  year. 

• 

“  Ring  out,  wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky, 

The  flying  clouds,  the  frosty  light : 

The  year  is  dying  in  the  night ; 

Ring  out,  wild  bells,  and  let  him  die,”  etc. 

\ 

Electeical  Bells. 

Electrical  bells  are  used  in  a  variety  of  entertaining  exhibitions 
by  electricians.  The  apparatus  consists  of  three  small  bells,  sus¬ 
pended  from  a  narrow  plate  of  metal,  the  two  outermost  by 
chains,  and  that  in  the  middle,  from  which  a  chain  passes  to  the 
floor,  by  a  silken  string.  Two  small  knobs  of  brass  are  also  sus¬ 
pended  by  silken  strings,  one  on  each  side  of  the  bell  in  the 
middle,  which  serve  for  clappers.  Connected  with  an  electrical 
conductor,  the  outermost  bells  suspended  by  the  chains  are 
charged,  attract  the  clappers,  and  are  struck  by  them.  The  clap¬ 
pers  are  repelled  by  these  bells,  and  attracted  by  the  middle  bell, 

and  discharge  themselves  upon  it  by  means  of  the  chain  extend- 

© 

ing  to  the  floor.  After  this  they  are  again  attracted  by  the  outer¬ 
most  bells,  and  thus,  by  striking  the  bells  alternately,  occasion  a 
ringing,  which  may  be  continued  at  pleasure. 

Musical  Bells. 

Music  bells  are  still  in  use  in  some  parts  of  Europe,  and  to 
some  extent  in  this  country,  and  are  regarded  as  delightful. 
They  are  played  upon  by  means  of  keys,  not  unlike  those  of  a 
piano-forte.  An  old  painting  of  King  David  represents  him  as 
playing,  with  a  hammer  in  each  hand,  upon  five  bells,  which  were 
hung  up  before  him.  The  music  of  the  thirty-three  bells  which 
were  suspended  in  the  tower  of  the  cathedral  of  Antwerp  is 
highly  celebrated.  One  of  these  bells  was  seven  feet  in  width 
and  eight  feet  high.  The  Swiss  bell-ringers,  famous  for  their  per¬ 
formances,  produce  the  most  exquisite  melody  from  hand-bells. 
The  Peak  family,  and  others,  in  this  country,  have  also  become 
famous  for  their  bell-music.  So  skilful  are  they  in  the  use  of 
bells,  that  they  will  change  from  one  to  another  with  the  greatest 
rapidity.  The  bells  vary  in  size,  from  a  large  cow-bell  to  the 
.smallest  dinner-bell,  each  with  a  key  differing  from  that  of  the 
rest,  and  as  many  as  forty-two  are  used  by  a  company  of  seven 
persons. 


410 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


Large  Bells. 

• 

Bells  were  introduced  into  use  in  churches  about  the  year  395 
of  the  Christian  era.  Since  then  many  very  large,  and  on  this 
account  prominent,  bells  have  been  made.  As  early  as  the  sixth 
century  churches  were  furnished  with  the  campanile,  or  bell-tower, 
which  still  continues  to  be  one  of  their  distinguishing  features. 
Several  bells  were  used  in  a  single  church,  as  is  still  the  custom 
when  arranged  in  chimes,  or,  as  is  sometimes  the  case,  without 
regard  to  harmony  of  tones.  This  practice  of  ringing  bells  in 
change,  or  regular  peals,  is  said  to  be  peculiar  to  England,  and  the 
custom  seems  to  have  been  introduced  in  the  times  of  the  Saxons. 

There  are  many  very  large  bells  in  use.  The  church  of  the 
Abbey  of  Croyland,  in  England,  had  one  great  bell,  named  Guthlac, 
presented  by  the  Abbot  Turketulus,  who  died  about  the  year  870  ; 
and  subsequently,  six  others,  presented  by  his  successor,  Egelric, 
and  named  Bartholomew  and  Betelin,  Turketel  and  Tatwin,  Bega 
and  Pega.  But  Russia  exceeds  all  other  countries  in  its  foun- 
deries  for  bells.  In  Moscow  alone,  before  the  revolution,  there 
were  no  less  than  seventeen  hundred  and  sixty-six  large  bells. 
In  a  single  tower  there  were  thirty-seven,  one  being  so  large  that 
it  took  twenty-four  men  to  ring  it,  and  this  was  done  by  pulling 
the  clapper.  Its  weight  is  estimated  at  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight  thousand  pounds.  '  The  great  bell,  cast  by  order  of  the 
Empress  Anne,  in  1653,  and  now  lying  broken  on  the  ground,  is 
believed  to  weigh  four  hundred  and  forty-three  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-two  pounds.  It  is  nineteen  feet  high,  and 
measures  around  its  margin  sixty-three  feet  and  eleven  inches. 
The  value  of  the  metal  alone  in  this  bell  is  estimated  at  over  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Whether  this  bell  was  ever  hung,  or 
not,  authorities  seem  to  differ.  Clarke,  in  his  Travels,  says  of  the 
bells  in  Moscow,  and  of  the  great  bell  in  particular,  “  The  num¬ 
berless  bells  of  Moscow  continue  to  ring  during  the  whole  of 
Easter  week,  tinkling  and  tolling  without  harmony  or  order.  The 
large  bell  near  the  cathedral  is  only  used  upon  important  occa¬ 
sions,  and  yields  the  finest  and  most  solemn  tone  I  ever  heard. 
When  it  sounds,  a  deep  hollow  murmur  vibrates  all  over  Moscow, 
like  the  fullest  tones  of  a  vast  organ,  or  the  rolling  of  distant 
thunder.  This  bell  is  suspended  in  a  tower  called  the  belfry  of, 
St.  Ivan,  beneath  others,  which,  though  of  less  size,  are  enormous. 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


411 


It  is  forty  feet  and  nine  inches  in  circumference,  sixteen  and  a 
half  inches  thick,  and  weighs  more  than  fifty-seven  tons.”  The 
great  bell  of  Moscow,  the  largest  ever  founded,  is  in  a  deep  pit 
in  the  midst  of  the  Kremlin.  The  story  of  its  fall  is  a  fable,  but 
continues  to  be  propagated.  The  fact  is,  the  bell  remains  where 
it  was  originally  cast ;  it  was  never  suspended.  A  fire  took  place 
in  the  Kremlin,  the  flames  of  which  caught  the  building  erected 
over  the  pit  in  which  the  bell  yet  remained.  The  metal  became 
hot,  and  water  thrown  to  extinguish  the  fire,  fell  on  the  bell, 
causing  the  fracture  it  wears.  This  bell  is,  indeed,  a  mountain  of 
metal.  It  is  said  to  contain  a  large  proportion  of  gold  and  silver, 
for,  while  it  was  in  fusion,  the  nobles  and  the  people  cast  in  as 
votive  offerings  their  plate  and  money.  But  this  story  is  probably 
fictitious.  The  natives  of  Russia  regard  the  bell  with  supersti¬ 
tious  veneration,  and  they  will  not  allow  even  a  grain  to  be  filed 
off  that  it  may  be  tested  ;  at  the  same  time  we  are  informed 
that  the  compound  has  a  white,  shining  appearance,  unlike  bell 
metal  in  general ;  and  perhaps  its  silvery  appearance  has  strength¬ 
ened,  if  not  given  rise  to,  the  conjecture  respecting  the  richness 
of  its  materials.  On  festival  days  the  peasants  visit  the  bell  as 
they  would  a  church,  and  cross  themselves  as  they  descend  and 
ascend  the  steps  leading  to  the  bell.  In  1831,  the  Czar  Nicholas 
caused  the  great  bell  to  be  elevated  from  the  pit  in  which  it  lay, 
and  placed  upon  a  granite  pedestal.  Upon  its  side  is  seen,  over 
a  border  of  flowers,  the  figure  of  the  Empress  Anne,  in  flowing 
robes.  The  bell  has  been  consecrated  as  a  chapel ;  the  door  is  in 
the  aperture  made  by  the  piece  which  fell  out.  The  room  is  twen¬ 
ty-two  feet  in  diameter,  and  twenty-one  feet  three  inches  in  height. 

The  bells  of  China  rank  next  in  size  to  those  of  Russia.  In 
Pekin,  says  Father  Le  Compte,  there  are  seven  bells,  each  weigh¬ 
ing  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pounds.  Excepting  the 
bells  recently  cast  for  the  new  houses  of  Parliament,  the  largest 
of  which  weighs  fourteen  tons,  there  is  no  bell  in  England  larger 
than  that  cast  for  York  Minster,  in  1845,  which  weighs  twenty- 
seven  thousand  pounds.  This  is  only  seven  feet  and  seven  inches 
in  diameter.  The  “  Great  Tom  ”  of  Oxford  weighs  seventeen 
thousand  pounds,  and  the  Great  Tom  of  Lincoln  twelve  thousand 
pounds.  The  bell  of  St.  Paul’s,  London,  is  nine  feet  in  diameter, 
and  weighs  eleven  thousand  five  hundred  pounds.  One  placed  in 
the  cathedral  of  Paris,  in  1680,  weighs  thirty-eight  thousand 
pounds.  Another  in  Vienna,  cast  in  1111,  weighs  forty  thousand 


412  BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 

pounds.  The  famous  bell  called  Jusanne  of  Erfurt,  is  considered 
to  be  of  the  finest  bell  metal,  containing  the  largest  proportion  of 
silver  ;  its  weight  is  about  thirty  thousand  pounds.  It  was  cast 
in  1497.  In  Montreal,  Canada,  is  a  bell  larger  than  any  in  Eng¬ 
land,  in  a  tower  of  the  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame.  Its  weight  is 
twenty-nine  thousand  four  hundred  fifty-eight  pounds.  In  the 
opposite  tower  is  a  chime  of  ten  bells,  the  heaviest  of  which 
weighs  six  thousand  forty-three  pounds ;  and  their  aggregate 
weight  is  twenty-one  thousand  eight  hundred  pounds. 

Chimes  are  a  collection  of  bells  struck  with  hammers  ;  or  a  set 
of  music  bells  struck  by  hammers  acted  on  by  a  pinned  cylinder, 
or  barrel,  which  is  made  to  revolve  by  clock-work.  These  are 
frequently  attached  to  time-pieces,  and  are  so  arranged  as  to  pro¬ 
duce  chimes,  or  tunes,  at  stated  intervals. 

There  are  but  few  bells  of  very  large  size  in  the  United  States. 
The  heaviest  is  the  alarm  bell  on  the  City  Ilall  in  New  York.  It 
was  cast  in  Boston,  and  weighs  about  twenty-three  thousand 
pounds.  Its  diameter,  at  its  mouth,  is  about  eight  feet ;  its  height 
about  six  feet,  and  its  thickness  at  the  point  where  the  clapper 
strikes,  from  six  and  a  half  to  seven  inches.  The  bell  now  in 
Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia,  is  celebrated  as  being  connected 
with  the  Fourth  of  July,  1776,  when  it  first  announced  by  its  peals 
the  declaration  then  made,  the  most  important  event  in  the  history 
of  our  country.  It  was  imported  from  England  in  1758,  and, 
owing  to  its  being  cracked  on  trial  by  a  stroke  of  the  clapper, 
was  recast  in  Philadelphia,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Isaac 
Morris,  by  whom  was  probably  chosen  the  following  inscription, 
which  surrounds  the  bell  near  the  top,  from  Leviticus  xxv.  10  : 
“  Proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land,  unto  all  the  inhabitants 
thereof.77  Immediately  beneath  this  is  added,  11  By  order  of  the 
Assembly  of  the  Province  of  Penn,  for  the  State  House  in  Phil.77 
Under  this  again  is,  “  Pass  &  Stow,  Phil.  MDCCLIIL”  In  1777, 
during  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British,  the  bell  was 
removed  to  Lancaster.  After  its  return,  it  was  used  as  the  State 

House  bell,  until  the  erection  of  the  present  steeple,  with  its  bell, 

_  « 

in  1828.  Then  it  ceased  to  be  used,  excepting  on  extraordinary 
occasions.  Finally  it  was  removed  to  its  present  resting-place  in 
Independence  Hall.  Its  last  ringing,  when  it  was  unfortunately 
cracked,  was  in  honor  of  a  visit  to  Philadelphia  of  Henry  Clay. 
There  are  no  other  bells  of  special  interest  in  this  country. 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


413 


Metals  used. 

Bells  have  been  made  of  different  metals.  In  France,  formerly, 
iron  was  used,  and  in  other  parts  of  Europe  brass  was  a  common 
material.  In  Sheffield,  England,  the  manufacture  of  cast-steel  bells 
has  recently  been  introduced.  This  material  is  said  to  have  an 
advantage  over  others  in  being  of  greater  strength  and  less  weight. 
But  the  tone  of  steel  bells  is  said  to  be  harsh  ;  hence  such  bells 
will  probably  never  be  extensively  used.  But  the  bell  metal 
which  is  most  generally  approved  is  an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin, 
in  proportions  varying  from  sixty-five  to  eighty  per  cent,  of  cop¬ 
per,  and  the  remainder  tin.  But  other  metals  are  often  introduced, 
as  zinc,  with  the  object  of  adding  shrillness  to  the  sound,  silver, 
to  its  softness,  and  also  lead.  Cymbals  and  gongs  contain  eighty- 
one  parts  copper  and  thirteen  tin.  Manufacturers  in  this  country 
think  that  the  value  of  silver  in  bell-metal  is  purely  imaginary, 
and  condemn  the  use  of  anything  but  copper  and  tin.  Three  and 
a  half  parts  copper  to  one  of  tin  make,  perhaps,  the  best  propor¬ 
tion.  The  founders  have  a  diapason,  or  scale,  by  which  they 
measure  the  size,  thickness,  weight,  and  tone  of  their  bells. 

The  sound  of  a  bell  is  produced  by  the  vibratory  motion  of  its 
parts,  somewhat  like  that  of  a  musical  chord.  The  stroke  of  the 
clapper  must  necessarily  change  the  figure  of  the  bell,  and  from  a 
circle  convert  it  into  an  ellipse  ;  but  the  metal  having  a  great 
degree  of  elasticity,  that  part  beaten  by  the  clapper  and  driven 
farthest  from  the  centre,  will  return,  and  even  incline  nearer  the 
centre  than  before  ;  and  thus  the  external  surface  of  a  bell  under¬ 
goes  alternating  changes  of  figure,  and  by  this  means  gives  that 
tremulous  motion  to  the  air,  in  which  the  sound  consists.  The  pro¬ 
portion  of  metals,  and  shape  and  proportion  of  bells,  all  affect  the 
sound  ;  hence  the  adjusting  of  a  bell  to  produce  a  smooth,  uniform, 
even  sound,  requires  skill,  and  experience,  and  thorough  testing. 

There  are  different  theories  as  to  the  philosophy  of  sound  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  bell.  One  eminent  writer  maintains  that  a  bell  is  a 
compound  of  an  infinite  number  of  rings,  which,  according  to 
their  dimensions,  have  different  tones,  as  chords  of  different 
lengths  have  ;  and  when  struck,  the  vibrations  of  the  parts  imme¬ 
diately  infringed  determine  the  tone,  being  supported  by  a  suffi¬ 
cient  number  of  consonant  tones  in  the  other  parts. 

Bells  are  heard  to  greater  distance  when  placed  on  plains  than 


414 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 

on  hills,  and  still  farther  in  valleys  than  on  plains  ;  the  reason  of 
which  seems  to  be,  that  the  higher  the  sonorous  body,  the  rarer  is 
the  medium,  and  consequently  tire  less  the  impulse  it  receives, 
and  the  less  proper  medium  is  it  to  convey  sound  to  a  distance. 

J  :  «'  .  *  *  It.  *.4.  1*  I  ^  :  "It  .  jJffjJ 

Manufacture  of  Bells. 

The  European  process  of  casting  bells  is,  to  make  the  mould  in 
a  depression  in  the  sand  floor  of  the  foundery,  piling  up  a  hollow 
case  of  brickwork  upon  a  solid  foundation,  in  which  a  fire  is  kept 
burning  to  keep  the  liquid  metal,  when  poured  around  it,  from 
cooling  too  rapidly.  The  outer  surface  of  the  case  is  the  shape 
of  the  inner  surface  of  the  bell.  To  form  the  outer  surface,  a 
cover  of  earthenware  is  fashioned  to  fit  over  the  case,  and  leaves 
between  that  and  itself  a  vacant  space,  to  be  filled  with  the  metal. 
This  arrangement  is  deficient  in  not  providing  proper  escape  for 
the  gases  which  are  engendered  in  heavy  castings  in  the  earth, 
and  which  are  likely  to  make  the  metal  porous,  or,  being  highly 
inflammable,  to  explode  with  great  damage.  But  an  improved 
process  has  been  introduced  in  this  country,  consisting  of  the  use 
of  perforated  iron  cases,  the  outer  one  in  the  shape  of  the  bell, 
and  the  inner  one  of  the  case,  which  sets  in  the  centre  of  its 
saucer-shaped  foundations.  Each  of  these  receives  a  coating 
of  loam,  the  outer  one  within,  and  the  inner  upon  its  outer  sur¬ 
face  ;  but  over  the  latter  is  first  wrapped  a  straw  rope,  which, 
taking  fire  and  burning  slowly,  as  the  metal  is  poured  between  the 
two  cases,  leaves  a  free  space  for  the  bell  to  contract  in  while 
cooling,  without  straining.  The  perforations  through  the  cases 
let  out  the  vapors,  and  also  serve  to  keep  the  coating  of  loam  in 
place.  As  the  gas  escapes  through  these  holes,  it  burns  with  a 
pale  blue  flame,  without  risk. 

The  best  proportion  of  the  height  of  a  bell  to  its  greatest 
diameter  is  said  to  be  as  twelve  to  fifteen.  In  conformity  to  the 
laws  of  acoustics,  the  number  of  vibrations  of  a  bell  varies  in 
inverse  ratio  with  its  diameter,  or  the  cube  root  of  its  weight. 

Inscriptions  on  Bells. 

Many  of  the  inscriptions  found  on  old  bells  are  quaint  and 
interesting,  as  indicating  the  superstitions  and  fancies  of  the 
ancients  in  connection  with  bells,  as  well  as  their  great  reverence 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


415 


for  them  and  fear  of  their  power.  They  also  indicate,  in  many 
cases,  the  customs  of  the  people.  These  inscriptions  were  often 
in  honor  of  some  saint,  or  to  commemorate  some  act  of  special 
mercy  or  charity,  or  deliverance.  A  peal .  of  eight  bells  in  the 
tower  of  St.  Helen’s  church,  Worcester,  England,  cast  in  the 
year  1706,  bears  inscriptions  in  couplets  commemorative  of  Blen¬ 
heim,  Barcelona,  Ramillies,  Menin,  Turin,  Egen,  Marlborough,  and 
Queen  Anne. 

The  following  inscription  has  been  common  in  England  for  three 
hundred  years,  and  also  much  used  in  this  country  :  - — 

.  i  * 

-•  >  •  Si  v  '  /  >  '  • .  a  »!■#.»:  € 

•  “  I  to  the  church  the  living  call, 

And  to  the  grave  do  summon  all.” 


Selections  of  some  Old  Inscriptions. 

One  upon  a  bell  in  Wiltshire,  England,  cast  1619  :  — 

“  Be  strong  in  faythe,  prayes  God  well 
Francis  Countess  Hertford’s  bell.” 

Upon  one  in  Oxfordshire,  cast  1667  :  — 

“  I  ring  to  sermon  with  a  lusty  boome 
That  all  may  come,  and  none  stay  at  home.” 

*  \  t  ..  r  .  r-n  .  <  "1  r  %  •  <  .  -  r 

Upon  one  in  Nottinghamshire,  cast  1603  :  — 

“  Jesus  be  our  spede.” 

Upon  one  in  Wiltshire,  cast  1585  :  — 

“  O  man,  be  meeke,  and  live  in  rest.” 

Upon  one  (a  fire  bell)  in  Dorsetshire,  cast  1652  :  — 

“  Lord,  quench  this  furious  flame  ; 

Arise,  run,  help,  put  out  the  same.” 

'  '  •  1  ’  i  ■  I  .■  •  •  ??  ’  J  *  • 

Upon  one  in  Somersetshire,  cast  1700  :  — 

“  All  you  of  Bath  that  hear  me  sound, 

Thank  Lady  Hopton’s  hundred  pound.” 

Upon  one  in  Hampshire,  cast  1600  :  — 

“  God  be  our  guyd.” 


416 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


Upon  one  in  Cambridgeshire  (St.  Benet’s,  Cambridge),  one  of  a 
peal  of  six,  cast  1607  :  — 

“Of.  al.  the.  bells,  in.  Benet.  I.  am.  the.  best. 

And.  yet.  for.  my.  casting,  the.  parish,  paide.  lest.” 

Upon  one  in  Warwickshire,  cast  1675  :  — 

“  I  ring  at  six  to  let  men  know 
When  too  and  from  thair  worke  to  go.” 

Upon  one  in  Staffordshire,  cast  1604 :  — 

“  Bee  it  known  to  all  that  doth  me  see 
That  Newcombe  of  Leicester  made  me.” 

John  Martin  also  makes  himself  known  upon  one  (of  a  peal  of 
three)  in  Worcestershire,  cast  1675  :  — 

“John  Martin  of  Worcester  he  made  wee 
Be  it  known  to  all  that  do  wee  see.” 

The  great  bell  of  Rouen,  in  France,  presented  to  St.  Mary’s 
church  by  George,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  bore  this  inscription  :  — 

“  Je  suis  nominee  George  d’Ambois, 

Que  plus  que  trente  six  mil  pois ; 

Et  si  qui  bien  me  poysera 
Quarante  mil  y  trouvera.” 

_  • 

(I  am  named  George  of  Amboise,  and  [am  of]  more  than  thirty- 
six  thousand  pounds’  weight ;  and,  if  any  one  would  weigh  me 
well,  he’d  find  [me]  forty  thousand  pounds  in  weight.) 

One  of  three  in  Orkney,  Scotland,  cast  in  1528,  bears  the  fol¬ 
lowing  :  — 

“  Maid  be  master  robert  maxwel,  Bishop  of  Orknay  ye  second  zier  of  his 
consecration  yc  zier  of  Gode  Im  Ve  XXVIII.,  ye  XV.  zier  of  Kyng  James  ye 
V.  be  robert  borthvyk ;  maid  al  tlire  in  ye  castle  of  Edinburgh.” 

Most  intimately  is  the  voice  of  the  bell  associated  with  the 
religious  and  imaginative,  as  also  with  the  most  joyous  and  the 
saddest  feelings  of  mankind. 

Cornell  University  Chimes. 

One  of  the  finest  chimes  in  the  United  States  is  at  Cornell  Uni¬ 
versity,  at  Ithaca,  New  York.  There  are  ten  bells,  the  largest 
weighing  four  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-nine  pounds, 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


417 


and  the  smallest  two  hundred  and  thirty,  with  a  total  weight  of 
metal  of  nearly  eleven  thousand  five  hundred  pounds.  They  rep¬ 
resent,  in  the  order  of  their  weight,  beginning  with  the  great  bell, 
the  following  musical  notes :  D,  G,  A,  B,  0,  D,  E,  F,  F  sharp, 
and  G.  The  largest  of  the  chimes  bears  the  following  inscriptions  : 
“  The  Gift  of  Mary,  Wife  of  Andrew  D.  White,  First  President  of 
Cornell  University,  1869  ;  ”  **  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men ;  ”  41  To  tell  of  Thy  loving¬ 
kindness  early- in  the  morning,  and  of  Thy  truth  in  the  night  sea¬ 
son  ;  ”  together  with  the  following  stanza,  written  expressly  for  it 
by  James  Russell  Lowell :  — 

I  call  as  fly  the  irrevocable  hours, 

Futile  as  air  or  strong  as  fate,  to  make 
Your  lives  of  sand  or  granite :  awful  powers, 

Even  as  men  choose,  they  either  give  or  take. 


The  nine  smaller  bells  all  bear  couplets  from  Tennyson’s  u  In 
Memoriam,”  commencing  with  the  smallest,  as  follows:  — 

First  Bell. 

Ring  out  the  old  —  ring  in  the  new; 

Ring  out  the  false  —  ring  in  the  true. 

Second  Bell. 

*  O 

Ring  out  the  grief  that  saps  the  mind ; 

Ring  in  redress  to  ail  mankind. 


Third  Bell. 

Ring  out  a  slowly  dying  cause, 

And  ancient  forms  of  party  strife. 

Fourth  Bell. 

Ring  in  the  nobler  modes  of  life, 
With  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws. 

Fifth  Bell. 

Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood ; 
Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good. 

Sixth  Bell. 

Ring  out  the  slander  and  the  spite ; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right. 

Seventh  Bell. 


* 


Ring  out  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold; 
Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old. 

24 


418 


BELLS,  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


r  *  f 

Eighth  Bell. 

Ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease ; 

Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace. 

Ninth  Bell. 

Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free, 

The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand  j 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land ; 

Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 

The  ninth  bell  also  bears  the  following  :  “  This  Chime,  the  gift 
of  Miss  Jennie  McGraw  to  the  Cornell  University,  1868.”  The 
mechanical  apparatus  attached  to  the  bells  is  simple,  ingenious, 
and  effective.  One  of  the  students  of  the  University  is  always 
“  Master  of  the  Chimes,”  and  during  the  day  and  evening,  at  dif¬ 
ferent  hours,  the  bells  “  discourse  sweet  music.” 


WIRE-DRAWING. 


OLDEST  KNOWN  METHODS  OF  MAKING  WIRE.  —  CUTTING  AND  HAMMERING.  — 
HAND-DRAWN  WIRE. — WIRE-DRAWING  MACHINERY.  — PROGRESS  OF  THE  IN¬ 
DUSTRY  IN  EUROPE. — INTRODUCTION  IN  AMERICA.  —  UNIVERSAL  USE. - 

FROM  SUSPENSION  BRIDGES  TO  GOLD  LACE.  —  PROCESS  OF  DRAWING.  — 

ROLLING  THE  RODS.  - THE  DRAW-PLATE.  —  IlOW  THE  FINEST  FRENCH  PLATES 

ARE  MADE.  - THE  DRAW-BENCII.  —  SIMPLICITY  OF  THE  PROCESS.  —  DUCTILI¬ 

TY  OF  DIFFERENT  METALS.  —  RAPIDITY  OF  DRAWING.  —  GAUGES.  — PLATES 
FOR  VARIOUS  SHAPES.  —  PERFORATED  RUBIES.  — WONDERFUL  DUCTILITY  OF 
SILVER  AND  PLATINUM.  —  WIRES  OF  ASTONISHING  LENGTH  AND  LIGHTNESS. — 
SPIDER  LINES  FOR  TELESCOPES.  — PROPORTIONATE  INCREASE  OF  LENGTHS 
AND  DIMINUTION  OF  DIAMETERS  IN  DRAWING. 

The  manufacture  of  wire,  particularly  from  gold  and  silver,  is 
of  very  great  antiquity,  and  the  earliest  method,  according  to  the 
Book  of  Exodus  (chapter  xxxix.),  was  “  to  beat  the  gold  into  thin 
plates,  and  cut  it  into- wires.”  The  next  step  pursued  by  “  wire- 
smiths*,”  for  centuries,  was  to  make  wire  from  ductile  metals  by  ham¬ 
mering.  “  Wire-drawers,”  who  drew  wire  by  hand,  in  Germany  and 
elsewhere  in  Europe,  flourished  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  soon 
afterwards  wire  was  drawn  by  machinery,  propelled  by  water 
power.  At  first  these  machines  were  used  almost  exclusively  for 
drawing  gold  and  silver  wire ;  but  in  the  fifteenth  century  Eng¬ 
land  was  both  manufacturing  and  importing  iron  and  brass  wire, 
and  Germany  was  making  the  finest  wire  for  hooks  and  eyes,  cards, 
etc.  In  the  seventeenth  century  England  added  copper  wire  to 
the  list,  and  wire-drawing  became  an  important  industry  in  that 
country.  The  business  began  early  in  the  present  century  in  the 
United  States,  and  there  are  now  extensive  wire-drawing  establish¬ 
ments  in  New  York,  Providence,  Worcester,  Boston,  and  other 
cities. 

There  is  scarcely  a  branch  of  metal  manufacture  of  more  univer¬ 
sal  application.  Wire  is  twisted  by  machinery  into  the  powerful 
cables  which  suspend  bridges  ;  it  furnishes  cables  for  submarine 

(419) 

11 


420 


WIRE-DRAWING. 


telegraphs,  and  ropes  for  ships,  mines,  and  other  purposes  ;  it 
supplies  the  thousands  of  miles  of  telegraph  lines  ;  it  is  woven  by 
machinery  strong  enough  to  make  wire  fences,  and  sufficiently  del¬ 
icate  to  manufacture  fine  wire  cloth  ;  steel  wire  is  drawn  for  all 
kinds  of  needles  ;  woven  wire  of  iron,  brass,  and  copper  appears 
in  flour,  paper,  and  other  machinery  ;  sieves,  screens,  fenders, 
cages,  baskets,  dish-covers,  nets,  and  an  infinity  of  other  forms  ; 
it  is  drawn  down  to  furnish  the  fine,  hair-like  wire  for  astronomical 
and  mathematical  instruments  ;  gold  and  silver  wire  is  plated  or 
woven  into  exquisite  filigree  work,  into  chains,  and  into  thread  for 
making  gold  lace.  In  making  wire  for  gold  lace,  or  for  the  finest 
filigree  work,  the  wonderful  ductility  of  gold  and  silver  is  exhibit¬ 
ed  ;  for  silver,  merely  coated  with  gold  leaf,  may  be  drawn  down 
to  the  smallest  size,  and  still  show  a  perfect  coating  of  gold.  For 
gold  lace,  wires  so  drawn  are  flattened  between  steel  rollers  to 
show  a  larger  surface ;  and  much  of  the  “  gold  77  filigree  work 
displayed  in  jewelry  is  really  silver  with  a  gold  overcoat.  Thus 
everywhere,  in  thousands  of  articles  of  use  and  luxury,  the  em¬ 
ployment  of  wire  is  indispensable. 

The  process  of  wire-drawing  is  as  follows:  The  wire  rods,  of 
one-fourth,  three-eighths,  or  one-half  inch  in  thickness,  come  from 
the  rolling  mill  in  coils  or  bundles,  and  are  heated  and  re-rolled  in 
grooved  rollers,  one  above  the  other,  so  that  the  rod  can  run  from 
the  first  to  the  second,  and  then  to  the  third  roll,  without  reheat¬ 
ing.  These  rollers  run  with  great  rapidity,  and  the  final  groove 
in  the  third  roller  reduces  the  rod  to  a  coarse  wire,  say  one-eighth 
of  an  inch,  ready  for  the  first  hole  in  the  draw-plate.  The  draw- 
plate  is  a  flat  piece  of  hard  steel,  punctured  with  holes  correspond¬ 
ing  to  the  various  sizes  or  “  numbers/7  to  which  wire  for  different 
purposes  is  drawn.  The  French  draw-plates,  which  are  considered 
the  best,  are  made  with  the  greatest  care  in  tempering  and  ham¬ 
mering  of  a  combined  plate  of  wrought  iron  and  steel,  the  steel 
face  being  on  the  side  from  which  the  wire  comes  through.  The 
holes  punched  in  the  plate  are  tapering,  with  the  smallest  orifice 
on  the  steel  side  ;  the  reduction  of  size  in  the  series  is  very  grad¬ 
ual,  and  when  the  holes  are  worn  by  use,  the  plate  can  be  heated, 
hammered,  tempered,  and  re-punched.  The  wire,  whether  iron, 
brass,  or  copper,  is  annealed  and  drawn  cold.  The  machinery, 
which  is  simple,  consists  of  a  draw-bench,  which  takes  the  wire 
from  a  reel  to  the  first  hole  in  the  draw-plate,  through  which  it 
passes  to  another  reel  or  drum,  on  which  it  is  wound  ready  to  go 


WIRE-DRAWING. 


421 


through  the  second  orifice  ;  and  so  on  down  the  series  to  the  re¬ 
quired  size.  As  the  wire  is  drawn  down,  it  becomes  less  ductile 
and  more  brittle,  and  must  be  annealed  and  cooled  before  it  is  fur¬ 
ther  drawn.  Grease,  and  for  the  finer  sizes,  wax  is  used  for 
lubricating  during  the  process.  There  is  a  process  also  for  cover¬ 
ing  brass  wire  with  a  thin  film  of  copper,  which  greatly  facilitates 
the  process  of  drawing,  while  the  copper  can  wholly  be  removed 
in  the  last  annealing.  In  annealing  steel  wire  during  the  drawing, 
its  carbon  is  retained  by  covering  it  with  charcoal  dust  in  the  an¬ 
nealing  oven. 

The  rapidity  of  drawing  depends  upon  the  ductility  of  the  metal 
and  the  size  of  the  wire.  Of  the  wire  in  common  use,  copper  is 
the^  most  ductile,  then  steel,  next  iron,  brass,  and  zinc.  Gold, 
platinum,  and  silver  are  far  more  ductile,  and  are  capable  of  being 
drawn  to  greater  length  and  fineness.  The  speed  may  be  increased 
as  the  wire  is  attenuated  ;  iron  and  brass,  according  to  size,  are 
drawn  twelve  inches  per  second  to  forty-five  inches  per  second, 
and  the  finer  numbers  of  silver  and  copper  may  be  drawn  at  the 
rate  of  sixty  or  seventy  inches  per  second. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  process  of  drawing  wire  is  quite  simple,- 
and  gauges  have  been  adopted  which  uniformly  measure  all  the 
sizes,  or'  numbers,  of  merchantable  wire  wherever  made.  The 
draw-plates  can  be  punched  so  as  to  draw  oval  or  other  shaped 
wires,  and  the  ridged  “  pinion  wire  ”  used  in  timepieces.  For 
drawing  very  fine  wire,  where  the  extremest  uniformity  is  requisite 
for  any  length,  plates  are  prepared  with  perforated  rubies  or  other 
hard  stones,  and  through  one  of  these  silver  wire  has  been  run 
one  hundred  and  seventy  miles  in  length,  in  which  the  most  deli¬ 
cate  test  could  detect  no  difference  in  diameter  in  any  part.  Gold 
and  platinum  have  been  drawn  to  the  “  spider  line  ”  for  the  field  of 
a  telescope,  by  coating  the  metal  with  silver,  drawing  it  down  to 
the  finest  number,  and  then  removing  the  coating  by  acid,  leaving 
the  almost  imperceptible,  but  perfect,  interior  wire,  which,  in  the 
case  of  platinum,  —  in  an  experiment  made  by  Dr.  Wollaston,  of 
London,  — is  said  to  have  been  so  attenuated  that  a  mile’s  length 
weighed  oidy  a  grain.  In  drawing  ordinary  wire,  as  the  diameter 
diminishes  one-half,  one-third,  one-fourth,  etc.,  the  length  in¬ 
creases  four,  nine,  sixteen,  etc.,  times. 


STARCH. 


SOURCES  FOR  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  STARCH.  —  STARCH  IN  QUEEN  ELIZABETH’S 
DAY.  —  BEAU  BRUMMELL’S  CRAVATS.  —  DEMAND  FOR  STARCH.  —  COTTON- 
PRINTING  ESTABLISHMENTS.  —  LAUNDRIES.  —  EDIBLE  STARCH.  —  PATENT  FOR 
POTATO  STARCH.  —  PROPORTION  IN  VARIOUS  GRAINS.  — WHITE  FLINT  CORN. 
—  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTORIES  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES.  — HOW  STARCH  IS  MADE  FROM  COEN.  —  THE  AMOUNT  PRODUCED.  — 
USES  FOR  THE  GLUTEN.  —  LUMBER  FOR  PACKING-BOXES. 


Starch  plays  an  important  part  in  the  economy  of  Nature.  It 
is  found  in  greater  or  less  quantity  in  all  the  cereals  —  very  pure 
in  rice,  barley,  and  Indian  corn,  and  associated  with  gluten,  muci¬ 
lage,  and  saccharine  matter  in  wheat,  potatoes,  peas,  beans,  oats, 
etc.  It  can  be  extracted  from  horse-chestnuts  ;  and  every  farmer’s 
wife  knows  how  to  make  starch,  if  necessary,  from  wheat  flour 
and  potatoes,  by  simply  kneading  them  through  a  sieve  wdtli  cold 
water,  the  settlings  of  the  milky  fluid  which  flows  through  the 
strainer  being  starch. 

Yet  this  article,,  so  necessary  to  cotton  manufactories,  laundries, 
and  to  every  household,  that  the  daily  consumption  in  the  United 
States  alone  is  estimated  at  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  was 
scarcely  known  till  the  Elizabethan  era,  when  a  very  inferior  qual¬ 
ity  was  used  to  starch  the  ruffs  then  worn.  Beau  Brummell  was 
famous  in  London  for  his  stiffened  cravats,  and  long  kept  the  secret 
of  starch,  as  applied  to  that  article  of  wear.  But  what  was  then 
an  article  of  luxury  and  fashion  for  a  fastidious  exquisite  is  now 
everywhere  an  indispensable  necessity. 

During  the  last  century  starch  was  used  in  England  in  printing 
cotton  with  colors,  in  stiffening  linen,  and  in  making  hair  powder ; 
and  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  it  became  an 
important  branch  of  manufacture  in  that  country.  The  cotton 
mills  at  Manchester  and  elsewhere  demanded  enormous  quantities, 
single  establishments  using  more  than  three  hundred  tons  in  a 

year.  The  grains  and  vegetables  commonly  used  in  England  ai?d 
(422) 


STAnCH. 


423 


L  "  ■  »  f-  •  <r  .  ^  • 

on  the  continent  for  the  manufacture  of  starch  are  wheat,  barley, 
rice,  and  potatoes,  and  in  France,  in  addition  to  these,  horse-chest¬ 
nuts.  Abroad,  as  in  this  country,  large  amounts  of  edible  starch 
are  made,  as  well  as  starch  for  manufacturing  and  laundry  pur¬ 
poses. 

In  1802  John  Biddis,  of  Pennsylvania,  secured  in  this  country  a 
patent  for  making  potato-starch,  and  manufactories  of  this  kind 
are  in  operation  in  several  states,  particularly  at  or  near  places 
where  cotton  goods  are  printed.  Potatoes  yield  eight  pounds  of 
pure  starch  to  the  bushel,  and  the  potato-starch  manufactories, 
which  are  generally  much  smaller  than  those  engaged  in  corn¬ 
starch  manufacture,  will  use  from  fifteen  thousand  to  thirty  thou¬ 
sand  bushels  of  potatoes  in  a  year.. 

The  proportion  of  starch  in  grains  is  nearly  as  follows :  In 
buckwheat,  forty-four  to  fifty-two  per  cent. ;  barley,  sixty  to  sixty- 
eight  ;  rye,  sixty  to  sixty -five  ;  wheat,  thirty-five  to  seventy-seven  ; 
Indian  corn,  sixty-five  to  eighty,  which  is  next  to  rice,  which  con¬ 
tains  from  seventy-five  to  eighty-seven  per  cent.  It  will  thus  be 
seen  that  in  the  United  States,  the  natural  home  of  maize,  Indian 
corn  is  the  most  desirable  for  starch  manufacture,  and  large  quan¬ 
tities  of  the  white  flint  variety  are  raised  expressly  for  the  purpose. 

In  making  starch  from  wheat  the  flour  is  kneaded  with  water, 
and  washed  through  a  fine  wire  sieve,  after  which  the  fluid,  with 
the  addition  of  a  little  yeast,  is  fermented.  .  This  process  separates 
the  gluten  from  the  starch,  and  the  gluten  may  be  used  with  fresh 
flour  to  make  macaroni  and  vermicelli,  or  may  be  mixed  with  pota¬ 
toes  into  a  wholesome  bread.  Another  process,  first  applied  to 
starch-making  from  rice,  but  equally  applicable  to  other  grains,  is 
to  mash  the  rice  in  a  weak  alkaline  solution,  and  then  add  a 
gallon  of  water  and  two  hundred  grains  of  potash  to  every  two 
pounds  of  rice.  In  twenty-four  hours  the  liquid  is  drawn  off,  the 
rice  is  washed,  drained,  and  ground,  fresh  lye  is  added,  and  the 
mixture  is  allowed  to  stand,  with  frequent  stirrings,  twenty-four 
hours  longer.  In  the  course  of  seventy  hours  afterwards  the 
gluten  rises,  and  is  taken  off,  leaving  the  starch  and  fibrous  part 
of  the  grain.  This  deposit  is  washed  with  cold  water,  and  is  thei&- 
•left  for  the  fibrous  portion  to  settle,  when  the  clear  starch  is  drawn 
off  and  dried. 

Of  the  corn-starch  manufactories,  there  are  two  very  large  ones 
in  the  United  States,  one  at  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  and  the  other  at  Glen 
Cove,  L.  I.  They  use  the  best  kinds  of  white  flint  corn,  brought 


424 


STARCH. 


to  the  works  and  ground  on  the  premises.  It  is  conveyed  to  the 
mills  through  troughs  filled  with  water,  and  the  mixed  meal  and 
water  go  through  other  troughs  to  the  tubs,  where  the  separa¬ 
tion  of  the  starch  is  effected.  The  starch  fluid  then  goes  to  large 
vats  for  the  partial  removal  of  the  water,  then  into  smaller  tubs 
for  further  draining  ;  the  starch  is  next  placed  in  mass  on  brick 
shelves,  where  absorption  and  evaporation  further  dry  it ;  and  kiln- 
drying  and  packing  complete  the  process.  The  vats  for  purifying 
hold  millions  of  gallons,  and  powerful  steam  engines  drive  the 
mills  and  machinery. 

The  white  flint  corn  will  give  about  twenty-three  pounds  of 
starch  to  the  bushel.  The  gluten  is  saved  for  feeding  to  hogs, 
horses,  and  cattle.  The  careful  process  of  manufacture  in  the 
large  establishments,  and  especial  watchfulness  in  the  fermenting, 
result  in  the  production  of  a  clear,  white  and  strong  starch,  en¬ 
tirely  free  from  sourness.  These  establishments  each  produce 
from  twenty  to  thirty  tons  of  starch  per  day.  There  are  numer¬ 
ous  smaller  establishments  throughout  the  country,  which  manu¬ 
facture  starch  for  various  dessert  and  invalid  preparations,  as 
well  as  for  laundries,  and  the  “  farina  ”  and  “maizena”  business  is 
also  carried  on  in  the  great  manufactories.  It  is  believed  that  the 
manufactories  at  Oswego  and  Glen  Cove  each  produce  more  starch 
in  a  year  than  any  similar  establishments  in  Europe,  and  both  con¬ 
sume  annually  millions  of  feet  of  lumber,  generally  basswood,  for 
making  the  boxes  in  which  the  starch  is  packed. 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


THE  TENDENCY  OF  CIVILIZATION.  —  MAN’S  PHYSICAL  AND  MORAL  POSITION  IN 
NATURE. —  THE  CURE  OF  WOUNDS  AMONG  SAVAGES. —  SURGERY  AMONG  THE 
EGYPTIANS.  —  THE  TESTIMONY  OF  HERODOTUS.  —  SURGERY  AMONG  THE 
GREEKS.  — AMONG  THE  ROMANS.  — THE  USE  OF  DISSECTION  IN  THE  STUDY 
OF  ANATOMY. —  SURGERY  AMONG  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS.  — THE  REVIVAL 
OF  SURGERY.  — SURGERY  IN  AMERICA.  —  THE  CORK  LEG.  — THE  ARTIFICIAL 
LIMBS  OF  MODERN  TIMES. — THE  KNOWLEDGE  GAINED  BY  EXPERIMENT. — 
THE  UNION  ARTIFICIAL  LIMB  COMPANY  OF  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. 

In  the  increasing  progress  of  civilization,  the  tendency  of  which 
is  to  secure  for  mankind  better  conditions  for  comfort,  heal th,  and 
the  development  of  all  the  complex  human  faculties,  there  is  no 
special  department  the  advance  in  which  presents  a  more  satis¬ 
factory  record  than  surgery  and  the  modern  inventions  which 
are  allied  to  it,  and  designed  to  remedy,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
injuries  which,  of  necessity,  surgery  produces. 

Physically,  as  morally,  man  stands  at  the  head  of  creation,  and 
in  his  physical  organization,  the  specialization  of  the  functions  of 
his  organs,  and  their  mutual  interdependence,  together  with  the 
importance  of  each  of  them  to  the  well-being  of  the  whole,  are  car¬ 
ried  to  the  farthest  point.  In  the  lowest  form  of  animal  life,  the 
zoophytes,  which  consist  merely  of  a  sack  for  receiving  food,  if  an 
individual  is  turned  inside  out  he  continues  to  live,  and  his  new 
stomach  performs  its  operations  with  apparently  equal  ease.  The 
hydra  has  been  divided  into  numerous  parts,  with  the  only  effect 
of  making  as  many  separate  animals  as  parts  into  which  the  single 
individual  has  been  divided.  Many  varieties  of  worms  may  be 
divided  in  the  same  way,  each  of  the  parts  becoming  soon  as 
perfect  an  animal  as  the*  original  specimen.  Crabs  and  other 
kinds  of  shell-fish,  with  many  insects,  reproduce  the  legs  they 
lose;  but,  though  this  power  of  healing  injuries  is  possessed  in 

(425) 


5 


426 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


kind  by  the  higher  animals,  yet  they  possess  it  in  a  diminished 
degree,  according  to  the  increasing  perfection  of  their  organiza¬ 
tion,  the  greater  specialization  of  their  organs,  and  the  greater 
interdependence  of  their  parts. 

In  many  of  the  savage  tribes,  who  lead  hardy  lives,  living  upon 
simple  food  and  taking  constantly  vigorous  exercise,  very  severe 
wounds  are  cured  by  simple  natural  processes,  so  as  hardly  to 
leave  a  scar.  Nor  are  similar  instances  unknown  in  civilization, 
where  the  individual,  by  the  same  course  of  life,  has  possessed  the 
same  degree  of  health. 

But,  unlike  the  crab,  the  human  body  cannot  replace,  by  a 
natural  process  of  growth,  a  leg  which  has  been  lost  by  accident. 
It  is  upon  the  superior  character  of  the  human  brain,  and  the  conse¬ 
quent  ingenuity  and  invention  of  the  race,  that  man  has  to  depend 
for  the  means  of  supplying  the  loss  of  any  such  important  organ 
in  his  animal  economy ;  and  for  the  success  already  attained  in 
this  branch  of  industry  the  present  generation  may  well  congratu¬ 
late  themselves. 

The  practice  of  surgery  was  early  established  among  the 
Egyptians,  and  among  them  was  a  privilege  of  the  priests.  The 
custom  of  embalming  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  in  which  process 
they  were  opened,  gave  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with 
its  constitution.  On  the  ruins  of  Thebes,  according  to  the 
authority  of  Kenrick,  in  his  Ancient  Egyptians  under  the  Pharaohs, 
“  basso-relievos  have  been  found  displaying  surgical  operations 
and  instruments  not  far  different  from  some  in  use  in  modern 
times.  ” 

Herodotus,  who  visited  Egypt  during  the  fourth  century  before 
the  Christian  era,  lias  left  us,  in  his  account  of  that  country,  a 
description  of  many  of  their  manners  and  customs.  In  this  work 
he  speaks  of  many  of  their  surgical  operations,  and  makes  men¬ 
tion  of  their  appliances.  From  this  some  writers  have  supposed 
that  he  describes  their  use  of  artificial  limbs.  Though  it  is  most 
probable  that  the  Egyptians  made  no  use  of  such  artificial  limbs 
as  have  been  introduced  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years,  yet 
it  is  quite  probable  that  they  invented  and  used  some  appliances 
which  would  enable  a  person  who  had  lost  a  leg,  for  example,  to 
walk  about  with  more  or  less  facility.  For  a  people  who  had 
arrived  at  sufficient  surgical  knowledge  to  cut  off  a  leg,  the  con¬ 
ception  would  not  be  difficult  of  supplying  it  with  something  like 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


427 

a  wooden  stump,  or  else  with  crutches,  by  which  locomotion 
would  be  possible. 

But,  in  common  with  all  the  nations  of  antiquity,  the  Egyptians, 
as  far  as  our  information  of  them  goes,  knew  nothing  scientifically 
concerning  the  construction  of  the  human  body.  They  were 
debarred  this  knowledge  by  the  fact  that  religious  scruples  forbade 
the  dissection  of  the  body ;  and  thus,  though  they  had  a  general 
conception  of  the  various  parts  of  the  body,  and  of  its  internal 
arrangement,  yet  they  knew  nothing  of  the  relative  importance 
of  its  parts,  or  of  their  functions ;  and  their  surgical,  like  their 
medical  practice,  must  have  been  purely  empirical  and  experi¬ 
mental. 

The  Hebrews,  during  their  captivity  in  Egypt,  probably  obtained 
some  ideas  concerning  surgery ;  but,  even  at  a  late  period  in  their 
history,  they  had  greater  confidence  in  the  skill  of  the  priests  of 
Phoenicia,  who  were  also  surgeons,  than  in  their  own,  for  the 
treatment  of  wounds  and  fractures.  In  2  Kings  1,  2,  Ahaziah, 
wounded  by  a  fall,  sent  to  consult  the  priests  of  Baal-zebub 
whether  he  should  recover.  Other  instances  can  be  found  in  the 
same  book,  which  show  that  the  surgical  knowledge  of  the 
Hebrews  was  very  slight. 

•  The  Greeks  early  obtained  a  knowledge  of  surgery  from  the 
Egyptians,  and,  with  their  inquiring  disposition  of  mind,  added  to 
it  by  inventions  of  their  own.  iEsculapius  acquired,  in  the 
mythical  period  of  Grecian  history,  such  a  reputation  for  his  skill 
in  surgery,  that  he  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  demigod  ;  had 
temples  built  in  his  honor,  and  was  fabled  to  be  the  son  of  Apollo. 
Homer,  in  his  poems,  speaks  of  his  two  sons,  Podalirius  and 
Machaon,  as  companions  of  Agamemnon  during  the  Trojan  war, 
who  rendered  great  service  to  the  Greeks  in  dressing  their 
wounds.  The  first  of  these  he  praises  for  his  skill  in  blood¬ 
letting,  and  the  second  for  his  skill  in  dressing  wounds.  Despite, 
however,  the  presence  of  these  divinely  descended  surgeons,  it 
would  appear  from  Homer  that  fractured  limbs  were  considered 
beyond  their  art,  and  in  such  cases  the  poet  invokes  only  the  aid 
of  Apollo  himself,  making  no  mention  of  the  possibility  of  human 
aid  therein. 

For  centuries,  however,  among  the  Greeks  the  practice  of  sur¬ 
gery  was  retained  as  a  monopoly  in  the  family  of  the  descendants 
of  AEsculapius,  who  were  known  as  the  Asclepiades,  and  who  had 
schools  of  medicine  established  at  Rhodes,  Cnidus,  and  Cos. 


428 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


About  the  sixth  century  before  the  Christian  era,  Pythagoras 
established  at  Crotona  another  school  of  medicine.  One  of  his 
pupils,  Damocedes,  saved  his  life,  when  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Persians,  by  setting  a  dislocated  ankle  for  Darius  after  the  Egyp¬ 
tian  surgeons  had  failed  to  do  so.  The  next  distinguished  name 
in  the  annals  of  Grecian  surgery  is  Hippocrates.  To  perfect  his 
knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  the  human  body,  the  dissection  of 
which  was  forbidden,  he'  dissected  those  of  apes,  as  being  the  ani¬ 
mals  most  nearly  approaching  the  human  form. 

In  the  third  century  before  the  Christian  era,  dissection  was  first 
introduced  in  the  school  at  Alexandria  which  was  founded  by 
Ptolemy  Soter.  The  surgeons  who  introduced  this  necessary 
appliance  for  the  study  of  anatomy  were  named  Herophilus  and 
Erasi stratus,  and  the  world  owes  much  to  the  knowledge  they 
thus  gained. 

In  ancient  Rome  the  first  great  name  we  meet  in  the  annals  of 
surgery  is  that  of  Celsus.  Among  the  subjects  spoken  of  in  his 
writings  we  find  the  process  of  tying  the  arteries,  when  they  were 
wounded,  with  remarks  upon  dislocations,  fractures,  and  amputa¬ 
tions  of  the  limbs.  Before  the  Christian  era  other  distinguished 
surgeons  appeared  in  Rome,  but  their  labors  were  not  devoted  to 
the  special  branch  which  occupies  us. 

With  the  advent  of  Christianity  surgery  degenerated.  Again, 
the  prejudice  in  the  popular  mind  against  the  use  of  dissection, 
operated  as  an  impassable  barrier  against  the  accurate  and  positive 
study  of  anatomy ;  while  a  new  and  perhaps  a  greater  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  surgical  progress  was  raised  by  the  superstitious  rev¬ 
erence  for  the  relics  of  saints,  with  which  the  spread  of  the  new 
religion  became  connected.  It  was  impossible  that  surgery,  or 
any  branch  of  positive  science,  should  be  pursued,  when  adoration 
at  the  shrine  of  the  supposititious  bones  of  some  hypothetical  saint 
was  universally  believed  to  be  the  most  efficacious  means  to  be 
found  for  curing  disease,  or  relieving  an  unfortunate  from  the  sad 
results  of  some  accident. 

The  first  writer  upon  surgery  who  appeared  in  the  first  five 
hundred  years  of  Christianity,  who  is  worthy  of  mention,  is 
Aetius,  who  lived  between  500  and  550.  His  writings  are  both 
numerous  and  valuable,  and  yet  he  urges  the  importance  and  the 
efficacy  of  charms  and  amulets  in  averting  or  curing  disease  or 
accidents. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  the  Arabian  surgeons 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


429 


in  Spain  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  Europe  by  their  skill 
and  learning  The  revival  of  Grecian  learning  began  among  them 
before  it  was  known  in  Middle  Europe.  Rhazes,  Avicenna,  Albu- 
casis,  who  invented  the  probang,  Avenzoar,  who  flourished  be¬ 
tween  852  and  1100,  are  the  chief  names  of  those  who  acquired 
the  most  distinction  while  the  dark  ages  still  buried  Europe  in 
ignorance. 

During  this  time  the  practice  of  surgery  in  Europe  had,  by 
degrees,  fallen  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  priests,  who 
were  the  only  persons  in  the  dense  night  of  superstition  who  had 
some  little  knowledge;  but,  by  the  edict  of  Tours,  in  1163,  the 
practice  of  surgery  was  forbidden  them,  since  it  was  supposed  to 
call  their  attention  away  from  the  more  important  subject  of  spir¬ 
itual  healing. 

For  the  next  two  centuries  or  so.  the  practice  of  surgery  degen¬ 
erated,  therefore,  chiefly  into  the  hands  of  the  barber  surgeons  of 
Europe.  At  the  hands  of  Andreas  Yesalius,  who  was  born  in 
Brussels  in  1514,  the  study  and  practice  of  surgery  received  the 
new  life,  and  commenced  the  course  of  vigorous  growth,  which 
lias  characterized  this  study  up  to  the  present  time.  From  his 
early  youth  his  attention  was  strongly  directed  to  anatomical 
studies,  and  he  revived  the  practice  of  dissection,  though  he  com¬ 
menced  it  against  all  the  prejudices  of  the  time,  and  in  face  of  the 
dangers  of  the  Inquisition. 

So  strongly,  in  his  own  nature,  did  the  modern  spirit  of  inquiry 
battle  with  the  restraining  superstition  he  had  inherited  from  the 
times  in  which  he  lived,  that,  it  is  said,  he  never  commenced  the 
dissection  of  a  subject  without  first  kneeling  in  earnest  prayer  to 
be  forgiven  for  such  a  crime. 

In  1543,  when  only  twenty -eight  years  old,  he  published  his 
great  work,  in  folio,  entitled  De  Corporis  Humani  Fabrica  —  the 
Fabric  of  the  Human  Body.  In  this  work,  which  opened  the 
modern  era  of  surgery,  he  took  persistent  and  strong  ground 
against  the  superstitious  reverence  for  antiquity  ;  and  so  admirable 
has  been  its  effect,  that  it  has  been  well  called  “the  discovery  of 
a  new  world, ”  and  “an  immortal  work,  by  which  all  that  had 
been  written  before  was  almost  superseded.” 

The  world  was  ripe  for  the  new  era,  and  about  the  same  time 
Fallopius  and  Eustachius,  with,  soon  after,  Pard,  in  France, 
appeared  to  take  part  in  the  great  work  of  establishing  surgery 
upon  the  positive  and  scientific  basis  of  dissection.  To  the  last 


430 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


of  these  belongs  the  honor  of  having  revived  the  process  of  tying 
the  arteries  after  amputation.  Up  to  this  time,  during  the  middle 
ages,  the  stoppage  of  the  blood  was  produced  by  cauterization 
with  a  hot  iron,  and  the  application  of  tar,  or  boiling  oil.  In 
many  cases  the  severing  of  .  the  limb  was  performed  with  a  red-hot 
knife,  in  order  to  cauterize  the  flesh  as  soon  as  the  cut  was  made. 
This  method  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  cruelty  of  the  methods  then 
employed  in  all  the  operations  of  surgery.  It  would  seem  almost 
as  though  it  was  thought  that  the  more  the  patient  was  made  to 
suffer,  the  greater  the  credit  which  belonged  to  the  operator. 

During  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  many  distin¬ 
guished  surgeons  flourished  in  Europe.  The  simple  mention  of 
their  names  would  occupy  too  much  room  here  ;  but  the  tendency 
of  the  practice  of  surgery  began  to  be  turned  towards  the 
methods  of  alleviating  suffering ;  and,  towards  the  beginning  of 
this  century #  conservative  surgery,  or  the  theory  of  preserving,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  injured  parts,  began  to  replace  “  heroic  sur¬ 
gery/7  or  the  too  prompt  use  of  the  knife.  To  the  American 
surgeons  belongs  the  chief  credit  for  the  inauguration  of  this  new 
method,  and  many  of  its  processes  are  peculiarly  our  own. 

In  the  United  States,  before  the  Revolutionary  War,  our  sur¬ 
gery  was  only  a  reflex  of  that  of  the  mother  country.  The  exi¬ 
gencies  of  that  struggle,  however,  developed  the  talent  which  had 
before  been  lying  hidden  for  want  of  an  opportunity  ;  and  since 
that  time  American  surgery  has  had  an  independent  growth,  and 
been  recognized  throughout  the  civilized  world  for  its  contribu¬ 
tions  to  the  knowledge,  and  the  appliances  for  lessening  the  dan¬ 
gers  and  the  sufferings,  of  disease  and  accident. 

Among  the  numerous  improved  methods  and  discoveries  which 
the  world  owes  to  the  invention  of  American  surgeons,  the  use 
of  chloroform  and  other  anaesthetics,  and  of  artificial  limbs,  are, 
perhaps,  the  most  noteworthy.  The  present  perfection  of  these 
last  is  due  entirely  to  American  genius.  From  the  times  of 
Herodotus  to  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  unfortunate 
patient  who  had  lost  a  leg  would  find  in  the  whole  world  no  appli¬ 
ance  to  replace  it  but  a  wooden  stump  and  crutches. 

The  idea  that  it  was  possible  to  replace  these  clumsy  and  inade¬ 
quate  means  of  locomotion  with  an  artificial  leg,  which  would 
enable  the  owner  to  walk,  dance,  run,  skate,  or  do  anything  with 
one  or  even  with  two  artificial  legs  which  he  could  do  with  his 
natural  ones,  even  as  late  as  fifty  years  ago,  appeared  to  be  the 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


4T 


absurdest  visionary  dream  —  an  attempt  to  realize  the  poetic  vision 
of  the  famous  “  cork  leg,”  which  formed  the  basis  of  the  song 
concerning  the  fate  of  Mynheer  Van  Flam,  “  the  richest  merchant 
in  Rotterdam,”  who,  having  lost  his  leg,  had  it  replaced  by  an 
artist  who 

“  had  made  cork  legs  his  study  and  theme  : 

Each  joint  was  as  strong  as  an  iron  beam, 

And  the  springs  were  a  compound  of  clockwork  and  steam.” 

Having  tried  on  his  leg,  however,  it  ran  away  with  the  unfor¬ 
tunate  merchant ;  and,  though  he  tried  in  every  way  to  stop, 
and  even 

“flung  himself  down  to  stop  its  pace, 

But  the  leg  got  up  and  continued  the  race.” 

So  that  to  this  day,  as  the  song  informs  us,  he  is  still  dragged 
unwillingly  in  his  journey  over  the  world. 

It  would  seem  that  the  poets  who  have  sung  the  artificial  leg 
had  lost  the  original  prophetic  character  of  their  profession,  since 
not  only  in  this  ballad,  but  in  Hood’s  story  of  Miss  Kilmansegg 
and  her  Golden  Leg,  the  new  limb  proved  the  death  of  its  pos¬ 
sessor,  Miss  Kilmansegg  having  had  her  brains  dashed  out  with 
her  leg  by  a  burglar  who  was  attracted  by  the  solid  gold  of  which 
it  was  composed. 

The  history  of  the  improvements  in  artificial  limbs  belongs 
entirely  to  this  century.  The  first  were  made  of  cork.  Though 
the  first  contained  many  improvements  upon  the  old  “peg  leg,” 
or  wooden  stump,  yet  they  were  far  from  perfect. 

The  number  of  men  wounded  in  the  late  civil  war,  and  the 
generous  policy  of  the  government  towards  them,  so  increased 
the  demand  for  artificial  limbs  that  numerous  inventions  were 
patented  in  this  direction.  The  materials  used  in  these  various 
inventions  have  been  wood,  leather,  sheet  iron,  tin,  zinc,  raw  hide, 
rubber,  and  a  combination  of  these,  with  other  materials,  the  com¬ 
positions  of  which  are  the  inventors’  secret.  The  combinations  of 
these  various  legs  have  been  intended  to  secure  ease  and  security  in 
the  motions,  and  to  imitate  those  of  nature  as  closely  as  possible  ; 
but,  as  is  usual  in  all  inventions,  the  first  methods  used  for  this  pur¬ 
pose  have  been  clumsy,  and,  on  trial,  have  been  found  imperfect. 

It  is  only  thus  by  experiment  and  observation  that  the  knowl¬ 
edge  can  be  gained  of  what  are  the  requirements  in  such  cases. 


432 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


and  what  means  shall  be  taken  to  make  an  article  which  shall  be 
perfect  in  all  respects —  strong  enough  without  being  too  heavy  ; 
so  articulated  as  to  work  easily,  and,  in  its  natural  movements, 
imitate  the  action  of  walking  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  its  mo¬ 
tions  arc  secured  by  a  mechanism  which  will  not  wear  out  easily, 
but  will  be  permanent. 

In  the  artificial  legs  made  by  the  Union  Artificial  Limb  Com¬ 
pany  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  these  qualities  are  so  admirably  attained 
by  simplicity  of  arrangement,  that  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
they  are  perfect.  The  annexed  engravings  will  illustrate  the  pecu¬ 
liar  advantages  claimed  by  the  artificial  limbs  of  this  company,  and 
the  simple  but  effective  methods  they  use  to  attain  them. 


No.  I.  No  2. 


In  the  first  place,  by  the  use  of  Manilla  paper  as  the  material 
used  in  their  manufacture,  great  strength  is  obtained  with  great 
lightness.  (No.  1.)  This  company  has  often  replaced  legs  of  other 
material,  weighing  eight  pounds,  by  one  of  their  own  weighing  but 
little  over  two  pounds.  The  importance  of  lightness  in  an  arti¬ 
ficial  limb  has  been  so  uniformly  proved  by  experience  as  to  be 
now  unquestionable.  At  first  it  was  naturally  supposed  that  the 
limb  might  approximate  in  weight  the  natural  member  which  it 
replaced ;  but  this  has  been  found  to  be  a  great  mistake. 


artificial  limbs. 


433 


Then,  too,  the  construction  of  these  legs  is  such  that  the 
weight  of  the  body  is  brought  directly  to  the  ground  through  the 
heel,  without  the  intervention  of  an  ankle  joint ;  imitating  na¬ 
ture  in  this  respect,  and  securing  the  advantage  which  the  old 
wooden  leg  had  over  all  the  methods  prior  to  this  invention. 
Its  mechanism  for  the  knee  and  ankle  joints  (No.  2.)  is  also  the 
simplest,  using  no  metallic  bars,  bolts,  or  springs,  so  liable  to 
become  worn  or  broken  by  use.  The  knee  joint  works  auto¬ 
matically,  by  a  rubber  spring  working  over  a  pulley,  and,  as  will 
be  seen  from  the  sectional  view,  bringing  the  leg  and  foot  into  a 
natural  position  in  walking,  without  any  muscular  strain  upon  the 


No.  3. 


No.  4. 


rest  of  the  leg.  The  ankle  joint  works  upon  a  new  principle, 
giving  the  foot  a  rolling  motion  (No.  3.),  like  that  of  nature, 
so  as  to  avoid  the  clapping  sound,  generally  made  in  other  legs, 
when  the  foot  touches  the  ground. 

The  material  of  the  leg  is  so  manufactured  as  to  be  tough  as 
horn,  and  entirely  impervious  to  moisture,  and  insensible  to  the 
differences  of  temperature.  As  the  leg  is  moulded  upon  a  cast 
taken  from  the  stump,  it  fits  with  perfect  accuracy,  and  avoids 
the  irritation  which  is  frequently  so  objectionable  from  legs  which 
do  not  fit  perfectly.  (No.  4.)  The  uniform  testimony  from  those 
who  have  used  the  legs  made  by  the  Union  Artificial  Limb 


25 


434 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


Company,  replacing  with  them,  in  numerous  cases,  the  limbs  of 
other  manufacture,  proves  conclusively  that,  for  use,  these  legs 
are  as  near  as  possible  a  perfect  substitution  for  nature’s  handi¬ 
work;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  congratulation  that  invention,  guided 
by  science,  should  have  done  so  much  to  alleviate  the  loss  by 
accident  of  so  important  a  part  of  the  body. 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 

THE  LOVE  OF  PERSONAL  DECORATION.  —  INSTANCES  OF  IT  IN  THE  ANIMAL 
CREATION.  — MAN  SHARES  IT  WITH  THE  ANIMALS.  — THE  THEORY  OF  NATU¬ 
RAL  SELECTION.  — THE  PHILOSOPHIC  VIEW  OF  PERSONAL  DECORATION. — 
THE  JEWELRY  OF  EARLY  NATIONS.  —  THE  SAVAGE  TRIBES  OF  TO-DAY.  — 
DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD  JEWELRY.  — JEWELRY  IN  HISTORY.  —  IN  MOD¬ 
ERN  TIMES.  —  THE  AMOUNT  USED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  PROVIDENCE 
THE  SEAT  OF  THIS  BUSINESS.  — THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  INCREASE  OF  PRO¬ 
DUCTION.  —  THE  METHODS  OF  MODERN  MANUFACTURE.  —  M.  T.  QUIMBY  AND 
CO.  —  HISTORY  OF  THEIR  SUCCESS.  —  THE  MORAL  EFFECTS  OF  JEWELRY. 

The  love  of  personal  decoration  is  a  sentiment  which  man 
shares  with  the  animals,  as  a  record  of  his  connection  with  them 
m  the  chain  of  creation,  which  binds  all  organized  being  into  one 
consistent  whole.  In  modern  times,  the  naturalists  of  the  Dar¬ 
winian  school  have  first,  in  the  history  of  natural  science,  turned 
their  attention  to  the  effects  of  the  various  brilliant  decorations 
of  animals  upon  their  success  in  the  “  struggle  for  life,”  and  have 
already  arrived  at  most  valuable  conclusions  concerning  it. 

There  is  no  longer  any  question  that  animals  are  sensible  to  the 
charms,  not  only  of  their  brilliant  natural  colors,  but  that,  also, 
many  of  them  in  a  condition  of  domestication  are  equally  delighted 
with  artificial  decorations.  Elephants  have  been  known  to  take 
great  pleasure  in  having  the  points  of  their  tusks  ornamented 
with  gilt  metallic  balls,  and  to  be  envious  of  others  who  surpassed 
them  in  this  respect. 

Numerous  other  instances  of  the  delight  animals  take  in  artifi¬ 
cial  decoration  can  be  found  in  the  works  of  modern  writers  upon 
natural  history,  or  must  have  been  observed  by  those  who  are 
interested  in  observing  the  habits  of  animals. 

The  theory  of  natural  selection,  which  is  one  of  the  best  contri¬ 
butions  of  the  modern  spirit  of  investigation  to  the  science  of 

(435) 

I 

fill 


436 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


natural  history,  has  opened  an  entirely  new  field  of  inquiry  con¬ 
cerning  the  causes  for  the  brilliancy  of  the  plumage  of  birds,  the 
contrasting  colors  of  animals,  and  their  possession  of  various  spe¬ 
cies  of  organs  which  appear  to  have  no  further  use  in  their  animal 
economy  than  to  serve  as  decorations. 

Although,  too,  this  branch  of  inquiry  is  of  such  very  recent 
date,  yet  the  results  it  has  already  gained  by  observation  go  far 
towards  affording  a  scientific  basis  for  a  philosophical  comprehen¬ 
sion  of  the  physical  reasons  for  this  inherent  love  of  personal 
decoration,  which  mankind  shares  equally  with  the  animals. 

In  support,  also,  of  this  view,  we  have  the  testimony  of  the 
relics  of  the  early  dwellers  on  the  earth,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
lake  cities  of  Europe,  and  the  remains  of  the  races  who  lived 
during  the  stone  age  of  human  society.  Of  all  these  pre-historic 
peoples,  the  only  records  which  have  come  down  to  us  are  their 
weapons  and  their  ornaments  ;  and  the  nearly  equal  proportions  of 
these  show  most  probably  that,  even  at  that  early  age,  their  in¬ 
herent  love  of  personal  decoration  asserted  itself  equally  with 
their  destructive  tendencies,  or  their  love  of  war. 

But  without  this  testimony,  in  the  world  of  to-day,  the  savage 
tribes  all  show  by  their  passion  for  ornaments,  that  personal 
decoration  is  one  of  the  first  developments  in  the  course  of  our 
social  evolution.  It  is  a  mistake,  therefore,  to  object  to  the  love 
of  jewelry,  though  it  is  sometimes  too  inordinately  displayed  in 
modern  times,  or  to  attempt  to  seek  a  remedy  for  it  by  utterly 
destroying  it.  It  is  founded  in  nature,  and,  like  all  natural  tenden¬ 
cies,  cannot  be  eradicated,  but  should,  by  judicious  appliances  of 
general  culture,  be  directed. 

It  is  nothing  against  some  of  the  ornaments  worn  at  present,  by 
ladies  of  fashion,  that  they  resemble  those  worn  by  their  barbarian 
ancestors.  Those  who  use  them  are  not  necessarily  barbarians  ; 
but  the  fact  only  shows  that  the  love  of  ornament  is  inherent  in 
human  nature,  while  its  manifestations  take  on  the  various  phases 
of  the  increased  culture  of  the  time. 

A  lady  who  wears  bracelets  and  ear-rings  would  be  shocked  by 
the  suggestion  that  she  should  add  to  her  attractions  by  wearing 
also  a  nose-ring,  a  lip-ring,  or  anklets  ;  or  that  she  should  tattoo 
her  face  in  fanciful  patterns  with  brilliantly-colored  dyes.  Yet 
many  of  her  contemporary  sisters  still  use  all  these  appliances  of 
decoration,  and  from  the  same  natural  and  inherent  tendency  for 
decoration,  based  upon  the  fact  that  our  nature  is  eminently  so- 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


437 


cial,  and  we,  all  of  us,  desire  to  stand  well  in  the  estimation  of 
our  fellow-men. 

In  fact,  in  the  very  word  jewelry  we  have  made  an  unconscious 
vindication  of  its  use.  It  is  derived  from  the  word  jewel,  meaning 
a  precious  stone,  or  an  ornament  in  which  precious  stones  are 
used,  and,  with  the  Italian  giojello ,  the  French  joyau,  the  German 
juwel,  and  similar  terms  in  other  European  languages,  is  allied 
with  the  root  of  the  Latin  word  gaudium,  joy,  and  was  an  instinc¬ 
tive  expression  of  the  pleasure  naturally  excited  by  the  sight  and 
use  of  jewels. 

In  the  various  museums  of  Europe  and  this  country,  the  collec¬ 
tions  of  the  jewelry  of  various  nations  are  most  interesting  and 
instructive.  They  afford  the  data  for  the  study  of  the  customs  of 
nations  which  have  passed  away,  leaving  frequently  behind  them 
no  fuller  record  of  their  lives  than  such  as  is  contained  in  these 
collections  of  their  appliances  for  personal  decoration.  From  the 
polished  and  engraved  bones  worn  as  ornaments  by  the  dwellers 
of  the  lake  cities,  up  to  the  quaint  but  exquisitely  worked  golden 
jewels  of  the  Etruscans,  the  Romans,  and  the  Byzantians,  the 
gradual  growth  of  the  art  can  be  traced  step  by  step,  and  the  dif¬ 
ferent  national  characteristics  of  the  various  nations  can  be  studied 
as  accurately  as  in  their  architecture,  or  in  any  other  records  of 
their  culture  which  have  come  down  to  us. 

From  the  ruined  cities  of  the  East  immense  stores  of  jewelry 
and  trinkets  worn  by  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Babyloni¬ 
ans,  and  other  nations,  have  been  found,  and  are  now  carefully 
preserved.  From  these,  and  from  the  jewelry  of  India  and  China, 
it  is  evident  that  the  art  of  making  jewelry  was  one  of  the  first 
at  which  mankind  arrived,  and  that  the  taste  for  personal  decora¬ 
tion  is  a  universal  expression  of  human  existence. 

In  modern  times  the  improved  processes  of  the  arts,  arising 
from  the  application  of  science  to  their  methods,  and  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  the  use  of  machinery,  has  so  cheapened  and  increased  the 
production  of  jewelry  as  to  place  within  the  reach  of  every  one 
the  ability  to  gratify  his  taste  for  it. 

In  the  United  States  the  greater  equality  of  our  political  condi¬ 
tions,  together  with  the  freer  circulation  of  the  results  of  industry, 
and  the  activity  of  our  social  life,  has  led  to  the  almost  universal 
use  of  jewelry. 

By  the  report  of  the  census  of  1860,  there  was  produced  in  the 
country  jewelry  to  the  value  of  almost  eleven  millions  of  dollars. 


438 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


The  extent  to  which  this  has  increased  during  the  last  decade  jus¬ 
tifies  the  estimate  that,  with  the  importations  from  abroad,  there 
are  consumed  in  the  United  States  at  least  twenty  millions  of 
dollars’  worth  of  jewelry  a  year. 

The  chief  seat  of  this  industry  is  at  Providence,  R.  I.,  which 
early  assumed  this  position,  and  has  kept  it  ever  since.  By  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  a  periodic  enumeration  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Union  was  provided  for,  but,  in  the  first  of 
these,  made  in  1790,  there  was  no  record  made  of  the  various  in¬ 
dustries  of  the  country.  It  was  in  1810  that  the  first  report  upon 
the  manufactories  of  the  country  was  submitted  to  Congress,  and 
though  acknowledged  to  be  defective  and  incomplete,  yet  in  the 
census  of  this  year  the  jewelry  manufactory  of  Providence,  R.  I., 
is  stated  as  employing  about  one  hundred  workmen,  with  a  pro- 
duction  amounting  yearly  to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

From  this  point,  which  was  really  one  of  considerable  advance' 
ment  for  the  time,  this  industry  has  increased  until  the  jewelry 
trade  in  Providence  gives  constant  employment  to  nearly  twenty- 
five  hundred  men  and  women,  at  wages  varying  from  one  to  five 
.  dollars  a  day. 

The  chief  cause  for  this  increased  production  lies  in  the  improve¬ 
ment  of  the  processes,  and  the  application  of  machinery  to  them, 
‘by  which  the  cost  has  been  so  much  reduced  as  to  make  the  con¬ 
sumption  really  universal. 

One  of  the  chief  improvements  in  the  modern  manufacture  of 
jewelry  is  the  process  of  using  a  thin  covering  of  gold  in  the 
manufacture  of  various  articles,  instead  of  making  them  of  solid 
gold,  as  was  formerly  practised.  The  method  of  doing  this  is  as 
follows  :  — 

The  gold  of  the  required  fineness  is  rolled  out  into  a  thin  sheet, 
in  a  rolling-mill  similar  to  those  in  use  for  working  metals,  and  is 
then  placed  upon  a  sheet  of  a  composition  made  of  copper  and 
zinc,  the  proportions  of  which  are  varied  according  as  required, 
and  then  by  heat  the  gold  is  slightly  melted,  so  that  it  will  unite 
firmly  with  the  composition. 

The  two  plates  are  then  again  subjected  to  the  rolling  process, 
and  “  broken  down,”  as  the  phrase  is,  to  the  required  thickness. 
The  ductility  of  gold  is  such  that  it  may  be  rolled,  when  pure, 
into  leaves  measuring  in  thickness  the  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
thousandth  part  of  an  inch.  One  pennyweight  of  fine  gold  is  suffi¬ 
cient  to  work  into  plates  with  a  pound  of  composition.  As  the 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


439 


plates  may  be  reduced  for  practical  use  to  the  one  hundred  and 
forty-second  part  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  the  gold  is  reduced  to 
about  the  thousandth  part  of  an  inch.  A  plate  covered  with  this 
thickness  of  gold  will  not  tarnish,  but  will  remain  permanently 
bright,  and  will  stand  the  test  of  acids. 

Before  thus  rolling  out  the  plates,  the  bars  of  composition  are 
planed  by  machinery,  so  as  to  make  them  perfectly  true  and  clean, 
otherwise  the  gold  would  not  adhere  to  them.  Gold  of  twelve  or 
fourteen  carats  will  stain  a  little  under  the  influence  of  acids,  so 
that  for  the  best  work  that  which  is  purer  is  used. 

Gold  wire  for  various  uses  is  drawn  by  taking  a  “  stock  plate,’ ’ 
or  sheet,  plated  with  gold,  and  first  rolling  it  into  a  cylinder  by 
hand,  then  placing  it  into  a  machine  called  a  “  closing  machine,” 
by  which  it  is  carried  through  a  series  of  round  holes  in  a  steel 
plate,  diminishing  in  size,  until  it  is  made  of  the  required  fineness. 
The  gold  will  continue  on  the  outside,  and  thus  a  tube  covered 
with  it  is  produced  as  fine  as  desired. 

When  the  plated  plates  have  been  rolled,  they  are  annealed  by 
a  charcoal  fire,  remaining  in  it  for  eight  to  ten  minutes,  or  until 
they  are  heated  to  a  cherry  red.  Then  the  plates  are  polished,  on 
the  gold  side,  with  rottenstone  and  oil.  The  plates  are  then 
cleaned  with  naphtha  and  sawdust,  wiped  clean,  and  then  cut  into 
pieces  of  the  requisite  size. 

These  are  then  stamped  out  with  dies  into  the  shapes  required, 
according  to  the  special  articles  it  is  intended  to  make.  The  work 
then  is  given  to  the  “fillers,”  who  fill  up  the  “fronts”  with 
block-tin  and  lead.  This  process  is  rapidly  done,  the  filling  being 
melted  by  a  copper  bar,  and  dropped  into  the  fronts. 

The  work  then  passes  to  the  chasing  blocks,  which  are  of  wood, 
covered  with  a  cement  made  of  pitch,  red  lead,  and  black  rosin, 
which  affords  a  bearing  strong  enough,  and  yet  sufficiently  elastic, 
for  the  work. 

Here  the  work  is  chased  with  pointed,  steel  chasing  tools  of 
various  shapes,  which  are  worked  with  small  hammers.  Then  the 
work  is  again  heated  so  as  to  melt  the  filling  out  entirely,  and 
is  then  carried  to  a  “cutting  press,”  where  the  edges  are 
smoothed  off. 

These  “  fronts  ”  are  then  matched  into  the  “  backs,”  which 
have  been  prepared  by  machinery,  and  both  are  “trued”  on 
their  edges  by  an  emery  wheel.  The  fronts  and  backs  are  then 
soldered  together,  and  given  to  workmen  who  scrape  and  finish 


440 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


the  edges.  Then  they  are  polished,  and  pass  into  the  hands  of 
the  workmen  who  put  the  pins  on  the  breastpins,  bend  the  loops 
of  the  ear-rings,  or  do  whatever  else  may  be  needed. 

The  articles  are  then  washed  with  soap-suds  and  ammonia, 
naphtha,  or  alcohol,  and  dried  in  sawdust  from  box-wood,  this 
being  entirely  free  from  acid. 

Thus  prepared,  the  articles  are  then  arranged  on  cards,  ready 
to  be  sold. 

Shell  jewelry  is  made  from  tortoise  shell.  This  material  is  first 
soaked  for  forty-eight  hours  in  warm  water,  and  then  shaved,  cut 
into  pieces,  which  are  joined  together  until  the  requisite  thickness 
is  obtained,  and  then  carved  by  hand,  or  inlaid*  with  g*old.  In  this 
last  process  gold  wire  is  pressed  hot  into  the  shell  in  any  required 
pattern,  and  is  then  polished  with  “list  wheels, ”  made  of  layers 
of  carpet  stuff. 

When  thus  polished,  they  are  washed,  and  packed  for  sale. 

Jewelry  of  this  kind  is  also  made  with  artificial  stones  of  glass. 
Most  of  these  imitations  arc  imported  from  Europe. 

One  of  the  chief  expenses  of  the  manufacture  of  jewelry  by 
machinery  is  that  of  the  dies,  which  have  to  be  made  of  steel, 
at  great  cost,  and  frequently  renewed,  to  suit  the  changing  fashion 
of  the  times. 

The  representative  house  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  jewelry 
by  machinery  is  that  of  Messrs.  M.  T.  Quimby  &  Co.,  whose  fac¬ 
tory  is  located  at  26  Potter  street,  Providence,  R.  I.,  where  they 
furnish  employment  to  a  great  number  of  men  and  women,  the 
^nain  office  for  the  sale  of  their  products  being  at  14  Hanover 
Street,  Boston,  Mass.  They  have  also  a  branch  office  in  New 
York.  This  house  cannot  be  called  old,  since  the  business,  which 
owes  its  present  importance  chiefly  to  their  enterprise,  is  itself 
of  very  recent  date. 

Having  had  a  successful  experience  of  about  twelve  years  in 
the  jewelry  business,  Messrs.  Quimby  &  Co.  commenced,  in  1860, 
their  present  business  of  manufacturing  jewelry  by  machinery. 
From  the  first  their  invariable  rule  has  been  to  allow  none  of  their 
work  to  be  sold  for  anything  but  what  it  really  is,  and  a  strict  ad¬ 
herence  to  this  rule  has  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  thj 
well-known  reputation  of  their  wares. 

/Though  dealing  largely  in  pure  gold  jewelry,  and  manufacturing 
..  it ;  themselves,  yet  their  chief  business  is  making  plated  jewelry; 
and  they  have  established  the  reputation  of  making  the  best  of 
^this\which  can  be  found  in  the  markets  of  the  country. 


JEWELRY  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


441 


The  house  is  composed  of  Mr.  Munroe  T.  Quimby  and  Mr.  Lu- 
man  V.  Quimby,  who  are  natives  of  Vermont,  and  have  carried  into 
their  special  branch  of  manufacture  the  energy,  the  enterprise, 
and  the  probity  which  have  extended  the  good  reputation  and  influ¬ 
ence  of  Vermont  all  over  the  Union. 

Their  wares  consist  of  all  conceivable  ornaments  known  to  the 
jewelry  trade,  and  which  unite  decorative  and  artistic  value  with 
usefulness,  affording  to  thousands  the  opportunity  for  indul¬ 
ging  their  taste  for  personal  decoration,  who  would,  without 
their  aid,  have  been  forever  debarred  the  pleasure  and  the  cul¬ 
ture  which  come  naturally  from  the  gratification  of  our  tastes  and 
attractions. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  the  manufacturers  of  jewelry  are  enti¬ 
tled  to  creditable  consideration  in  any  enumeration  of  the  influences 
at  work  to  increase  the  morality  of  the  nation,  by  increasing  its 
culture,  in  the  only  way  that  this  can  be  effectually  done  —  by  en¬ 
larging  the  enjoyment  and  the  happiness  which  comes  from  the 
gratification  of  our  attractions. 

The  house  of  Messrs.  M.  T.  Quimby  &  Co.  imports  heavily  from 
all  grades  of  foreign  made  watches,  and  keeps  a  full  stock  of  all 
grades,  as  well  of  American  manufacture,  the  whole  being  ar¬ 
ranged  in  massive  iron  safes,  and  in  so  tasteful  and  business-like  a 
manner,  that  it  is  well  worth  the  time  of  one  who  has  never  been 
in  a  wholesale  jewelry  establishment,  to  visit  the  main  office  of  this 
house,  at  14  Hanover  street,  Boston,  where  his  taste  may  be  grati¬ 
fied,  as  well  as  his  fund  of  information  regarding  the  jewelry  trade 
be  enlarged. 


STOVES  AND  RANGES. 


THE  INFINITY  OF  PATTERNS.  — AMERICAN  INVENTIONS  AND  IMPROVEMENTS.  — 
DR.  FRANKLIN,  COUNT  RUMFORD,  AND  DR.  NOTT.  — FROM  THE  FIREPLACE  TO 
TIIE  GRATE.  —  FROM  THE  GRATE  TO  THE  STOVE.  —  THE  FRANKLIN  STOVE.  — 
ANTHRACITE  COAL.  —  DR.  NOTT’S  INVENTION.  —  DESIRABLE  POINTS  IN  A  PER¬ 
FECT  STOVE.  —  PARLOR  PATTERNS.  — HEATING  BY  STEAM  AND  HOT  AIR  FUR¬ 
NACES.  —  COOKING  STOVES  AND  RANGES.  —  VARIETY  IN  SIZES  AND  PATTERNS. 
—  STOVE  FURNITURE.  —  HOW  AND  WHERE  STOVES  ARE  MADE.  — IMPROVED 
RANGES.  — GAS  STOVES. 


It  may  be  assumed  that  the  ancient  brazier,  filled  with  live  coals 
and  set  in  the  middle  of  an  apartment,  —  a  method  of  warming 
which  ante-dated  the  fireplace  and  chimney,  —  was  at  least  a  hint 
for  the  manufacture  of  the  modern  stove.  For  the  stoVe,  whether 
for  warming  or  cooking,  is  comparatively  modern,  beginning  with 
the  huge  brickwork,  and  pottery,  and  sometimes  porcelain-faced 
stoves  of  a  century  or  two  ago  in  Northern  Europe,  and  in  use, 
without  essential  modifications  and  improvements,  in  Russia, 
France,  and  Germany  now.  But  with  a  vast  variety  of  stoves 
made  of  cast  and  sheet  iron,  and  an  infinity  of  patterns  and  “  im¬ 
provements,  ”  the  United  States  surpasses  all  other  nations  in  their 
use  and  manufacture.  Indeed,  three  Americans  —  Dr.  Franklin, 
Count  Rumford,  and  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott,  of  Union  College  —  were 
the  pioneers  in  the  invention  of  improvements,  and  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  principles  which  are  essential  to  the  utility  of  any  stove, 
of  whatever  style,  now  in  common  use  in  Europe  or  America. 

From  the  old-fashioned  fireplace,  naturally  the  first  steps  in  ad¬ 
vance  were  such  modifications  of  the  fireplace  as  appear  in  the 
various  forms  of  grates  set-in  the  fireplace,  or  in  the  “Franklin 
stove  ”  and  its  more  modern  modifications.  Count  Rumford  also 
applied  the  same  principle  to  stoves,  and  adapted  them  for  burn¬ 
ing  bituminous  coal  as  well  as  wood.  Franklin  designed  a  stove 

for  English  use,  to  burn  bituminous  coal  and  consume  its  own 
(442) 


STOVES  AND  RANGES. 


443 


smoke,  and  which  secured  both  warmth  and  ventilation.  He  also 
introduced  the  flues  and  regulating-valves  for  the  admission  and 
discharge  of  air,  with  a  register,  which,  by  closing  or  opening, 
would  check  or  increase  the  draught  to  any  desired  degree.  The 
open  Franklin  stove,  for  wood  or  soft  coal,  speedily  became  popu¬ 
lar  ;  but  the  introduction  of  close  stoves  was  more  difficult  among 
people  who  had  been  accustomed  to  see  the  blazing  fire.  The 
yearly  diminution  of  wood  supplies  for  fuel,  and  the  fortunate  dis¬ 
covery  of  anthracite  coal  in  the  United  States,  stimulated  Dr. 
Nott  to  the  invention  of  an  upright  close  stove,  which  for  many 
years  was  almost  universally  used  throughout  the  Northern  and 
Eastern  States,  especially  the  larger  sizes  for  warming  halls  in 
houses,  churches,  and  public  rooms.  The  “  Nott  stove,”  of  differ¬ 
ent  sizes,  for  a  long  period  had  a  popularity  that  has  attached, 
perhaps,  to  no  other  pattern,  and  it  furnished  suggestions  for  the 
more  complete  and  perfect  stoves  of  later  introduction. 

The  desirable  points  to  be  secured  in  any  stove  are  as  thorough 
ventilation  as  is  possible  ;  control  of  combustion  by  means  of  flues 
and  dampers  ;  simplicity  of  construction  ;  and  economy  of  fuel. 
To  attain  all  these  points  in  perfection  is  quite  impossible,  even 
with  the  elaborate  contrivances  introduced  of  late  years,  and  the 
intricate  “  improvements  ”  which  have  increased  the  cost  and  un¬ 
popularity  of  certain  kinds  of  “  parlor  stoves  ”  in  nearly  equal 
proportion.  It  is  known  that  with  the  best  stove,  heated  cast  or 
sheet  iron  vitiates  the  air  by  burning  out  its  oxygen  ;  and  hence 
stoves  for  warming  merely  have  been  largely  superseded  by  steam 
pipes  and  hot-air  furnaces.  Public  buildings,  manufactories,  hotels, 
etc.,  are  now  almost  universally  heated  by  steam,  and  furnaces 
are  common  in  private  houses.  Where  stoves  are  necessary,  the 
simpler  forms,  requiring  the  least  manipulation  for  their  manage¬ 
ment,  and  open  stoves  affording  the  best  ventilation,  are  generally 
preferred.  There  is,  and  for  many  years  will  be,  a  large  demand 
for  what  are  called  “  parlor  stoves,”  and  with  constant  improve¬ 
ments  in  their  construction,  much  artistic  ability  has  been  dis¬ 
played  in  rendering  them  agreeable  to  the  eye  as  tasteful  articles 
of  furniture. 

In  the  manufacture  of  cooking-stoves,  for  wood  or  coal,  America 
is  in  advance  of  all  the  world.  To  mention  even  the  leading  pop¬ 
ular  patterns  would  require  a  volume.  From  the  largest  ranges 
capable  of  cooking  for  a  thousand  guests  in  a  great  hotel,  down  to 
the  miniature  stove  which  cooks  the  food  and  warms  the  room  of 


444 


STOVES  AND  RANGES. 


the  poor  sewing  girl,  the  American  patterns  already  patented  and 
in  use  may  be  counted  by  hundreds  ;  and  new  designs  appear  every 
season.  The  great  stove  founderies  are  in  Albany,  Troy,  New 
York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  ;  but  there  is  scarcely  a  city  of 
any  size  in  the  United  States  which  does  not  manufacture  these 
stoves,  and  their  use  throughout  the  country  is  universal.  They 
are  cast  from  the  best  mixtures  of  pig  iron  ;  are  lined  with  fire 
bricks  moulded  to  the  shapes  of  the  different  patterns  ;  they  have 
holes  or  openings  on  top  for  pots,  pans,  and  boilers,  in  number 
from  two  to  four,  six,  or  eight,  according  to  the  size  of  the  stove  ; 
they  are  cast  so  exactly  that  duplicate  parts  of  a  particular  pat¬ 
tern  can  be  furnished  at  any  time,  and  are  completely  supplied 
with  tin  or  copper  boilers,  and  other  furniture,  while  competition 
in  the  business  brings  the  best  of  these  stoves  within  the  reach  of 
people  of  even  limited  means.  An  American  household  that  is 
without  a  first-rate  cooking-stove  is  poor  indeed. 

Great  improvements  liave  recently  been  made  in  cooking-ranges, 
and  improvements  are  constantly  making,  which  increase  the 
capacity  of  the  range  without  a  proportionate  increase  in  the 
consumption  of  fuel.  Yery  simple  and  useful  stoves,  of  cast  and 
sheet  iron,  for  cooking  and  for  ^vanning  rooms,  with  gas  as  the 
only  fuel,  are  also  extensively  manufactured  and  used  in  the 
United  States. 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

THE  GPEAT  USE  OF  FILES.  — THEIR  ANTIQUITY-.  —  THEIR  SUBSTITUTES. — THU 

DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD.  —  CLASSIFICATION  OF  FILES. - THE  PROCESS  OF 

MANUFACTURE.  — ANNEALING.  —  CUTTING.  —  HARDENING.  —  TESTING.  —  MA¬ 
CHINE-MADE  FILES.  —  PREJUDICES  AGAINST.  —  REASONS  FOR  THIS.  — 
AMERICAN  FILE  COMPANY.  —  CHARACTER  OF  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

The  use  of  the  file  in  the  various  operations  of  modern  industry 
is  much  greater  than  is  generally  supposed.  When  we  reflect, 
however,  that  there  is  hardly  a  branch  of  industry  in  which  the  file 
does  not  directly  or  indirectly  enter, —  since  in  most  operations  of 
smoothing  or  polishing  the  file  is  used, — we  will  be  the  more  pre¬ 
pared  to  receive  the  statement  that  the  estimated  value  of  the  files 
annually  consumed,  or  worn  out,  in  the  United  States  amounts  to 
an  aggregate  of  six  millions  of  dollars. 

Under  the  microscope  the  smoothest  polish  produced  by  the 
art  of  man  is  found  to  consist  of  scratches  which  are  too  fine 
to  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye.  This  is  the  case  with  all  pol¬ 
ished  surfaces  which  are  made  so  artificially.  Nature  has  methods 
of  producing  the  same  effect  by  other  means,  such  as  growth, 
which  man  cannot  as  yet  imitate.  The  advantages  of  polishing 
the  surface  of  weapons  and  utensils,  and  the  greater  beauty 
which  they  thus  possess,  must  have  early  attracted  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  mankind,  and  prompted  ingenuity  to  invent  some  means 
of  producing  it.  Among  some  of  the  still  uncivilized  tribes 
existing  in  the  world,  stones  with  a  rough  surface,  or  in  some 
of  the  Pacific  islands,  bits  of  shark’s  skin  are  used  for  filing 
their  weapons.  Specimens  can  be  found,  in  collections  of  such 
curiosities,  of  implements  made  by  mounting  the  sharp  teeth  of 
fish  between  two  pieces  of  wood,  producing  thus  a  file  which 

must  prove  quite  effective,  especially  among  a  people  whose  timo 

(446  ) 


446 


FILES  AND  TIIEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


is  all  leisure,  and  where  the  inexorable  test  of  money  does  not 
prevent  their  spending  weeks  in  doing  what  the  civilized  man 
must  do  in  minutes. 

These  various  substitutions  for  fdes  require,  however,  that  they 
shall  be  applied  only  to  the  working  of  wood.  With  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  the  metals  the  necessity  arose  for  some  utensil  of  a  tex¬ 
ture  hard  enough  to  cut  these,  before  men  were  able  to  file  them. 

Most  probably,  as  the  use  of  the  metals  is  older  than  any  re¬ 
corded  history,  the  use  of  the  file  has  been  almost  equally  as  long 
in  the  world.  The  pictorial  decorations  discovered  in  Thebes,  and 
which  date  at  least  to  a  period  four  thousand  years  ago,  represent 
butchers  sharpening  their  knives  upon  what  are  supposed,  from 
the  blue  color,  to  be  steel  sharpeners.  That  a  kind  of  file,  adapted 
to  sharpening  edged  tools,  was  in  use  in  antiquity,  appears 
from  a  passage  in  the  Bible.  In  1  Samuel,  chap.  13,  v.  21,  we 
read,  “  Yet  they  had  a  file  for  the  mattocks,  and  for  the  coulters, 
and  for  the  axes,  and  for  the  forks,  and  to  sharpen  the  goads.” 
This  passage  shows  that  files  were  then  used  for  sharpening 
tools,  and  that  consequently  they  must,  if  made  of  metal,  have 
been  hardened. 

Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  the  use  of  the  file  must  have 
been  quite  general.  They  could  not  have  arrived  at  the  finish  of 
their  metallic  castings  without  the  use  of  some  such  instrument. 
Our  word  file,  as  applied  to  the  tool  known  under  this  name,  is  de¬ 
rived  from  the  fact  that  the  lines  by  which  its  teeth  are  formed 
are  arranged  in  lines,  or  files,  and  with  this  meaning  the  same 
word  can  be  traced  through  all  the  languages  of  modern  Europe. 
The  French  word  for  a  file,  the  instrument,  is  lime ;  but  they  have 
the  word  file,  meaning  an  orderly  succession  in  a  line,  while  the 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Italians  have  the  word  fila,  with  the  same 
meaning,  being  a  derivation  from  the  Latin  filum,  a  thread.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  word  for  a  file  was  feol,  the  Old  German  fila,  while 
the  Modern  High  German  is  feile,  the  Dutch  vyl,  and  the  Danish 
and  Swedish  fill.  The  similarity  of  these  terms,  diffused  among  so 
many  various  peoples,  shows  that  the  use  of  the  instrument  dates 
to  the  period  lying  far  back  of  all  our  historic  records,  before  the 
nations  of  Europe  had  commenced  their  migration  to  their  present 
habitations,  from  their  old  Aryan  homo,  where  some  term  was  in 
use  from  which  all  the  present  modifications  are  derived. 

In  the  present  time  the  specialization  of  industry  has  been 
carried  to  such  a  point,  and  the  uses  to  which  the  file  is  applied 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


447 


have  become  so  various  and  so  different,  that  the  different  kinds 
of  file  have  been  classified,  and  file-making  has  become  a  very  im¬ 
portant  branch  of  national  industry. 

The  first  division  of  tools  for  abrading  is  into  files  and  rasps. 
When  the  teeth  are  formed  by  lines  cut  into  the  surface  of  the 
tool,  and  extending  across  it,  the  result  is  a  file  ;  but  when  the 
teeth  are  made  by  cutting  into  the  surface  with  a  narrow  sharp- 
pointed  chisel,  which  turns  up  the  teeth  in  the  shape  of  triangular 
pyramids,  the  tool  is  called  a  rasp,  and  is  chiefly  used  for  working 
down  wood,  or  other  soft  materials.  Files  proper  are  classified 
according  to  the  form  of  their  teeth,  or  according  to  their  fineness  ; 
and  also  from  the  varieties  of  their  shape.  When  the  teeth  are  a 
series  of  ridges,  raised  by  the  sharp  chisel  with  which  they  are 
cut,  running  parallel  with  each  other,  and  either  at  right  angles 
with  the  length  of  the  file,  or  obliquely  with  it,  the  file  is  called 
“single  cut.”  When,  however,  this  first  set  of  teeth  is  crossed 
by  another  series,  cut  in  the  same  manner,  but  in  a  different  direc¬ 
tion,  the  file  is  called  “  double  cut.” 

In  classifying  files  by  the  comparative  fineness  of  their  teeth, 
those  which  are  coarsest  are  called  rough  ;  those  of  the  next 
degree  of  fineness  bastard  ;  then  second  cut,  smooth,  dead  smooth, 
and  double-dead  smooth,  as  they  increase  in  fineness.  In  classi¬ 
fying  files  according  to  their  shape,  they  are  called  flat,  float, 
mill-saw,  hand,  half-round,  round,  four-square,  three-square,  etc. 

The  cross  section  of  a  flat  file  is  a  long  parallelogram,  and  it 
tapers  toward  the  point  for  about  one  third  'of  its  length,  both  in 
width  and  thickness.  It  is  always  double-cut,  and  it  is  more  used 
than  any  other  for  the  general  purposes  of  a  file.  A  float  file  is 
precisely  the  same  as  a  flat  file,  except  that  it  is  single-cut.  It  is 
used  for  filing  turned  work  in  a  lathe.  A  mill-saw  file  is  much 
like  a  float  file,  but  is  thinner,  and  made  of  a  finer  grade  of  steel. 
It  is  used  for  filing  mill-saws,  and  steel  generally.  A  hand 
file  is  made  of  the  same  shape  as  a  flat  file,  but  tapers  only 
in  its  thickness,  not  in  width.  Only  one  edge  is  cut,  the  other 
being  left  smooth,  or,  as  it  is  technically  termed,  “safe.”  It  is 
double-cut,  and  is  used  almost  exclusively  by  machinists.  The 
half-round  file  is  flat  on  one  side,  and  rounded  on  the  other.  A 
cross-section  shows  a  segment  of  a  circle,  varying  the  height  of 
the  curve,  as  the  file  is  intended  for  different  purposes.  When 
nearly  approaching  a  half-circle  it  is  called  a  “  high-back.”  It  is 
generally  tapered  both  in  width  and  thickness,  and  is  double-cut. 


448 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


It  is  used  by  all  classes  of  mechanics,  and  perhaps  more  gener¬ 
ally  so  than  any  other  kind  of  file. 

The  cross  section  of  a  round  file,  which  is  also  called  a  “  rat- 
tail,”  is  a  circle.  It  is  generally  tapered  toward  the  point,  and  is 
double-cut.  It  is  in  general  use  among  all  mechanics,  being  veiy 
convenient  for  filing  out  holes  and  hollows.  The  section  of  a 
“  four-square  ”  file  is  a  square,  tapered  toward  the  point,  and 
double-cut.  It  is  very  generally  used,  but  not  to  the  extent  of 
the  round  file.  A  “  three-square  ”  file  has  for  its  cross  section  an 
equilateral  triangle.  Its  most  general  use  is  for  filing  small  saws, 
both  circular  and  hand  saws.  For  this  purpose  it  is  made  of  a 
very  high  grade  of  steel,  and  its  edges  are  slightly  flattened  and 
are  cut.  It  is  usually  single-cut,  and  should  have  a  regular  taper 
from  heel  to  point.  Of  the  three  and  a  half,  four,  and  four  and  a 
half  taper  saw  files  there  are  probably  more  sold  than  of  all  other 
kinds  of  files  together. 

Besides  the  files  of  which  we  have  spoken  there  are  many  others 
bearing  technical  names,  such  as  “  pillar,”  “  slotting,”  “cant,” 
“cross,”  “  feather-edge,”  “knife,”  “warding.”  There  are  many 
other  files  made  to  special  order,  and  which  bear  no  technical 
names.  In  fact,  there  is  hardly  any  other  article  used  in  the  arts 
which  takes  so  many  shapes  as  the  file. 

“  Rasps  ”  are  made  in  many  different  forms.  The  most  com¬ 
mon  is  the  “horse  rasp”  used  by  blacksmiths  when  shoeing 
horses.  These  are  cut  on  one  side  as  a  very  coarse  rasp,  on  the 
other  side  as  a  coarse  file.  In  New  England  they  are  used  with 
a  tang  or  handle  at  one  end  ;  in  all  other  parts  of  the  country 
they  have  no  handle,  both  ends  being  used  alike.  Wood  rasps 
are  like  either  a  flat  or  half-round  file,  but  punched  with  rasp 
teeth  instead  of  file  teeth.  Cabinet  makers’  rasps  are  of  some¬ 
what  the  same  shape,  but  thinner,  and  punched  with  very  fine 
teeth.  These  two  kinds  of  rasps  are  seldom  or  never  hardened. 
There  are  also  flat  and  half-round  shoe  rasps,  in  great  variety, 
and  many  others  found  only  among  particular  trades. 

The  sizes  of  files  vary,  from  the  little  needle  files  used  by  jew¬ 
elers,  to  twenty-four  inch  flat  and  half-round  files  used  by  marine 
engine  makers,  but  the  general  range  is  from  four  to  sixteen 
inches  in  length. 

The  rougher  and  coarser  kinds  of  rasps  are  made  sometimes 
from  blister  steel,  since  they  are  intended  to  be  used  only  on  soil 
material,  such  as  wood,  horn,  etc.;  but  the  best  file  manufacturers 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


440 


use  cast  steel  for  everything*  they  make,  except  horse  rasps,  and 
even  for  these  the  use  of  a  special  kind  of  cast  steel  is  becoming 
common.  Files  for  sharpening  saws,  and  other  partially  hardened 
steel  tools,  arc  made  of  a  high  grade  of  cast  steel ;  and  for  hand¬ 
saw  files,  double  refined  cast  steel  is  used  exclusively,  by  those 
who  have  proper  regard  for  their  reputation. 

The  steel,  having  been  received  at  the  file  factory,  rolled  into 
bars  of  the  various  forms  of  which  files  are  made,  is  cut  into  the 
proper  lengths,  and  then  carried  into  the  forging-room,  where  it 
undergoes  the  first  process  in  its  course  of  transformation  into 
files.  The  first  process  is  called  “  mooding  out,”  and  consists  in 
hammering  the  pieces,  at  a  red  heat,  into  file  “  blanks,”  that  is, 
into  the  required  shape  of  the  file,  the  “  tangs,”  or  that  portion 
of  the  file  which  is  fitted  into  the  handle,  being  first  fashioned. 
Two  men,  or  a  smith  and  a  striker,  can,  on  an  average,  “  mood 
out  ”  about  eighteen  dozen  of  twelve-inch  files  in  a  day. 

After  being  thus  shaped  and  “  tanged,”  the  files  are  placed 
in  the  annealing  furnaces.  The  object  of  this  process  is  to  soften 
them  so  as  to  be  more  easily  cut.  The  operation  consists  of 
heating  them  to  a  red  heat,  in  ovens,  where  they  are  kept  at 
this  temperature  about  twelve  hours.  The  ovens  being  then 
closed,  they  are  allowed  to  cool  gradually.  This  cooling  should, 
be  slow,  the  process  taking  about  forty-eight  hours,  and,  contrary 
to  the  generally  received  opinion,  is  the  most  important  operation 
in  the  manufacture  of  files.  It  requires  more  experience  and  skill, 
to  properly  anneal  the  “  blank”  than  it  does  to  harden  the 
finished  file.  All  the  excellence  of  the  file  depends  upon  its  not 
being  so  spoiled  by  underheating  or  overheating  in  the  annealing, 
that  all  the  work  of  the  subsequent  processes  is  thrown  away, 
since  no  subsequent  process  can  remedy  any  defect  arising  from 
error  or  oversight  in  the  annealing.  Consequently  this  process  is., 
placed  directly  under  the  supervision  of  the  most  experienced  and: 
skilful  person  in  the  establishment. 

When  the  i(  blanks  ”  are  considered  to  be  sufficiently  softened 
by  the  annealing  process,  they  are  taken  out  and  straightened,  if 
necessary,  by  the  use  of  hand  hammers,  and  are  then  ground 
upon  large  grindstones,  driven  at  a  high  rate  of  speed.  The  chief 
purpose  of  this  grinding  is  to  perfectly  remove  all  traces  of  the 
scale  from  the  blanks,  and  it  is  continued  until  the  entire  surface 
is  made  level  and  bright,  each  spot  or  unevenness  being  ground 
away.  The  blanks,  being  thus  prepared,  axe  then  carried  to 
26 


4/50 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


the  cutting1  shop,  where  those  which  are  to  be  worked  into  the 
finest  grade  of  files  are  subjected  to  a  further  operation,  called 
“  stripping,”  which  consists  in  filing  them  in  a  peculiar  manner  ; 
the  object  of  which  is  to  make  the  surface  still  more  even.  Then 
the  files  are  ready  to  be  cut. 

In  this  process,  as  it  is  carried  on  by  hand,  the  workman  takes 
a  blank,  and  resting  it  upon  a  piece  of  lead,  on  an  anvil,  cuts  the 
rows  of  teeth  with  a  chisel,  which  he  strikes  with  a  hammer.  Ac¬ 
cording  as  the  teeth  are  to  be  fine  or  coarse,  he  uses  a  lighter  or 
heavier  hammer,  and  strikes  a  lighter  or  heavier  blow.  Experi¬ 
ence  and  practice  are  his  only  guides  in  striking  the  blows  of  the 
required  force,  and  always  of  the  same  force,  so  as  to  cut  the  teeth 
to  an  equal  depth.  The  chisels  used  for  this  operation  are  very 
short,  in  order  to  have  the  requisite  stiffness,  and  for  being  held 
conveniently  in  the  fingers  of  the  left  hand.  They  have  an  edgo 
wider  than  the  file  to  be  cut,  and  the  angle  at  which  they  are 
sharpened  varies,  according  to  the  kind  of  file  to  be  made,  from 
10°  to  40°.  The  “blank”  is  held  by  a  strap  at  each  end.  The 
chisel,  being  placed  upon  the  blank  at  the  farther  end,  is  inclined 
from  the  person  at  a  small  angle  from  the  perpendicular,  and  is 
struck  sharply  with  the  hammer  held  in  the  right  hand,  a  groove 
.  being  thus  cut  in  the  face  of  the  file.  A  ridge  of  steel,  which  forms 
the  tooth,  is  raised  up.  Then  the  chisel  is  brought  forward,  and 
being  slid  from  the  operator  until  it  reaches  the  ridge  just  made, 
the  position  of  the  next  cut  is  determined,  the  blow  is  given  in¬ 
stantly,  and  another  ridge  is  made.  The  blows  and  cuts  thus  succeed 
each  other  at  the  rate  of  sixty  to  eighty  each  minute,  their  being 
parallel  and  of  uniform  depth  being  secured  by  the  guiding  ridges, 
and  by  the  uniformity  in  the  force  exerted. 

The  hammers  for  the  coarse  files  weigh  from  seven  to  eight 
pounds,  while  those  used  for  the  finest  files  weigh  sometimes  as 
little  as  one  or  two  ounces.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  skill 
required  for  striking  with  a  regular  uniformity  of  force  can  be  ac¬ 
quired  only  by  great  practice,  and  then  only  by  those  whose 
natural  faculties  fit  them  for  such  precise  work.  When  the  file 
has  been  cut  once,  then  for  double-cut  files,  the  operation  is  re¬ 
peated,  the  chisel  being  so  held  that  the  ridges  shall  cross  each 
other  obliquely.  The  process  of  cutting  the  first  set  of  teeth  on 
a  double-cut  file  is  called  “  over-cutting,”  and  of  the  second  set, 
which  cross  the  first,  “up-cutting.” 

Formerly  the  majority  of  the  files  were  cut  “  rough,”  but  the 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  451 

use  of  planing-machines,  for  metal  work  of  all  kinds,  in  modern 
times  has  led  to  the  almost  total  disuse  of  rough-cut  files  for  metal 
work,  so  that  now  the  majority  of  files  are  bastard  cut,  which  is 
found  to  be  quite  coarse  enough  for  the  work  required.  Second- 
cut  and  smooth-cut  files  are  generally  used  only  in  machine  shops, 
and  are  intended  to  follow  and  complete  the  work  of  the  bastard- 
cut  files.  The  surface  left  by  a  dead  smooth  file  amounts  almost 
to  a  polish. 

The  files,  when  cut,  are  then  to  be  hardened.  This  is  a  process 
requiring  care,  but  is  not,  as  generally  supposed,  the  most  intricate 
one  of  file  manufacture.  The  files  arc  heated  to  an  even  red  heat, 
and  then  cooled  suddenly  by  being  plunged  into  cold  water.  As 
it  is  necessary  to  protect  the  teeth  of  the  file  from  becoming 
oxydized  by  contact  with  the  atmosphere  while  they  are  heated, 
the  files,  before  being  heated,  are  covered  with  a  paste,  which  is  in¬ 
tended  to  protect  the  teeth  from  contact  with  the  atmosphere. 
The  chief  ingredient  of  this  paste  is  flour. 

The  mixture  of  the  paste  used  to  cover  the  files  is  in  a  measure 
a  trade  secret,  and  each  operator  varies  it  according  to  his  own 
ideas,  considering  the  state  of  the  weather,  the  kind  of  steel  in 
the  files,  the  manner  in  which  the  teeth  are  cut,  and  so  on.  As 
yet  the  constitution  of  the  paste,  based  upon  a  scientific  analysis 
and  a  positive  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  its  ingredients,  has  not 
been  arrived  at,  and  the  process  is  still  dependent  for  success 
more  upon  individual  skill  and  experience  than  upon  accurate 
rules. 

The  heating  of  the  files  is  performed  either  in  an  open  fire,  like 
a  common  smith’s  fire,  or  by  plunging  them  into  a  bath  of  melted 
lead,  which  has  the  further  advantage  of  more  effectually  protect¬ 
ing  the  teeth  from  the  action  of  the  air.  Sometimes,  also,  the  files 
are  heated  in  an  oven  into  which  the  blast  of  a  furnace  is  intro¬ 
duced.  The  file  must  be  heated  uniformly,  from  the  tang  to  the 
point,  to  a  cherry  red. 

After  the  file  is  heated  properly,  in  order  to  harden  it  as  much 
as  possible,  it  should  be  cooled  as  quickly  as  possible.  This  is 
sometimes  done  by  plunging  it  into  water,  but  brine  made  of 
common  salt  has  superseded  almost  everything  else  for  the  cool¬ 
ing  of  files  ;  although  clear  cold  water  will  make  a  file  nearly 
as  hard  as  brine,  yet  files  so  cooled  “  run,”  that  is,  bend  and 
twist,  so  as  to  become  useless.  Besides,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
water  holding  in  solution  any  kind  of  salt  will  harden  steel  more 


452 


FILES  AND  TIIEIK  MANUFACTURE. 

than  clear  water  will.  Some  kinds  of  salts  in  solution  will  make 
steel  so  hard  and  brittle  as  to  effectually  spoil  it. 

The  file  is  withdrawn  from  the  bath  into  which  it  is  plunged  to 
cool  it,  before  it  has  become  cold  throughout  its  entire  substance, 
and  while  the  inside  of  it  is  still  warm,  and  is  examined  to  see 
whether  it  is  straight.  If  it  is  bent,  it  is  then  straightened;  it 
having  been  found  that  this  is  easily  done  while  the  inside  is  still 
warm,  without  any  danger  of  injuring  the  surface. 

The  files,  being  then  cleaned  from  the  paste  which  remains  upon 
them  by  being  scrubbed  with  diluted  acid  and  sand,  are  placed 
in  a  vat  of  lime  water  to  prevent  their  rusting.  The  files,  being 
then  finished,  are  tested. 

This  is  done  after  taking  them  from  the  lime  water  and  oiling 
them,  by  rubbing  the  entire  surface  of  each  file  with  a  piece  of 
steel,  the  hardness  of  which  varies  with  the  file  to  be  tested.  The 
files  intended  to  be  used  on  steel,  and  especially  those  to  be  used 
on  saws,  are  tested  with  a  “  p  rover,”  as  it  is  called,  made  of 
hard  steel.  If  the  file  has  any  soft  spot  in  it,  the  prover  will  slip 
over  this  place,  instead  of  being  cut  by  the  teeth,  and  the  file  is 
then  rejected.  The  testing  of  files  is  an  important  process  in 
their  manufacture,  and  any  which  will  not  stand  the  test  are 
rejected  by  every  manufacturer  who  has  a  pride  in  the  reputation 
of  his  goods. 

In  the  processes  just  described  we  have  been  dealing  with  files 
manufactured  entirely  by  hand  labor.  Though  file  making  is 
carried  on  very  largely  in  England,  yet  the  work  there  is  done  en¬ 
tirely  by  hand.  Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  introduce 
machine  labor,  but  heretofore  they  have  been  so  uniformly  unsuc¬ 
cessful  that  it  is  generally  believed  there  that  it  is  impossible  to 
make  a  machine  which  will  perform  this  labor,  and  statements  of 
this  kind  arc  quite  common  in  works  upon  this  subject. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  making  files  by  machinery  are 
many  and  various.  Though  it  would  seem,  at  the  first  glance, 
that  machinery  would  be  peculiarly  adapted  to  replace  hand  labor 
in  this  branch  of  industry,  yet  the  technical  obstacles  have  been 
found  very  difficult  to  overcome,  and  numerous  inventions  have, 
on  practical  application,  proved  to  be  perfectly  useless. 

The  manufacture  of  files  by  hand  process  has  been  carried  on 
in  Sheffield,  England,  from  the  earliest  periods  of  history,  and  to¬ 
day,  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world,  the  chief  supply  of  files  is 
drawn  from  there. 


453 


PILES  AND  TIIEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

i 

Prior  to  1840  the  manufacture  of  files  ma}7  be  said  to  have  been 
unknown  in  the  United  States.  Probably  some  individuals  who 
had  learned  the  trade  in  England  may,  after  emigrating  to  this 
country,  have  made  a  few  files  here  ;  but  there  was  nothing  like  an 
organized  business  carried  on  in  their  manufacture.  About  1845 
the  business  of  making  new  files,  on  a  small  scale,  was  organized 
at  Matteawan,  N.  Y.,  by  one  John  Rothery,  an  Englishman,  who 
made  excellent  files,  but  conducted  all  the  operations  by  hand. 

In  the  United  States,  also,  various  machines  have  been  patented 
to  manufacture  files  by  machine  labor.  One  of  these,  patented  by 
Cfaptain  Ericsson,  was  introduced  into  Sheffield  ;  but  though  it  was 
found  to  do  the  work  of  nearly  ten  men,  yet  it  was  abandoned 
after  a  short  time,  on  account  of  technical  difficulties  which  it  did 
not  overcome.  But  finally  the  American  File  Company,  at  Paw¬ 
tucket,  R.  I.,  who  control  in  this  country  the  use  of  a  machine  in¬ 
vented  by  M.  Etienne  Bernot,  a  Frenchman,  have  successfully 
established  the  production  of  machine-made  files,  and  by  the 
steadily  increasing  favor  with  which  their  wares  are  received, 
bid  fair  to  soon  supply  the  demand  for  this  country  with  an 
article  of  home  production,  and,  as  the}7  also  control  the  use 
of  the  same  machines  in  England,  to  make  the  business  one  of 
export  also.  In  fact  they  have  solved  the  problem  of  cutting 
files  by  machinery,  and  with  equally  good  material  produce  a  file 
better  than  those  cut  by  hand.  This  fact  is  shown  by  the  steady 
increase  of  the  demand  for  files  of  their  make,  which  are  rapidly 
destroying  the  prejudice  which  our  consumers,  in  common  with 
those  of  England,  felt  against  machine-made  files. 

There  was  a  good  reason  for  the  existence  of  this  prejudice, 
since,  heretofore,  sufficient  care  was  not  exercised  in  the  selection 
of  the  material  from  which  machine-made  files  were  produced  ;  so 
that  the  consumers,  finding  the  files  poor,  laid  the  blame  of  this, 
not  to  the  poorness  of  the  material  used,  but  to  the  process  by 
which  they  were  made.  Another  reason  for  this  prejudice  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  machine-made  files  have  generally  been  produced 
by  capitalists,  who  were  not  practically  acquainted  with  the  pro¬ 
cesses  necessary  to  the  production  of  a  superior  article,  and  have 
failed  to  connect  with  them  those  who  had  this  requisite  knowl¬ 
edge.  Besides  this,  the  unusual  demand  for  files  during  the  late 
civil  war  led  to  the  flooding  of  the  country  with  inferior  articles. 

But  the  wares  produced  by  the  American  File  Company  may 
challenge  comparison  with  those  of  any  country  or  of  any  process, 


454 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


since  their  material  is  selected  from  the  best,  and  all  the  opera¬ 
tions  are  carried  on  with  scrupulous  care.  Their  files  have  sup¬ 
planted  the  English  ones  in  many  of  the  largest  machine  shops  of 
this  country,  while  their  machines  have  received  the  first-clasp 
medals  of  both  the  English  and  French  international  exhibitions. 

The  claim  made  by  the  American  File  Company  that  their  files 
are  as  good  as  the  very  best,  and  better  than  the  average  of  hand¬ 
made  files,  has  not  only  been  substantiated  by  the  experience  of 
many  of  the  largest  consumers  and  best  judges  of  files  in  this 
country,  but  is  further  based  on  good  reasons,  since,  in  addition 
to  the  fact  that  oidy  the  very  best  steel  known  to  the  trade  is  used 
in  the  manufacture,  only  skilled  and  experienced  men  are  employed 
in  all  the  preparatory  processes,  and  all  the  files  are  subjected  to 
the  severest  tests  before  being  sent  out.  The  only  change,  also, 
made  in  the  manufacture  from  the  best  English  methods  is  that 
the  sure  and  regular  action  of  machinery  is  used  to  strike  the 
blow  that  drives  the  chisel  into  the  steel  to  form  the  tooth,  instead 
of  the  changeable  and  irregular  action  of  the  hand.  The  very 
same  utensil  —  a  sharp  chisel  —  is  used  to  make  the  tooth  ;  a 
machine-driven  hammer,  instead  of  a  hand-driven  one,  strikes  it. 
The  consequence  is  that  every  tooth  is  the  same  height  as  the  one 
next  to  it,  and  consequently  every  tooth  cuts. 

In  a  hand-made  file,  the  height  of  the  teeth  vary,  and  often 
differ  very  much.  It  has  been  claimed  that  this  difference  is  an 
advantage,  since,  when  all  the  high  teeth  are  worn  down,  then  the 
low  ones  come  into  action  but  this  cannot  be  so,  for  the  worn- 
out  teeth  must  keep  the  low  teeth  off  of  the  metal,  and  in  fact 
place  it  in  the  condition  of  the  bit  or  chisel  of  a  carpenter’s  plane 
which  is  not  driven  far  enough  out  from  the  face  of  the  plane  to 
reach  the  wood. 

Every  tooth  in  a  well-cut  machine  file  does  its  work,  and  when 
worn  out  it  is  all  worn  out.  This  is  observable  in  a  mixed 
lot  of  machine  and  hand-cut  files,  in  which  the  latter  will  show 
many  places  hardly  worn  at  all,  and  others  worn  smooth,  while 
in  the  "former  every  tooth  will  show  the  same  amount  of 
wear.  This  fact  is  very  easily  tested  by  taking  the  end  of  a 
piece  of  steel,  and  rubbing  it  with  a  firm  pressure  from  the  point 
to  the  heel  of  a  machine-cut  file  :  it  will  be  seen  that  every  tooth 
has  upon  it  a  slight  shaving  of  steel,  whereas,  if  the  same  test  is 
made  with  even  the  most  evenly  cut  hand-cut  file,  there  will  be 
found  many  teeth  —  very  many  —  without  the  shaving  adhering 


FILES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


455 


to  them  ;  and  the  wider  the  piece  of  steel  used  as  a  prover,  the 
more  teeth  will  be  found  without  the  shaving. 

A  machine-cut  file,  therefore,  other  things  being  equal,  will  do 
more  work  and  last  longer  than  a  hand-cut  file.  Other  incidental 
advantages  of  the  use  of  the  machine  process  are,  that  files  are 
cut  five  or  six  times  as  quickly  as  by  hand,  and  the  substitution 
of  unskilled  for  skilled  labor.  It  is  found  that  care  and  attention 
in  the  workman  are  of  more  importance  than  any  other  qualifica¬ 
tions  whatever  in  cutting  files  by  machinery. 

The  success  of  the  American  File  Company  in  making  the  best 
files  will,  no  doubt,  work  a  revolution  in  the  business  ;  for,  while 
there  will  always  be  a  limited  quantity  of  special  files  cut  by 
hand,  yet  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  those  used  are  of  recognized 
sizes,  shapes,  and  cuts,  and  will  be  made  by  machinery.  The 
question  is  now  merely  one  of  time,  since  that  of  the  capability 
of  machinery  to  do  the  work  is  solved. 


QUILL  AND  METALLIC  PENS. 


ANCIENT  PENS.  —  REEDS  AND  PAPYRUS.  —  QUILLS  AND  PAPER.  —  THE  GOOSE- 
QUILL  TRADE  IN  EUROPE.  —  QUILL  PEN  MACHINES.  —  INVENTION  OF  STEEL 
PENS.  —  FIRST  PATENT  FOR  THE  PROCESS  IN  AMERICA.  —  JOSEPH  GILLOTT, 
OF  BIRMINGHAM.  —  COMPETITION  AND  CHEAPNESS.  — PROCESSES  OF  THE 
MANUFACTURE.  —  STEEL  PEN  MAKING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Pens  of  some  sort  have  been  in  use  since  the  discovery  of  the 
art  of  writing  with  colored  fluids  upon  papyrus.  Previously,  in 
making  characters  on  wax  or  other  tablets,  a  metallic  pointed  in¬ 
strument  was  used.  The  first  pens  were  made  of  hollow  reeds, 
which  are  still  used  for  writing  in  many  Eastern  countries.  When 
paper  followed  papyrus,  quills  succeeded  reeds  as  pens/  The  de¬ 
mand  for  these  pens  created  a  very  important  trade  in  Russia, 
Poland,  Germany,  and  Holland,  where  great  flocks  of  geese  were 
raised  mainly  for  their  quills,  which  were  exported  in  large  quan¬ 
tities  to  England  and  other  countries.  Many  writers  still  use  quills 
only,  and  for  engraving,  and  some  other  kinds  of  writing,  they  are 
preferred  to  other  pens. 

The  quills,  when  picked,  are  assorted  ;  the  outside  skin  is  re¬ 
moved  by  a  hot  sand  bath,  and  subsequent  scraping ;  the  barrels 
are  hardened  by  dipping  them  in  a  solution  of  alum  or  nitric  acid, 
and  they  are  then  put  up  in  bundles  for  market.  By  an  ingenious 
hand  machine,  which  makes  a  pen  at  one  operation,  large  numbers  of 
ready-made  quill  pens  are  manufactured  and  put  up  in  boxes.  Pens  of 
the  size  and  shape  of  common  steel  pens  are  also  cut  from  imper¬ 
fect  quills  and  pieces,  and  the  hand  pen-maker,  which  is  little 
larger  than  a  pocket  knife,  is  a  useful  instrument  for  quill  writers, 
who  are  not  skilful  in  the  use  of  the  penknife. 

There  is  still,  especially  in  Europe,  a  very  large  trade  in  quills, 
though  those  of  the  best  quality  are  scarcer  and  much  higher- 
priced  than  they  were  a  few  years  ago.  The  invention  and  general 
(456) 


QUILL  AND  METALLIC  PENS. 


457 


introduction  of  metallic  pens  has  nearly  driven  quills  out  of  com¬ 
mon  use  —  the  new  pens  save  the  time  consumed  by  the  writer  in 
making,  and  they  are  infinitely  cheaper.  The  days,  within  the  mem¬ 
ory  of  people  now  in  their  prime,  when  the  writing-master  went 
from  pupil  to  pupil  in  the  school-house,  to  make  or  mend  pens, 
have  gone  by  forever. 

The  first  steel  pens  were  introduced  in  England  in  1803  ;  but 
they  were  slow  in  gaining  the  favor  of  people  accustomed  to  the 
more  flexible  quill.  In  1810  a  patent  was  granted  in  the  United 
States  to  Peregrine  Williamson,  of  Baltimore,  for  metallic  writing 
pens  —  the  first  of  the  kind  manufactured  in  this  country.  In 
1822  Joseph  Gillott,  of  Birmingham,  England,  began  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  steel  pens  by  improved  machinery,  and  speedily  took 
the  lead  in  a  trade  which  became  a  most  important  branch  of 
manufacture.  He  was  soon  followed  by  many  manufacturers,  sev¬ 
eral  of  whom  became  quite  celebrated  for  producing  pens  of  fine 
finish,  elasticity,  and  proper  temper,  and  especially  at  prices 
which  enabled  them  to  sell  a  gross  at  about  the  same  price  de¬ 
manded  by  the  original  inventor,  only  a  few  years  before,  for  a 
single  pen. 

Improvements  in  the  manufacture  rapidly  followed,  with  a  great 
variety  of  patterns  designed  to  give  greater  flexibility  with  the 
required  stiffness,  a  free  flow  of  ink  or  fluid,  and  various  sizes,  with 
broad  or  fine  points,  for  different  kinds  of  writing.  A  very  popu¬ 
lar  form  for  a  while  was  the  barrel  pen,  in  imitation  of  the  quill, 
into  which  the  holder  could  be  inserted  ;  and  with  the  pens  in¬ 
serted  into  the  holders,  an  infinite  variety  of  holders  were  invent¬ 
ed,  some  of  them  being  hollow,  and  designed  to  hold  a  supply  of 
ink  for  continuous  writing  without  dipping,  resulting  in  what  is 
commonly  called  the  “  fountain  pen.” 

Steel  pens  are  made  almost  wholly  by  machinery.  The  metal 
is  rolled  into  strips  of  the  required  thinness,  from  which  the  blanks 
are  punched  ;  presses  punch  the  hole  which  terminates  the  slit  and 
gives  flexibility  to  the  pen  ;  the  blanks  are  then  annealed  ;  the 
proper  curvature  is  given  by  means  of  dies ;  they  are  then  hard¬ 
ened  by  heating  and  plunging  into  oil ;  they  are  tempered,  and  are 
cleaned  and  polished  by  revolving  them  in  a  drum  containing  sand 
and  sawdust ;  the  nibs  are  ground  on  emery  wheels  ;  the  slit  is 
made  in  a  press ;  the  pen  is.  then  colored  blue  or  brown,  in  a  re¬ 
volving  cylinder  over  a  charcoal  fire  ;  and  the  finished  article  is 
then  put  on  cards  or  in  boxes  for  market.  Such  hand  processes 


458 


QUILL  AND  METALLIC  PENS. 


as  grinding  the  nibs,  which  is  done  by  girls,  are  performed  with 
wonderful  rapidity,  and  the  pens  of  various  patterns,  some  of  them 
very  superior,  are  now  everywhere  as  common  and  nearly  as  cheap 
as  pins. 

England  was  first  in  the  field  with  this  branch  of  manufacture, 
and  the  cheapness  of  labor  in  that  country,  with  the  facilities  for 
producing  the  proper  metal  for  pens,  enables  the  English  steel-pen 
manufacturers  to  nearly  cover  the  entire  market.  The  difficulty 
of  competing  with  the  English  manufacturers  made  the  first  at¬ 
tempts  to  establish  the  business  in  the  United  States  quite  unsuc¬ 
cessful,  and  much  money  was  sunk  in  the  enterprise.  Even  now 
the  best  metal  is  English,  and  prepared  strips  are  imported  from 
Birmingham  and  Sheffield  ;  but  there  are  now  in  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Ohio  several  steel-pen  manufacto¬ 
ries,  which  do  an  extensive  and  profitable  business. 


PRINTING  INKS. 


INGREDIENTS  AND  COMPOSITION.  — OLD  INKS.  — THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFAC¬ 
TURE. —  PROPERTIES  OF  THE  BEST  INKS.  —  COLORED  INKS.  —  HOW  THEY 
ARE  PREPARED.  —  VARIOUS  KINDS  OF  COLORS.  —  RUBRICATED  BOOKS.  — 
DEMAND  FOR  COLOR  PRINTING.  —  INK  ROLLERS.  —  SELF-ACTING  INKING 
MACHINES. 

Printers'  ink  is  of  very  different  composition  from  writing  ink. 
The  ingredients  are  linseed  oil,  in  which  a  small  quantity  of  black 
rosin  is  dissolved,  mixed  with  lampblack  and  carefully  ground. 
The  linseed  oil  is  boiled  to  a  thick  varnish,  turpentine  is  added, 
and  some  manufacturers  add  indigo  or  Prussian  blue  to  improve 
the  color.  The  ink  is  of  the  consistency  of  thick  molasses,  or  of 
boiling  tar. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  of  the  modern  inks  surpass,  or  are  even 
equal  to,  those  which  were  used  when  printing  was  discovered. 
There  are  Aldines,  Elzevirs,  Caxtons,  and  Graftons  now  extant, 
whose  pages  show  ink  which  preserves  its  color  as  freshly  as 
when  first  printed.  In  many  old  books  the  color  of  the  ink  is  not 
black,  but  a  very  rich  blue-black  or  purple-black.  Printers'  ink¬ 
making  is  an  important  branch  of  manufacture,  requiring  the  very 
best  materials,  great  skill  in  mixing,  and  the  most  careful  grind¬ 
ing.  The  business  demands  capital  and  excellent  machinery, 
and  the  qualities  looked  for  in  the  best  ink  are  blackness, 
thorough  mixing  and  grinding,  sufficient  thickness,  adherence  to 
the  paper  and  not  to  the  type,  and  the  property  of  drying  quickly 
on  the  paper.  Every  manufacturer  claims  to  have  his  own  secrets 
of  ingredients  and  processes,  and  ink  of  various  qualities  and  at 
different  prices  is  furnished  for  different  purposes,  from  the  com¬ 
monest  coarse  hand-bill  printing  to  the  finest  book  work.  Very 
superior  qualities  of  ink  are  manufactured  for  cut  printing,  and  for 
printing  from  bank  note  and  other  engraved  plates. 


(459) 


PRINTING  INKS. 


4  GO 

Colored  printing  inks  are  as  old  as  the  art  of  printing,  and  they 
were  first  introduced  to  imitate  the  illuminated  letters  done  by 
hand  in  manuscript  books.  Red  ink,  for  the  rubrics  in  missals,  is 
seen  in  old  printed  copies,  still  retaining  its  vivid  color.  Of  late 
years,  printing  in  colors,  especially  in  commercial  and  hand-bill 
work,  has  created  a  great  demand  for  inks  which  show  all  the  col¬ 
ors  of  the  rainbow,  and  many  more.  These  are  supplied  by  the 
manufacturers,  but  many  printers  with  a  muller,  marble  slab,  pal¬ 
let  knife,  and  can  of  printers’  varnish,  mix  various  colored  inks  for 
their  own  use  —  reds  with  vermilion,  burnt  sienna,  lake,  and  Vene¬ 
tian  red;  yellows,  from  chrome,  ochre,  and  gamboge  ;  blues,  from 
indigo,  Antwerp,  and  Prussian  blue  ;  browns,  from  saepia,  bistre, 
and  raw  and  burnt  umber ;  greens,  by  mixing  blues  and  yellows ; 
purples,  by  mixing  reds  and  blues  ;  and  neutral  tints,  by  1111x1112' 
Prussian  blue,  lake,  and  gamboge. 

In  preparing  them,  the  color  is  first  ground  on  a  marble  slab, 
then  well  mixed  by  the  pallet  knife  with  the  varnish  —  thinly  (i.  e. 
with  more  varnish)  if  for  coarse  work,  such  as  posters,  and  quite 
thick  for  small  type  and  wood-cut  work.  In  working  two  or  more 
different  colors,  each  color  requires  a  distinct  impression,  and  the 
nicest  registration  and  justification  are  requisite.  In  what  is  called 
rubricated  printing,  where  red  letters  or  lines  are  inserted  in  the 
black  text,  special  rubricated  types  are  used,  and  the  black  impres¬ 
sion  is  generally  made  first. 

Lottery  tickets,  stock  certificates,  drafts,  notes,  cards,  bill-heads, 
etc.,  have  created  a  large  demand  for  color  printing,  and  no  print¬ 
ing  office  is  complete  without  a  full  assortment  of  colored  inks, 
which  were  formerly  very  expensive,  but.  are  now  furnished  more 
cheaply  than  the  printer  can  mix  them  for  himself. 

In  the  earlier  kinds  of  printing,  and  for  a  long  period,  the  ink 
was  applied  to  the  t}Tpe  by  means  of  ink  balls.  The  hand  roller 
was  the  next  improvement,  and  it  insured  a  more  equal  distribu¬ 
tion  of  the  ink.  The  elastic  rollers  are  made  of  glue  and  molas¬ 
ses,  or  sometimes  of  glue  and  honey,  and  are  cleaned,  when 
necessary,  with  lye.  There  are  now  several  ingenious  sell-acting 
inking  machines,  which  are  so  constructed  as  to  be  readily  attached 
to  the  different  kinds  of  printing  presses. 


PAPER  HANGINGS. 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  TAPESTRIES.  —  ANTIQUITY  OF  WALL  HANGINGS.  -  TAPESTRIES 
OF  THE  EAST.  —  THE  FASHION  IN  FRANCE.  —  SILK  AND  CLOTH.  —  GOLD,  SIL- 
VER,  AND  DIAMOND  DECORATIONS.  — THE  ARRAS  OF  ENGLAND.  —  GOBELIN 
TAPESTRIES.  — MANUFACTURE  OF  PAPER  HANGINGS.  — FIRST  SALES  OF  WALL 
PAPERS  IN  AMERICA.  —  THE  EARLIEST  DOMESTIC  MANUFACTURE.  — INTRODUC¬ 
TION  OF  GLAZED  GROUNDS.  —  PRINTING  BY  HAND.  —  PRESENT  PROCESSES.  — 

CYLINDER  PRINTING  MACHINES.  -  LONG  ROLLS  OF  PAPER.  —  GROUNDING.  - 

PRINTING  IN  THE  COLORS.  — VELVET  AND  GOLD  PAPERS.  — EXTENT  OF  THE 
BUSINESS.  —  HOW  PAPER  SHOULD  BE  PUT  ON. 

Wall  paper  is  the  modern  and  economical  substitute  for  the 
ancient  hand  or  loom-woven  tapestries,  which  have  been  used  in 
many  countries  from  the  earliest  times.  Ilomer  speaks  of  them, 
and  the  oldest  Hebrew  records  describe  the  elaborate  and  costly 
hanging's,  “  wrought  in  gold  and  silver,  and  in  divers  colors.” 
Centuries  ago,  in  Eastern  countries,  the  walls  of  temples,  palaces, 
and  the  houses  of  the  rich  were  lined  with  silken  and  cloth  hang¬ 
ings,  which  bore  beautiful  designs,  and  were  often  ornamented 
with  diamonds  and  other  precious  stones.  The  fashion  came  into 
France  with  Christianity,  and  the  records  of  the  fifth  century  make 
mention  of  the  rich  tapestries  in  the  churches.  Shakespeare 
shows  Polonius  hiding,  and  Falstaff  asleep,  behind  the  “arras,” 
the  common  name  in  England,  in  old  times,  for  French  tapestries, 
for  which  the  town  of  Arras  was  celebrated.  The  Flemings, 
French,  and  Italians  were  rivals  in  this  manufacture.  Tapestry 
weaving  was  introduced  in  England  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
Throughout  Europe  the  most  famous  artists  furnished  designs,  and 
historical  and  mythological  scenes  were  reproduced  in  tapestry, 
with  all  the  vividness  and  delicacy  of  the  original  painting.  The 
celebrated  Gobelin  manufactory,  established  at  Fontainebleau  by 
Loui3  XIV.,  surpassed  all  others,  and  is  still  celebrated  for  the 
rich  productions  of  its  looms,  and  for  hangings  which  those  who 
live  in  palaces  alone  can  afford  to  purchase. 

But  the  manufacture  of  paper  hangings  brings  within  the  reach 

(461) 


462  •  PAPER  HANGINGS. 

of  all  who  desire  to  decorate  their  houses  wall  papers  of  all 
patterns  and  prices,  from  the  plainest  to  the  most  elaborate,  and 
from  the  cheapest  to  the  most  expensive.  Where  the  invention 
originated  is  uncertain  ;  but  it  was  introduced  in  both  England 
and  F ranee  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  in 
the  middle  of  the  next  century  cylindrical  machines  were  making 
long  sheets  of  paper  for  the  purpose.  The  first  sales  of  paper 
hangings  in  this  country  were  in  1737  —  probably  cheap  patterns 
imported  from  England,  and  largely  used,  as  they  are  now  in  some 
parts  of  the  country,  for  window-shades.  But  travellers  in  this 
country,  a  hundred  years  ago,  make  mention  of  the  handsome 
cloth  hangings,  imported  from  Europe,  and  even  from  India,  to  be 
seen  in  the  houses  of  rich  merchants  in  New  York  and  Boston. 
Booksellers  were  the  first  dealers  in  paper  hangings,  and  the 
“  stained  papers/’  as  the  goods  were  called,  soon  drove  the  cloth 
hangings  even  out  of  the  dwellings  of  the  wealthy,  as  the  wall 
papers  had  superseded  the  cloth  and  leather  hangings  in  Eng¬ 
land. 

The  first  mention  of  wall  paper  manufactured  in  this  country 
was  in  1765,  and  within  twenty  years  from  that  time  there  were 
manufactories  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  and  Boston  estab¬ 
lishments  supplied  Massachusetts  and  other  states.  All  that  could 
be  made  found  a  ready  market,  and  immense  quantities  were  im¬ 
ported  from  abroad,  particularly  from  France,  which  appreciated 
the  importance  of  the  American  trade  in  this  article  sufficiently  to 
remove  the  export  duty.  In  1789  the  manufacture  in  Philadelphia 
had  reached  a  production  of  ten  thousand  pieces  a  month,  which 
was  considered  enormous  then,  but  which  would  scarcely  be  a 
day’s  work  for  some  establishments  now. 

The  paper  of  domestic  manufacture,  however,  was  of  inferior 
quality.  The  first  patterns,  with  glazed  grounds,  were  made  in 
the  United  States  in  1824,  and  soon  after  the  best  French  designs 
began  to  be  imitated.  The  growth  of  the  business  was  very  rapid, 
and  the  wall  papers  were  popular  everywhere,  giving,  as  they  did, 
a  neat  and  pleasing  covering  to  plain  plaster,  much  superior  to 
whitewash,  and  cheaper  than  hard  finish  or  paint.  From  small 
beginnings,  the  business  has  grown  to  be  prominent  among  the 
manufacturing  interests  of  the  country,  and  Yankee  ingenuity  has 
devised  improved  processes,  which  have  been  eagerly  adopted 
abroad,  and  which  have  superseded  slower  processes  still  pur¬ 
sued  in  England  and  France. 


PAPER  HANGINGS. 


463 


The  process  of  making  paper  hangings  is  similar  to  that  of 
calico  printing,  or,  it  may  be  said,  that  for  the  production  of  the 
more  elaborate  patterns  requiring  many  colors,  the  process  is  not 
unlike  chromo-lithograph}'.  At  first,  the  paper  was  made  in 
sheets  not  more  than  thirty  inches  long,  which  were  pasted  to¬ 
gether,  and  the  printing  was  done  by  hand,  block  alter  block, 
each  with  its  own  color,  being  printed  in  succession.  The  intro¬ 
duction  of  new  paper-making  machines  gave  rolls  of  from  one 
thousand  to  two  thousand  yards  in  length,  and  from  twenty  to 
forty  inches  in  width.  In  1843,  an  American  machine  was  in¬ 
vented  for  printing  two  colors,  and  ten  years  later  one  which 
would  print  six  colors,  while  now  there  are  machines  which  will 
print  twenty  or  more  colors  in  one  operation.  Great  improve¬ 
ments  have  also  been  introduced  for  expediting  the  drying  and 
finishing  the  sheets. 

The  first  step  in  the  process  is  the  preparation  of  the  designs, 
which,  as  the  finished  papers  show,  demand  artistic  talent  of  a 
superior  order,  and  afford  abundant  opportunity  for  the  display  of 
a  refined  and  cultivated  taste.  Maple  or  pear  wood  is  used  for 
the  patterns,  and  these,  when  cut,  are  inlaid  with  brass  and  felting, 
to  make  the  blocks  more  durable.  The  color  department  is  gen¬ 
erally  in  the  basement  of  the  building,  and  there  all  the  colors  are 
mixed  in  vats,  in  which  the  mixers  are  driven  by  machinery,  ex¬ 
cepting  some  of  the  finer  tints,  which  are  mixed  by  hand.  From 
the  basement  the  colors  are  hoisted  to  the  top  floor,  where  ma¬ 
chines  cover  the  paper  with  the  selected  ground  upon  which  the 
other  colors  are  to  be  printed.  On  the  first,  second,  and  third 
floors  are  the  cylinder  machines  which  print  the  patterns.  With 
a  roller  for  each  color,  these  machines  print  as  many  colors  as  the 
pattern  requires,  and  the  sheet,  coming  from  the  press  in  a  con¬ 
tinuous  length,  passes  over  steam-heated  pipes,  which  instantly 
dry  it,  and  it  is  then  carried  to  reels,  which  roll  it  in  readiness  for 
the  warehouse.  The  rapid  working  of  these  presses  enables  some 
of  the  more  extensive  establishments  to  turn  out  nearly  eight 
hundred  miles  of  printed  hanging-paper  every  week,  amounting  in 
weight  to  more  than  two  thousand  tons  in  a  year. 

Some  of  the  finer  descriptions  of  paper  are  still  printed  by  hand, 
particularly  the  gold  and  velvet  patterns,  for  which  some  manu¬ 
factories  employ  thirty  or  more  hand-presses.  A  satin  or  highly- 
polished  surface  is  given  by  machinery  to  the  ground  of  some 
papers  before  they  are  printed  with  the  patterns.  For  gold  and 


404 


PAPER  HANGINGS. 


“  flock/ ’  or  velvet  papers,  the  pattern  is  printed  with  glue  size, 
and  then  with  varnish  or  gold  size  before  the  flock  or  bronze  is 
applied.  The  flock  is  ground  and  colored  cloth  or  wool,  and  is 
dusted  on  the  pattern  before  the  glue  and  size  impression  is  dry, 
and  for  bronze  a  machine  lays  on  the  material,  while  rollers  remove 
the  superfluous  bronze.  There  is  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  pat¬ 
terns  ;  new  designs  are  constantly  appearing ;  and  the  American 
papers,  in  beauty  of  design  and  perfection  of  finish,  fairly  com¬ 
pete  with  the  finest  specimens  manufactured  in  Europe.  . 

The  progress  in  this  manufacture  in  this  country  has  been  enor¬ 
mous.  Single  large  establishments  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  Phila¬ 
delphia  employ  as  many  as  two  hundred  operatives,  and  manufac¬ 
ture  five  thousand  tons  of  wall  paper  per  year.  In  the  American 
manufactories  all  the  latest  modern  processes  for  printing,  with 
American-invented  machinery  for  coating,  glazing,  and  finishing, 
are  seen  in  operation,  and  processes  which  are  still  performed  by 
hand  in  the  foreign  establishments,  in  this  country  are  effected  by 
steam-propelled  machinery.  The  sales  from  manufactories,  which 
a  short  time  ago  made  but  a  few  thousand  dollars’  worth  of  paper 
in  a  year,  now  annually  amount,  in  single  establishments,  to  more 
than  a  million  dollars.  New,  more  elaborate,  and  more  beautiful 
patterns  are  constantly  introduced  ;  the  invention  of  new  ma¬ 
chinery  keeps  pace  with  the  manufacture  ;  and  the  American  im¬ 
provements  in  processes  are  generally,  though  slowly,  adopted 
abroad. 

In  putting  paper  on  a  wall,  the  primary  essentials  are  good 
workmen,  paste  made  from  sound  flour,  and  a  properly-prepared 
wall.  All  the  inequalities  should  be  levelled,  and,  if  necessary,  the 
wall  should  be  battened  and  canvased.  If  then  a  strong  brown 
paper  is  applied,  a  ground  is  furnished  on  which  the  pattern  paper 
may  be  smoothly  hung. 


TIIE  EFFECT  OF  GRAVITY  OX  LIQUIDS.  —  HOW  THE  ANCIENTS  OVERCAME  IT. 
PUMPS  AMONG  THE  EGYPTIANS.  —  WATER  RAISING  IN  THE  EAST.  —  AMONG 
THE  GREEKS.  — AMONG  THE  ROMANS.  — THE  SUCTION  PUMP.  —  GALILEO’S 
REFLECTIONS  ON  IT.  — DOUBLE-ACTING  PUMPS. — FORCE  PUMPS.  — ROTARY 
PUMPS. — THE  MOST  EFFECTIVE  KIND. —  ITS  CONSTRUCTION. —  FALES,  JENKS 
AND  SONS. - HISTORY  OF  THE  FIRM.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THEIR  MANUFAC¬ 

TORY. 

The  constancy  with  which  all  liquids  tend  to  flow  downwards 
has  in  modern  times  been  found  to  result  from  the  persistent 
action  of  the  attraction  of  gravitation,  and  to  be  only  a  part,  in 
the  great  economy  of  nature,  of  the  constancy  of  motion,  upon 
which  all  the  phenomena  of  organic  life,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
material  universe,  depend. 

The  falling  rain,  the  babbling  brook,  and  the  mighty  cataract, 
are  each  of  them,  to  the  modern  scientist,  as  evident  manifesta- 
*  tions  of  the  heat  of  the  sun,  the  source  of  all  energy  and  motion 
on  the  earth,  as  is  the  grass  or  the  tender  foliage,  which,  like  a 
wave  of  green  advances  yearly  round  the  world,  as  in  its  revolu¬ 
tion  round  the  sun  it  changes  the  relative  position  of  its  sur¬ 
face  to  that  source  of  heat  and  life. 

Among  the  ancients  the  methods  in  use  for  overcoming  the 
gravity  of  water,  or,  in  other  words,  for  pumping  it,  were  as 
rude  and  imperfect  as  their  knowledge  of  the  causes  of  its 
descent,  or  of  any  of  the  laws  of  hydraulics.  In  this  branch  of 
industry,  as  in  every  other,  mankind  commenced  their  course  of 
progress  by  depending  entirely  upon  the  strength  of  their  own 
muscular  energy  for  the  performance  of  any  work  required. 

.  In  fact,  too,  until  invention  had  suggested  some  method  of 
making  a  vessel  capable  of  containing  water,  any  attempt  to 
overcome  its  gravity  was  impossible  ;  but  when  men  could  make’ 
27  (465) 


466 


EIRE  PUMPS. 


buckets,  they  soon  found  that  they  could  cany  water  in  them, 
and  it  was  by  their  use  that  the  elevation  of  water  was  performed 
in  early  times, 

Wilkinson,  in  his  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyp¬ 
tians,  says  that  instruments  resembling  portable  pumps  are  fre¬ 
quently  seen  in  the  sculptures  of  the  Egyptians  ;  but  it  is  most 
probable  that  lie  is  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  delineations 
were  intended  to  represent  pumps.  In  the  first  place  the  repre¬ 
sentations  in  most  of  the  Egyptian  sculptures  are  not  always 
realistic,  but  frequently  merely  conventional,  and,  therefore,  might 
be  easily  mistaken  for  something  else  than  what  they  were  really 
intended  to  represent ;  and  especially  would  this  seem  to  be  the 
case  in  this  instance,  when  we  know  that  nations  whose  com¬ 
mercial  and  other  relations  with  the  Egyptians  were  quite  inti¬ 
mate  knew  nothing  of  the  pump. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  so  novel  and  striking  an  appli¬ 
ance  as  a  pump  would  be  to  any  one  who  had  never  seen  any 
such  thing  should  have  escaped  the  notice  of  Herodotus  in  his 
visits  to  Egypt,  or  should  have  passed  utterly  out  of  existence 
without  being  imitated  by  some  nation  of  antiquity. 

Among  the  nations  of  the  East,  who  have  a  wonderful  sta¬ 
bility  in  their  conservatism  of  ancient  methods,  the  appliances  in 
use  for  elevating  water  are  chiefly  a  wheel,  with  buckets  upon  its 
periphery,  and  the  pole  and  bucket,  such  as  has  always  been  in 
use  in  New  England,  and  is  still  to  be  seen  where  the  well-sweep 
has  not  been  swept  away  by  the  besom  of  progress. 

The  Greeks  used  the  appliance  known  as  the  Archimedean 
screw,  so  called  from  its  inventor,  Archimedes,  in  which  water 
can  be  raised  in  a  tube  shaped  like  the  threads  of  a  screw,  by 
inclining  it  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  revolving  it.  Though 
the  Romans  used  pipes  for  the  introduction  of  water  into  their 
dwellings,  and  had  even  siphons,  yet  they  were  unacquainted 
with  the  fact  of  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  and  that  by  this 
force  water  may  be  raised  in  a  vacuum  to  a  height  of  about  thirty 
feet,  or  the  height  at  which  a  column  of  water  will  equal  the 
weight  of  a  column  of  air  of  the  same  transverse  area. 

When  the  use  of  the  common  suction  pump  was  introduced  is 
not  known.  In  this  arrangement  a  tube  is  furnished  with  a 
plunger  provided  with  a  valve  opening  upwards.  One  end  being 
placed  in  the  water,  the  plunger  is  worked,  exhausting  the  air, 
and  the  .water,  being  pressed  up  by  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere 


FIRE  PUMPS. 


467 


acting  upon  its  surface  in  the  reservoir,  is  raised  by  the  successive 
strokes  of  the  plunger.  The  explanation  for  this  apparent  con¬ 
tradiction,  on  the  part  of  water,  of  its  usual  tendency  to  flow 
only  downwards,  was,  up  to  the  time  of  Galileo,  found  in  the 
dictum  that  nature  abhorred  a  vacuum.  It  having  been  brought 
to  his  attention  that  suction  pumps  longer  than  thirty-two  feet 
from  the  top  of  the  water  in  the  reservoir  to  the  place  of  delivery 
in  the  pump  would  not  work  effectively,  he  replied  to  those  who 
asked  an  explanation  of  the  difficulty,  that  he  could  not  explain 
it,  only  that  it  seemed  in  this  case  nature  abhorred  a  vacuum 
provided  it  was  not  over  thirty-two  feet  long. 

Having,  however,  recommended  to  his  pupil  Torricelli  the  fur¬ 
ther  investigation  of  this  phenomenon,  the  subject  was  investi¬ 
gated  by  him,  and  the  foundation  laid  of  all  our  positive  scientific 
knowledge  concerning  hydro-mechanics. 

A  pump  of  this  simple  description  is  called  a  lifting  pump,  and 
is  generally  used  in  houses  for  domestic  purposes.  The  supply 
of  water  thus  gained  is  not,  however,  sufficiently  large  for  indus¬ 
trial  purposes.  Besides,  it  is  intermittent ;  one  half  of  the  time 
spent  in  working  the  pump,  while  the  plunger  is  being  forced 
downwards,  there  being  no  flow  of  water.  To  remedy  this,  some¬ 
times  double-acting  pumps  are  used,  in  which  one  piston  ascends 
while  the  other  is  forced  downwards. 

To  obtain  a  still  more  continuous  flow,  and  also  to  raise  water 
higher  than  it  can  be  sustained  by  the  pressure  of  the  atmos¬ 
phere,  force  pumps  are  used.  In  these  the  plunger  has  no  valve, 
and  works  in  a  chamber  through  which  the  water  does  not  pass, 
but  as  the  piston  is  raised,  passes  in  below,  and,  by  the  return 
stroke,  is  forced  through  a  valve  opening  outside,  and  is  then 
conducted  wherever  desired.  By  a  double-acting  force  pump, 
provided  with  an  air  chamber,  a  perfectly  continuous  flow  of  the 
water  is  secured. 

Pumps  of  this  character  are  objectionable  from  the  complica¬ 
tion  of  their  parts  and  the  use  of  so  many  valves,  which  are 
liable  to  get  out  of  order.  Yet  they  are  still  tised,  and  in  many 
cases  with  great  effect.  There  are  instances  in  which  pumps  of 
this  character  are  used  in  mines,  and  raise  water,  at  a  single  lift, 
to  a  height  of  five  hundred  feet. 

The  rotary  pump  is,  however,  the  mechanical  arrangement 
which  secures  the  effective  production  of  the  largest  amount  of 
work  with  the  expenditure  of  the  least  amount  of'  force.  It  is 


468 


FIRE  PUMPS. 


impossible  to  say  when  the  idea  of  a  rotary  pump  was  first  intro¬ 
duced,  but  the  manifest  superiority  of  this  method  has  led  to  its 
very  general  acceptance,  and  also  to  many  ingenious  inventions 
for  its  practical  application. 

Of  these  the  simple  and  effective  rotary  pumps  manufactured 
by  Fales,  Jenks  &  Sons,  of  Pawtucket,  It.  I.,  have,  by  their 
popular  acceptance,  been  proved  to  be  the  best  in  use.  The 
founder  of  this  firm,  Mr.  David  G.  Fales,  having  received  a  prac¬ 
tical  education  as  a  machinist,  in  1830  formed  a  copartnership 
with  Mr.  Alvin  Jenks,  under  the  firm  name  of  Fales  &  Jenks, 
and  commenced,  at  Central  Falls,  R.  I.,  the  manufacture  of  cotton 


machinery.  The  first  machine  they  made  was  a  spooler  for  a  firm 
in  Richmond,  Virginia,  for  which  they  received  sixty  dollars. 

In  1833  the  firm,  having  purchased  the  right  to  manufacture 
Hubbard’s  Patent  Rotary  Pump,  have  since  made  it  an  important 
article  of  their  manufacture.  As  will  be  seen  from  the  accom¬ 
panying  cuts,  this  simple  and  effective  pump  consists  of  two 
wheels,  enclosed  in  a  cylinder,  one  driving  the  other  by  close- 
fitting  gearing,  so  as  to  be  water-tight. 

These  wheels,  revolving  in  opposite  directions,  expel  the  air, 
which  escapes  from  the  enclosing  case  at  the  outside  of  the 
wheels,  thus  creating  a  vacuum,  into  which  the  water  rushes,  and 
is,  in  its  turn,  expelled  with  great  force. 


FIRE  PUMPS. 


4C9 


Since  the  manufactory  of  these  pumps  has  been  in  the  hands 
of  Messrs.  Fales,  Jenks  &  Sons,  many  improvements  have  been 


a  security  against  fire  that  their  introduction  into  manufactories 
and  other  public  buildings  has  created  an  extensive  demand  for 


made  in  their  construction,  thus  greatly  increasing  their  effective 
working  power  and  their  durability,  so  that  they  now  afford  such 


GEARED  PUMP. 


ROTARY  PUMP. 


470 


FIRE  PUMPS 


them;  while  the  experience  of  the  manufacturers  and  their  facili¬ 
ties  have  given  them  almost  an  exclusive  monopoly  of  their  pro¬ 
duction. 


In  combination  with  the  manufacture  of  pumps,  Messrs.  Fales, 
Jenks  &  Sons  also  make  hydrants,  both  double  and  single  valve, 


FIRE  FUMPS. 


471 


pipe  connections,  and  everything  necessary  to  completely  furnish 
the  water  works  for  a  mill  or  a  city.  Having  recently  provided 
the  necessary  appliances  for  the  water  works  of  the  city  of  Provi¬ 
dence,  they  have  now  the  patterns  needed  for  making  water  gates 
of  the  largest  dimensions,  and  to  contract  for  the  gates,  hydrants, 
and  valves  needed  for  the  works  of  cities  of  any  size. 

In  April,  1854,  Alvin  F.  Jenks  and  John  R.  Fales,  the  sons  of 
the  original  partners,  were  taken  into  the  concern  and  the  present 
business  name  of  the  firm  was  adopted. 

In  January,  1856,  Mr.  Alvin  Jenks,  whose  mechanical  skill, 
sound  judgment,  and  integrity  of  character  had  aided  so  much  in 
building  up  the  success  of  the  business,  died,  and  another  of  his 
sons,  Mr.  Stephen  A.  Jenks,  w*as  admitted  to  the  partnership,  the 
name  of  the  firm  remaining  unchanged. 

In  1865  Messrs.  Fales,  Jenks  &  Sons  removed  their  business 
from  Central  Falls  to  Pawtucket,  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
from  their  old  establishment,  purchasing  about  fifty  acres  of  wild 
land,  which  they  cleared,  and  erected  upon  it  their  present  build¬ 
ings  which  occupy  about  eight  acres  of  ground. 

Here,  with  every  requisite  for  conducting  their  extensive  busi¬ 
ness,  with  well  organized  and  furnished  founderies,  machine  shops, 
carpenter  shops,  fire-proof  pattern  buildings,  blacksmith  shops, 
lumber  sheds,  annealing  furnaces,  and  so  on,  they  have  at  hand 
everything  requisite  for  carrying  on  their  operations  in  the  most 
effectual  and  economic  manner,  and  extending  even  their  wide 
and  deserved  business  reputation. 


THREAD  MACHINERY. 

THE  FIRST  THREAD.  —  TIIE  ART  OF  SPINNING  BY  HAND.  —  THE  SPINNING* WHEEL. — 
SPINNING  THREAD  BY  MACHINERY.  —  HARGREAVES.  —  ARKWRIGHT.  —  CROMP¬ 
TON. —  THREAD-MAKING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  FIRST  COTTON 
THREAD.  —  THE  COMPLEXITY  OF  THREAD  MACHINES.  —  MESSRS.  FALEgp  JENKS 
AND  SONS. 

The  first  thread  used  by  manlynd  was  most  probably  such  as 
we  find  in  use  now  by  the  Esquimaux  and  by  the  various  savage 
races  still  in  the  world,  made  from  the  sinews  of  animals,  or  from 
such  vegetable  fibres  as  are  fit  for  this  purpose.  Upon  this  con¬ 
dition  a  great  step  in  advance  was  made,  when  it  was  discovered 
that  a  thread  could  be  made,  of  any  length  or  thickness,  by  twist¬ 
ing  together  the  shorter  fibres  which  are  furnished  in  greater 
abundance  by  various  plants. 

•  The  art  of  thus  spinning  thread  must  have  been  arrived  at  very 
early  in  the  history  of  the  race,  since  in  the  remotest  historic 
times  we  find  the  process  had  already  been  made  quite  perfect. 
The  Egyptians  had  carried  the  art  of  spinning  thread  to  a  high 
point  of  perfection,  while  in  India  the  use  of  the  spinning-wheel 
was  known  long  before  it  was  introduced  into  England. 

In  the  hand  method  of  spinning  thread  a  bunch  of  carded  fibre, 
of  cotton,  flax,  or  wool,  was  held  upon  a  distaff,  under  the  left 
arm,  while  with  the  thumb  and  fingers  of  the  right  hand  the 
thread  was  twisted  to  the  right  size  ;  the  only  guide  for  evenness 
and  regularity  of  texture  being  the  delicacy  of  touch  in  the  hand 
of  the  operator.  As  the  thread  was  twisted  it  was  wound  upon 
a  spindle. 

"With  this  simple  and  seemingly  rude  process  very  fine  and 
even  thread  was  often  made.  Such  spinning  being  mostly  in  the 
hands  of  women,  the  term  sjntisler,  which  was  formerly  used  as 
a  synonyme  for  woman ,  shows  how  generally  this  occupation  was 
then  performed  by  them. 

(472) 


THREAD  MACHINERY. 


473 


The  use  of  the  spinning*  wheel,  as  an  improved  method  of  twist¬ 
ing  the  thread,  was  introduced  into  England  in  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII.  from  India,  where  it  had  long  been  in  use.  By  this  inven¬ 
tion  the  production  of  thread  was  greatly  increased;  but  the 
industry  was  chiefly  a  domestic  one,  and  really  a  process  of  hand 
labor. 

The  modern  application  of  machinery  to  spinning  thread  began 
in  England  in  1767  by  James  Hargreaves’s  invention  of  the  spin¬ 
ning  jenny. 

At  first  this  machine  was  intended  to  spin  eight  threads  at 
once.  The  name  of  the  machine  is  said  to  be  derived  from  a  cor¬ 
ruption  of  gin ,  which  was  itself  a  contraction  from  engine.  An 
improvement  upon  this  machine  was  made  by  Richard  Arkwright, 
who  introduced  the  principle  of  spinning  by  rollers,  which  draw 
out  the  slivers,  or  rolls  of  the  carded  fibre.  As  these  rollers  are 
in  sets  of  two,  each  set  revolving  faster  than  the  last,  the  roll  is 
extended  sometimes  four  times  its  original  length. 

This  improvement,  and  others  introduced  by  Arkwright,  enabled 
him  to  make  a  thread  even  and  firm  enough  to  be  used  in 
weaving  for  both  the  warp  and  woof.  This  improvement  was  so 
great  upon  that  introduced  by  Hargreaves,  that  he  is  said  to 
have  died  from  mortification  at  its  success.  Arkwright,  having 
patented  his  invention,  acquired  an  enormous  fortune  from  it,  and 
it  has  been  estimated  that  his  machine,  enabling  one  man  to  do  as 
much  as  one  hundred  and  thirty  could  before,  has  added  to  the 
effective  productive  force  of  England  as  much  as  a  population  of 
forty  millions  of  men  would  have  done. 

In  1779  Samuel  Crompton,  of  Bolton,  England,  completed  a 
machine  which  combined  the  jenny  of  Hargreaves  and  the  roller 
spinning  of  Arkwright,  and  was  called  the  mule  jenny ,  or,  as 
generally  known,  the  mule.  • 

The  original  machine  used  from  twenty  to  thirty  spindles  ;  but 
this  carried  over  two  thousand,  and  needed  the  attention  of  only  a 
single  operative.  It  was  only  through  these  inventions  that  the 
enormous  spinning  industry  of  the  world  became  possible,  and 
the  production  of  modern  times  enabled  to  attain  the  proportions 
and  the  cheapness  which  place  the  luxury  of  clean  clothes  within 
the  reach  even  of  the  very  poor. 

In  the  United  States  thread  spinning  was  an  important  branch 
of  industry  from  the  earliest  times.  Here,  as  in  England,  it  was 
at  first  entirely  a  domestic  industry,  and  the  spinning-wheel  was 


474 


THREAD  MACHINERY. 


considered  an  indispensable  utensil  in  every  well-furnished  house¬ 
hold.  When,  with  the  disorganization  of  trade  produced  by  the 
revolution,  the  importance  of  supplying  the  demand  for  home 
consumption  became  more  apparent,  this  industry  was  stimulated 
by  premiums  voted  by  many  of  the  local  governments,  and  the 
societies  instituted  for  the  general  encouragement  of  manufac- 
, .  tories. 

The  first  sewing  thread  ever  made  of  cotton  was  produced  in 
1794,  at  Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island.  Previously  to  this,  flax  was 
the  material  used  in  this  manufacture.  The  idea  of  using  cotton 
is  said  to  have  been  suggested  by  Mrs.  Samuel  Slater,  who,  while 
spinning  some  Sea  Island  cotton,  noticed  the  evenness  and  beauty 
of  the  yarn  it  made.  The  manufacture  was  introduced  by  her 
husband,  Samuel  Slater,  who  is  so  well  known  as  the  pioneer  of 
the  cotton  industry  of  this  country. 

With  the  introduction  of  machine-made  thread,  the  manufacture 
of  the  machinery  for  this  industry  has  kept  pace,  and  become  of 
itself  an  important  industrial  interest.  One  of  the  chief  represen¬ 
tative  houses  engaged  in  this  business  is  that  of  Messrs.  Pales, 
Jenks  &  Sons,  of  Pawtucket,  R.  I. 

This  firm  has  made  more  of  the  machinery  used  for  making 
thread  which  has  been  manufactured  in  this  country  than  any 
other  single  firm  ;  and  the  perfect  organization  of  their  works, 
with  their  promptness  in  taking  advantage  of  every  improve¬ 
ment,  are  an  earnest  that  in  the  future  they  will  retain  the  reputa¬ 
tion  they  have  so  legitimately  earned. 

In  their  extensive  works  at  Pawtucket,  covering  about  eight 
acres,  they  have  every  accommodation  requisite  for  their  business, 
and  the  organization  of  the  various  departments  necessary  in  the 
various  operations  enables  them  to  combine  the  best  excellence 
p  with  the  greatest  economy  of  manufacture.  The  business  of  the 

firm  is  not,  however,  limited  to  the  production  of  thread  ma¬ 
chinery,  and  under  the  head  of  Fire  Pumps,  a  condensed  history 
of  its  origin  and  progress  will  be  found. 


COAL. 


COAL  IN  ENGLAND  EIGHT  CENTURIES  AGO.  —  THE  FIELDS  IN  TIIE  UNITED 
STATES.  — DISCOVERY  OF  ANTHRACITE.  —  FIRST  USE  OF  IT.  —  PREJUDICE 
AGAINST  IT.  —  OPENING  OF  THE  MAUCH  CHUNK  MINES.  —  THE  REAL  BE¬ 
GINNING  OF  TIIE  BUSINESS.  — BLACK  STONE  AND  STONE  COAL.  — ANTHRA¬ 
CITE  IN  RHODE  ISLAND  AND  MASSACHUSETTS.  — THE  BITUMINOUS  BEDS.  - 

THE  ANTHRACITE  FIELDS.  —  COAL  DEVELOPING  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS. 

—  CANALS  AND  RAILWAYS.  —  THE  WEALTH  OF  STATES.  —  IMPORTANCE  OF 
COAL.  —  ITS  UNIVERSAL  USE.  —  EXTENT  OF  THE  COAL  REGIONS  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  — COAL  MINING.  —  HOW  IT  IS  CARRIED  ON.  —  DIFFERENT 
KINDS  OF  MINES.  — COAL  MINERS  AS  A  CLASS.  — COAL  MINING  COMPANIES. 

—  COMBINATIONS  AND  HIGH  PRICES.  —  THE  BUSINESS  A  MONOPOLY. 


Coal,  anthracite  or  bituminous,  is  distributed  over  a  considera¬ 
ble  portion  of  the  world,  and  is  unquestionably  the  most  valuable 
of  all  mineral  products,  not  only  for  its  illuminating,  heat,  and 
steam  generating  properties,  but  because,  without  it,  the  working 
of  other  minerals  and  of  metals  to  any  extent  would  be  impracti¬ 
cable.  Newcastle  coal  was  known  and  used  as  fuel  more  than 
eight  hundred  years  ago,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  ancient  Brit¬ 
ons  and  the  Romans  in  Britain  understood  the  value  of  the  article. 
To  give  only  a  condensed  history  of  coal  and  coal  mining  in  all 
times  and  in  all  countries  would  require  a  large  volume  ;  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  present  article  is  to  give,  as  concisely  as  is  possible, 
some  account  of  this  great  industry  and  source  of  wealth  in  the 
United  States. 

Anthracite,  which  exists  to  some  extent  in  South  Wales,  in 
France,  in  Saxony,  and  elsewhere  in  Europe,  abounds  in  the 
greatest  profusion,  and  in  what  is  presumed  to  be  an  inexhaustible 
supply  in  Pennsylvania.  It  is  also  found  in  Rhode  Island.  The 
existence  of  anthracite  was  first  made  known  to  the  white  settlers 
in  Pennsylvania  in  1768,  and  within  ten  years  blacksmiths  were 
using  it  for  fuel  in  preference  to  the  bituminous  coal  from  Virginia. 

(475) 


Previous  to  this  time  the  principal  source  of  coal  supply  was  the 
Chesterfield  c<^l  basin  of  Virginia,  which  lias  the  oldest  worked 
collieries  in  the  country,  though  considerable  quantities  of  coal 
were  imported  from  England  to  that  colony.  In  1784  coal  mining 
began  in  the  vicinity  of  Pittsburg.  In  1791  the  Mauch  Chunk 
coal  discoveries  were  made,  and  soon  afterwards  the  Lehigh  Coal 
Mine  Company  was  organized. 

It  is  stated  that  anthracite  was  experimented  with  early  in  the 
present  century,  at  Kingston,  Massachusetts,  in  smelting  iron. 
Though  this  coal  had  been  for  some  time  satisfactorily  used  by  the 
blacksmiths,  gunsmiths,  and  iron  workers  of  Middle  and  West¬ 
ern  Pennsylvania,  a  load  sent  to  Philadelphia,  in  1806,  was  consid¬ 
ered  on  trial  to  be  unmanageable.  Two  years  previously  it  had 
been  used  to  a  limited  extent  in  Philadelphia  as  fuel ;  but  as  a 
steam  generator  it  was  deemed  impracticable.  There  seems  for  a 
long  time  to  have  been  a  positive  prejudice  against  anthracite ;  but 
the  war  of  1812,  which  raised  the  price  of  bituminous  coal,  called 
renewed  attention  to  the  coal  of  Pennsylvania,  and  to  means  of 
mining  and  transporting  it.  The  “  black  stone”  began  to  be  used 
in  some  iron  mills,  and  in  stoves  for  warming  houses.  In  1824  the 
Mauch  Chunk  mines  sent  twenty-four  tons  to  Philadelphia,  where 
it  was  approved  by  those  who  used  it ;  but  wood  was  so  plentiful 
that  in  six  years  following  only  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  tons 
of  hard  coal  had  been  sent  to  that  city.  In  1820  the  anthracite 
coal  business  may  be  said  to  have  really  begun  by  the  shipment  of 
three  hundred  and  twenty-five  tons  by  the  Lehigh  Coal  and  Navi¬ 
gation  Company  to  Philadelphia,  and  in  the  same  year  seventy 
thousand  bushels  of  “stone  coal  ”  from  Alleghany  County,  Mary¬ 
land,  reached  the  same  city.  Five  years  later,  the  Lehigh  mines 
sent  to  market  twenty-eight  thousand  three  hundred  and  ninety- 
six  tons  ;  the  first,  working  of  the  Schuylkill  region  in  the  same  year  • 
resulted  in  a  product  of  six  thousand  five  hundred  tons ;  and 
in  this  year,  1820,  steam  was  first  successfully  generated  with 
anthracite  in  Philadelphia.  From-  that  time  forward  the  progress 
in  coal  mining  was  rapid  and  immense. 

Anthracite  coal  was  discovered  in  Phode  Island  in  1768,  but  the 
mines  were  not  worked  till  1808,  and  the  working  was  abandoned 
and  renewed  several  times,  none  of  the  mines  seeming  to  be  profit¬ 
able  excepting  those  of  Portsmouth.  There  is  an  extension  of 
the  Rhode  Island  field  in  Bristol  County,  Massachusetts,  and  it  may 
have  been  this  coal  that  was  first  experimented  with  at  Kingston. 


/ 

COAL.  477 

The  Appalachian  bituminous  coal  field  in  this  country  begins  in 
the  north  of  Pennsylvania,  extends  south,  and  includes  the'  south¬ 
west  part  of  Ohio,  the  eastern  part  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
and  West  Virginia,  ending  with  Northern  Alabama.  Another 
great  field  occupies  Illinois,  part  of  Indiana,  and  a  small  part  of 
the  north-west  of  Kentucky.  South-eastern  Virginia  and  Maryland 
have  extensive  fields.  The  same  coal  is  found  in  the  interior  of 
Michigan,  Missouri,  and  in  some  other  states.  The  great  anthra¬ 
cite  region  is  in  the  north-eastern  portion  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
there  are  anthracite  fields  in  some  parts  of  Virginia.  Anthracite, 
semi-anthracite,  and  bituminous  beds  are  found  in  close  proximity 
in  some  sections,  and  generally  near,  and  sometimes  under  coal 
are  found  vast  mines  of  iron  ore,  a  fortunate  proximity  of  the  one 
for  the  working  of  the  other. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  the  discovery  o^*  coal,  especially  in 
Pennsylvania,  has  led  to  immense  internal  improvements.  In  that 
state  no  less  than  nine  important  canals  and  twenty-seven  railroads 
have  been  built  expressly  for  the  transportation  of  coal,  and  so 
great  is  the  business  that  it  is  estimated  that  the  freights  in  three 
years  will  pay  the  entire  cost  of  constructing  a  railroad.  Coal  has 
led  to  the  development  of  enormous  wealth  in  states.  The  vast 
iron  interest  of  Pennsylvania  owes  its  importance  to  anthracite. 
The  manufacturing  wealth  of  such  cities  as  Pittsburg  is  largely 
due  to  the  same  source.  The  coal  mines  of  the  country  have 
wrought  far  more  prosperity  to  the  people  at  large  than  all  the  gold 
and  silver  mined  on  the  Pacific  slope.  Coal  enters  largety  into 
every  conceivable  industry  of  the  country  ;  the  bituminous  coal 
not  only  illuminates  cities,  but  is  used  as  fuel,  and  extensively  in 
manufacturing ;  anthracite  generates  the  steam  that  moves  the 
machinery  of  the  whole  country  ;  it  warms  our  houses  ;  and,  com¬ 
bined  with  lignite,  is  even  used  in  the  manufacture  of  many  beau¬ 
tiful  and  durable  articles  of  use  and  art.  The  coal  fields  of  the 
country  cover  thousands  upon  thousands  of  square  miles  ;  they 
employ  millions  of  capital  and  thousands  of  laborers  ;  the  demand 
is  equal  to  all  that  can  be  mined  ;  and  the  supply  is  inexhaustible. 

Coal  Mining. 

Coal,  according  to  its  location,  and  the  lay  or  dip  of  the  strata, 
is  often  worked  by  quarrying  into  the  side  of  a  hill  or  mountain  ; 
or,  when  the  beds  are  deep,  shafts  are  sunk,  galleries  are  formed  by 
taking  out  the  coal,  and  tracks  are  laid  down  for  the  transportation 


478 


COAL. 


of  the  coal  from  the  different  parts  of  the  mine  to  the  shafts  where 
it  is  hoisted.  The  miners  use  picks,  and  huge  masses  of  coal  are 
thrown  down  by  wedges  driven  into  long  grooves  made  in  the 
vein,  and  sometimes  by  light  charges  of  powrder.  Columns  of 
coal  are  left,  and  timbers  are  set  up  to  support  the  roof.  Steam 
power  does  the  hoisting  and  lowering,  and  runs  the  coal  breakers 
which  break  the  coal  brought  up  from  the  mines.  The  coal  is 
separated  by  screens  into  “  lump, ”  “egg,”  “broken,”  “  stove,  ” 
and  “pea”  sizes.  Before  it  goes  to  market  the  slate  and  stone 
are  supposed  to  be  picked  out  by  boys,  who  become  very  expert  in 
the  business,  though  they  manage  to  leave  in  enough  of  what  is 
not  coal  to  form  the  “  clinkers  ”  which  annoy  the  consumer. 

The  coal  miners  are  generally  a  rough  and  sometimes  trouble¬ 
some  class  of  men,  who  are  greatly  given  to  combinations  and 
strikes,  and  who  are  made  responsible  for  the  frequently  alleged 
“scarcity,”  and  consequent  high  price  of  coal.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  claimed  that  the  mining  companies,  by  Combination,  ar¬ 
range  to  put  up  prices,  and  to  charge  unreasonable  rates  for  trans¬ 
portation  on  their  own  railroads  to  market.  The  vast  capital 
required  in  the  business,  and  the  comparatively  few  great  compa¬ 
nies  engaged,  wdtli  their  power  to  combine  for  their  own  interests, 
make  coal  mining  a  monopoly,  and  the  price  of  coal  far  higher 
than  it  should  be  where  the  supply  is  so  abundant,  the  fields  so 
near  the  market,  and  the  means  for  transportation  so  easy. 


COPPER. 


DIFFUSION  OF  COPPER  THROUGHOUT  THE  WORLD. — COPPER  MINES  IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES.  —  THEIR  RANK  IN  IMPORTANCE.  - FIRST  DISCOVERIES  IN 

NEW  ENGLAND.  —  MINES  IN  NEW  JERSEY.  —  DISCOVERIES  IN  THE  SOUTH.  — 
THE  AVALLINGFORD  AND  SIMSBURY  MINES.  —  GRANBY  COPPERS.  —  CONVICTS 
AS  MINERS.  — EXPORTS  FROM  NEW  YORK. — THE  LAKE  SUPERIOR  REGION. 

—  GENERAL  CASS  AND  H.  R.  SCHOOLCRAFT.  —  CESSION  BY  THE  CHIPPEAVAYS. 

—  THE  COPPER  FEVER.  —  WILD  SPECULATION.  —  BURSTING  OF  THE  BUBBLE. 

—  SURVEYS  BY  GOA’ERNMENT.  — DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  MINES.  — COPPER 
MINING.  —  HOAV  IT  IS  CONDUCTED.  —  MASS  COPPER.  —  BARREL  WORK.  — 
STAMP  AVORK.  —  AMOUNT  OF  PRODUCTION.  —  COPPER  SMELTING.  —  PRODUC¬ 
TION  OF  THE  ORE.  — LOCATION  OF  REFINERIES.  — USES  FOR  COPPER. — 
COPPER  COINAGE  SUPERSEDED. 

Copper,  in  its  native  or  metallic  state,  or  in  combination  with 
other  metals  and  minerals,  is  generously  distributed  throughout  the 
world.  It  is  found  in  profusion  in  Russia,  Norway  and  Sweden, 
Great  Britain,  Prussia,  Austria,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Turkey,  Al¬ 
giers,  Australia,  the  East  Indies,  Japan,  South  America,  Cuba, 
Jamaica,  and  Mexico. 

The  copper  mines  in  the  United  States  rank  in  importance  next 
to  those  of  gold  and  iron.  Copper  was  enumerated  among  the 
minerals  of  New  England  in  1632.  In  1648  Governor  Endicott  dis¬ 
covered  copper  on  his  grounds  at  Salem  ;  he  set  up  smelting  works, 
and  imported  from  Germany  and  Sweden  workmen  who  knew  how 
to  smelt  and  refine  the  metal.  Before  1660  the  copper  mines  in 
New  Jersey,  near  New  Brunswick,  were  worked  by  the  Dutch, 
and  at  about  the  same  time  the  mines  in  the  Lake  Superior  region 
were  known  to  the  French  Jesuits.  The  first  settlers  in  the  coun¬ 
try  noticed  that  the  Indians  in  many  sections  had  weapons  and 
ornaments  made  of  this  metal,  and  the  early  colonial  reports  make 
mention  of  copper  discoveries  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Caro¬ 
lina,  South  Carolina,  and  very  rich  mines,  affording  black  oxide 
and  sulphuret  of  copper,  were  found  in  Tennessee. 

(479> 


480 


COPPER. 


Early  in  the  last  century  copper  was  discovered  in  Connecticut, 
at  .Wallingford  and  at  Simsbury,  and  in  1709  the  oldest  mining 
charter  in  the  country  was  granted  to  a  company  to  work  the 
Simsbury  (or  Granby)  mines.  These  were  worked  for  several 
years  by  convicts  in  the  Newgate  established  there.  From  1719 
to  1731  the  Belleville  mine,  in  New  Jersey,  produced  nearly  four¬ 
teen  hundred  tons.  In  1732  other  mines  were  discovered  in  New 
Jersey  and  in  Pennsylvania.  In  1737  the  “  Granby  coppers,” 
used  as  coin,  were  stamped  in  Connecticut,  and,  as  they  were  pure 
metal,  they  were  much  in  demand  by  goldbeaters  for  alloy ;  much 
of  this  ore  was  also  exported  to  Europe.  In  1766  eighty  tons  of 
copper  ore,  valued  at  one  hundred  pounds  a  ton,  were  exported 
from  New  York.  In  1810  considerable  quantities  of  copper  were 
extracted  from  pyrites  in  Vermont  and  New  Jersey.  In  1813  the 
copper  workers  of  Massachusetts  petitioned  Congress  for  protec¬ 
tive  duties  on  imported  copper  sheets  and  bolts.  In  1836  a  very 
rich  mine  was  discovered  in  Bristol,  Connecticut,  and  was  worked 
from  1847  to  1857,  when  it  was  abandoned. 

The  Lake  Superior  region  mines,  mentioned  above  as  known  to 
the  French  Jesuits  before  1660,  were  first  worked  to  a  very  small 
extent  near  the  forks  of  the  Ontonagon  in  1771.  In  1819  General 
Lewis  Cass  and  Mr.  IF.  R.  Schoolcraft  visited  and  reported  upon 
the  mass  of  native  copper  on  the  west  fork  of  the  Ontonagon. 
A  short  time  afterwards  the  United  States  government  ordered  a 
scientific  expedition  to  the  region,  and  a  geological  survey  by  the 
State  of  Michigan  soon  followed.  The  cession  of  this  region  by 
the  Chippcways,  in  1843,  opened  the  vast  and  rich  mineral  region 
to  miners,  and  in  the  following  year  the  “  copper  fever  ”  broke 
out. 

The  reports  of  the  discovery  of  huge  masses  of  native  copper, 
containing  silver  enough  to  pay  for  the  working,  produced  an  ex¬ 
citement  almost  equal  to  that  which  prevailed  four  or.  five  years 
later  when  the  California  gold  fever  was  epidemic.  Speculators, 
geologists,  and  miners  went  mad  over  the  Lake  Superior  copper. 
Innumerable  companies  were  formed;  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  miners  and  adventurers  emigrated  to  the  region  ;  hundreds  of 
government  permits  were  taken  out  to  select  and  locate  on  mining 
lands ;  tents  and  settlements  sprang  up  like  mushrooms  on  the 
hillsides;  and  great  fortunes  were  made  and  lost  every  week  — 
not  at  the  mines,  but  in  Wall  Street.  There  had  been  nothing  like 
it  since  the  mulberry  tree  fever  a  few  years  before. 


COPPER. 


481 


As  in  all  speculations  of  this  character,  there  was  the  usual,  or 
an  unusual,  amount  of  swindling  in  selling  worthless  veins,  which 
appeared  and  were  worked  only  on  paper.  During  the  mania, 
prominent  journals  in  New  York,  and  elsewhere  throughout 
the  North  and  West,  were  enlisted,  or  were  interested,  in  the 
enterprise,  and  helped  materially  to  keep  up  the  excitement.  In 
1847  the  speculative  bubble  burst,  and  on  a  thousand  tracts  of  a 
mile  square  each  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  companies  were  actu¬ 
ally  mining  —  the  rest  of  the  tracts  were  abandoned,  and  the 
paper  companies  exploded. 

It  was  time  now  to  develop  the  real  riches  of  the  region,  and 
Congress  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  survey  and  sale  of  the 
mineral  lands  in  the  district.  Three  years  afterwards,  in  1850,  a 
geological  map  of  the  region  was  completed ;  companies  with 
large  capital  were  chartered,  and  copper  mining  at  Lake  Superior 
began  on  a  firm  basis.  The  mines  are  grouped  in  four  regions,  — 
at  Keweenaw  Point,  Isle  Royale,  Ontonagon,  and  Portage  Lake,  — 
and  at  these  points  there  are  several  companies,  whose  business  is 
constantly  increasing.  The  annual  product  from  all  the  mines  is 
enormous.  Much  of  the  product  is  native  metal,  not  ore,  and 
some  silver  is  found  in  connection  with  it. 

In  mining,  the  copper  is  classed  as  follows  :  First,  mass  copper, 
which  is  cut  out  with  cold  chisels,  in  lumps  of  several  hundred 
weight,  which  yield  from  seventy  to  eighty  per  cent,  of  pure 
metal ;  second,  barrel  work,  consisting  of  pieces  too  large  to  be 
stamped,  and  which  must  be  packed  in  barrels  for  transportation  ; 
and  third,  stamp  work,  which  is  the  ore  crushed  under  steam- 
worked  stamps  and  packed  in  casks  and  barrels.  Before  crushing, 
the  rock  containing  the  copper  is  “  roasted,”  care  being  taken  to 
uniformly  diffuse  the  heat  to  prevent  the  copper  from  becoming 
fused  and  oxidized.  In  taking  out  mass  copper,  which  is  done  in 
lumps  weighing  several  tons,  months  may  be  occupied  in  the  cut¬ 
tings  before  a  blast  is  made.  These  huge  masses  are  subsequently 
cut  into  pieces  of  more  convenient  weight  and  size  for  shipment. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  production  of  copper  in  the  world  has 
more  than  doubled  within  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  the  increase 
is  largely  due  to  the  discoveries  at  Lake  Superior.  Notwithstand¬ 
ing  this,  and  the  increase  of  copper  works  in  the  country,  the 
United  States  still  imports  Cuban  and  Chilian  ores,  pig  and  bar 
copper  from  South  America,  and  sheathing  copper  from  Great 
Britain. 


28 


482 


COPPER. 


The  reduction  of  copper  ore  requires  that  the  work  should  be  car¬ 
ried  on  where  fuel  is  plentiful  and  cheap,  and  consequently  copper 
smelting*  is  seldom  conducted  at  the  mines.  Thus,  at  one  time, 
half  the  copper  in  the  world,  including  the  rich  product  of  the 
Cornwall  and  Devon  mines,  was  smelted  at  Swansea,  in  South 
Wales.  In  the  United  States  the  smelting  works  for  imported 
copper  are  generally  situated  on  the  Atlantic  coast — at  Boston, 
New  Haven,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Baltimore  ;  and  some 
of  the  Lake  Superior  copper  is  melted  and  refined  at  Detroit, 
Cleveland,  and  Pittsburg.  The  process  of  smelting  and  refining 
is  different  in  different  establishments  in  this  country  and  abroad, 
and,  in  variously  constructed  furnaces,  anthracite  and  bituminous 
coal  alike  are  used.  The  business  requires  considerable  capital 
and  much  skill  in  mixing  ores  of  different  degrees  of  richness. 
Certain  classes  of  ores  require  a  series  of  somewhat  complicated 
processes,  though  the  purity  of  the  native  copper  in  the  ore  from 
Lake  Superior  permits  its  separation  by  a  single  melting  in  a  rever¬ 
beratory  furnace. 

The  tenacity,  softness,  and  ductility  of  copper  makes  it  applicable 
to  a  vast  variety  of  uses.  It  comes  to  market  in  sheets  and  plates, 
which  are  made  into  sheathing,  large  and  small  stills,  condensers, 
boilers,  vacuum  pans  for  sugar  works,  and  innumerable  utensils, 
and  rods  which  furnish  bolts  and  wire.  Combined  with  zinc  it 
makes  brass  ;  combined  with  tin  it  becomes  bronze,  gun  metal, 
and  bell  metal.  For  coinage,  pure  copper  in  the  United  States 
has  been  superseded  by  nickel  and  copper,  and  in  England  by 
bronze. 


WOOD  ENGRAVING. 


THE  MOTHER  OP  THE  ART  OF  PRINTING. — THE  CUNIOS. —  THE  FIRST  WOOD 
ENGRAVINGS.  — PLAYING  CARDS.  —  ADVANCE  IN-  THE  ART.  —  THE  PROCESS 
OF  WOOD  ENGRAVING.  —  TOOLS  AND  MATERIAL.  —  DRAWING  THE  DESIGN.  — 
CUTTING  THE  BLOCK.  —  THE  REVERSE  OF  STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  EN¬ 
GRAVING.  —  PRINTING  FROM  THE  CUTS.  —  UNIVERSALITY  OF  ITS  USE.  — 
XYLO-PHOTOGRAPHY. 

We  have  already  shown,  in  the  article  on  Printing,  how  the 
cutting  of  letters  and  pictures  on  blocks  of  wood,  and  taking  im¬ 
pressions  therefrom  on  paper,  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  art  of 
printing  from  movable  types.  The  first  known  wood  engraving  in 
Europe  is  (traditionally  and  somewhat  doubtfully)  traced  to  a  brother 
and  sister  of  the  Cunio  family,  in  Italy,  who  are  said  to  have  exe¬ 
cuted  a  series  of  twelve  wood  engravings,  none  of  which,  how¬ 
ever,  are  extant.  The  date  of  these  engravings  is  stated  to  be 
the  year  1285  ;  but  probably  playing  cards,  which  are  known  to 
have  been  in  use  ten  years  earlier,  gave  rise  to  the  first  demand, 
and  first  suggested  the  cutting  of  wooden  blocks  with  which  to 
print  the  cards,  which,  hitherto,  had  been  laboriously  drawn  and 
colored  by  hand.  From  this  beginning  to  more  elaborate  attempts 
on  wood,  the  steps  were  natural  and  easy.  The  art  once  discovered, 
very  little  more  was  to  be  learned,  except  in  the  improvement  of 
tools  and  material  and  artistic  skill. 

Box  is  the  wood  usually  selected  for  engraving.  It  is  cut  in 
transverse  slices,  which,  when  smoothly  planed,  are  of  the  same 
height  as  type,  so  that  the  engraving  can  be  “  worked  in,”  stereo¬ 
typed,  or  electrotyped  with  a  page  of  type.  The  wood  is  thor¬ 
oughly  seasoned,  and  cut  in  square  or  oblong  blocks,  several  of 
which  can  be  neatly  joined  together*  for  very  large  cuts,  with  the 
additional  advantage  that  different  parts  of  a  design  may  be  simul¬ 
taneously  engraved  by  different  engravers,  and  afterwards  con¬ 
nected,  thus  enabling  illustrated  papers,  especially,  to  secure  in  a 

.  •  (483) 


484 


WOOD  ENGRAVING. 


week,  or  less,  and  sometimes  in  a  day  or  two,  full-page  pictures, 
on  which  a  single  engraver  might  work  for  weeks. 

In  the  first  wood  engravings  the  design  was  drawn  on  the  block 
with  a  pen  and  ink  ;  but  now  the  artist  covers  the  surface  with  a 
thin  coating  of  flake  white,  and  carefully  draws  the  design  with  a 
lead  pencil,  using  tints  to  represent  sky  and  water.  The  block  is 
now  ready  for  the  engraver,  who,  with  gravers  and  gouges  of  vari¬ 
ous  sizes,  proceeds  to  cut  out  every  part  of  the  wood  not  covered 
by  the  drawing,  thus  precisely  reversing  the  process  of  steel  and 
copperplate  engraving,  and  leaving  the  raised  lines  to  be  printed 
from.  The  tinted  parts  of  the  design  the  engraver  covers  with 
fine  lines,  which,  when  printed,  will  produce  the  same  shade.  The 
greatest  nicety  is  necessary  in  the  entire  work,  as  a  single  careless 
slip  of  the  graver  may  spoil  the  whole  design. 

For  the  effect  to  be  produced  by  the  impression,  quite  as  much 
depends  upon  the  printer  as  upon  the  engraver  of  the  wood  cut. 
The  management  of  light  and  shade,  so  that  one  part  of  the  block 
shall  receive  the  full  pressure,  while  in  another  part  the  paper 
to  be  printed  is  merely  touched,  is  secured  by  underlays  of  paper 
in  particular  spots,  to  raise  and  lower  the  surface  of  the  block. 
Very  often  a  printer  will  spend  many  hours,  and  even  days,  to  thus 
prepare  the  block  for  proper  printing. 

This  beautiful  art  has  had  its  days  of  decadence,  and  almost  of 
disuse  ;  but  at  the  present  time  it  seems  to  be  at  the  zenith  of  suc¬ 
cess,  for  never  before  was  there  such  a  demand  for  elaborately 
finished  and  costly  wood  engravings.  They  are  seen  everywhere, 
in  the  very  highest  style  of  the  art,  in  magazines,  illustrated  pa¬ 
pers,  and  in  books  even  of  the  most  expensive  kind.  The  com¬ 
parative  cheapness  and  the  capabilities  of  this  class  of  engraving 
for  book  illustrations  have  led  largely  to  its  use,  and  to  the  pro¬ 
portionate  exclusion  of  steel  and  copperplate  cuts.  This  is 
equally  observable  in  the  recent  publications  in  Germany,  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States. 

As  already  stated,  wood  cuts  may  be,  and  usually  are,  electro- 
typed  or  stereotyped  ;  and  blocks  may  be  prepared  so  as  to  re¬ 
ceive  a  design  by  the  photographic  process,  and  then  be  at  once 
engraved  as  if  the  design  had  been  drawn  in  the  usual  method. 
This  art  is  termed  “  xylo-photography.” 


. 


*’ 


/-»  '  , 


•  .  •  -  4  u.\~+'  '  ;  v^r11 -*'***+ 


■ 

>  ■' 

*i  ■ 

r  ‘‘-tij  -  ---  4.  4H| 


/ 


STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. 

0  ^  , 

ANTIQUITY  OF  THE  ART.  —  ITS  MENTION  IN  THE  BIBLE.  —  EARLY  GREEK  EN¬ 
GRAVERS. —  THE  CHINESE. — THE  FIRST  IMPRESSION  ON  PAPER.  —  MASSO 

FINIGUERRA.  -  THE  OLDEST  KNOWN  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING.  —  ALBERT 

DURER,  REMBRANDT,  VANDYKE,  AND  RAPHAEL.  —  DE  LIEGEN  AND  PRINCE 
•  RUPERT.  — FURTHER  DISCOVERIES.  —  THE  ART  IN  ENGLAND.  — HOGARTH. — 
COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. —  ETCHING  AND  FINISHING.  — DETAILS  OF  THE 

PROCESS.  - ENGRAVERS  AND  PAINTERS.  —  THE  INVENTION  OF  ENGRAVING 

ON  STEEL.  —  ITS  SUPERIORITY  OVER  COPPERPLATE.  —  JACOB  PERKINS.  — 

ft 

TRANSFERS.  — LINE  ENGRAVING.  —  THE  PRESS.  — PROCESS  OF  PRINTING. — 
PROOF  ENGRAVINGS.  —  THE  MEZZOTINT.  —  COLONEL  LUDWIG  VON  SIEGEN. 
—  HOW  MEZZOTINTS  ARE  MADE.  —  CASPAR  LEHMAN.  —  ENGRAVING  ON 
GLASS.  —  APPLICATION  OF  THE  ART. 

The  art  of  engraving  —  that  is,  of  cutting  characters  and  fig¬ 
ures  on  stone  and  metal,  in  intaglio  and  bas-relief,  dates  back  to 
the  remotest  periods  of  Egyptian  history.  The  book  of  Exodus, 
chapter  xxxv.,  mentions  among  other  skilled  workmen  “  the  en¬ 
graver.  ”  Other  Eastern  nations  derived  the  art  from  the  Egyp¬ 
tians.  The  Greeks,  500  B.  C.,  are  said  to  have  engraved  maps 
of  the  then  known  portions  of  the  world  on  brass  or  metal  plates, 
which,  however,  were  probably  not  printed  from.  It  is  claimed 
that  the  Chinese  understood  the  process  of  engraving,  both  on  wood 
and  metal,  and  of  printing  from  the  blocks  and  plates,  nearly  twelve 
hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era ;  and  it  is  supposed  by 
some  that  from  them  the  art  may  have  found  its  way  to  a  few 
other  nations,  having  been  brought  to  Europe  by  Marco  Polo. 

In  Europe,  the  first  known  impression  upon  paper  from  an  en¬ 
graving  on  metal  was  taken  by  a  native  of  Florence,  Maso  Fini- 
guerra,  an  engraver  of  gold  and  silver  plate,  who  wished  to  take  a 
copy  of  an  engraving,  and  did  so  by  using  an  application  of  oil 
and  soot,  thus  succeeding  in  obtaining  a  successful  copy  on  damp 

(487) 


488 


STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. 


paper.  This  was  about  the  year  1450,  and  it  is  believed  to  be  the 
birth  of  the  art  in  Europe.  It  was  immediately  widely  practised, 
and  was  soon  perfected.  The  oldest  copperplate  print  in  exist¬ 
ence —  a  German  one  —  bears  the  date  of  1461  ;  but  so  rapid  was 
the  spread  of  the  art  that  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century 
many  books  were  published  which  were  filled  with  illustrations  and 
maps  printed  from  metal  plates.  Eminent  painters  at  once  gave 
their  attention  to  an  art  which  promised  to  perpetuate  and  dissem¬ 
inate  a  knowledge  of  their  pictures,  some  of  them  taking  the 
gravingtool  in  hand,  —  prominent  among  them  Albert  Durer,  Rem¬ 
brandt,  and  Vandyke, —  while  Raphael  depended  upon  Marc  Antonio 
and  other  Italian  engravers  for  the  transfer  of  his  designs. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  the  discovery  of  engraving,  Von  Sie- 
gen  introduced  the  style  called  “  mezzotin to/ ’  which  was  materi¬ 
ally  improved  upon  by  Prince  Rupert,  to  whom  the  style  is  some¬ 
times  attributed.  The  discovery  of  etching  —  that  is,  where  the# 
impression  is  “bitten  in”  on  the  plate  by  acid  —  is  attributed  to 
both  Parmegiano  and  to  Albert  Durer.  The  spread  of  the  art  of 
engraving  was  rapid,  and  it  was  known  in  England  certainly  as 
early  as  1483.  The  various  styles  of  engraving,  as  etching ,  line, 
mezzotinto,  stipple,  etc.,  were  distinctly  defined  and  extensively 
practised  ;  but  with  many  eminent  engravers,  and  with  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  great  numbers  of  celebrated  and  costly  engravings,  no 
marked  progress  was  made  in  the  art  till  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  Hogarth  and  others  brought  it  to  nearly  its  present  state  of 
perfection.  Up  to  the  year  1815  —  except  a  single  print  in  Lon¬ 
don  in  1805  —  copper  was  exclusively  used;  steel  engraving,  as 
now  known,  was,  as  will  be  shown  anon,  an  American  invention. 

With  this  brief  account  of  the  discovery  and  early  history  of  the 
art,  we  proceed  to  describe  its  present  practice. 

Copperplate  Engraving. 

The  tools  of  the  engraver  are  the  “  etching  point,”  or  needle  — 
a  steel  wire  inserted  in  a  handle,  and  sharpened  to  a  point,  and  of 
which  he  has  two  or  three  sizes  ;  the  “  dry  point,”  a  needle  used 
for  the  finer  lines  ;  the  “  burin,”  or  graver,  of  which  he  has  several, 
the  points  of  which  grade  from  lozenge  shape  to  square ;  a 
“  scraper  ”  for  taking  off  the  “  burr  ”  raised  by  the  needles  on  the 
plate  ;  the  “  burnisher,”  to  soften  lines  which  are  too  dark,  to  re¬ 
move  scratches,  etc.  ;  and  the  “  dabber,”  which  is  a  silk  bag  enclos¬ 
ing  a  little  tightly-packed  cotton,  and  is  used  to  spread  the  etching- 


STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. 


489 


ground  evenly.  He  also  has  between  the  light  and  the  plate  a 
“  blind  ”  of  tissue  paper  stretched  on  a  frame  to  enable  him  to  see 
his  work  more  clearly. 

The  simplest  form  of  copperplate  engraving  is  to  cover  the  sur¬ 
face  of  the  plate  with  an  evenly-spread,  thin  coating  of  white  wax, 
upon  which  a  transfer  is  taken  by.  pressure  of  the  design  drawn 
with  black  pencils  upon  paper.  With  the  needle,  the  transfer  is 
traced  through  the  wax.  on  the  copper,  the  wax  is  melted  off,  and 
the  picture  is  completed  by  the  proper  gravers.  The  burin  is 
pushed  forward  from  the  engraver ;  but  in  making  the  more  deli¬ 
cate  lines,  the  needle  or  dry  point  is  used  as  if  it  were  a  pencil. 
All  the  instruments  require  frequent  sharpening  on  a  hone,  and  the 
cleanliness  and  polish  of  the  plate  are  preserved  by  repeated  rub¬ 
bings  with  a  woollen  cloth  and  sweet  oil.  The  parallel  lines,  for 
sky,  water,  shading,  etc.,  are  cut  by  ruling  machines.  Dot  engrav¬ 
ing,  or  “  stippling,”  to  produce  shading,  is  done  with  a  graver 
turned  down  to  make  dots  or  punctures  only. 

But  this  simple  process  is  improved  upon  by  what  is  called 
11  etching,”  which  is  now  the  usual  method  of  engraving  upon 
copper,  steel,  or  glass.  This  is  a  chemical  process.  The  plate  is 
first  covered  with  the  etching-ground,  consisting  generally  of 
equal  parts  of  black  pitch,  white  wax,  asphaltum,  gum  mastic,  and 
one-fourth  of  a  part  of  Burgundy  pitch  spread  evenly  over  the 
plate  with  the  dabber.  This  surface  is  then  smoked  over  candles 
till  it  is  evenly  covered  with  lampblack.  The  outline  of  the  de¬ 
sign  to  be  engraved,  drawn  with  black  lead  pencil  on  paper,  is 
then  transferred  to  the  lampblack  by  means  of  a  press.  The 
points  or  needles  are  now  used  to  follow  the  lines  of  the  trans¬ 
ferred  design,  and  to  remove  the  ground  for  the  action  of  tke  acid, 
care  being  taken  to  use  finer  or  coarser  instruments  to  produce  the 
effect  of  skies,  distances,  and  foreground. 

The  plate  is  then  bordered,  half  an  inch  high  all  round,  with 
“  banking-wax,”  composed  of  Burgundy  pitch,  beeswax,  and  sweet 
oil,  and  is  ready  for  the  process  of  biting  in.  This  is  done  with 
nitric  acid  diluted  with  four  or  five  parts  of  water,  to  which  a  very 
little  sal  ammoniac  is  added.  The  etching-ground  resists  the  acid, 
which  corrodes  or  bites  into  the  parts  of  the  plate  exposed  by  the 
needles.  When  the  lighter  shades  are  sufficiently  bitten  in,  the 
acid  is  turned  off,  the  plate  is  washed  and  dried,  and  the  finished 
portions  are  covered  with  Brunswick  black  —  a  mixture  of  lamp¬ 
black  and  turpentine.  The  plate  is  again  subjected  to  the  acid  for 


490 


STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. 


deeper  biting1  in  for  the  next  darker  shades,  which,  after  twenty 
minutes  or  half  an  hour,  are  in  turn  covered  or  “  stopped  out,” 
when  a  third  or  fourth  biting  in  follows,  with  successive  stoppings 
out,  till  the  requisite  depths  are  secured  for  the  different  shades. 
The  process  of  “re-biting”  may  be  performed  at  any  time,  or 
any  part  requiring  it,  by  stopping  out  the  other  portions  of  the 
plate. 

The  border  is  then  taken  off,  and  the  etching-ground,  after  heat¬ 
ing,  is  readily  removed  by  means  of  a  cloth  and  sweet  oil.  The 
engraver  with  his  instruments  now  goes  over  the  plate  and  finish¬ 
es  it,  or  he  puts  in  those  parts  which  were  intended  to  be  done 
wholly  by  the  graver  after  the  principal  portion  of  the  plate  had 
been  etched.  Further  shading  is  sometimes  made  on  the  etching 
by  stippling.  From  this  description  of  the  common  process  of 
engraving  it  will  be  seen  that  the  engraver,  in  order  to  produce 
the  proper  effect  of  light,  shade,  and  distance,  must  himself  be  an 
artist,  or  at  least  a  first-class  draughtsman.  Indeed,  some  of  our 
best  artists  —  notably  A.  B.  Durand,  of  New  York  —  have  been 
equally  eminent  as  engravers  and  painters. 

Engraving  on  Steel. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  engraving  on  steel  is  an  American 
invention,  due  to  Jacob  Perkins,  of  Newburyport,  Mass.,  but  who 
went  in  1814  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  associated  himself  with  an 
established  engraving  firm  for  the  purpose  of  perfecting  his  ma¬ 
chinery.  The  processes  for  engraving  on  steel  and  copper  are 
nearly  similar ;  but  in  etching  on  steel,  on  account  of  its  liability 
to  rust,  and  its  extreme  hardness,  the  mixture  for  biting  in  is  com¬ 
posed  of  equal  parts  of  nitric  acid  and  pyroligneous  acid  with 
three  parts  of  water,  and  is  not  permitted  to  remain  on  the  plate 
more  than  a  minute,  when  it  is  washed  off.  The  etching  completed, 
the  plate  is  finished  with  tools  as  in  copperplate  engraving. 

The  superiority  of  steel  plates  over  copper  plates  is  not  alone  in 
their  greater  hardness  and  durability,  and  consequently  in  the  far 
greater  number  of  impressions  that  can  be  taken  before  the  plate 
is  worn  and  needs  re-touching,  but  chiefly  in  the  facilities  they 
afford  for  duplication.  And  herein  is  the  great  merit  of  Mr.  Per¬ 
kins’s  invention.  Thus,  when  the  finished  plate  has  been  hardened, 
an  impression  may  be  taken  in  relief  on  another  steel  plate,  which 
in  turn  is  hardened,  and  may  then  be  used  to  reproduce,  by  pow- 


STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. 


491 


erful  pressure,  any  number  of  copies  <?f  the  original  plate  on  other 
softer  plates,  which,  when  hardened,  are  used  in  printing  the  en¬ 
gravings. 

“  Line  engraving,”  in  which  the  plate,  after  etching,  is  entirely 
finished  in  lines  made  by  the  graver  and  dry  point,  stands  at  the 
head  of  the  art,  and  well-known  pictures  of  this  class  have  made 
the  fame  of  the  engraver  nearly  as  great  as  that  of  the  painter  of 
the  picture.  Many  engravings,  however,  present  a  combination  of 
line  and  stipple  (dotting)  which  is  very  effective. 

For  steel  and  copperplate  printing  a  peculiar  press  is  requisite. 
A  steel  plate,  even  when  the  original  only  is  to  be  used,  is  not 
always  hardened,  nor,  considering  the  possibility  of  damage  to  the 
plate,  is  hardening  desirable  where  special  delicacy  is  required  ; 
and  with  careful  handling  thousands  of  impressions  may  be  taken 
from  a  soft  steel  plate  without  material  wear.  The  press  consists 
of  two  wooden  rollers,  one  above  and  one  beneath  the  bed  on 
which  the  plate  is  laid.  The  plate  is  inked  with  the  greatest  care 
for  every  impression.  When  it  is  wiped  perfectly  clean,  so  that 
only  the  incisions  hold  the  ink,  it  is, put  on  the  press,  the  paper  is 
laid  on,  and  is  covered  with  one  or  more  folds  of  blanketing,  the 
plate  is  passed  through  the  point  where  the  rollers  meet,  and  the 
impression  is  made.  For  proof  impressions,  which  are  the  first 
few  taken  from  the  plate,  and  which  command,  sometimes,  extraor¬ 
dinarily  high  prices,  special  and  skilled  workmen  are  employed, 
who  devote  perhaps  a  day  to  taking  not  more  than  thirty  impres¬ 
sions  of  a  fine  engraving.  The  entire  process  of  inking,  cleaning, 
and  printing  the  plate  requires  such  care  and  attention  that  the 
artist  is  quite  as  much  indebted  for  the  reproduction  of  his  design 
in  engraving  to  the  printer  as  he  is  to  the  engraver. 

Steel  has  nearly,  if  not  entirely,  superseded  the  use  of  copper  for 
the  more  important  engravings.  It  is  not  within  the  province  of 
this  article  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the  many  processes  and 
experiments  connected  with  engraving,  such  as  depositing  a  steel 
surface  by  means  of  the  galvanic  battery  on  a  copper  plate,  the 
efforts  to  etch  plates  (especially  for  outline  maps,  coast  survey 
plates,  etc.)  by  the  daguerrotype  process,  and  other  inventions 
which  are,  as  yet,  experimental,  or  not  wholly  successful.  The 
object  has  been  to  describe  the  general  method  of  engraving  and 
printing  from  metal  plates. 


492 


STEEL  AND  COPPERPLATE  ENGRAVING. 


Other  Kinds  of  Engraving. 


The  mezzotinto  engraving  dates  back  to  1640,  and  the  invention 
is  attributed  to  Colonel  Ludwig  von  Siegen,  of  Hesse.  This  and 
the  similar  style  called  “aquatinta”  (now  rarely  used)  have 
always  been  popular  with  certain  classes  of  purchasers  on  account 
of  the  comparative  cheapness  of  the  impressions,  and  from  their 
supposed  resemblance  to  line  India  ink  drawings.  The  process  of 
mezzotint  engraving  is  as  follows  :  When  the  outline  of  the  design 
has  been  etched  —  or  without  the  preliminary  etching  —  the 
“  ground  ”  is  laid  in  by  covering  the  entire  face  of  the  plate  (steel 
or  copper)  with  finely  crossed  lines,  which  are  made  by  hand  with 
a  toothed  instrument  called  a  “  cradle,”  or  more  commonly  by 
ruling  machines  made  for  the  purpose.  The  ground  thus  prepared, 
if  printed  from,  would  give  a  uniform  and  nearly  black  impression  ; 
but  the  engraver  proceeds  to  evolve  his  design  by  scraping  and 
burnishing  out  the  ground  for  the  highest  lights  and  the  succeed¬ 
ing  lighter  parts,  leaving  the  untouched  ground  for  the  deepest 
shades.  As  compared  with  line  and  stipple  engraving,  mezzotint 
holds  a  quite  inferior  grade  in  the  art. 

Engraving  on  glass  may  fairly  claim  a  place  among  the  “  arts.” 
Caspar  Lehman,  of  Prague,  is  credited  with  introducing  the  in¬ 
vention  in  1608  ;  but  the  art  of  at  least  scratching  initials  and 
legends  must  have  been  practised  as  early  as  people  became  pos¬ 
sessed  of  glass  and  diamonds.  Rost,  Schwanhard,  and  other  old 
artists  who  were  famous  for  ornamenting  glass  goblets  and  vessels, 
used  the  diamond  in  making  their  designs.  This  engraving  is  now 
done  by  nearly  the  same  process  as  that  already  described  of  etch¬ 
ing  on  copper  and  steel.  The  ground  is  made  by  a  thin  coating  of 
wax,  the  design  is  drawn  through  as  in  etching  with  the  needle,  and 
the  biting  in  or  engraving  is  produced  by  hydrofluoric  acid,  which 
for  the  deep  lines  is  directly  applied,  while  for  the  more  delicate 
work  the  vapor  is  sufficient.  The  operation  requires  four  or  five 
hours,  and  the  glass  is  then  cleaned  with  oil  of  turpentine.  This 
style  is  applicable  to  uses  ranging  from  the  mere  marking  of  the 
apothecary’s  measuring  glasses  and  bottles  to  the  eYigraving  of  ini¬ 
tials,  names,  monograms,  arms,  and  the  most  elaborate  designs 
on  every  article  of  glass  for  the  table  or  toilet. 


SCALES. 


THE  FIRST  METHOD  USED  FOR  WEIGHING.  —  THE  STEELYARD.  —  THE  LAW  OF  THE 
LEVER.  — A  STANDARD  OF  WEIGHT.  — THE  MODERN  SCIENTIFIC  ONE.  — THE 
DELICACY  OF  MODERN  SCALES.  —  THE  APPLIANCES  FOR  WEIGHING  VERY  HEAVY 
MASSES.  —  PLATFORM  SCALES.  —  THEIR  IMPROVEMENT  IN  MODERN  TIMES.  — 
MODERN  METHODS  COMPARED  WITH  THOSE  OF  ANTIQUITY.  —  THE  SCIENTIFIC 
ERA.  —  ITS  SOCIAL  RESULTS  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

The  necessity  for  some  method  of  weighing  things  must  have 
occurred  quite  early  to  mankind.  In  fact,  some  writers  have  pro¬ 
posed  to  ascribe  to  man  a  sixth  sense,  that  of  weight,  and  unques¬ 
tionably  the  first  method  which  men  most  probably  used  for 
comparing  the  weight  of  two  substances  was  the  simple  one  of 
balancing  them,  one  in  each  hand.  By  this  method  a  general  idea 
of  the  comparative  weight  of  two  bodies  can  be  obtained  ;  but 
anything  like  accuracy  is  manifestly  impossible.  Though  by  prac¬ 
tice,  particularly  by  those  who  have  a  natural  faculty  for  such 
work,  weights  may  be  thus  tested  with  really  astonishing  precis¬ 
ion,  yet  for  general  use  such  a  rude  method  must  have  soon  been 
found  quite  inadequate,  and  would  soon  be  replaced  by  the  use  of 
a  bar  or  stick,  supported  upon  a  central  point.  With  a  simple 
contrivance  of  this  kind,  the  basis  was  laid  for  the  discovery  of 
the  steelyard,  which,  in  its  various  modified  forms,  is  to-day  the 
most  generally  used  contrivance  for  weighing. 

Though,  from  the  earliest  historic  times,  devices  for  weighing 
have  been  in  use,  yet  it  is  only  in  quite  modern  times  that  an  ac¬ 
curate  standard  for  weights  has  been  arrived  at,  and  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  this  has  been  one  of  the  most  accurate  and  brilliant 
results  of  the  best  modern  science.  By  experiment  it  would  soon 
have  been  found  that,  by  placing  the  body  to  be  weighed  nearer 
to  the  fulcrum,  it  would  be  balanced  by  a  weight  less  than  itself, 
and  which  would  be  smaller  the  greater  the  difference  between  the 
distances  of  the  two  arms  of  the  bar,  measured  from  the  fulcrum. 

(493) 


494 


SCALES. 


The  law  of  the  lever,  which  is  also  that  of  the  steelyard,  since 
this  instrument  is  only  a  suspended  lever,  is  said  to  have  been  dis¬ 
covered  by  Archimedes,  though  before  his  time,  and  among  the 
Egyptians,  this  instrument  was  in  use.  If  they  had  not  arrived 
at  such  a  scientific  knowledge  of  the  lever  as  to  be  able  to  formu¬ 
late  the  law  which  governs  it,  they  must  have  tested  their  balances 
by  experiment. 

Though  the  ancients  understood  and  applied  practically  many 
of  the  laws  of  mechanics,  Archimedes,  as  we  have  seen,  having 
demonstrated  the  law  of  the  lever,  yet  it  was  not  until  the  time 
of  Galileo,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  that  anything  like  a  scien¬ 
tific  character  was  given  to  the  study  of  mechanics  ;  and  it  was  to 
this  philosopher  and  his  successors  that  we  owe  the  foundation  for 
our  present  positive  knowledge,  and  positive  methods  for  investi¬ 
gating  the  laws  of  force  and  motion.  So  far  have  these  been  car¬ 
ried  in  the  two  centuries  since  the  time  of  Galileo,  that  mankind 
have,  in  this  short  period,  extended  their  ability  to  investigate  ac-  • 
curatcly  the  phenomena  of  nature  a  thousand  times  more  than  was 
done  in  the  thousands  of  years  which  preceded  the  inauguration 
of  this  new  era  of  scientific  research. 

Scales  have  been  constructed  in  modern  times  which  were 
sensibly  affected  by  one  seven  millionth  of  their  load,  and  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  have  them  so  delicate  that  they  may  be  affected  by 
the  warmth  of  the  body,  its  approach  causing  one  of  the  arms  to 
be  elongated  sufficiently  by  the  heat  to  affect  their  balance.  Nor 
is  this  the  most  delicate  of  the  instruments  used  by  science.  The 
torsion  balance,  invented  by  Coulomb,  in  which  the  minutest  forces 
of  electricity  are  measured,  is  still  more  delicately  accurate,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  astronomers,  by  the  application  of  the  same 
methods  of  investigation,  have  accurately  weighed  the  earth  itself, 
together  with  the  sun,  and  the  other  bodies  of  our  solar  system. 

Platform  scales  were  in  use  in  England  before  1196,  and  in  that 
year  a  patent  for  their  improvement  was  granted  to  a  Mr.  Salmon. 
With  the  introduction  of  railroads,  the  use  of  scales  for  weighing 
heavy  burdens  became  necessary,  and  the  accuracy  with  which 
these  are  constructed  is  shown  by  a  test  made  in  the  New  York 
Crystal  Palace,  where  a  load  of  fifty-two  thousand  six  hundred 
pounds  was  weighed  successively  ppon  every  portion  of  a  railway 
platform  scale,  the  greatest  variation  from  the  mean  weight  being  # 
only  three  pounds.  Until  about  1830,  the  appliances  for  weighing 
heavy  loads,  as  of  hay  upon  the  trucks,  throughout  the  United 


SCALES. 


495 


States,  were  such  as  did  not  attain  any  great  accuracy  ;  but  with 
the  introduction  of  the  improved  methods  of  construction,  in 
which,  by  an  arrangement  of  levers,  the  weight  is  divided  so  as  to 
bring  only  a  part  of  it  —  often  as  little  as  a  thousandth  part  — 
upon  the  scale  lever  great  accuracy  is  attained. 

When  we  consider  the  thousand  necessities  which  daily  arise  in 
the  transactions  of  commerce  and  the  duties  of  domestic  life,  for 
accuracy  in  measuring  commodities  by  weight,  the  importance  of 
having  a  means  of  doing  this,  which  shall  be  at  once  correct,  sim¬ 
ple,  and  cheap  enough  to  enter  easily  into  general  use,  becomes 
plainly  apparent.  The  aid  which  modern  science  has  lent  to  in¬ 
dustry  is  nowhere  more  satisfactorily  shown  than  in  the  improved 
scales  of  all  kinds  which  the  new  methods  of  manufacture  have 
furnished  for  the  public.  At  the  same  time,  also,  the  difference 
which  exists  between  modern  society  and  that  of  ancient  times,  is 
shown  most  plainly  in  the  more  general  habits  of  accuracy  which 
are  introduced  into  modern  life,  as  compared  to  that  of  antiquity, 
by  the  ability  to  measure  and  to  weigh  correctly.  It  is  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  this  method  which  makes  the  difference  between  the 
science  of  the  present  compared  with  that  which  was  called 
science  in  the  past.  No  department  of  the  knowledge  gained  by 
experience  and  experiment  can  become  scientific  until  its  results 
have  been  so  accurately  tested  by  measure  and  by  weight  as  to  be 
expressible  in  figures  ;  and  it  is  really  to  our  ability  to  thus  meas¬ 
ure  and  weigh  that  our  modern  progress  is  due. 

The  chemistry,  too,  of  the  modern  world  owes  its  scientific 
character  also  entirely  to  the  advance  made  by  mankind  in  their 
ability  to  weigh  and  measure  accurately,  and  the  atomic  theory  of 
equivalent  proportions,  to  which  the  scientific  character  of  chemis¬ 
try  is  due,  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  useful  results  obtained 
by  the  knowledge  of  modern  times.  The  vague  conjecture  and 
experiment  of  the  old  alchemists  has  been  replaced  by  the  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  chemists,  and  the  processes  of  industry  can  be 
carried  on  with  the  definiteness  of  scientific  precision,  instead  of  a 
reliance  upon  chance.  It  is  by  an  extension  of  these  methods 
that  all  the  interests  of  life  are  to  be  raised  to.  the  plane  of  scien¬ 
tific  social  organization,  and  the  career  of  mankind  be  made  for 
each  of  us,  not  the  sport  of  chance,  but  a  preparation  for  the  at¬ 
tainment  of  the  best  conditions  for  integral  development,  with  the 
accompanying  happiness  which  rosults  only  from  the  performance, 
of  our  functions. 


WHITE  LEAD  AND  PAINTS. 


FAINTS  IN  PAST  TIMES.  —  OIL  COLORS. —  SUBSTANCES  FROM  WIIICII  THEY  ARB 
DERIVED.  — HOUSE  PAINTS.  —  PREJUDICES  OF  THE  COLONISTS.  —  A  CLERGY- 
•  MAN  CALLED  TO  ACCOUNT.  — THE  OLD  BROWN  HOUSES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  — 
INTRODUCTION  OF  PAINTS  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  —  FIRST  WHITE  LEAD 
FACTORY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  RED  LEAD.  - COLOR  FACTORIES  IN  PHIL¬ 
ADELPHIA. - MINERAL  PAINTS. - PAINT  MILLS. - PROCESSES  OF  MAKING 

WHITE  LEAD.  — WHITE  ZINC.  —  ITS  CLAIMED  SUPERIORITY.  —  EXTENT  OF  THE 
MANUFACTURE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. 

The  rudest  nations  have  known,  from  the  remotest  times,  how 
to  prepare  paints  and  dies  from  various  vegetable  and  mineral 
substances.  Some  of  the  ancients  understood  the  art  of  making 
verifiable  pigments,  as  is  evidenced  in  the  enamelled  tiles,  more 
than  four  thousand  years  old,  brought  by  Layard  from  Nineveh. 
The  Hebrew  records  make  frequent  mention  of  the  many  and  brilliant 
colors  used  in  the  adornment  of  temples  and  other  buildings.  The 
North  American  savages  covered  their  bodies  with  coarser,  but 
scarcely  more  conspicuous  paints,  than  some  of  our  modern  belles 
put  on  their  faces,  and  used  brilliant  dyes  for  feathers,  skins,  and 
wampum. 

Paints  in  general  include  the  coarse  and  fine  paints  used  in  ship 
and  house  painting,  and  for  interior  decorations  ;  artists’  colors, 
which  are  oil  colors  prepared  with  greater  care  ;  and  water  colors, 
which  are  mixed  with  gum  instead  of  oil,  are  dried  in  cakes,  and 
when  used  are  wet  with  water,  and  are  rubbed  on  a  porcelain  pal¬ 
let.  For  artists’  colors,  the  whites,  known  as  flake  white,  silver 
white,  Venice  white,  etc.,  are  prepared  from  ceruse,  or  carbonate 
of  the  oxide  of  lead,  or  from  zinc  white,  or  from  ceruse  and  sul¬ 
phate  of  barytes.  Oxides  of  iron  and  different  mineral  substances 
furnish  yellows.  Vegetable  substances,  oxides,  and  mercury  sup¬ 
ply  reds.  For  blues,  ultramarine,  artificial  or  prepared  from  lapis 
(496) 


WHITE  LEAD  AND  PAINTS. 


497 


lazuli,  and  cobalt  are  used.  Oxide  of  chromium,  terre  verle,  and 
different  salts  of  copper  give  greens.  Browns  are  prepared  from 
vegetable  substances,  from  earth  and  mineral  browns  in  the  natural 
state  or  burnt,  from  burnt  Prussian  blue,  from  burnt  bones,  and 
from  the  mixture  of  some  vegetable  and  animal  matters.  The 
blacks  are  from  lampblack,  which  is  procured  by  burning  oils  and 
other  organic  substances  in  close  rooms  or  vossels,  and  collecting 
the  carbonaceous  deposit,  from  calcined  bones,  and  from  the  min¬ 
eral  peroxide  of  manganese.  Various  shades  are  produced  by  skil¬ 
ful  mixing,  and  the  principal  requisite  for  perfect  paints  is  thorough 
grinding. 

For  all  house  paints,  or  paints  used  to  cover  and  protect  iron 
and  woodwork,  for  ship  and  sign  painting,  and  for  the  various 
mechanical  and  ornamental  purposes  to  which  paint  is  applied, 
white  lead  or  white  zinc  is  the  basis.  For  colored  paints  a  small 
proportion  of  the  required  pigment  is  added,  and  the  whole  is 
ground  with  linseed  oil  in  a  mill.  The  paints  are  prepared  of  dif¬ 
ferent  degrees  of  thinness  for  different  coats,  the  first  and  second 
coats  being  the  thinnest,  and  the  fourth,  or  final  coat,  the  thickest, 
if  so  many  coats  are  applied.  Boiled  oil,  litharge,  sugar  of  lead, 
and  spirits  of  turpentine  are  added  to  the  different  mixtures  to  act 
as  dryers.  Pure  white  lead,  or  white  zinc,  presents  in  the  finish¬ 
ing  coat  a  beautiful  glazed  surface,  as  if  it  had  been  varnished. 
In  graining  and  wood  imitation  a  yellow  or  brown  coat  is  first  laid 
on  in  oil,  while  the  colors  to  imitate  the  wood  are  ground  in  water, 
and  the  grain  is  made  by  brushes  and  tooth  combs,  the  work  be* 
ing  finished  and  brought  out*by  varnish. 

The  colonists  in  America  were  not  particularly  partial  to  paint, 
as  the  numerous  old  brown,  weather-stained  wooden  buildings  still 
standing  in  New  England  and  elsewhere  in  the  country  show.  In 
addition  to  the  cost  and  scarcity  of  paints,  the  early  settlers  had  a 
puritanical  prejudice  against  this  kind  of  adornment ;  and  it  is 
upon  record  that  a  Charlestown  clergyman,  in  1639,  was  arraigned 
for  exhibiting  paint  in  his  dwelling.  The  first  meeting-houses  were 
entirely  guiltless  of  paint  outside  and  inside,  and  the  natural  pine 
took  on  color  only  from  dirt  and  age.  Indeed,  before  the  Revolu¬ 
tion  paint  on  or  in  houses  was  very  rare,  and  the  few  painted 
houses  were  evidences  of  unusual  luxury  and  wealth.  When  peo¬ 
ple  began  to  discover  that  paint  was  useful  in  preserving  wood¬ 
work,  as  well  as  making  it  more  ornamental,  the  pigment  generally 
used  on  the  houses  and  barns  in  the  rural  regions  was  a  coarse 
29 


498 


WHITE  LEAD  AND  PAINTS. 


red  mixture,  and  the  meeting-houses  and  the  residences  of  the 
richest  men  alone  showed  the  white  paint  and  green  blinds,  which 
afterwards  became  epidemic  in  New  England,  and  generally 
throughout  the  United  States,  till  a  better  and  more  prevailing  taste 
substituted  tints  and  shades,  which  harmonize  better  with  scenery 
and  surroundings,  are  more  agreeable  to  the  eye,  and  are  in  the 
end  cheaper,  since  they  require  less  frequent  renewal. 

After  the  Revolution  the  use  of  paint  in  this  country  became 
common  ;  but  for  a  long  time  the  greater  part  of  the  best  paints 
and  all  the  white  lead  were  imported.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
last  century  the  first  white  lead  manufactory  in  the  United  States 
was  established  in  Philadelphia,  and  some  attention  began  to  be 
paid  to  making  painters7  colors  from  fossils  and  earths  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  In  1811  the  manufacture  of  white  lead  was 
considerable,  and  manufacturers  in  Philadelphia  were  making  paints 
of  twenty-two  different  colors^  as  bright  and  durable  as  imported 
paints,  while  at  Pittsburg,  in  the  same  state,  there  were  three  red 
lead  manufactories.  Four  or  five  years  later  there  were  three 
white  lead  factories  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  which  claimed  to 
make  a  perfectly  pure  article,  free  from  whiting,  and  superior  to 
the  imported.  In  1820  extensive  factories  in  New  York  made  red 
and  white  lead,  and  chrome,  and  other  colors.  Other  factories  in 
Brooklyn,  Buffalo,  Albany,  Boston,  and  other  cities  soon  followed, 
those  of  Brooklyn  and  New  York  being  the  largest  in  the  country. 
Within  a  few  years  great  attention  has  been  paid  in  the  United 
States  to  the  manufacture  of  white  zinc,  and  many  new  paints 
have  been  introduced,  particularly  the;  pulverized  stone  or  mineral 
paints,  which  are  claimed  to  be  fire-proof,  and  are  much  used  in 
painting  roofs  of  buildings. 

Ingeniously  constructed  mills  for  paint-grinding  have  been  in¬ 
troduced,  which  to  a  great  extent  obviate  the  deleterious  effects  to 
workmen  resulting  from  grinding  white  and  red  lead,  and  several 
of  the  more  poisonous  colors  by  hand. 

The  process  of  making  white  lead  is  as  follows  :  Pure  lead  is 
rolled  or  cast  into  thin  sheets,  or,  by  the  more  recent  method,  is 
cast  into  **  buckles/7  not  more  than  one-sixth  of  an  inch  thick,  so 
as  to  present  as  much  surface  as  possible  to  the  action  of  the  acid. 
The  buckles  are  placed  in  earthen  pots,  containing  at  the  bottom 
vinegar  or  acetic  acid.  These  pots  are  placed  close  together  in  a 
bed  of  spent  tan  ;  they  are  covered  over  with  lead  sheets,  and 
over  the  covers  a  loose  flooring  of  boards,  on  which  tan  is  placed 
as  a  bed  for  another  layer  of  lead-filled  pots. 


WHITE  LEAD  AND  PAINTS. 


499 


Tiers  of  pots  are  thus  built  up,  till  a  stack  contains  several  tons 
of  lead,  and  the  whole  pile  is  covered  with  tan.  The  fermentation 
of  the  tan  generates  heat,  which  evaporates  the  vinegar,  and  the 
vapor  circulating  through  the  lead  effects  the  conversion  into  car¬ 
bonate.  The  process  is  a  long  one,  requiring  from  eight  to  twelve 
weeks  for  its  completion  ;  and  consequently  the  factories  have  a 
succession  of  stacks,  so  that  the  process  of  charging  and  of  re¬ 
moving  the  white  lead  or  ceruse  is  constantly  in  progress. 

By  the  process  of  conversion  the  lead  gains  in  weight.  The 
carbonate  crust,  or  white  lead,  is  separated  by  beating  it  off  on 
perforated  copper  shelves,  which  are  set  in  wooden  tanks,  and  are 
covered  with  water.  It  is  then  collected  from  the  tanks,  and  is 
ground  in  water  to  fine  powder.  The  final  process  is  drying,  and 
it  is  then  packed  in  small  casks  for  market.  Numerous  inventions 
have  from  time  to  time  been  introduced  to  render  the  processes  less 
dangerous  to  the  health  of  workmen.  White  lead  is  sometimes 
adulterated  with  the  mineral  sulphate  of  barytes,  and  is  further 
adulterated  with  cheaper  substances,  when  colors  are  mixed  with 
it,  and  it  is  sold  as  paint. 

The  substitution  of  white  oxide  of  zinc  for  white  lead  was  dis¬ 
covered  in  France  nearly  eighty  years  ago,  but  its  high  cost  pre¬ 
vented  its  general  use  for  several  years.  The  abundance  of  zinc 
in  the  United  States  has  led  to  its  employment  extensively  in  the 
manufacture  of  white  zinc,  and  since  1850  three  or  four  large  fac¬ 
tories  have  been  established  in  New  Jersey,  and  two  or  three  in 
other  states.  By  the  American  process  white  zinc  is  obtained  di¬ 
rectly  from  the  ore,  and  the  consumption  of  four  tons  of  ore  will 
produce  one  ton  of  oxide. 

In  this  process  the  ores  are  reduced  to  powder,  and  are  mixed 
with  about  half  their  weight  of  anthracite  dust.  A  charge  of  this 
mixture  is  put  into  a  furnace  on  a  pea  coal  fire,  and  in  six  hours 
the  zinc  is  driven  from  the  ore.  The  zinc  vapor  is  carried  into  an 
iron  receiver,  where  it  is  cooled.  The  oxide  is  next  carried  through 
pipes  to  flannel  bags,  through  the  pores  of  which  the  gases  escape, 
leaving  the  light  flocculent  oxide,  which  is  transferred  to  stronger 
bags,  which  are  compressed  under  steam-driven  rollers  to  expel 
the  air,  leaving  the  zinc  in  a  dense  powder.  This  is  ground  with 
bleached  linseed  oil  in  iron  mills,  and  is  then  packed  in  kegs  for 
market. 

The  claimed  advantages  for  the  American  white  zinc  over  white 
lead  are,  that  there  is  less  or  next  to  no  danger  to  the  health  of 


500 


WHITE  LEAD  AND  PAINTS. 


workmen  making  or  using  it :  that  it  gives  a  pure,  brilliant  white, 
which  will  not  tarnish  by  contact  with  sulphurated  hydrogen  ; 
that  it  is  cheaper  and  quite  as  good  as  white  lead  for  using  in  mix¬ 
ing  with  other  paints,  and  that  it  is  more  solid  and  durable  than 
white  lead.  These  qualities  have  led  to  its  extensive  use  in  the 
United  States,  and  it  is  also  much  used  in  France.  One  or  two 
of  the  larger  establishments  produce  each  about  three  thousand 
tons  per  year,  and  it  is  largely  exported.  It  is  also  used  to  a  con¬ 
siderable  extent  for  mixing  with  what  is  sold  as  “pure  white  lead.  ” 
The  production  of  white  lead  in  the  factories  in  the  United  States 
is  from  six  hundred  to  six  thousand  tons  a  year,  according  to  the 
extent  of  the  establishment.  ' 


\ 


BEDS. 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OP  A  PROPER  BED.  —  THE  REQUIREMENTS  IN  THIS  MATTER 
OP  THE  PRESENT  TIME.  —  BEDS  AMONG  THE  ROMANS. — BEDS  IN  EARLY 
ENGLISH  HISTORY.  - ERASMUS’S  LETTERS  ON  THE  SUBJECT.  —  QUEEN  ELIZA¬ 

BETH’S  BED.  —  MATTRESSES  FIRST  INTRODUCED.  —  THE  MATERIALS  USED 
EOT  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  COURSE  OF  IMPROVEMENT  IN  BEDS.  — 
FEATHER  BEDS.  —  CURLED  HAIR  MATTRESSES.  —  THE  WOVEN  WIRE  MAT¬ 
TRESS.  —  ITS  MERITS.  —  A  MILE  AND  MORE  OF  WIRE  IN  A  BED.  —  TEST  OF 
THEIR  DURABILITY.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  WOVEN  WIRE  MATTRESS.  — 
THEIR  FREEDOM  FROM  NOISE.  —  THEIR  HYGIENIC  ADVANTAGES.  —  THEIR 
DURABILITY.  —  THE  DEMAND  FOR  THEM. 

The  necessity  for  a  place  to  sleep,  by  its  daily  recurrence,  has 
made  the  bed  we  use  one  of  the  most  important  subjects  for  con¬ 
sideration.  It  is  from  the  rest  which  our  sleeping  hours  bring  us 
that  we  obtain  the  strength  for  our  daily  work,  and  with  the  ner¬ 
vous  excitement,  consequent  upon  the  intense  activity  of  our  mod¬ 
ern  life,  the  hygienic  properties  of  the  bed  we  sleep  on  has 
assumed  more  importance  than  ever  before  in  the  world’s  history. 

During  all  ages,  and  from  the  earliest  times,  men  have  displayed 
their  invention  in  designing  beds  which  should  gratify  their  natu¬ 
ral  love  for  comfort,  for  elegance,  and  for  luxury.  In  the  pre-his- 
toric  times  the  dwellers  in  the  caves  most  probably  followed  the 
suggestion  given  them  by  the  animals  which  they  drove  out  from 
their  rocky  dens,  in  this  early  stage  of  the  “  struggle  for  exist¬ 
ence,”  and  made  their  beds  of  leaves.  From  this  condition  to 
providing  skins  for  the  coverings  of  their  couches,  was  a  great 
advance,  and  with  their  increasing  ability  to  dominate  their  sur¬ 
rounding  conditions,  and  provide  the  materials  for  gratifying  their 
natural  as  well  as  artificial  wants,  this  step  was  but  the  first  in  a 
long  course  of  invention  and  improvement  applied  to  beds. 

Nor  is  this  strange,  since  the  invention  of  a  bed  which  shall  be 
at  once  soft  enough  to  be  easy,  and  elastic  enough  to  accommodate 
itself  to  the  outlines  of  the  person,  without  becoming  permanently 

(501) 


.502 


BEDS. 


fixed  in  depressions,  and  at  the  same  time  not  so  soft  as  to  offer  so. 
little  resistance  that  to  lie  upon  it  is  like  trying  to  walk  in  a  quick¬ 
sand,  is,  as  we  shall  see,  a  matter  which,  even  in  our  own  times, 
with  all  the  industrial  appliances,  and  the  more  extended  knowl¬ 
edge  which  characterizes  this  epoch  of  modern  civilization,  has 
been  realized  only  within  a  few  years. 

Among  the  Romans  and  the  Greeks,  as  well  as  the  other  nations 
of  antiquity,  such  an  appliance  as  a  mattress  was  unknown.  They 
made  their  beds  upon  couches  of  wood,  which  were  covered  with 
skins,  furs,  woollen,  and  other  stuffs.  Their  luxury  in  beds  con¬ 
sisted  only  in  using  more  expensive  coverings,  replacing  a  sheep's 
skin  by  a  tiger’s,  or  substituting  for  a  rough  woollen  blanket  one 
of  finer  texture,  or  a  shawl  of  silk  embroidered  in  gold  and  silver 
thread.  These  improvements,  or  those  consisting  in  replacing  the 
wooden  bench  which  formed  their  support  with  one  of  bronze,  or 
even  of  gold  or  silver,  was  really  only  a  display  of  greater  wealth, 
but  could  not  be  considered  in  these  days  an  advance  towards  se¬ 
curing  the  advantages  of  a  comfortable,  luxurious,  and  healthy 
bed. 

In  the  early  period  of  modern  history,  beds  were  almost  univer¬ 
sally,  in  Europe,  nothing  but  bundles  of  straw.  As  late  in  England 
as  the  times  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  no  carpets  were  used,  and 
the  floor  was  strewn  with  rushes,  the  beds  were  hardly  anything 
better,  and  a  wooden  bench,  or  any  rude  framework  which  lifted 
the  bed  above  the  floor,  was  a  luxury.  Erasmus,  in  his  letters, 
describes  the  social  condition  of  the  people  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  and  was  disgusted  at  the  state  of  the  floors.  The 
rushes,  he  says,  were  so  seldom  changed,  and  became  so  damp, 
that  the  feet  were  constantly  kept  wet,  and  thence  colds  and  con¬ 
sumption  were  quite  common.  In  the  dining  rooms,  he  speaks  of 
the  filth  collected  on  the  floor  among  the  rushes  ;  the  bits  of  meat 
and  bones  thrown  to  the  dogs,  who  fought  around  the  guests’  legs 
for  them  ;  the  beer  and  wine  emptied  upon  the  floor  ;  the  slices  of 
bread,  used  as  plates  for  eating  their  meat  on,  and  then  thrown 
aside,  altogether  giving  us  no  very  high  conception  of  the  neatness 
and  fine  breeding  of  the  time. 

From  Delaroche’s  fine  picture  of  “  The  Death  of  Queen  Eliza¬ 
beth,”  an  accurate  idea  can  be  gained  of  the  beds  of  royalty  at 
this  period,  and  consequently  those  of  the  common  people  can  be 
imagined.  By  a  careful  study  of  the  times,  and  from  all  the  con¬ 
temporary,  evidence  bearing  upon  this  point,  Delaroche  was  cna- 


% 


BEDS. 


503 


bled  to  reproduce  the  scene  with  a  truthful  accuracy  of  detail. 
The  queen  is  reposing  upon  a  bed  formed  by  spreading  cloths  i«poii 
the  floor.  She  is  covered  with  richly  embroidered  spreads  of  vel¬ 
vet,  bordered  with  golden  fringe.  The  moment  chosen  is  when 
she  is  upbraiding  the  Countess  of  Nottingham  for  keeping  back 
the  ring  Essex  had  sent  to  his  royal  mistress  just  before  his  exe¬ 
cution.  The  queen  herself  is  gorgeously  attired,  as  was  her  con¬ 
stant  custom,  but  the  comparison  between  the  brilliant  coverings 
of  her  bed  and  its  position,  one  which  now  would  be  considered 
as  in  the  dirt,  affords  an  admirable  picture  of  the  partial  civiliza¬ 
tion  of  the  times,  with  its  splendor  of  display  and  its  want  of  the 
simplest  decencies  of  the  present. 

In  a  work  by  Thomas  Wright,  the  well-known  student  of  old 
English  literature  and  the  archaeology  of  English  manners  and 
customs,  and  which  treats  of  these,  a  full  account,  illustrated  with 
cuts  copied  from  the  pictures  in  the  contemporaneous  illuminated 
manuscripts  and  other  sources,  will  be  found  of  the  character  and 
arrangement  of  the  beds  of  this  period,  and  the  manner  in  which 
the  people  of  the  time  slept. 

Mattresses  were  first  made  of  straw  or  wool,  then  moss  came 
to  be  used,  and  feathers,  and  finally  curled  hair.  The  trouble  with 
all  mattresses  of  these  materials  is,  that  they  become  by  use  matted 
and  hard,  and  have  to  be  re-made.  Besides,  too,  all  of  these  ma¬ 
terials  have  a  greater  or  a  less  tendency  to  retain  the  bodily  exha¬ 
lations,  and  in  all  public  places,  such  as  hotels,  hospitals,  and  other 
institutions  where  the  beds  are  used  in  turn  by  a  number  of  differ¬ 
ent  persons,  the  danger  of  contagion,  and  the  difficulty  in  any  case 
of  keeping  the  beds  hygienically  clean  and  pure,  according  to  the  de¬ 
mands  of  the  present  medical  standard,  is  very  great,  if  not  im¬ 
possible. 

The  whole  course  of  modern  improvement  in  beds  has  been  in 
the  direction  to  obtain  the  best  hygienic  conditions  of  perfect 
cleanliness  and  ventilation,  combined  with  the  requisite  softness 
and  elasticity.  The  feather  bed  of  seventy  years  ago,  which  was 
then  considered  perfection,  and  is  still  too  frequently  used,  is  per¬ 
haps  the  worst  possible  contrivance  for  attaining  these  ends.  To 
lie  smothered  in  feathers,  night  after  night,  as  must  be  done  with 
the  use  of  a  feather  bed,  is  an  outrage  against  all  the  laws  of 
health,  which  is  only  surpassed  by  the  German  method  of  using 
two  feather  beds  —  one  to  lie  on,  and  the  other  for  a  covering. 

The  curled  hair  mattress,  made  of  horse’s  hair  which  has  been 


504 


BEDS. 


crimped  by  machinery,  makes  a  most  comfortable  bed,  having  the 
proper  elasticity  and  spring  ;  but  the  difficulty  with  it  is  the  im¬ 
possibility  of  properly  ventilating  it,  and  its  tendency  to  become 
matted,  thus  necessitating  its  being  taken  to  pieces  and  re-made 
from  time  to  time. 

In  the  woven  wire  mattress,  made  by  the  Woven  Wire  Mattress 
Company,  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  an  invention  has  been  perfect- 


WOVEN  WIRE  MATTRESS. 


ed  which  secures  all  the  requisites  of  a  bed  combining  elasticity 
and  softness  with  a  perfect  regard  for  hygienic  laws,  together 
with  a  durability  and  simplicity  of  construction  which  have,  in  the 
short  time  this  invention  has  been  before  the  public,  been  fully 
recognized  by  those  who  understand  and  appreciate  the  comfort 
and  the  luxury  of  a  perfect  bed. 

B}7,  ingenious  machinery,  of  the  company’s  own  invention,  wire, 
of  the  requisite  size,  is  twisted  into  small  coils,  which  are  intri¬ 
cately  interlocked  by  a  complicated  process  known  as  “  double 
weaving.”  On  an  average,  about  eight  thousand  feet  of  wire  are 
used  in  making  each  bed.  The  coils  are  about  a  half  inch  in 


MATTRESSES  FOR  STEAMER  BERTHS,  SLEEPING  CARS,  AND  BARRACKS. 

diameter,  and  in  a  bed  of  ordinary  size  some  four  hundred  of 
these  are  used.  So  perfectly  are  these  small  coils  interlocked  that 
the  pressure  upon  any  one  of  them  is  diffused  over  all  of  them, 
and  thus  their  elasticity  can  never  be  injured,  even  by  the  most 
violent  usage.  To  test  this,  one  of  these  woven  wire  matti esses 
has  been  subjected  for  thirty  days  to  a  weight  of  a  thousand 
pounds,  consisting  of  two  barrels  filled  with  wire,  and  at  the  end 


BEDS. 


■505 


of  that  time,  when  the  weight  was  removed,  the  fabric  came  back 
to  its  place  again,  as  level  and  as  perfect  as  if  the  weight  had 
been  a  single  pound  instead  of  a  thousand. 

This  fabric  of  woven  wire  is  stretched  upon  a  strong  frame,  and 
by  an  ingenious  arrangement  of  screws,  which  are  so  simply  com- 


DOUBLE  COMPLETE  BEDS. 

The  fabric  is  also  so  made  that  it  can  be  rolled  up  like  a  piece 
of  cloth,  and  shipped  in  small  bulk  to  any  part  of  the  country.; 
its  attachment  to  the  frame,  when  necessary,  and  its  disengage¬ 
ment,  being  a  simple  matter  of  a  few  moments. 


FOLDING  COTS  FOR  HOTELS  AND  FAMILIES. 


bined  that  they  can  be  operated  by  any  one  of  ordinary  intelli¬ 
gence,  the  “  tension  ”  of  the  mattress  can  be  brought  to  any  re¬ 
quired  point,  thus  giving  an  easier,  or  a  harder  bed,  as  desired, 
making  the  fabric  more  or  less  elastic  and  springy.  By  the  use 
of  this  continuous  fabric,  the  mattress  being  in  one  piece,  as  it 
were,  and  supported  all  round  by  the  frame,  the  necessity  for  using 
slats  is  avoided,  and  a  perfectly  noiseless  bed  is  secured. 


50G 


BEDS. 


The  hygienic  properties  of  these  woven  wire  mattresses  are 
perfect.  Their  metallic  nature  offers  no  texture  of  animal  or 
vegetable  fibres  to  absorb  and  retain  the  emanations  from  the 
body,  while  the  accuracy  with  which  the  frames  fit  affords  no 
cracks  or  crevices  for  the  gathering  of  dust  or  the  harboring  of 
vermin. 

The  entire  bed  is  open  to  the  free  circulation  of  the  air,  and 
can  at  any  moment  be  thoroughly  examined.  Besides  this,  the 
woven  wire  mattress  unites  all  the  elasticity  and  firmness  of  the 
best  combination  of  the  ordinary  curled  hair  mattress  with  the 
spring  mattress,  and  at  a  moderate  cost,  considering  the  advanta¬ 
ges  gained. 

With  these  advantages  in  its  favor,  it  is  no  wonder  that  its  use 
has  been  adopted  by  so  many  hospitals,  hotels,  steamboats,  and 
public  institutions,  together  with  numerous  private  parties,  that, 
though  it  has  been  before  the  public  only  three  years,  yet  the 
company  find  their  production  of  fifteen  hundred  beds  a  month 
inadequate  to  supply  the  demand,  and  are  forced  for  a  second  time 
to  increase  their  arrangements  for  their  manufacture. 

The  durability  of  these  woven  wire  mattresses  is  evident  from 
the  material  and  the  method  of  their  construction,  yet,  to  place  it 
beyond  question,  the  company  guarantees  that  they  will  last  five 
years,  and  be  as  perfect  at  the  end  of  that  time  as  they  were  at 
the  beginning.  Confident  as  the  company  is  that  they  will  last 
twenty  years,  or  a  lifetime,  this  guarantee  will  not  probably  be 
extremely  dangerous  for  their  pecuniary  interests.  By  the  tes¬ 
timonials  all  over  the  country,  from  hospitals  and  hotels  where  these 
woven  wire  mattresses  have  been  used,  it  is  evident  that  by  this 
invention  the  problem  which  has  so  long  occupied  the  world  of 
how  to  obtain  a  bed  which  is  perfect  in  every  respect,  both  for 
comfort  and  for  health,  has  been  solved  by  the  Woven  Wire  Mat¬ 
tress  Company,  of  Hartford,  Conn. 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 

THE  FIRST  KNOWLEDGE  OF  STEAM.  —  VAPOR  NOT  STEAM.  —  THE  PRESSURE  OF 
THE  ATMOSPHERE.  —  STEAM  AT  VARIOUS  PRESSURES.  —  THE  HEAT  REQUIRED 
FOR  STEAM.  —  THE  POINT  FROM  WHICH  IT  IS  CALCULATED.  —  SENSIBLE 
HEAT  AND  HEAT  OF  EVAPORATION.  —  THE  TOTAL  HEAT  OF  STEAM.  —  BULK 
OF  STEAM  COMPARED  WITH  ITS  GASES.  —  THE  STEAM  ENGINE.  —  THE  FIRST 
STEP  TOWARDS  IT.  —  DA  VINCl’s  STEAM  GUN.  —  DELLA  PORTA’S  STEAM 
PUMP. — THE  MARQUIS  OF  WORCESTER’S  INVENTION.  — PAPIN’S  STEAM  EN¬ 
GINE.  —  OTHER  INVENTORS.  —  WATT’S  IMPROVEMENTS.  —  SINGLE-ACTING  AND 
DOUBLE-ACTING  ENGINES.  —  THE  COURSE  OF  MODERN  IMPROVEMENTS  IN 
THE  STEAM  ENGINE.  — THE  CORLISS  ENGINE. — THE  RUMFORD  MEDAL. — 
PROFESSOR  GRAY’S  REMARKS.  — MR.  CORLISS*  IMITATORS  IN  EUROPE.  —  THE 
VAST  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  GEORGE  H.  CORLISS,  AT  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. — THE 
LARGEST  STEAM  ENGINE  MANUFACTORY  IN  THE  WORLD.  —  MR.  CORLISS  AS 
A  CITIZEN. 

The  fact  that  water  heated  to  a  boiling  -point  passes  off  in 
vapor,  must  of  course  have  been  known  from  the  earliest  time 
that  men  boiled  water  in  vessels  of  any  kind.  But  the  progress 
from  the  knowledge  of  this  fact  to  the  utilization  of  the  energy 
generated  by  this  process,  has  been  long  and  arduous  ;  and  here 
as  elsewhere  we  find  that  the  advance  has  been  made  step  by 
step,  the  results  gained  by  observation  having  in  all  cases  to  pass 
through  the  theoretical  stage  before  they  could  be  reduced  to 
practical  working. 

Here  too,  as  elsewhere,  the  history  of  this  advance  shows  gon- 
clusively  how  intimately  dependent  upon  each  other  are  all 
branches  of  human  activity.  The  scientific  advance  of  this  cen¬ 
tury,  by  arriving  at  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  nature  of 
things,  by  its  processes  of  chemical  analysis  and  its  use  of  the 
various  improved  methods  of  observation,  has  made  possible  the 
improvement  of  practical  methods  of  applying  the  knowledge  thus 
gained  of  the  laws  of  nature,  while  in  its  turn  this  practical  appli¬ 
cation  has  increased  the  productive  force  of  society,  making  thus 
the  means  of  a  better  and  more  comfortable  life  more  general. 

(507) 


508 


STEAM  AND  TIIE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


The  vapor  given  off  by  boiling'  water  is  not,  however,  speaking 
strictly,  steam.  Steam  is  invisible,  and  the  vapor,  even  under 
such  circumstances,  is  steam  condensed  into  vapor,  and  though  it 
may  have  steam  intermingled  with  it,  yet  it  is  only  the  vapor 
which  makes  it  visible.  Pure  steam  is,  therefore,  always  perfectly 
invisible  and  perfectly  dry.  Like  all  gases,  steam  possesses  the 
qualities  of  elasticity  and  equality  of  pressure  in  all  directions. 

Water,  in  an  open  vessel,  is  kept  in  a  liquid  condition  by  the 
pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  which  holds  it  with  a  force  of  14.7 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  Heated  in  such  a  vessel  to  212° 
Fahrenheit,  the  expansive  force  of  the  heat  thus  diffused  among 
its  particles  is  sufficient  to  balance  the  pressure  of  the  atmos¬ 
phere,  and  the  water  boils,  that  is,  passes  off  freely  into  steam. 

Steam,  therefore,  produced  in  this  manner,  has  a  tension  or  a 
pressure  of  one  atmosphere,  or  14.7  pounds,  to  the  square  inch. 
If  therefore  a  confined  vessel  is  partially  filled  with  water,  which 
is  then  subjected  to  heat,  it  will  be  necessary  to  heat  the  water 
sufficiently  over  212°,  or  the  boiling  point  in  the  open  air,  to 
overcome  the  increased  pressure  of  the  vapor  formed,  before  it 
will  boil.  Thus  steam  produced  at  a  temperature  of  212®  is  said 
to  have  the  tension  of  one  atmosphere  ;  at  234°,  of  1|  ;  at  250°,  of 
2  ;  at  274°,  of  3  ;  at  292°,  of  4  ;  at  306°,  of  5  ;  at  340°,  of  8  ; 
at  357°,  of  10  ;  at  516°,  of  20  atmospheres,  or  about  294  pounds 
to  the  square  inch. 

Steam  thus  produced,  in  communication  with  water  at  the  same 
degree  of  temperature  of  itself  at  the  moment  of  its  production, 
has  more  or  less  water  or  mist  mixed  with  it,  and  its  density  is  in 
consequence  somewhat  affected  by  this  cause.  But  as  a  rule,,  the 
greatest  pressure  under  which  steam  can  exist  as  steam,  at  any 
given  temperature,  is  the  least  pressure  under  which  water  heated 
to  the  same  temperature  can  remain  in  the  form  of  water. 

Jliis  pressure  is  called  the  pressure  of  saturation,  and  steam 
in  this  condition  is  said  to  be  saturated.  Steam  in  this  condition 
stands  both  at  the  point  of  condensation  and  the  point  of  gener¬ 
ation,  so  that  whatever  the  temperature,  the  density  and  the  pres¬ 
sure  will  correspond,  and  any  one  of  these  being  known,  the 
others  can  be  readily  found.  Steam  heated  independently,  and 
without  being  in  communication  with  water,  will  soon  lose  the 
moisture  it  may  contain,  and  is  known  as  superheated  steam.  In 
this  condition  it  has  all  the  qualities  of  a  gas. 

The  heat  required  to  raise  one  pound  of  water  one  degree 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


509 


Fahrenheit  has,  by  experiment,  been  found  to  be  represented 
mechanically  by  the  force  required  to  raise  772  pounds  weight 
through  one  vertical  foot,  that  is,  77 2  foot  pounds.  One  pound  of 
water  heated  to  212°,  will  occupy  a  space  of  26.36  cubic  feet,  this 
being  the  volume  of  one  pound  of  saturated  steam  at  the  temper¬ 
ature  of  212°.  .If,  therefore,  a  closed  vessel  of  this  size  is  thus 
filled  with  steam,  and  a  second  pound  of  water  at  the  tempera¬ 
ture  of  212°  be  injected  into  it,  this  second  pound  of  water,  to 
become  steam,  must  overcome  a  pressure  of  14.7  pounds  to  the 
square  inch,  before  it  can  find  place.  To  convert  the  first  pound 
into  steam  required  892.9  units  of  heat,  and  to  convert  the  second 
pound  will  require  965.2  units,  the  72.3  excess  being  that  which 
is  called  for  in  overcoming  the  greater  resistance  which  the  second 
pound  meets  in  assuming  the  condition  of  steam. 

The  heat  which  is  consumed  in  vaporizing  a  pound  of  water  is 
thus  divided  into  two  parts  ;  the  first  is  called  the  sensible  heat, 
and  consists  of  the  amount  of  heat  required  to  raise  the  liquid 
from  some  settled  point  of  temperature  to  the  point  of  vaporation, 
and  second,  the  amount  of  heat  consumed  in  converting  a  pound  of 
water  raised  to  the  point  of  vaporation  into  vapor,  or,  as  it  is  called, 
the  latent  heat  of  vaporation..  The  point  selected  from  which  the 
sensible  heat  is  reckoned  is  32°,  which,  for  calculations  concern¬ 
ing  steam,  is  considered  as  zero.  The  sum  of  these  two  quanti¬ 
ties,  the  sensible  heat  requisite  to  raise  water  from  32°  to  the 
point  of  vaporation,  and  the  heat  consumed  in  producing  vapora¬ 
tion,  is  called  the  total  heat  of  vaporation,  or  the  total  heat  of 
steam.  The  sensible  heat  is  readily  arrived  at,  but  ever  since  the 
invention  of  the  steam  engine  it  has  been  an  important  point  to 
arrive  at  some  method  of  accurately  ascertaining  the  amount  and 
the  variation  of  the  total  heat  of  the  steam.  Count  Rumford  es¬ 
timated  the  latent  heat  of  one  pound  of  water,  at  the  boiling  point, 
at  1050.5°,  the  committee  of  the  Franklin  Institute  of  Philadel¬ 
phia  at  1037°,  while  Regnault,  who  conducted  his  experiments 
with  great  caution  and  accuracy,  gives  the  total  heat  of  saturated 
steam  at  212°  as  1146°;  this  being  the  total  consumption  if  the 
water  is  supplied  at  32°. 

In  the  works  of  Tredgold  or  Bourne  upon  the  steam  engine  ac¬ 
counts  may  be  found  of  the  methods  and  apparatus  used  in  these 
experiments.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  total 
heat  of  steam  cannot  be  taken  as  a  measure  of  its  energy,  or  the 
force  for  work  which  can  be  practically  obtained  from  steam. 


510 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


Much  of  the  heat  thus  absorbed  lias  been  consumed  in  overcoming: 
the  cohesive  force  of  the  liquid,  and  at  all  temperatures  it  is  only 
a  small  part  of  the  total  heat  of  steam  which  can  be  made  prac¬ 
tically  available.  From  32°  to  212°  all  the  heat  which  has  been 
absorbed  by  the  water  has  effected  no  change  in  its  physical  con¬ 
dition,  but  when  this  temperature  is  reached,  steam  is  produced, 
and  acts  under  certain  fixed  laws.  A  cubic  inch  of  water,  thus 
vaporated  under  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  is  converted  into 
a  cubic  foot  of  steam,  which  exerts  a  mechanical  force  equal  to 
what  would  raise  a  ton  one  foot,  and  it  is  safe  enough  for  all 
practical  purposes  to  estimate  that  for  each  cubic  inch  of  water 
vaporated,  at  any  pressure,  an  energy  is  developed  equal  to  rais¬ 
ing  a  ton  one  ’foot :  As  any  given  rate  of  vaporation  produces  a 
given  power,  the  following  rule  is  applicable  to  estimating  its  ex¬ 
tent.  To  produce  one  horse  power,  which  is  a  mechanical  force 
equal  to  33.000  pounds,  or  about  15  tons  raised  one  foot,  fifteen 
cubic  inches  of  water  must  be  vaporated,  or  about  900  cubic 
inches  an  hour.  If,  therefore,  to  this  amount  be  added  the 
quantity  necessary  to  move  the  engine  itself,  independently  of  the 
work  it  has  to  perform,  we  shall  arrive  at  the  quantity  of  water 
which  must  be  supplied  to  the  boiler  for  each  horse  power,  and 
this  will  be  the  same  whatever  is  the  size  or  proportions  of  the 
cylinder. 

Water  converted  into  steam  at  212°,  and  under  the  pressure  of 
one  atmosphere,  expands  into  a  volume  1 .700  times  greater  than  its 
original  bulk.  The  gases  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  of  which  the 
steam  is  composed  would  occupy  2.500  times  the  bulk  of  the 
water.  In  practice  it  is  found  that  the  bulk  of.  steam  is  less  than 
what  it  should  be  theoretically,  being  variously  estimated  at  from 
1.G70  to  1.642  times  the  bulk  of  the  water  from  which  it  is 
evolved.  Thus  the  density  and  pressure  of  steam  always  exceeds 
that  which  ideal  steam  would  exert,  or  what  it  would  be  were  it 
a  perfect  gas. 

The  steam  engine,  essentially  as  we  have  it  now,  is  an  invention 
which  is  only  about  one  hundred  years  old.  The  ancients  were 
aware  of  some  of  the  mechanical  properties  of  steam,  and  its  ex¬ 
pansive  force  was  written  of  by  Hero,  or  Heron,  a  philosopher  of 
Alexandria,  who  lived  in  the  third  century  before  Christ.  In  his 
work,  entitled  Pneumatica,  or  upon  pneumatics,  which  has  been 
frequently  printed  in  modern  times,  he  describes  several  applica¬ 
tions  of  the  mechanical  effects  of  steam.  One  of  these  is  an  ar- 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


511 


rangement  by  which  a  boiler  is  made  to  revolve  about  its  vertical 
axis  by  jets  of  steam  issuing  from  holes  in  the  sides  of  the  pro¬ 
jecting  arms  with  which  it  is  provided.  No  use  was,  however,  at¬ 
tempted  to  be  made  of  this  from  his  time  until  the  invention  of 
printing  having  rendered  his  work  accessible,  attention  began  to 
be  attracted  to  this  subject. 

Among  the  sketches  left  by  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  who  died  in 
1519,  is  a  drawing  of  a  gun,  the  projectile  force  of  which  is 
steam.  In  1543,  it  is  stated  that  Blasco  de  Garay,  of  Barcelona, 
propelled  a  vessel  by  paddles,  worked  by  “  a  water  boiler,  liable 
to  burst,”  —  but  the  statement  is  hardly  worthy  of  confidence.  In 
1601 J.  B.  della  Porta,  in  his  Pneumatics ,  described  an  arrangement 
for  raising  water,  by  a  tube,  into  a  vessel  in  which  a  vacuum  had 

been  made  by  steam.  In  1615  Solomon  de  Caus,  a  Frenchman, 

* 

published  a'  book,  entitled  Raisons  des  Forces  Mouvantes,  in  which 
he  described  a  fountain  made  by  the  propulsion  of  water  from  a 
tube  by  the  force  of  steam  generated  in  the  vessel.  In  1629, 
Branca,  an  Italian,  described  a  method  of  propelling  a  wheel  by 
the  force  of  stearn  driven  against  its  vanes.  The  Marquis  of 
Worcester,  in  his  Century  of  Inventions,  published  in  1663,  gives 
an  involved  description  of  an  invention  for  raising  water  by 
steam.  The  steam  was  alternately  generated  in  two  vessels,  and 
conveyed  by  pipes,  was  made  to  exert  a  pressure  upon  water  in  a 
third.  By  means  of  this  contrivance  he  claims  to  be  able  to  raise 
water  forty  feet,  and  the  vaporized  water  would  raise  forty  times 
its  bulk  of  cold  water.  Cosmo,  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  says 
that  in  1656  he  saw  one  of  these  machines  in  operation  in  Vaux- 
hall.  Denis  Papin,  a  French  inventor  and  mechanician,  who  died 
in  Germany  about  1710,  published  in  Frankfort,  in  1707,  a  Latin 
treatise,  entitled,  Essay  upon  a  new  System  for  raising  Water  by  the 
Action  of  Fire.  Having  been  forced,  as  a  Protestant,  to  leave. 
France,  he  was  appointed,  in  1687,  a  professor  of.  mathematics  at 
Marburg,  and  devoted  his  attention  to  the  stud}"  of  steam.  In  the 
Acta  Eruditorum ,  for  1690,  he  proposes  steam  as  a  motor,  and  de¬ 
scribes  a  steam  engine.  In  1852  Professor  Kuhlman  discovered 
from  documents  in  the  public  library  at  Hanover,  that  in  1707  Papin 
had  constructed  a  Vessel  to  be  thus  propelled,  and  tried  it  on  the 
Fulda.  He  prepared  and  used  a  piston  in  a  cylinder,  under  which 
a  vacuum  was  produced  by  the  condensation  of  steam,  and  also 
invented  the  safety  valve  for  boilers. 

In  1698  Captain  Thomas  Savery  patented  a  machine  for  raising 


512 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


water  by  steam,  which  was  much  used  for  draining  mines,  the 
water  thus  obtained  being  in  some  instances  used  for  driving 
other  machinery.  lie  used  two  boilers  and  two  condensers,  into 
which,  by  means  of  a  vacuum  made  by  condensing  steam,  he  drew 
the  water,  and  afterwards  forced  it  higher  b}*'  the  pressure  of 
steam.  The  power  for  some  of  the  mills  in  Lancashire  ,was  ob¬ 
tained  by  machines  of  this  kind.  In  1705  Savory,  in  connection 
with  Thomas  Newcomen,  a  smith,  and  John  Cawley,  a  plumber  of 
Dartmouth,  patented  an  engine  in  which  they  had  combined  a 
cylinder  and  piston  with  a  separate  boiler.  The  piston  was 
driven  by  steam,  which  was  afterwards  condensed  by  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  cold  water  to  the  outside. 

By  an  accidental  hole  in  the  cylinder,  which  admitted  the  water 
to  the  inside,  it  was  found  that  this  mcth.od  of  condensation  was 
much  better,  and  it  was  adopted.  The  valves  for  the  admission 
of  the  steam  were  at  first  operated  by  hand,  and  boys  were  hired 
for  this  service.  Among  the  improvers  of  the  steam  engine,  one 
of  these  boys,  whose  name  was  Humphrey  Potter,  should  not  be 
forgotten.  Being  a  youth  who  united  an  insatiable  desire  for  play 
with  a  habit  of  observation,  he  soon  saw  that  he  could  make  the 
engine  itself  perform  the  task  allotted  him,  by  uniting  his  valve 
by  a  string  with  another  portion  of  the  works,  and  thus  secure  for 
himself  full  leisure  for  indulging  his  playfulness.  Though  the 
apparatus  he  arranged  for  this  purpose  was  effectual,  it  was  very 
clumsy,  yet  it  continued  in  use  until  1788,  when  Henry  Beighton 
constructed  an  engine  in  which  the  valves  were  worked  by  a  rod 
connected  with  the  beam. 

Of  Potter’s  further  history  there  is  no  record.  The  success 
of  his  invention  had  been  of  great  importance  to  the  world,  but 
had  evidently  destroyed  his  own  occupation,  and  most  probably 
his  talent  for  invention  having  thus  proved  disastrous  to  himself, 
was  never  further  displayed. 

Various  other  improvements  were  made  in  the  working  details 
of  the  steam  engine  before  James  Watt,  but  it  was  at  his  hands 
that  the  steam  engine  received  practically  its  present  form.  He 
made  it  really  a  scientific  application  of  the  energy  of  steam. 
Before  his  day  the  force  had  been  exerted  only  in  one  direction  ; 
and  in  fact  the  motive  power  of  the  engine  was  rather  the  pres¬ 
sure  of  the  atmosphere  than  the  expansive  force  of  steam.  Besides, 
as  the  vacuum  beneath  the  piston  was  never  made  perfect,  the 
whole  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  was  never  exerted.  Up  to  his 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


513 


time  the  machines  in  use  were  rather  atmospheric  than  steam 
engines,  and  were  called  “  fire  engines,”  being  so  named  by  Watt 
himself  in  his  earlier  memoranda. 

Having  had  his  attention  turned  to  the  theoretical  study  of 
steam  in  the  course  of  his  regular  business  as  a  mechanician,  he 
first  practically  applied  his  mind  to  the  subject  on  being  called 
upon  to  repair  a  model  of  a  Newcomen  engine,  which  was  in  use 
to  illustrate  the  lectures  of  Professor  Anderson  before  the  students 
of  the  university  in  Glasgow.  In  reflecting  upon  the  subject,  he 
soon  saw  that,  to  use  his  own  words,  “  in  order  to  make  the  best 
use  of  the  steam,  it  was  necessary,  first,  that  the  cylinder  should 
be  maintained  always  as  hot  as  the  steam  which  entered  it ;  and 
secondly,  that  when  the  steam  was  condensed,  the  water  of  which 
it  was  composed,  and  the  injection  itself,  should  be  cooled  down 
to  100°  or  lower,  where  that  was  possible.” 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  IT 63-4  that  the  model  was  brought  to 
him  for  repair,  and  in  IT 65  he  had  conceived  the  idea  of  a  separate 
condenser,  as  the  method  for  meeting  the  requirements  of  the 
case.  “  When  once,”  he  says,  “  the  idea  of  the  separate  condensa¬ 
tion  was  started,  all  these  improvements  followed  as  corollaries  in 
quick  succession  ;  so  that,  in  the  course  of  one  or  two  days,  the 
invention  was.  thus  far  complete  in  my  mind,  and  I  immediately 
set  about  an  experiment  to  verify  it  practically.” 

The  improvements  he  speaks  of  were  connected  with  the  cyl¬ 
inder.  Before  his  time  the  piston  was  packed  with  water,  the 
cylinder  was  vertical,  and  the  head  was  open  so  as  to  admit  the 
pressure  of  the  atmosphere.  Watt  proposed  “  to  put  an  air-tight 
cover  upon  the  cylinder,  with  a  hole  and  stuffing-box  for  the 
piston  rod  to  slide  through,  and  to  admit  steam  above  the  piston 
to  act  upon  it  instead  of  the  atmosphere.” 

He  also  provided  a  “  steam  jacket”  for  the  cylinder,  in  order 
to  prevent  its  cooling.  As  we  have  seen,  up  to  this  point  the  va¬ 
rious  steps  of  improvement  in  the  steam  engine  were  made  by 
almost  as  many .  inventors.  The  Marquis  of  Worcester  first  ap¬ 
plied  the  pressure  of  steam  to  practical  use.  Savery  first  made 
use  of  the  vacuum  produced  by  condensation,  though  he  did  not 
discover  the  best  method,  nor  see  the  advantage  of  its  applica¬ 
tion.  Papin  first  used  a  piston  to  receive  and  transmit  the  force 
of  pressure.  Newcomen  and  Cawley  used  first  the- piston  and  the 
cylinder  independently  of  the  boiler.  Potter  and  Beighton  first 
made  the  working  of  the  valves  automatic,  while- Watt. introduced; 
30 


514 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


the  separate  condenser,  and  the  various  improvements  which 
depend  upon  its  use. 

The  machine  was  as  yet,  however,  a  “single  acting”  engine. 
Only  the  downward  thrust  of  the  piston  was  used,  and  steam  was 
introduced  below  it  only  for  the  purpose  of  returning  it  to  its 
place.  Thus  the  engine  was  chiefly  used  for  pumping  purposes, 
and  from  the  irregularity  of  its  motion  it  could  not  be  applied  to 
a  constant  rotary  action.  As  early  as  1769  Watt  had  seen  that 
the  working  of  the  engine  could  be  improved  by  using  the  expan¬ 
sive  force  of  steam  for  a  portion  of  the  stroke  of  the  piston,  the 
supply  being  cut  off  before  the  piston  had  completed  its  thrust, 
and  the  rest  of  its  stroke  being  produced  by  the  expansion  of  the 
steam  already  let  into  the  cylinder.  In  1776  he  built  a  machine 
to  work  upon  this  principle,  and  in  1782  patented  it,  with  other 
improvements. 

In  1782  Watt  patented  an  invention  of  a  double-acting  steam 
engine,  in  which  the  energy  of  steam  was  used  in  driving  the 
piston  both  up  and  down,  and  which  was  provided  with  a  throttle 
valve  for  the  introduction  of  the.  steam,  and  also  with  a  governor 
and  an  indicator. 

The  first  engine  constructed  to  work  without  a  condenser,  or  a 
high-pressure  engine,  was  made  by  Oliver  Evans,  of  Philadelphia, 
in  1787,  or  as  some  authorities  have  it  before  1785. 

By  the  course  of  invention,  which  has  here  been  only  rapidly 
sketched,  the  chief  principles  upon  which  the  steam  engine  has 
been  made  a  practical  means  of  utilizing  the  energy  of  steam  have 
been  developed,  and  during  this  century  the  chief  application  of 
inventive  genius  has  been  turned  in  the  direction  of  improvement 
in  the  combination  of  the  parts  of  the  engine  itself.  There  has 
been  no  fundamental  change  in  the  conception  of  the  necessary 
parts  of  the  steam  engine,  but  various  modifications  of  the  mech¬ 
anism  by  which  the  power  has  been  economized,  or  the  neces¬ 
sary  friction  of  the  parts  been  lessened.  Influenced  by  the  same 
spirit  which  has  characterized  the  scientific  advance  of  this  cen¬ 
tury  by  the  increasing  necessity  of  more  accurate  methods,  and 
force'd  by  the  industrial  competition  of  the  age  to  consider  the 
importance  of  economy  of  time  and  energy,  the  improvers  of  the 
steam  engine  have  seen  that  their  inventions  would  be  recognized 
as  valuable  only  as  they  attained  the  same  results  with  increased 
simplicity  of  action,  with  less  waste  of  power  in  the  working  of 
the  mechanism,  or  with  less  supply  of  fuel. 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


515 


Tredgold,  the  last  edition  of  whose  exhaustive  treatise  upon  the 
steam  engine  was  published  in  1862,  and  who  is  recognized  as  the 
chief  authority  upon  this  subject,  says,  14  the  apparatus  for  opening 
and  closing  the  passages  is  of  more  importance  to  the  perfection 
of  the  steam  engine  than  any  other  part  of  its  mechanism.  In  the 
present  state  of  the  engine,  the  action  is  either  very  complicated 
or  imperfect.” 

To  examine  carefully  the  various  steps  which  have  been  made 
towards  the  perfection  of  this  most  important  part  of  the  mechan¬ 
ism  of  the  steam  engine  would  occupy  too  much  space  here.  We 
would  find,  at  \e  have  found  in  the  history  of  the  practical  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  e.i^rgy  of  steam,  that  by  the  projected  changes  of 
various  kinds  the  knowledge  and  experience  were  slowly  gathered 
which  enabled  a  man,  as  Watt  did,  to  take  a  comprehensive  view 
of  the  whole  matter,  and  seeing  what  had  been  done,  and  what 
was  required  to  be  done,  attain  the  desired  end  by  a  strictly 
scientifio  combination  of  the  means  already  known,  or  by  an 
equally  scientific  adaptation  of  entirely  new  means  of  his  own 
invention. 

As  Watt,  in  the  last  century,  found  the  steam  engine  an  imper¬ 
fect  and  wasteful  arrangement  for  utilizing  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  energy  of  the  steam  supplied  to  it,  and  by  the  invention  of 
a  separate  condenser,  and  then  by  his  method  of  making  the  en¬ 
gine  double  acting,  made  it  really  a  steam  engine,  so  in  this  cen¬ 
tury  the  credit  belongs  to  George  H.  Corliss,  of  Providence,  R.  I., 
for  improvements  by  which,  in  the  engine  known  under  his  name, 
simplicity  of  construction,  together  with  perfection  in  economy  of 
vorking,  have  been  secured.  The  improvements  which  Mr.  Cor¬ 
liss  has  made  in  the  mechanism  of  the  steam  engine  have  been 
recognized  by  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and 
publicly  acknowledged  by  this  body  in  presenting  him  with  the 
Rumford  Medals. 

In  1796  Count  Rumford  placed  in  the  hands  of  this  society  a 
fund,  the  income  of  which  should  be  used  to  provide  two  medals, 
one  of  gold  and  the  other  of  silver,  together  of  the  intrinsic 
value  of  three  hundred  dollars,  which  should,  according  to  the 
judgment  of  the  society,  be  awarded,  from  time  to  time,  44  to  the 
author  of  any  important  discovery  or  useful  improvement  on  light 
or  on  heat,  which  shall  have  been  made  and  published  by  printing, 
or  in  any  way  made  known  to  the  public,  in  any  part  of  America, 
or  of  any  of  the  American  islands,  preference  being  always  given 


51 G 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


to  such  discoveries  as  shall,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Academy,  tend 
must  to  promote  the  good  of  mankind 

The  first  award  of  these  medals  was  made  by  the  Academy  to 
Count  Kumlord  himself,  for  his  experiments,  by  which  he  laid  the 
foundation,  and  ^inaugurated  the  method  of  investigation,  which 
since  his  day,  in  the  hands  of  his  successors,  have  led  to  the  most 
brilliant  and  valuable  generalization  of  modern  science,  that  of  the 
correlation  and  persistence  of  force. 

In  the  century  during  which  this  fund  has  been  in  existence, 
the  Academy  has  found  occasion  to  make  only  five  awards  of 
these  medals,  —  a  fact  which  shows  the  careful  and  judicious  in¬ 
vestigation  they  have  made  in  examining  the  claims  of  inventions 
to  receive  this  recognition  and  honor. 

The  Academy  having  voted  these  medals  to  Mr.  Corliss  for  his 
improvements  in  the  steam  engine,  they  were  presented  to  him  in 
January,  1870.  The  following  extracts  from  the  address  made 
upon  the  occasion  by  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  the  President  of  the  Academy, 
will  show  the  reasons  upon  which  the  Academy  based  their  award. 
After  speaking  of  the  foundation  of  the  trust,  and  of  the  consider¬ 
ations  which  actuate  the  Academy  in  the  bestowal  of  the  medals. 
Dr.  Gray  continued  :  — 

“  It  would  not  hesitate  to  crown  any  successful,  however  re¬ 
condite  or  theoretical  investigation  within  the  assigned  domain, 
being  confident  that  no  considerable  increase  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  laws  and  forces  of  nature  is  likely  to  remain  unfruitful.  But 
the  Academy  rejoices  when,  as  now,  it  can  signalize  an  invention 
which  unequivocally  tends  to  promote  that  which  the  founder  had 
most  at  heart,  and  commended  to  our  particular  regard,  —  the  ma¬ 
terial  good  of  mankind. 

“  Without  entering  into  details,  it  will  be  possible  to  state  the 
ground  upon  which  the  present  award  has  been  made.  It  is  for 
the  abolition  of  the  throttle  valve  of  the  steam  engine,  and  the 
transference  of  the  regulation  by  the  governor  to  a  sj'stem  of  in¬ 
duction  valves  of  your  own  invention,  with  the  advantage  of  a 
large  saving  in  fuel,  and  what  is  more  important  in  manufacturing 
industry,  the  maintenance  of  perfectly  uniform  motion  under 
varying  work. 

“  Previous  to  your  improvements,  the  regulation  of  the  power 
and  velocity  of  the  steam  engine  was  universally  effected  by  an 
instrument  placed  in  the  steam  pipe,  well  named  the  throttle 
valve,  being  used  to  choke  off  the  steam  in  its  passage  from  tho 


STEAM  AND  TIIE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


517 


boiler  to  reduce  more  or  less  its  pressure  before  it  was  allowed 
to  act  within  the  engine.  Avoiding  this  wasteful  process,  your 
engine  embodies  within  itself  a  principle  by  which  it  appropriates 
the  full,  direct,  and  expansive  force  of  the  steajn,  and  measures 
out  for  itself  at  each  stroke,  with  the  utmost  precision,  the  exact 
quantity  necessary  to  maintain  the  power  required. 

“  In  the  most  approved  engines  previously  used  for  manufactur¬ 
ing  purposes,  the  valves  employed  were  comparatively  difficult  to 
operate,  too  far  from  the  piston,  and  in  other  respects  unfit  for 
working  in  connection  with  the  governor.  Their  abandonment, 
and  the  substitution  of  others  suitable  for  the  purpose  that  you 
had  in  view,  demanded  an  entire  change  in  the  structure  of  the 
engine 

tl  In  the  reconstruction,  your  mastery  of  the  resources  of  mech¬ 
anism  is  conspicuously  shown.  You  introduced  four  valves  to 
the  cylinder,  two  for  the  induction  and  two  for  the  eduction  of 
the  steam  ;  and  by  your  device  of  a  wrist-plate,  you  give  to  each 
valve  a  rapid  motion  in  opening  and  closing,  and  a  slow  motion 
after  the  closing  has  been  effected,  thus  securing  a  perfection  in 
valve  movements  never  before  attained.  The  special  object  of 
these  changes,  and  the  gist  of  your  invention,  was  to  place  the  in¬ 
duction  valves  under  the  control  of  the  governor,  by  which  they 
are  operated  in  opening  through  a  mechanism  from  which  they  are 
released  earlier  or  later  in  the  stroke  of  the  piston,  according  as 
more  or  less  power  is  demanded  of  the  engine,  - —  the  governor, 
with  extreme  sensibility,  determining  the  point  when  the  supply 
of  steam  should  be  cut  off.”  .  .  . 

“  Allow  me  to  read  to  the  Academy  a  brief  account  of  the 
Corliss  engine,  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  British  engineers, 
Mr.  J.  Scott  Russell,  which  must  needs  be  free  from  personal  or 
national  prepossession.  It  is  from  the  official  report  on  the  Paris 
Universal  Exposition  of  1867. ” 

It  is  proper  that  we  remark  that  Dr.  Gray  here  quotes  from  the 
Report  to  the  British  Parliament  of  Mr.  Russell,  who  was  specially 
delegated  by  the  government  of  Great  Britain  as  Commissioner  to 
the  Paris  Exposition.  Mr.  Russell  is  a  most  eminent  English  en¬ 
gineer,  and  was  the  builder  of  the  Great  Eastern  steamship.  The 
highest  competitive  honor  was  at  the  Exposition  unanimous!}'  ac¬ 
corded  by  the  international  jury  to  the  Corliss  engine  over  more 
than  one  hundred  competing  engines,  the  chefs  d1  ceuvre  of  en¬ 
gine-builders  in  all  portions  of  the  civilized  world. 


518 


STEAM  AND  TIIE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


“  1  A  third  remarkable  engine  is  American,  both  in  invention  and 
execution,  and  forms,  perhaps,  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the 
American  department.  It  exhibits  thoughtful  design,  ingenious 
contrivance,  refined  skill,  and  admirable  execution.  It  is  singu¬ 
larly  unlike  an  English  engine.  It  has  four  ports,  on  four  different 
parts  of  the  cylinder,  two  on  one  side  and  two  on  the  opposite, 
each  worked  by  a  separate  mechanism.  These  ports  are  worked 
by  valves,  not  sliding,  like  our  own,  on  flat  surfaces,  but  sliding 
valves  on  cylindrical  surfaces.  Close  up  to  the  cylinder  these 
valves  cut  off  the  steam  with  scarce  a  particle  of  waste  room,  and 
so  economize  to  the  utmost  the  high  pressure  steam  which  they 
admit,  and  which  they  use  as  expansively  and  as  sparingly  as 
possible.  The  mechanism  by  which  these  valves  are  moved  is,  to 
our  eyes,  outlandish  and  extraordinary,  bet  it  is,  in  truth,  refilled, 
elegant,  most  effectual,  and  judicious ;  it  spares  steam  to  the 
utmost,  but  develops  what  it  uses  to  most  effect.  Then  it  pro¬ 
portions,  in  an  admirable  way,  the  dose  of  steam  it  serves  out  to 
the  continually  varying  quantity  of  work  the  engine  has  to  do. 
The  mechanism  of  its  mechanical  governor  is  wonderfully  delicate 
and  direct ;  the  governor  is  sensitive  to  the  most  delicate  changes 
of  speed,  and  feels  the  slightest  demand  upon  the  engine  for  more 
or  less  work  and  steady  speed.  A  mechanism  as  beautiful  as  the 
human  hand  releases  or  retains  its  grasp  of  the  feeding-valve,  and 
gives  a  greater  or  less  dose  of  steam  in  nice  proportion  to  each 
varying  want.  The  American  engine  of  Corliss  everywhere  tells 
.of  wise  forethought,  judicious  proportion,  sound  execution,  and  ex¬ 
quisite  contrivance/  ” 

After  noticing  the  economy  of  fuel  which  the  Corliss  engino 
makes  possible,  compared  with  the  older  forms,  amounting,  for 
the  same  effective  power,  to  an  average  of  one-third  of  the  fuel, 
and  to  its  chief  excellency,  uniformity  of  velocity,  though  within 
the  space  of  a  minute,  the  power  demanded  by  the  work  should 
vary  from  sixty  to  three  hundred  and  sixty  horse  power,  Dr. 
Gray  continues  : 

“  It  is  a  great  thing  to  say,  but  I  may  not  withhold  the  state¬ 
ment,  that,  in  the  opinion  of  those  who  have  officially  investigated 
the  matter,  no  one  invention  since  Watt's  time  has  so  enhanced 
the  efficiency  of  the  steam  engine  as  this  for  which  the  Rumford 
medals  are  now  presented/' 

In  connection  with  the  record  of  the  presentation  of  these 
medals  to  Mr.  Corliss,  it  is  fitting  that  we  add  his  reply,  not  only 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


519 


as  a  matter  of  the  history  of  the  occasion,  but  as  a  pleasing  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  harmony  which  may  exist  between  the  highest 
order  of  mechanical  and  inventive  genius  and  delicate  literary 
taste.  It  is  no  small  compliment  to  the  democratic  spirit  of  the 
age,  in  America  especially,  that  practical  life,  with  all  its  details 
of  hard  and  severe  labor,  is  not  necessarily  divorced  from  the 
sesthetical.  Mr.  Corliss’  reply  is  at  once  terse,  chaste,  and  logical. 

f<  Mr.  President :  Competitive  honors  are  the  reward  of  effort, 
stimulated  by  rivalry  and  ambition.  This  honor  comes  from  gen¬ 
tlemen  who  scan  the  whole  field  of  science  and  art,  and  in  delib¬ 
erate  council  make  their  awards  in  the  discharge  of  a  sacred  trust. 
To  this  consideration  I  add  the  historic  associations  connected 
with  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  the  scien¬ 
tific  fame  of  its  members  ;  and  I  receive  this  testimonial  with 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  a  distinguished  honor.” 

The  United  States  Commissioners  to  the  Paris  Universal  Exposi¬ 
tion,  1867,  in  their  report  to  the  government  (pages  54,  55,  and  59 
of  vol.  4,  of  said  report),  say,  “  The  Corliss  Steam  Engine  Company, 
of  Providence,  R.  I.,  have  sent  a  thirty  horse  power  horizontal 
engine,  finished  with  all  the  mechanical  refinement  for  which  their 
works  are  justly  celebrated;”  and  after  a  description  of  the  special 
points  of  superiority  of  this  machine  over  others,  add,  “  In  a 
comparison  of  the  different  classes  exhibited,  it  is  significant  to 
observe  how  minutely  its  features  have  been  copied  by  noted 
builders  of  other  nations,  as  indicative  of  the  esteem  with  which 
they  regard  its  novelties.  The  three  most  notable  copies  of  the 
Corliss  engine  principle  are  by  Messrs.  Hick,  Hargraves  &  Co., 
of  Bolton,  England ;  Messrs.  Gebriider  Sulzer,  of  Winterthur, 
Switzerland,  and  A.  Duvergier,  Lyons,  France.”  Surely,  the 
compliment  of  being  thus  copied  by  these  eminent  foreign  builders 
ought  to  be  sufficiently  satisfactory  to  the  pride  of  the  great 
American  inventor  ;  but  what  should  be  more  satisfactory  to  his 
pride,  as  it  is  in  itself  complimentary  to  the  high  honor  of  a  great 
manufacturer  himself,  is,  that  Mr.  Vandenkerchove,  of  Ghent,  Bel¬ 
gium,  one  of  the  most  successful  engine  manufacturers  in  Europe, 
is  now  building  steam  engines  strictly  after  the  Corliss  pattern, 
from  designs  obtained  from  Mr.  Corliss  himself,  and  paying  there¬ 
for  a  valuable  royalty. 

As  illustrative  of  the  delicate  and  profound  recognition  which 
genius  sometimes  commands  Of  appreciative  talent,  it  is  pleasant 
to  note  here  that  Mr.  Vandenkerchove  went  to  the  Paris  Exposi- 


520 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


tion,  taking-  with  him  a  steam  engine  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  horse 
power  of  the  highest  finish,  and  considered  a  masterpiece  of  me¬ 
chanical  execution ;  his  friends  confidently  believing,  with  him¬ 
self,  that  its  merits  must  achieve  the  crowning  honors  of  the  Exhi¬ 
bition  ;  but,  on  encountering  the  Corliss  engine,  and  acquainting  him¬ 
self  with  its  principles,  heretofore  unknown  to  him,  he  withdrew 
from  the  contest,  bearing  away  with  him  the  costly  descriptive 
folio  volumes  which  he  had  prepared  to  set  forth  the  merits  of  his 
own  work,  —  acknowledging  himself  vanquished,  and  immediately 
seeking  drawings  and  plans  of  Mr.  Corliss,  and  returning  home 
and  devoting  his  well-appointed  establishment  to  the  exclusive 
manufacture  of  the  Corliss  engine.  He  has  built  a  large  number 
of  engines  for  the  principal  manufactories  of  Europe  alter  the 
Corliss  pattern,  some  of  which  are  of  seven  hundred  horse  power. 
The  most  important  machine  works  of  Europe  are  now  following 
the  lead  of  Mr.  Vandenkerchove  in  the  manufacture  of  the  Cor¬ 
liss  engine. 

The  manufactory  of  the  “  Corliss  Steam  Engine  Company  ” 
merits  special  notice  in  a  work  like  this,  in  which  are  remarked 
not  only  the  actual  physical  achievements  of  genius  and  industry, 
but  the  aesthetic  and  moral  influences  which  the  pursuit  of  sundry 
arts  effects.  In  this  establishment  and  its  surroundings  we  find 
combined  the  most  effective  forces  with  the  highest  regard  to 
artistic  effects.  The  site  of  the  works  comprises  something  over 
nine  acres  of  land,  substantially  enclosed.  In  a  strictly  financial 
point  of  view,  the  attention  to  neatness  and  order  observable  here 
cannot  but  prove  to  be  an  excellent  investment,  from  which  manu¬ 
facturers  throughout  the  land  might  well  draw  a  sensible  suggestion. 
Pleasant  surroundings  serve  to  evoke  the  interest  of  the  employee  in 
the  establishment  to  which  he  is  attached,  and  to  render  him  less 
desirous  of  change,  and  therefore  more  profitable  to  the  employer. 

Entering  upon  the  premises  of  the  Corliss  Steam  Engine  Com¬ 
pany,  the  eye  is  at  once  greeted  by  smooth-shaven  lawns  which 
surround  the  buildings,  ornamented  with  trees  here  and  there, 
and  kept  scrupulously  clean.  The  buildings  are  substantial 
structures  of  brick,  having  a  studied  adaptation  throughout  to 
their  special  purpose.  Appropriate  and  commodious  business 
efiices  form  the  front  of  the  structure,  through  which  the  visitor 
enters  the  machine  shop,  with  all  its  grand  effect  of  a  vast  and 
almost  interminable  "industrial  hall, ' '  the  length  of  which  is  per¬ 
haps  most  emphatically  impressed  upon  the  eye  by  the  fact  that  the 


STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE. 


521 


parallel  lines  of  the  railway  which  traverses  it  are  so  extended 
as  to  seem  to  nearly  converge  at  the  farther  end.  This  hall  is 
replete  with  the  most  elaborate  and  effective  machinery  which  the 
careful  and  painstaking  experience  of  twenty  years  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  the  leading  engines  of  the  world,  and  the  most  subtle 
ingenuity,  have  combined  to  develop. 

Passing  through  this  long  avenue  of  machinery,  the  eye  con¬ 
stantly  falls  upon  evidences  of  the  most  successful  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends  for  securing  the  greatest  economies  of  labor,  as 
well  as  the  greatest  perfection  in  the  details  of  the  machinery, 
of  this  the  largest  works  in  the  world,  making  a  specialty  of  the 
manufacture  of  stationary  engines  and  boilers. 

Pursuing  the  line  of  the  railway  we  reach  the  wareroom,  and, 
taking  position  upon  a  turn-table  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  we 
find  upon  our  right  a  track  leading  into  the  iron  foundery,  where 
immense  castings  are  made  ;  in  front  of  us  the  track  leading  into 
the  “  erecting  shop,”  where  the  engines  are  put  together  previous 
to  being  shipped  ;  and  on  the  left  a  track  running  into  the  boiler 
shop,  but  on  the  way  crossing  another  turn-table,  by  which  direct 
connection  is  made  between  the  establishment  and  the  Boston  and 
Providence  Railroad,  and  the  Providence  and  Worcester  Railroad, 
by  which,  in  their  connection  with  other  railways,  the  establishment 
is  enabled  to  transmit  its  manufactures  to  the  remotest  parts  of 
the  land  without  change  of  cars. 

In  these  works  an  engine  of  five  hundred  horse  power  has 
lately  been  built  in  six  weeks,  though  with  a  gear  fly-wheel  weigh¬ 
ing  twenty  tons,  turned  upon  its  face  with  the  accuracy  of  clock¬ 
work,  and  finished  with  cogs  for  the  transmission  of  that  great 
power.  The  establishment  enjoys  the  distinction  of  having  made 
the  heaviest  spur  gear  ever  made  in  the  world,  —  that  of  the 
Wamsutta  Mills,  in  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  it  being  thirty  feet  in 
diameter,  twenty-four  inches  wide  on  the  face,  and  weighing,  when 
completed,  over  fifty  tons. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  more  heavy  gearing  has  been  cut  in  this 
establishment  in  the  last  twenty  years  than  in  all  the  world  be¬ 
side ;  and  the  proprietor  is  now  (1871)  at  work  upon  new  and 
improved  appliances,  which  must  secure  to  him  in  the  future  that 
which  has  been  awarded  him  in  the  past,  the  leading  position  in 
this  important  branch  of  the  business. 

In  the  manufacture  of  steam  engines,  as  in  many  other  depart¬ 
ments  of  constructive  industry,  the  use  of  costly  special  mar 


522 


STEAM  AND  TI1E  STEAM  ENGINE. 


chinery  for  the  perfection  of  an  efficient  system  is  practicable 
only  in  connection  with  a  very  large  business.  Fully  considering 
this,  Mr.  Corliss  is  preparing  to  quadruple  the  productive  capacity 
of  his  establishment.  As  the  initiatory  step,  he  has  already  in¬ 
troduced  steam  hammers,  for  forging  the  heaviest  work  required. 

Although  the  business  of  this  establishment  is  conducted  un¬ 
der  the  name  of  the  “  Corliss  Steam  Engine  Company, ”  the  estab¬ 
lishment  is,  in  fact,  the  exclusive  property  of  Mr.  George  11.  Cor¬ 
liss,  and  is  conducted  under  his  personal  supervision.  Mr.  Corliss 
not  only  brings  to  his  business  his  subtle  and  comprehensive  me¬ 
chanical  talent,  and  long  experience  as  a  manufacturer,  but 
also  a  peculiar  aptitude  for  the  mercantile  department. 

It  is  due  to  Mr.  Corliss  that  we  add  that  his  whole  establish¬ 
ment,  inclusive  of  its  special  machinery  as  well  as  architectural 
adaptations,  are  the  creations  of  his  own  brain,  and,  as  his  prop¬ 
erty,  arc  fitting,  though  partial  rewards,  of  his  great  contributions 
to  mechanical  science. 

George  II.  Corliss  is  still  in  the  vigor  of  middle  age,  and 
has,  doubtless,  before  him  a  future  in  which  he  cannot  fail  to 
achieve  still  greater  successes  than  have  thus  far  distinguished 
his  remarkable  career.  A  native  of  Washington  County,  N.  Y., 
academically  educated  at  Castleton,  Vt.,  he  settled  in  Providence, 
It.  I.,  in  1844,  where  he  has  since  continued  to  reside.  Aside 
from  conducting  his  extensive  business,  Mr.  Corliss  has  found  time 
to  attend  to  other  matters,  and,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  his 
fellow-citizens,  has  represented  his  district  for  three  successive 
years  in  the  Senate  of  Rhode  Island,  where  he  was  assigned  the 
position  of  chairman  of  the  committee  on  finance.  As  an  inven¬ 
tor,  a  scientific  mechanician,  a  manufacturer,  a  business  man,  and 
a  gentleman,  Mr.  Corliss  exemplifies  the  best  type  of  the  American 
character,  and  is  most  worthy  of  imitation  by  the  rising  j’oung 
men  of  the  land.  But  perhaps  nothing  is  more  notable  and  praise¬ 
worthy  in  his  career  than  the  just  persistence  with  which  he  has 
prosecuted  the  claims  of  his  invaluable  inventions  to  popular  ac¬ 
ceptance,  and  compelled  their  rightful  recognition  through  tedious 
years  of  litigation  to  which  he  was  subjected  by  rival  manufactur¬ 
ers,  not  only  vindicating  himself,  but  successfully  demonstrating 
the  fallacy  of  their  positions.  A  marked  feature  of  Mr.  Corliss’s 
character  is  a  large  and  discreet  benevolence,  quietly  expressed  in 
liberal  donations  to  various  charitable  and  educational  institutions. 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD  “CALICO.” — THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  CALICO-PRINTINQ. 

—  PLINY'S  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  PROCESS.  — THE  PROCESS  USED 
IN  INDIA.  — ITS  INTRODUCTION  INTO  EUROPE.  —  RESTRICTIONS  IN  ENGLAND 
ON  THE  USE  OF  CALICO.  —  CALICO-PRINTING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — 
DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  VARIOUS  PROCESSES  NEEDED.  —  MORDANTS.  —  SOURS. 

—  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  CALICO-PRINTING. — THE  DIFFERENT  STYLES  REQUIRED 
BY  THE  DIFFERENT  MARKETS  OF  THE  WORLD. 

There  is  a  town  in  India,  in  the  province  of  Malabar,  the  terri¬ 
tory  of  which  was  given,  centuries  ago,  by  the  first  monarch  of  that 
province,  to  one  of  his  chiefs.  He  gave  to  that  chief  his  sword, 
with  all  the  land  in  the  limits  of  which  a  cock  crowing  at  a  small 
temple  could  be  heard.  This  formed  the  original  dominion  of  the 
Tamuri,  to  whose  ancestor  it  was  given,  and  was  called  Colicoda, 
or  the  cock-crowing.  It  came  afterwards  to  be  called  Calicut, 
where  large  quantities  of  cotton  goods  were  manufactured,  and 
were  imported  into  England  under  the  name  of  Calico.  This  word 
is  applied  to  white  cotton  cloth  in  England :  but  in  the  United 
States  it  is  given  to  all  colored  or  printed  cotton  cloth.  In  Franco 
it  is  called  Indienne ;  in  Italy,  Indiana  (tela),  indicating  the  coun¬ 
try  from  which  the  art  of  calico-printing  was  received  by  Euro¬ 
peans. 

Calico-printing  is  the  art  of  impressing  colored  patterns  or  de¬ 
signs  on  white  cotton  cloth.  Doubtless  before  any  printing,  prop¬ 
erly  so  called,  was  done,  cloth  was  painted  by  hand,  and  also 
woven  in  colored  designs.  Herodotus  speaks  of  a  people  on  the 
shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea  who  painted  the  forms  of  animals  on 
their  garments  with  vegetable  dye.  li  They  have  trees  whose 
leaves  possess  a  peculiar  property ;  they  reduce  them  to  powder, 
and  then  steep  them  in  water ;  this  forms  a  dye  or  coloring  mat¬ 
ter,  with  which  they  paint  on  their  garments  the  figures  of  ani- 

(523) 


524 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


mals.  The  impression  is  such  that  it  cannot  be  washed  out ;  it 
appears,  indeed,  to  be  woven  into  the  cloth,  and  wears  as  long  as 
the  garment  itself. 

In  an  earlier  age,  it  was  said,  “  Now  Israel  loved  Joseph  more 
than  all  his  children,  because  he  was  the  son  of  his  old  age,  and 
he  made  him  a  coat  of  many  colors .”  Whether  this  coat  was 
woven  or  painted  cannot  be  determined.  The  king’s  daughters, 
who  were  virgins,  were  apparelled  in  garments  of  divers  colors.  It 
is  said  to  be  a  custom  in  India  to  clothe  a  favorite  child  in  a  coat 
of  many  colors,  because  it  is  believed  that  neither  tongue  nor  evil 
spirit  will  injure  him,  the  attention  being  taken  from  the  beauty  of 
the  person  to  the  brilliant  colors  of  the  garment.  The  “  glowing 
purple  of  the  Tyrian  dye  ”  was  greatly  esteemed  in  very  early 
times,  and  was  often  appropriated  as  the  color  of  royalty.  The 
kings  of  the  Midianites,  defeated  by  Gideon,  were  clothed  in  pur¬ 
ple  raiment.  The  pagan  nations  wrere  sometimes  accustomed  to 
array  the  images  of  their  gods  in  robes  of  purple.  When  the 
prophet  Ezekiel  took  up  a  lamentation  for  Tyre,  he  spoke  of  the 
“blue  and  purple  from  the  Isles  of  Elishah,”  in  which  the  people 
were  clothed.  This  reference  is  doubtless  to  the  islands  of  the 
JEgean  Sea,  from  whence  the  Tyrians  obtained  the  shell-fish,  —  the 
murex  and  the  purpura,  —  which  produced  the  dark-blue  and 
bright-scarlet  coloring  material,  the  use  of  which  contributed  60 
much  to  the  fame,  of  ancient  Tyre. 

From  an  account  given  by  Pliny  of  the  nature  and  process  of 
coloring  cloth  practised  by  the  ancient  Egyptians,  it  may  be  in¬ 
ferred  that  they  had  attained  great  skill  in  what  is  now  called  the 
art  of  calico-printing.  “  An  extraordinary  method  of  staining 
cloths  is  practised  in  Egypt,  being  first  imbued,  not  with  dyes,  but 
with  dye-absorbing  drugs,  by  which  they  appear  to  be  unaltered, 
but  when  plunged  for  a  little  in  a  caldron  of  the  boiling  dye-stuff, 
they  are  found  to  be  painted.  Since  there  is  only  one  color  in  the 
caldron,  it  is  marvellous  to  see  many  colors  imparted  to  the  robe 
in  consequence  of  the  modifying  agency  of  the  dye-absorbing 
drugs.  Nor  can  the  dye  be  washed  out.  Thus  the  caldron, 
which  would  of  itself  undoubtedly  confuse  the  colors  of  cloth  pre¬ 
viously  dyed,  is  made  to  impart  several  dye6  from  a  single  one, 
painting  while  it  boils.” 

Calico-printing  or  calico-painting  has  been  one  of  the  industries 
of  India  for  centuries,  and  is  practised  with  an  extraordinary  skill. 
In  the  town  of  Muhlhausen,  greatly  celebrated  for  calico-printing, 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


523 


are  exhibited  specimens  of  modern  Indian  calico  in  the  preparation 
state,  topically  covered  with  wax,  to  serve  as  a  resist  to  the  indigo 
dye  ;  and  also  ancient  styles  of  pencilled  cloth  covered  with  most 
complex  figures,  the  execution  of  which  must  have  required  the 
highest  degree  of  intelligence  and  skill.  Among  other  curiosities, 
the  counterpane  of  a  state  bed  is  shown,  six  yards  long  and  three 
broad,  which  must  have  taken  a  lifetime  to  execute,  on  their  plan 
of  applying  the  melted  wax  with  a  pencil.  Modes  of  printing 
similar  to  those  practised  in  India  have  been  long  known  in  Asia 
Minor  and  in  the  Levant,  also  in  China.  The  cottons  and  nan¬ 
keens  of  the  Chinese  are  renowned  all  over  the  world.  They  ex¬ 
cel  also  in  making  flowered  satins,  and  other  silk  stuffs,  which 
from  time  immemorial  have  attracted  the  merchants  of  Asia. 

From  India  the  art  of  calico-printing  was  introduced  into 
Europe ;  some  towns  in  France  particularly  became  celebrated, 
and  are  so  still,  for  printed  cottons  of  brilliant  and  fast  colors. 
The  art  was  introduced  into  England  in  the  year  1696.  But  it 
was  not  till  after  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  about  1 T68,  that 
calico-printing  was  commenced  in  Lancashire,  where  it  now  con¬ 
stitutes  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  productive  branches  of 
English  industry.  The  introduction  of  calico  into  England  en¬ 
countered  great  opposition  from  the  silk-weavers,  who  often  as¬ 
sailed  in  a  riotous  manner  the  East  India  House,  because  the  com¬ 
pany  imported  the  chintzes  of  Malabar.  The  government  yielded 
to  the  remonstrances  of  the  silk  trade,  and  imposed  heavy  duties 
on  Indian  calico,  and  afterwards  prohibited  the  importation  alto¬ 
gether.  ;  :  ,  ;  ,  ..  flj 

In  the  year  1720  the  wearing  of  all  printed  calico  whatsoever 
was  prohibited  by  a  new  law,  passed  in  order  to  quiet  the  clamor 
of  the  woollen  and  silk  manufacturers.  Ton  years  later  Parliament 
permitted  the  manufacture  and  wearing  of  printed  cloth  made  of 
cotton  weft  and  linen  warp,  imposing  on  it  a  duty  of  sixpence  the 
squire  yard.  In  1774,  after  a  most  expensive  application  to  Pair 
liament,  cloth  made  entirely  of  cotton  was  allowed  to  be  printed 
under  certain  burdensome  restrictions,  though  cotton  cloth  was 
much  better  suited  for  printing  than  mixed  webs  of  cotton  and 
linen,  which  received  the  colors  unequally,  owing  to  the  unequal 
attraction  of  these  two  fabrics  for  dyes.  Calico-printing  in  Eng¬ 
land  continued  to  be  the  subject  of  oppressive  laws  till  the  year 
1831,  when  they  were  all  repealed;  and  the  business,  left  to  its 
natural  development,  under  the  taste,  skill,  and  capital  of  the  coun- 


52G 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


try,  had  a  great  increase  ;  so  that  in  a  brief  period  a  single  manu¬ 
facturer  in  Manchester  produced  a  million  of  pieces  in  one  year. 

Large  establishments  for  calico-printing  are  found  in  the  New 
England  and  in  some  of  the  Middle  States.  The  quantity  pro¬ 
duced  in  the  United  States  nearly  equals  the  production  of  Eng¬ 
land,  though  the  quality  of  both  English  and  French  calico  is 
superior.  The  consumption  of  calico  in  the  United  States  is  greater, 
in  proportion  to  the  population,  than  that  of  any  other  country 
in  the  world.  Calico-printing  in  our  country  is  more  remarkable 
for  mechanical  power  and  speed  than  for  taste.  The  mode  of 
business,  forced  in  many  instances  by  large  capitals  on  the  joint- 
stock  system,  differs  entirely  from  that  of  Great  Britain.  The 
cost  of  production  is  also  much  higher,  from  high-priced  labor, 
coal,  and  drugs.  As  early  as  the  year  1824,  the  product  of 
printed  cottons  in  the  New  England  States  amounted  to  sixty 
thousand  yards  per  week.  In  the  year  1860,  the  product  of 
printed  cloths  in  the  same  States  amounted  to  two  hundred  and 
seventy-one  million  eight  hundred  and  fifty-seven  yards,  or  an 
average  of  five  million  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand 
yards  a  week. 

Cotton  cloth  intended  for  printing  must  be  subjected  at  the  out¬ 
set  to  the  operation  of  singeing,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the 
fibrous  down  or  nap.  There  are  two  methods  of  accomplishing 
this.  One,  the  old  method,  consists  in  passing  the  cloth  rapidly 
over  a  semi-cylindrical  bar  of  copper  or  iron,  kept  at  a  bright-red 
heat,  placed  horizontally  over  the  flue  of  a  fireplace  situated  imme¬ 
diately  at  one  end  of  the  bar.  The  new  method  consists  of  a  hori¬ 
zontal  range  of  gas-jet  flames,  over  which  cloth  is  drawn  by  rollers, 
with  a  continuous  rapid  motion  ;  a  line  of  suction-tubes  is  placed 
over  the  extended  web,  to  draw  the  flame  up  through  the  inter¬ 
stices  of  the  cloth,  which  effectually  clears  the  thread  of  down. 
The  apparatus  used  for  this  method  of  calendering  is  the  invention 
of  Mr.  Samuel  Ilall,  of  Basford,  England;  and  when  it  is  so  ar¬ 
ranged  as  to  allow  the  passage  of  two  pieces  of  cloth  at  the  same 
time  over  two  gas  flames,  is  capable  of  singeing  fifty  pieces  of 
cloth  per  hour. 

After  singeing  off  the  loose,  downy  threads,  the  cloth  must  be 
well  bleached.  Bleaching  means  the  whitening  of  cloth  by  the  re¬ 
moval  or  destruction  of  substances  which  color  it.  The  term, 
however,  has  a  more  extended  meaning,  and  besides  whitening, 
bleaching  is  understood  as  a  process  which  prepares  the  cloth  for 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


527 


dyeing.  The  whiter  cloth  is,  the  more  light  it  will  reflect  from  its 
surface,  and  the  more  briliiant  will  be  the  color  of  its .  dyes. 
Though  for  dyeing  purposes  whiteness  is  not  always  an  essential 
point;  what  is  essential  is  the  removal  of  certain  substances 
which  exist  in  the  fibre,  and  are  inimical  to  the  entrance  of  the 
dye.  If  light  and  bright  shades  are  required,  it  is  necessary  also 
that  the  fabric  should  be  free  from  the  dull-gray  color  naturally 
belonging  to  it ;  but  for  dark  and  heavy  colors  this  is  not  necessa¬ 
ry.  In  any  kind  of  dyeing,  where  part  of  the  fabric  is  intended  to 
remain  white,  as  in  dyeing  after  printing,  both  points  must  have 
careful  attention  ;  the  cloth  must  be  a  good  white,  and  free  from 
all  foreign  matters,  because  otherwise  the  white  parts  would  be¬ 
come  tinged  with  the  dye,  and  it  would  not  be  possible  to  restore 
the  white  to  its  original  brilliancy  without  at  the  same  time  injur¬ 
ing  the  colored  parts  of  the  design.  So  that  bleaching  for  print- 

* 

ing  is  a  most  difficult  part  of  the  art,  and  requires  the  greatest 
care  and  skill  to  accomplish  it  in  a  satisfactory  manner. 

The  first  operation  in  bleaching  cotton  cloth  is  sleeping  or  welling 
out.  It  is  placed  for  a  number  of  hours  in  cold  or  tepid  water ; 
this  is  sometimes  called  the  rot  steep,  and  very  heavy  goods  are 
wetted  out  with  boiling  water.  The  object  of  this  steeping  is  to 
remove  the  dirt  and  greasy  matters  and  metallic  particles,  which 
have  accumulated  upon  it  in  the  course  of  gathering,  packing,  and 
storing  the  cotton,  and  manufacturing  it.  The  goods  are  then 
thoroughly  washed  from  this  steep  in  the  dash-wheel,  or  tramped 
in  water,  and  then  washed  by  rinsing  them  through  water  with  the 
hands  :  they  are  then  ready  for  the  boiler. 

The  next  step  in  the  bleaching  process  is  called  bowking  or 
liming.  The  bowking  apparatus  is  a  large,  egg-shaped  caldron, 
with  a  false,  flat  bottom,  placed  a  little  above  the  rounded  true 
one,  to  protect  the  cloth  from  all  danger  of  being  scorched  by  the 
fire.  Through  the  centre  of  this  false  bottom  a  pipe  rises  from 
near  the  real  bottom  to  a  short  distance  above  the  top  of  the  cal¬ 
dron.  The  boiler  being  filled  with  goods,  and  supplied  with  a 
proper  quantity  of  the  detergent  liquid,  is  securely  covered  with  a 
dome-shaped  lid.  When  the  boiling  becomes  active,  the  steam 
forces  a  constant  stream  of  liquid  up  the  central  pipe,  causing  its 
constant  overflow,  whereby  the  goods  are  constantly  wetted  and 
soaked  with  the  boiling-hot  ley  of  lime.  The  action  of  the  lime 
in  bleaching  is  simply  a  preparatory  one  ;  it  prepares  the  way  for 
the  soda-ash,  softening  the  matters  to  be  removed  ;  but  it  actually 


528 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


removes  very  little  more  than  a  similar  boiling  in  hot  water  would. 
The  goods  are  then  washed  from  the  boil,  and  allowed  to  drain, 
the  draining  being  facilitated  by  pouring  hot  water  upon  them  ; 
they  are  then  hanked  up,  taking  out  all  the  twists,  and  laid  into  vats 
of  bleaching  liquor  as  loosely  as  possible.  When  the  cloth  has 
been  allowed  to  steep  in  the  bleaching  liquor  for  some  hours,  it  is 
again  washed  out,  and  subjected  to  the  souring  process.  The 
passing  of  the  goods  through  the  sours  takes  out  any  lime  that 
may  have  become  fixed  upon  the  cloth,  either  chemically  or  me¬ 
chanically.  It  decomposes  the  lime  soaps  by  taking  the  lime  from 
the  fatty  matter,  the  fatty  matter  yet  adhering  to  the  cloth,  but  in 
an  altered  or  acidified  state,  in  which  it  is  easily  acted  on  and  dis¬ 
solved  by  soda-ash. 

After  washing  out  of  the  sours,  the  cloth  is  subjected  to  boiling 
heat  for  several  hours  in  alkaline  ley  made  of  crude  soda.  The 
goods  are  again  rinsed,  and  finished  by  a  steep  for  an  hour  in 
vitriol  and  water.  By  these  means  all  oily  and  resinous  matters, 
particles  of  iron  or  iron  rust,  all  foreign  substances  usually  found  in 
good  cotton,  are  removed. 

“  There  are  very  few  dye-stuffs  capable  by  themselves  of  im¬ 
parting  to  cotton  colors  of  sufficient  lustre  and  durability  com¬ 
bined.  They  are  rendered  fast  as  well  as  brilliant  by  the  inter¬ 
vention  of  certain  substances,  which,  in  consequence  of  their 
attraction  for  the  cloth  and  the  coloring  matters,  form  a  bond  of 
union  between  the  two,  and  are  on  that  account  sometimes  called 
bases,  and  at  other  times  mordants,  from  their  taking  firm  hold  of 
orbiting  the  dyes.  These  intermediate  substances,  though  color¬ 
less  themselves,  possess  the  power  of  modifying  the  color  of  the 
dye,  or  of  producing  from  the  same  dye-stuff  different  tints  ;  so 
that  a  piece  of  white  cloth,  after  being  imbued  with  various  mor¬ 
dants,  will  assume  various  colors  in  a  single  dye  vat.  Thus,  if 
white  cotton  be  impressed  with  the  mordant  of  acetate  of  alumina 
in  one  set  of  lines,  with  that  of  acetate  of  iron  in  a  second,  and 
with  a  mixture  of  these  two  mordants  in  a  third,  on  being  exposed 
to  the  madder  bath  for  a  proper  time,  it  will  become  permanently 
printed  in  red,  black,  and  chocolate  stripes.” 

In  calico-printing  it  is  necessary  that  the  mordant  should  be  ap¬ 
plied  only  to  certain  parts  of  the  cloth,  the  remaining  part  either 
being  left  white,  or  occupied  by  some  other  mordant  or  color.  If, 
however,  a  drop  of  mordant  in  its  fluid  state  be  applied  to  a  piece 
ol  cloth,  it  spreads  in  a  circular  form  far  beyond  the  size  of  the 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


529 


drop,  but  not  in  an  equable  manner.  This  inclination  of  liquids 
to  spread  beyond  the  limits  of  their  first  application,  is  overcome 
by  thickening  them  with  various  substances,  such  as  gum,  flour, 
sugar,  molasses,  glue,  starch  of  potatoes,  of  rice,  and  of  sage. 
These  thickeners  constitute  a  great  item  of  expense  in  calico- 
printing;  as  the  large  quantities  of  these  substances,  which  are 
derived  for  the  most  part  from  articles  of  human  food,  after  hav¬ 
ing  accomplished  their  purpose,  are  a  complete  loss.  The  thicken¬ 
ing  of  mordants  and  colors  is  one  of  the  important  operations  in 
calico-printing  ;  on  this  so  much  depends  in  the  way  of  obtaining 
good  results  that  it  may  be  considered  as  the  most  important  part 
of  color-mixing  ;  and  that  a  color-mixer  will  be  good,  bad,  or  in¬ 
different,  as  he  instinctively  perceives  the  importance  of  this 
branch  of  his  art,  and  is  successful  in  carrying  it  out.  While 
most  of  the  other  substances  employed  in  this  work  leave  some 
traces  of  themselves  on  the  finished  product,  the  gum,  starch, 
flour,  etc.,  used  as  thickeners,  are  only  temporary  in  their  applica¬ 
tion,  and  have  to  be  all  removed  before  the  colors  are  finished. 

When  the  cotton  goods  are  properly  prepared  by  calendering 
and  bleaching,  and  the  mordants  thickened  and  mixed  with  colors, 
they  are  ready  for  printing.  There  are  several  mechanical  modes 
of  printing  calico.  (I.)  The  old  method  of  printing  by  blocks  is 
still  in  use.  The  blocks  are  generally  made  of  sycamore  wood, 
about  ten  inches  long  and  five  inches  wide,  with  an  arched  handle 
on  the  back.  The  face  is  either  cut  in  relief  into  the  design  re¬ 
quired,  or  the  same  object  is  obtained  by  means  of  slips  of  copper 
inserted  edgewise,  filed  down  and  polished,  to  secure  equality  of 
impression  in  the  several  lines.  This  renders  them  more  durable, 
as  frequent  applications  diminish  the  distinctness  of  outline  of 
their  designs  or  figures.  Calico-printing  by  hand  is  performed  by 
applying  the  face  of  the  block  first  to  the  coloring  material  and 
then  to  the  cotton  cloth  spread  on  a  smooth  table  covered  with  a 
blanket ;  the  impression  is  transferred  to  it  by  striking  the  block 
with  a  light  mallet.  A  second  and  third  color  is  applied  to  the 
cloth  by  using  a  second  or  third  block,  so  engraved  as  to  fill  in 
the  vacancies  left  by  the  preceding.  This  method  involves  great' 
cost  of  labor,  and  is  attended  with  irregularities  in  the  execution 
of  the  work. 

(2.)  The  usual  block-printing  method  was  to  a  great  extent 
superseded  by  the  Perrotine,  a  machine  of  most  novel  and  elegant 
description,  the  invention  of  M.  Perrot,  of  Rouen.  “  Three  thin 

31 


530 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


wooden  blocks,  engraved  in  relief,  about  three  feet  long  and  from 
two  to  five  inches  broad,  are  successively  brought  to  bear  on  three 
of  the  four  faces  of  a  prismatic  roller  of  iron,  round  which  the 
cloth  is  successively  wound.  Each  block  rests  on  springs,  which 
enable  it  to  press  with  the  delicacy  of  a  skilful  arm,  and  each 
receives  its  peculiar  colored  paste  from  a  woollea  surface,  imbued 
by  a  mechanical  brush  in  rapid  alternation/7  This  machine  oper¬ 
ates  with  great  speed  and  precision  ;  so  that  one  man,  and  three 
boys  to  superintend  the  three  colors,  could  do^the  work  of  twenty 
men  and  as  many  boys  in  ordinary  block-printing. 

(3.)  The  introduction  of  cylinder  printing  has  been  the  greatest 
improvement,  in  this  art.  It  is  a  machine  which,  with  one  man, 
can  do  the  work  of  a  hundred  men  and  as  many  assistants  by  any 
other  mode  of  calico-printing.  The  copper  cylinders  now  gener¬ 
ally  used  are  hollow,  or  bored  through  the  axis,  about  three  feet 
long  and  from  three  to  six  inches  in  diameter.  The  surface  of 
these  cylinders  is  engraved,  not  by  the  ordinary  methods  of  hand¬ 
engraving,  but  by  the  mechanical  pressure  of  a  steel  roller,  which 
transfers  the  figures  engraved  on  it  to  the  relatively  softer  copper. 
Sometimes  the  cylinders  are  covered  with  various  figures  by  the 
process  of  etching.  These  cylinders,  corresponding  with  the  dif¬ 
ferent  colors  to  be  used,  are  mounted  on  a  strong  iron  frame,  so  as 
to  pass  against  a  larger  central  cylinder  covered  with  felt,  between 
which  and  the  copper-engraved  cylinder  the  cloth  is  printed  as  it 
passes.  The  engraved  cylinder  revolves  in  contact  with  an  at¬ 
tendant  roller,  which  dips  into  an  oblong  trough  containing  the 
mordants  and  the  coloring  matter  properly  thickened.  It  is 
cleared  of  superfluous  coloring  matter  by  the  edge  of  a  flat  ruler 
made  of  bronze,  called  vulgarly  the  “  doctor  77  (ductor),  which  is 
applied  to  it  obliquely,  leaving  the  depressions  of  the  engraved 
cylinder  filled  with  coloring,  while  the  excess  falls  back  into  the 
trough.  The  cylinder  thus  charged  with  impressible  color  acts  on 
the  cloth,  and  rolls  it  onward  with  its  own  revolution,  imparting 
its  figured  design  with  great  precision.  At  one  of  the  print  works 
in  Manchester,  England,  is  a  machine  of  this  kind,  capable  of 
printing  twenty  colors.  So  rapidly  do  these  machines  operate 
that  they  print  a  piece  of  twenty-eight  yards  in  a  minute,  or  the 
length  of  nearly  one  mile  of  well-colored  designs  of  exquisite 
beauty  is  printed  in  an  hour.  Such  is  the  combined  result  of  skill 
in  machinery  and  art,  and  of  chemical  science,  carried  to  a  high 
state  of  perfection. 


.  ?  CALICO-PRINTING.  531 

'  *  • 

All  goods  after  being  printed  must  be  placed  in  a  hot-air  cham¬ 
ber  before  having  their  colors  brought  up  iq  the  dye-house.  But 
as  more  of  the  thickened  mordants  have  been  applied  to  the  cloth 
than  can  be  absorbed  and  retained,  it  must  be  subjected  to  a  pro¬ 
cess  of  cleansing.  T4is  cleansing  cannot  be  accomplished  by  a 
mere  washing  with  water,  as  the  excess  of  mordant  liberated  from 
one  part  of  tire  cloth  would  be  absorbed  by  another,  where  the 
design  required  a  white  or  colorless  part,  or  in  the  case  of  differ¬ 
ent  mordants  being  on  the  same  piece  of  cloth,  they  would  inter¬ 
mix,  and  spoil  one  another.  It  became  necessary,  therefore,  to 
find  some  fluid  in  which  the  cloth  could  be  washed  from  the  excess 
of  mordant  and  the  useless  thickening  matter,  which  at  the  same 
time  should  prevent  the  loose  mordant  from  fixing  itself  on  any 
part  of  the  fabric.  Such  a  fluid  was  found  in  a  mixture  of  hot 
water  and  cow-dung.  The  dunging  of  printed  goods  has  been 
regarded  as  one  of  the  very  important,  though  mysterious,  pro¬ 
cesses  in  calico-printing,  The  heat  of  the  cleansing  liquor  and  its 
strength  must  vary  with  the  styles  of  work,  and  be  skilfully 
adapted  to  them.  Too  high  a  temperature  and  too  much  dung  are 
injurious  to  delicate  colors,  such  as  the  pinks  and  the  yellows  ; 
colors  thickened  with  starch  require  a  higher  temperature  than 
those  thickened  with  gum.  The  cloth  should  never  be  allowed  to 
stop  for  a  moment  in  its  progress  through  the  dung-bath,  for  the 
part  in  contact  with  the  surface  of  the  water  would  run,  and  cause 
a  line  mark  across  the  cloth. 

The  goods  must  then  be  washed  in  the  dash-wheel,  or  passed 
through  a  rinsing  trough  ;  then  winched  through  a  fresh  dung- 
cistern  at  a  lower  degree  of  temperature  ;  then  washed  again. 
They  are  then  ready  for  the  dye-bath. 

There  are  several  different  styles  of  work  in  the  process  of 
calico-printing,  each  of  which  requires  a  different  method  of  ma¬ 
nipulation. 

(1.)  The  madder  style ,  to  which  the  best  chintzes  belong,  in 
which  the  mordants  are  applied  to  the  white  cloth,  the  colors  be¬ 
ing  afterwards  brought  up  in  the  dye-bath.  On  those  portions  of 
the  cloth  on  which  the  mordant  is  applied  the  coloring  attaches 
itself  in  a  durable  manner  ;  but  on  the  unmordanted  portions  the 
color  is  feebly  attached,  so  that  it  may  be  wholly  removed  by 
washing,  either  in  soap  and  water,  in  a  mixture  of  bran  and  water, 
or  in  a  dilute  solution  of  chloride  of  lime. 


532 


CALICO-PRINTING. 


(2.)  The  padding  style,  in  which  the  whole  surface  of  the  calico 
is  imbued  with  a  mordant,  on  which  afterwards  different  colored 
figures  may  be  raised  by  the  topical  application  of  other  mor¬ 
dants,  joined  to  the  action  of  the  dye-bath. 

(3.)  The  resist  style,  where  the  white  cloth  is  impressed  with 
figures  in  resist  paste,  which  will  protect  the  parts  it  covers  from 
receiving  any  color,  and  afterwards  subjected  to  a  cold  dye,  as  the 
indigo  vat,  and  then  to  a  hot  dye-bath,  with  the  effect  of  producing 
white  or  colored  spots  on  a  blue  ground.  • 

(4.)  The  discharge  style.  The  object  of  this  style  of  work  is 
the  production  of  a  white  or  colored  figure  on  a  colored  ground. 
This  is  accomplished  by  printing  on  the  cloth  already  dyed  or  mor¬ 
danted  a  substance  called  the  discharger,  which  has  the  property 
of  decomposing  either  the  coloring  matter  or  the  mordant. 

(5.)  The  China-blue  style,  which  requires  very  peculiar  treat¬ 
ment,  and  is  practised  with  one  coloring  matter  only,  namely,  in¬ 
digo.  The  different  shades  of  blue  are  secured  by  first  printing 
with  indigo  in  its  insoluble  state,  and  then  reducing*  this  to  the 
soluble  state,  and  dissolving  it  on  the  cloth  by  immersing  it  in  cer¬ 
tain  chemical  preparations. 

All  these  different  styles  require  a  complicated  process  peculiar 
to  each.  The  art  of  calico-printing  has  been  carried  towards  per¬ 
fection  by  the  exercise  of  the  highest  mechanical  ingenuity,  the 
cultivated  taste  of  the  best  artists,  and  the  talent  of  the  most  dis¬ 
tinguished  chemists.  “  It  is  curious  to  consider  the  great  variety 
of  taste  the  calico-printer  is  obliged  to  consult.  As  articles  of 
dress,  his  goods  are  to  be  worn  by  the  half-clothed  savage,  fond  , 
of  a  display  of  gaudy  colors  ;  they  are  to  please  the  refined  tastes 
of  civilized  nations,  of  the  women*  of  Eastern  harems,  and  the 
wives  of  African  kings.  Almost  every  country  is  a  customer  for 
these  goods,  and  each  demands  peculiar  styles,  patterns,  and 
colors.” 


1 


% 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


MODERN  CHEAP  TRANSPORTATION.  — OUTLINE  HISTORY  OF  RAILWAYS.  — THE 
TRAMWAYS  OF  THE  NORTH  OF  ENGLAND.  —  THE  FESTINIOG  RAILWAY.  — 
EXCAVATION  AND  TRANSPORTATION  WHERE  PERMANENT  RAILWAYS  NOT 
WANTED.  —  THE  PETELER  PORTABLE  RAILROAD  PRECISELY  ADAPTED  FOR 
THIS  BUSINESS.  —  MASS  OF  SUCH  WORK  IN  ORDINARY  RAILROAD  BUILDING. 

- SAVING  BY  THE  USE  OF  THE  PETELER  PORTABLE  RAILWAY.  - FACILITY 

OF  HANDLING  AND  MOVING  THIS  RAILWAY.  — SAVING  IN  TIME  AND  MONEY. 
—  FACTS  AND  DETAILS  IN  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THIS  ECONOMY. — ACCOUNT  OF 
THE  ORIGINAL  INVENTION  OF  THE  PORTABLE  RAILWAY. 

Cheap  transportation  is  the  instrument  and  the  test  of  civilized 
progress.  In  proportion  as  men  can  travel  quickly,  and  easily, 
and  cheaply,  and  can  carry  goods  and  materials  quickly,  and  easily, 
and  cheaply,  very  nearly  in  that  proportion  do  wealth,  and  intel¬ 
ligence,  and  happiness  —  that  is,  civilization  —  advance. 

In  this  branch  of  improvement  railroads  are  the  most  recent 
forward  steps  on  land,  as  steam  vessels  are  at  sea.  In  railroad 
improvements,  the  latest  step  is  the  adoption  of  very  narrow 
gauges  ;  and,  last  of  all,  a  recently  organized  American  company — 
the  Petelcr  Portable  Railroad  Company  —  have  in  one  singularly  in¬ 
genious  step  completed  a  circle  of  improvements  by  combining 
the  vast  economy  of  power  which  railways  afford  with  a  cheap¬ 
ness  greatly  beyond  that  of  a  horse  and  cart,  and  an  ease  and 
quickness  of  use  which  makes  a  railroad  train  almost  as  handy  as 
a  wheelbarrow. 

A  brief  outline  may  be  given  of  the  course  of  this  return  to 
features  of  railway  history  nearly  three  hundred  years  old,  while 
yet  the  modern  improvements  in  railroad  construction  prevent  this 
return  from  being  a  retrograde. 

The  first  ancestor  of  the  railway  was  the  tramway,  which,  as 
its  description  will  show,  was  a  good  deal  more  like  the  Portable 
Railroad  of  to-day  than  any  of  the  intermediate  generations.  This 

(533) 


534 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


is  according  to  that  law  which  recent  physiologists  call  “  rever¬ 
sion/7  according  to  which,  ki  any  generation  of  men  or  animals, 
there  may  crop  out,  as  it  wore,  some  trait  which  had  been  hidden 
perhaps  for  a  century,  but  had  been  distinct  in  remote  progenitors. 

Tramways  were  first  introduced  in  the  coal  mining  districts  of 
the  north  of  England  probably  between  the  years  1002  and  1049, 
that  is,  under  James  I.  or  Charles  I.  They  consisted  of  parallel 
lines  of  wooden  trams,  or  beams,  pinned  down  to  the  ground,  and 
with  flanges  on  these  trams,  not  on  the  wheels.  Coal  wagons  were 
drawn  to  and  fro  along  these  flanged  trams  from  the  coal  pits  to 
the  shipping  ports  on  the  Rivers  Tyne  and  Wear.  Rent  was  paid 
to  the  owners  of  the  lands  over  which  these  tramways  were  laid, 
and  this  rent  was  called  way-leave  —  a  term  still  used  in  that  region 
for  land  damages  for  railroads.  Roger  North,  writing  in  the  year 
1676,  describes  these  tramways  thus  :  “  The  manner  of  the  car¬ 
riage  is  by  laying  rails  of  timber  from  the  colliery  down  to  the 
river  exactly  straight  and  parallel  ;  and  bulky  carts  arc  made  with 
four  rowlets  fitting  these  rails,  whereby  the  carriage  is  so  easy 
that  one  horse  will  draw  down  four  or  five  chaldron  of  coal.’ 7 
Along  one  of  these  colliery  tramways  the  English  cannon  were 
posted  at  the  battle  of  Prestonpans,  won  by  the  Young  Pretender 
and  his  Highlanders  over  Sir  John  Cope  in  the  year  1745. 

The  first  use  of  iron  on  these  tramways  was  by  nailing  down 
iron  plates  on  the  timbers,  to  protect  them  where  they  wore  out 
fastest.  The  first  iron  rails  were  cast  at  Coalbrookdale  in  1767, 
to  keep  the  furnaces  going  in  a  slack  season.  They  were  bars, 
five  feet  long,  four  inches  wide,  and  an  inch  and  a  half  thick,  and 
whenever  the  price  of  iron  should  rise,  they  were  to  be  taken  up 
again  and  sold.  All  iron  rails  were  cast  until  Birkenshaw  intro¬ 
duced  rolled  wrought  iron  rails  in  1820.  Horse  railroads  were  in¬ 
creasing  in  numbers  in  England  —  five  having  been  chartered  by 
Act  of  Parliament  in  1805,  sixteen  in  1815,  and  thirty-two  in  1825 
—  when  the  locomotive  was  first  successfully  constructed  by  Ste¬ 
phenson  in  1829. 

The  width  of  the  tramways  was  about  4  feet  8}  inches,  because 
that  happened  to  be  the  usual  width  of  the  wagon  tracks  in 
that  region.  The  same  width  was  naturally  adopted  for  the  first 
railroads,  and  has  ever  since  been  used  on  more  roads  than  any 
other  in  most  parts  of  the  railroad  world.  Fourteen  other  widths 
are  known  to  have  been  used,  —  from  seven  feet  (on  an  English 
line,  the  Great  Western)  down  to  two  feet  (on  the  now  famous 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


535 


little  Festiniog  Railway  in  Wales).  The  Spanish  roads  have  the 
elaborate  fractional  width  of  5  feet  5^|  inches. 

The  Festiniog  Railway  is  that  whose  construction  and  operations 
are  most  nearly  like  the  Portable  Railroad  of  the  Peteler  Portable 
Railroad  Company.  It  was  built  to  haul  slate  from  a  Welsh 
quarry  down  to  a  seaport,  and  has  been  running  for  nearly  forty 
years,  by  horse  power  until  1865,  when  locomotives  were  placed 
on  the  road,  and  with  so  much  success,  as  to  economy  and  efficiency, 
as  to  have  of  itself  alone  practically  decided  the  narrow-gauge 
question. 

Some  occasional  discussion  of  this  comparatively  new  idea  of 
very  narrow  railways  has  taken  place  during  the  last  year  or  two 
in  the  United  States  ;  and  here,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  a  number  of 
permanent  steam  railroads  on  a  similar  plan  are  in  process  of  or¬ 
ganization  or  construction.  There  is  required,  however,  every 
year,  an  immense  mass  of  transportation  and  excavation,  for 
which  a  permanent  railway  is  not  wanted.  This  is  at  present  exe¬ 
cuted  by  the  old-fashioned  means  of  wheelbarrows,  carts,  or  wag¬ 
oning,  and  it  is  for  the  economical  and  rapid  performance  of  this 
work  in  particular  that  the  portable  cars  and  track  of  the  Peteler 
Portable  Railroad  Company  are  peculiarly  adapted. 

Such  cases  are  —  the  transport  of  stone,  brick,  and  timbers  from 
a  quarry  or  dock  to  a  building ;  filling  up  low  grounds ;  levelling 
and  embanking  for  wagon  roads  and  railroads  ;  building  mill-dams  ; 
working  peat  bogs  ;  sanding  cranberry  meadows  ;  building  levees  ; 
running  brick-yards ;  filling  ice-houses  ;  many  portions  of  military 
transportation  ;  for  excavating  and  hauling  at  quarries,  iron  mines, 
coal  mines,  marl  pits,  gravel  pits,  etc.  ;  for  levelling  and  filling 
in  the  grading  of  public  parks,  cemeteries,  and  other  large  areas  ; 
for  the  heavy  hauling  at  rolling-mills,  founderies,  boiler-shops,  and 
other  large  iron  works  ;  at  lime-kilns  ;  in  digging  for  large  cellars, 
excavating  for  gas-holders,  etc.,  etc. 

The  statistics  do  not  exist  for  estimating  the  quantity  of  such 
work  which  is  every  year  executed  in  the  United  States,  either  by 
number  of  men,  or  horses,  or  vehicles  employed,  or  by  number  of 
cubic  yards  or  tons*  weight  moved.  But  an  estimate  of  what  may 
be  expected  from  one  single  item  of  the  above  list  will  sufficiently 
indicate  the  vastness  of  the  total.  Mr.  II.  V.  Poor,  a  most  expe¬ 
rienced  and  sober  statistician,  and  a  first-class  authority  on  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States,  calculates  that  new  railroads  have 
been  built,  during  the  last  twenty  years,  in  this  country,  at  the  rate 


536 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


of  two  thousand  miles  a  year ;  that  this  is  to  be  three  thousand 
miles  a  year  hereafter,  and  more  too  ;  that  the  whole  length  of  rail¬ 
roads  now  in  operation  in  the  United  States  is  (on  January  1,  187 0) 
forty-seven  thousand  miles  ;  and  that  it  will  take  at  least  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  miles  more  of  railways  to  supply  even 
moderately  the  whole  of  the  United  States. 

Now,  if  we  imagine  the  quantity  of  hauling  required  for  the 
deep  cuts  and  high  embankments  that  must  be  made,  for  the  tim¬ 
ber,  stone,  and  iron  that  must  be  hauled  for  the  superstructures, 
bridges,  etc.,  for  this  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
miles,  which  is  more  than  nine  times  the  distance  around  the  world, 
and  if  we  add  some  imagination  of  the  further  mass  of  heavy  ex¬ 
cavating  and  hauling  required  in  all  the  mining,  hanking,  filling, 
and  other  earth  work  of  the  United  States,  —  which  will  be  far 
greater  in  the  total  than  this  railroad  item,  —  although  we  shall 
have  no  arithmetical  figures  for  a  result,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be 
convinced  that  the  whole  work  laid  out  is  enormous  to  a  degree 
even  beyond  the  intelligent  grasp  of  the  mind.  It  follows,  of 
course,  that  the  invention  which  diminishes  the  labor  and  cost  of 
all  this  drudgery,  directly  and  very  greatly  increases  the  sum 
of  human  wealth  and  happiness. 

An  easy  comparison  will  show  how  greatly  the  Portable  Rail¬ 
road  does  diminish  this  cost  and  labor.  One  horse  and  man  on 
the  Portable  Railroad  can  move  at  least  five  cubic  yards  of  earth. 
This  would  be  from  ten  to  fifteen  ordinary  cart  loads,  for  in  prac¬ 
tice,  one  cubic  yard  makes  about  three  horse-cart  loads  ;  the  same 
quantity  makes  sixteen  average  wheelbarrow  loads.  One  man 
alone,  with  one  of  the  smaller  sizes  of  portable  cars  and  track, 
can  move  a  half  cubic  yard  of  earth,  equal  to  eight  wheelbarrow 
loads.  Therefore  the  Portable  Railroad  enables  one  man  to  do 
eight  men’s  work,  and  enables  one  man  and  horse  to  do  the  work 
of  at  least  ten  men,  ten  horses,  and  ten  carts.  It  is  easy  to  com¬ 
pute  the  saving. 

“  Portable”  is  the  most  important  idea  in  this  latest  of  the 
railroads  ;  for  it  can  be  carried  hither  and  thither,  laid  down,  used, 
picked  up,  and  carried  away  again,  almost  as  fast  as  the  field 
telegraphs  that  have  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  military 
campaigns  of  the  last  twenty  years.  The  track  is  manufactured 
in  twenty-foot  sections,  hitching  strongly  and  securely  together 
at  the  end  by  means  of  a  hook-and-eye  contrivance.  The  neces¬ 
sary  short  lengths,  turn-outs,  single  and  double  curves,  frogs, 


THE  PORTABLE  RAILROAD  IN  OPERATION. 


.  ■  ■  * 

■ 


. 


■  -  '■  •  '  :  V  :  vt 

--  ’’ 

' 

■ 


* 


# 


0  t 


. 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


539 


cross-roads,  turn-tables,  etc.,  are  all  kept  ready  made  and  fitted 
with  hooks  and  eyes  in  like  manner.  The  rails  are  laid  directly 
on  the -surface  of  the  ground,  without  sleepers  or  any  prepara¬ 
tory  grading  or  digging.  On  level  ground  two  men  can  lay  down 
a  thousand  feet  of  the  track  in  an  hour,  and  can  pick  it  up  again 
in  fifteen  minutes.  If  there  is  a  marsh  or  a  bog,  where  an  ordi¬ 
nary  team  could  not  pass,  a  “track-raft  ”  has  been  contrived, 
which  carries  road,  cars,  and  all,  and  a  flying  bridge  is  ready  for 
canals  and  small  rivers.  A  single  railroad  car,  or  three  two-horse 
teams,  can  easily  transport  the  whole  track  and  fixtures  of  a  Porta¬ 
ble  Railroad  a  thousand  feet  (about  one  fifth  of  a  mile)  long. 

The  patents  which  are  owned  by  the  Peteler  Portable  Railroad 
Company  are  two  in  number,  one  covering  the  track,  and  the 
other  the  peculiar  dumping  car  which  is  used  with  the  road,  and 
which  is  of  itself  an  ingenious  and  efficient  contrivance  for  han¬ 
dling  heavy  materials.  The  car  used  for  earth  only  requires  that 
its  load  shall  be  lifted  two  feet  eight  inches  from  the  ground,  in¬ 
stead  of  five  or  five  and  a  half  feet,  into  an  ordinary  car  or  cart 
body.  Any  man  who  has  ever  shovelled  one  load  of  earth  into  a 
cart  will  readily  see  what  a  relief  and  saving  it  is  to  cut  down  by 
half  the  hoisting  of  the  whole  load.  For  materials  like  timber, 
brick,  or  stone,  which  will  stack  closely,  this  item  of  convenient 
handling  becomes  still  more  important,  the  platform  for  this  pur¬ 
pose  being  only  ten  inches  from  the  ground. 

It  is  calculated  from  the  results  of  the  work  thus  far  done  by 
the  Portable  Railroad,  that  the  saving  it  secures  on  heavy  pieces 
of  transportation  is  from  half  to  three  fourths  of  the  time,  and 
from  one  quarter  to  one  half  of  the  money,  that  would  be  required 
by  the  old  methods.  As  in  fixed  railroads,  these  savings  may  be¬ 
come  more  or  less,  by  virtue  of  some  local  peculiarity.  Thus,  if 
the  ground  traversed  be  of  a  suitable  slope,  the  cars  can  be  car¬ 
ried  one  way  by  gravity  alone,  and  then,  of  course,  so  much  of 
the  work  of  transportation  is  saved. 

A  few  specific  details  of  work  actually  done  will  aptly  illustrate 
these  general  statements. 

In  filling  a  wharf  at  the  United  States  Light-house  Depot,  Stat¬ 
en  Island,  it  turned  out  that,  with  the  Peteler  Portable  Railroad 
track  and  cars,  the  quantity  of  earth  moved  was  over  twenty  cubic 
yards  per  day  per  man,  while  with  carts  and  horses,  each  man 
would  have  moved,  on  the  most  liberal  estimate,  not  over  11^ 
cubic  yards.  In  sanding  some  cranberry  meadows  at  Franklin, 


540 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


Mass.,  and  at  Westbrook,  Conn.,  where  the  ground  was  so  soft  that 
the  horse  used  had  to  wear  what  may  be  called  mud  snow-shoes, 
made  of  board,  the  Portable  Railroad — with  one  horse  and  six 
cars  —  did  the  work  with  a  speed  sometimes  thirty  times,  and 
never  less  than  twenty  times,  as  fast  as  a  wheelbarrow  force  could 
have  done  it.  A  canal  and  railroad  contractor  in  Indiana  wrote 
that  he  was  embanking  and  excavating  at  one  third  the  cost  of 
using  horse-carts.  Dacey  &  Co.,  contractors  on  the  Cape  Cod 
Railroad,  upon  a  careful  and  extensive  trial,  moved  a  thousand 
cubic  yards  a  month  more  with  a  portable  track  and  cars  than 
with  an  ordinary  train  and  track  of  yard  rotary  cars,  worked 
with  an  equal  gang.  Mr.  Whyte,  who  hired  twenty  cars  and  fif¬ 
teen  hundred  feet  of  track  to  make  excavations  for  his  great  gas- 
tank  for  the  New  York  Mutual  Gas  Company,  reported  that  he 
had  saved  fifty  per  cent,  on  his  contract  in  consequence.  A  Con¬ 
necticut  cranberry  man,  Mr.  Bill,  of  Lyme,  wrote  that  he  had  been 
sanding  a  cranberry  meadow  a  mile  long  with  the  portable  track, 
and  that  it  enabled  him  to  do  the  work  for  one  third  of  what  it 
must  have  cost  in  any  other  way,  and  that  his  saving  on  that  one 
job  would  “pay  for  the  cars  and  track  twice  over.”  Town  Road 
Superintendent  Seymour,  of  Ilingham,  Mass.,  found  that,  even  at 
short  distances,  such  as  three  hundred  feet,  he  saved  one  fourth 
the  cost  of  wheelbarrow  hauling,  and  one  third  over  that  of 
carting. 

A  long  list  of  similar  statistics  might  be  reported  from  docu¬ 
ments  on  record,  not  to  mention  the  numerous  general  statements 
of  “saving  both  time  and  money, ”  “having  a  decided  advantage 
over  horses  and  carts, ”  and  the  like. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  illustration  of  the  flexibility  of  the 
Portable  Track  was  shown  in  a  job  of  city  filling  at  Boston,  where 
it  was  found  that  wheelbarrow  work  was  slow  and  expensive  be¬ 
yond  endurance,  and  where  horse-carts  could  not  go.  The  gravel 
used  in  this  work  was  to  be  filled  in  from  six  to  eighteen  feet  deep, 
in  a  low  and  ill-drained  part  of  the  city,  built  over,  however,  and 
where  the  houses  were  to  be  raised  to  the  new  level,  and  the  fill¬ 
ing  dropped  and  packed  in,  as  the  case  might  be,  in  side  streets, 
alleys,  back  yards,  and  cellars,  at  all  sorts  of  depths.  It  was, 
however,  found  that  the  road  was,  one  might  almost  say,  as  flexi¬ 
ble  as  a  string  ;  it  twisted  and  squirmed  up  and  down,  and  in  and 
out,  round  corners  and  through  back  gates  and  cellar  doors, 
searching  out  one  hollow  after  another,  ever  and  anon  being  picked 


NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROADS. 


541 


up  and  carried  in  at  a  new  place  as  they  carry  the  hose  at  a  fire, 
until  the  whole  was  successfully  accomplished,  and  at  the  rate  of 
three  hundred  cubic  }rards  a  day  to  twenty  men,  too  ;  being  fifteen 
cubic  yards,  equal  to  thirty  heavy  cart  loads,  per  man. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  a  mode  of  transporting 
which  possesses  at  once  more  than  the  adaptability  of  a  man  with 
a  wheelbarrow,  at  half  the  cost ;  more  than  the  wholesale  econ¬ 
omy  of  a  railroad  gravel  train,  without  its  burdensome  perma¬ 
nency  ;  which  can  go  where  man  and  horse  cannot ;  which  can¬ 
not  be  disabled  by  rain,  flood,  sand,  or  mud  ;  and  which  can  be 
laid  down  in  an  hour  and  removed  in  fifteen  minutes,  without 
leaving  a  remnant  or  trace  of  its  presence,  is  the  very  beau-ideal  of 
a  transportation  system.  The  credit  of  the  inventions  which  are 
united  in  the  Portable  Railroad  enterprise  is  due  to  a  Bavarian 
engineer  officer,  Herr  Peteler.  During  the  military  operations  of 
the  famous  campaign  which  was  closed  by  the  decisive  defeat  of 
the  Austrian  army  at  Sadowa,  in  1866,  there  arose  a  necessity  for 
quickly  filling  in  an  area  of  marshy  ground.  The  means  were  not 
at  first  forthcoming,  but  Herr  Peteler  quickly  conceived  the  idea 
of  the  movable  narrow  tramway,  the  light  cars,  and  the  track- 
raft  which  was  to  carry  them  over  the  morass.  The  necessary 
woodwork  was  extemporized,  and  the  filling  executed  with  unpre¬ 
cedented  quickness.  The  efficiency  of  the  plan  was  thus  proved, 
and  the  inventor  proceeded  to  develop  and  complete  its  adaptation 
to  civil  as  well  as  military  operations.  When  his  inventions  were 
complete,  he  went  on  to  introduce  them  in  Europe,  and  intrusted 
his  brother,  Mr.*Alois  Peteler,  with  the  business  of  bringing  them 
into  use  in  America.  The  undertaking  has  already  met  with  great 
success,  the  track  and  cars  of  the  Company  being  now  in  use  in 
more  than  half  of  the  states,  and  in  the  British  Provinces,  Cuba, 
and  South  America.  The  office  of  the  Peteler  Portable  Railroad  Com¬ 
pany  is  located  at  42  Broadway,  New  York,  where  they  keep  samples 
of  their  cars  and  tracks,  and  where  all  business  pertaining  to  the  Com¬ 
pany  is  transacted. 


SEWING  SILK  AND  MACHINE  TWIST. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  SILK.  —  MANUFACTORY  IN  CHINA.  — INTRODUCED  INTO  VIRGINIA. 

—  ATTEMPTS  IN  THE  OTHER  COLONIES.  —  FIRST  SILK  RAISED  IN  CONNECTICUT. 

- BOUNTIES  AND  STATE  AIDS.  —  THE  PROFITS  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  ITS  DECAY. 

—  THE  REVIVAL  OF  SILK  CULTURE.  — THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  MACHINE  LABOR. 

—  THE  INCORPORATION  OF  THE  MANSFIELD  COMPANY.  —  MACHINE  TWIST.  - 

INTRODUCED  BY  THE  NONOTUCK  SILK  COMPANY,  OF  FLORENCE,  MASS.  — 

INCREASE  OF  THIS  BUSINESS.  —  PREJUDICE  CONCERNING  ITALIAN  SILK.  — 

ITS  EFFECTS.  —  THE  TRUTH  IN  THE  MATTER. 

Silk,  as  is  well  known,  is  the  fibre  from  the  cocoons,  or  nests, 
which  insects  build  for  their  protection  while  in  the  chrysalis  con¬ 
dition.  The  chief  supply  is,  however,  derived  from  the  silkworm, 
a  caterpillar  which  lies  upon  the  mulberry  tree,  and  is  classed 
scientifically  as  the  bombyx  mori. 

The  manufacture  of  silk  has  been  known  from  the  earliest  times 
in  China.  From  there  it  was  introduced  into  Europe  during  the 
middle  ages. 

At  the  settlement  of  the  United  States,  various-  attempts  were 
made  to  introduce  the  culture  of  silk.  At  a  meeting  in  London  of 
the  company  under  whose  auspices  the  settlement  at  Jamestown, 
in  Virginia,  was  made,  held  in  London  in  1G20,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 
whose  term  of  office  as  treasurer  had  just  ended,  made  an  address 
concerning  the  affairs  of  the  colony,  in  which  he  recommended  the 
culture  of  mulberry  trees,  and  the  raising  of  silk,  saying  that  the 
king,  James  I.,  had  sent  a  second  supply  of  silkworm  eggs  to  the 
colony  from  his  own  stores. 

Though  at  frequent  intervals  the  authorities  suggested  the  cul¬ 
ture  of  silk,  and  sought  to  stimulate  it  by  rewards  and  boun¬ 
ties,  yet  in  these  early  days  very  little  attention  was  devoted  to  it. 

In  1718  this  culture,  with  that  of  indigo,  was  introduced  into 
Louisiana  by  the  “  Company  of  the  West;  ”  and  during  the  Rev-* 
(542) 


SEWING  SILK  AND  MACHINE  TWIST. 


543 


olution  the  chief  supply  of  sewing  silk  for  the  upper  country  was 
derived  from  the  silk  works  established  in  Georgia  by  the  French 
settlers.  The  business  had  been  founded  there  by  most  liberal  ap¬ 
propriations  from  Parliament  and  private  persons  in  England. 
Lands  were  given  settlers  upon  condition  that  they  planted  ten 
mulberry  trees  for  each  acre,  and  the  seal  of  the  founders,  with  its 
motto,  “Non  sibi,  sed  aliis  ”  (not  for  ourselves,  but  for  others),  with 
the  representation  of  silkworms,  expressed  at  once  both  the  spirit 
with  which  the  enterprise  was  undertaken  and  its  object.  Skilled 
workmen  from  Italy  were  sent  over  to  superintend  and  instruct 
the  settlers  ;  but  becoming  dissatisfied,  they  destroyed  the  stock 
and  machinery,  and  fled  into  Carolina. 

Others  were,  however,  sent  over  to  recommence  the  business  ; 
and  in  1734  the  first  shipment  of  eight  pounds  of  raw  silk  was 
sent  to  England.  The  business  continued,  increasing  in  propor¬ 
tion  to  the  bounties  awarded  it,  reaching,  in  1760,  fifteen  thousand 
pounds  of  cocoons  :  but  when  the  bounties  were  discontinued,  it 
diminished  rapidly,  and  in  1790  the  last  silk  was  shipped  from 
Georgia. 

•In  Carolina,  also,  the  culture  of  silk  was  a  somewhat  fashionable 
employment  for  the  ladies  during  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century. 

In  Massachusetts  fine  samples  of  sewing  silk  were  made  in  1790 
by  Mr.  Jones,  of  Western,  in  Worcester  County.  In  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  attempts  were  also  made  at  an  early 
period  to  introduce  this  culture.  In  1769  the  American  Philosoph-’ 
ical  Society,  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  recommendation  of  Frank¬ 
lin,  commenced  a  subscription  for  establishing  a  filature  of  silk  in 
Philadelphia,  under  the  direction  of  a  Frenchman.  A  Mrs. 
Wright,  a  Quakeress  in  Columbia,  Lancaster  County,  made  a 
good  deal  of  sewing  silk  in  1770.  In  the  Philadelphia  Library 
Company  are  preserved  samples  of  a  silk  dress,  for  the  Queen  of 
England,  made  from  silk  raised  by  Mrs.  Wright.  They  are  in  the 
manuscript  of  Watson’s  Annals  of  Pennsylvania  and  Philadelphia. 

In  Connecticut  silk  was  early  produced,  and  was  the  subject  of 
legislation  in  1732.  President  Stiles,  of  Yale  College,  was  ear¬ 
nest  and  constant  in  his  efforts  to  stimulate  the  culture.  He  com¬ 
menced  by  planting  three  mulberry  trees  in  1758,  and  in  the  library 
o€  Yale  College  is  his  manuscript  journal,  in  which  are  recorded 
his  experiments  and  efforts,  extending  over  a  period  of  nearly  forty 
years.  In  1747  Mr  Law,  the  governor  of  the  state,  wore  the  first 


544 


SEWING  SILK  AND  MACHINE  TWIST. 


coat  and  stockings  made  of  New  England  silk,  and  in  1750  his 
daughter  the  first  silk  dress  made  from  domestic  material. 

The  state  government  took  an  interest  in  the  establishment  of 
the  industry,  and  distributed  to  every  parish  half  an  ounce  of 
white  mulberry  seed,  a  variety  suitable  to  the  climate,  and  offered 
a  bounty  for  the  production  of  mulberry  trees  and  raw  silk.  In 
1760  the  Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  of  Killingworth,  stated,  in  his  Essays  on 
Silk-growing  and  Field  Husbandry  in  New  England ,  that  one  of  the 
principal  cultivators  of  silk,  whose  credibility  could  be  relied  upon, 
informed  him  that  he  could  make  a  yard  of  silk  as  cheap  as  he 
could  a  yard  of  linen  cloth,  of  eight  run  to  the  pound,  and  that 
it  was  then  considered  “more  profitable  than  any  other  ordinary, 
business.  ” 

In  1789  the  town  of  Mansfield,  where  the  culture  appears  to  have 
been  most  successful,  and  where  it  has  lasted  until  this  day,  made 
about  two  hundred  pounds  of  raw  silk,  worth  five  dollars  a  pound. 
The  sewing  silk  made  at  this  period  was  worth  one  dollar  an 
ounce. 

The  Revolution  had  depressed  the  business,  and  extinguished  it 
in  some  localities  ;  but  now  it  began  to  excite  new  attention.  In 
1793  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  pounds  were  raised  ;  and  from  tin’s 
time  it  increased  until  the  yearly  production  came  to  be  about 
three  thousand  two  hundred  pounds,  at  which  it  remained  until  a 
blight  in  the  seasons  of  1843—4  attacked  the  mulberry  trees,  and, 
combined  with  the  disastrous  results  of  the  morus  muUicaulis 
speculation,  which  had  spread  through  the  country  like  a  pesti¬ 
lence,  caused  a  distrust,  and  an  almost  entire  abandonment  of  the 
pursuit. 

The  culture  of  silk  has  consequently  lain  almost  dormant,  until 
within  quite  recent  times  attention  has  been  again  called  to  it. 
Its  successful  introduction  into  California  has  again  excited  inter¬ 
est  in  the  business,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  can  be  made  a 
most  successful  branch  of  agricultural  industry  in  many  different 
parts  of  the  country. 

Before  1828  the  silk  raised  in  the  United  States  was  all  spun  by 
hand  upon  the  common  spinning-wheel  in  use  at  that  time.  About 
this  time  Edmund  Golding  came  to  this  country  from  Macclesfield, 
England,  and  settled  at  Mansfield,  Connecticut,  expecting  to  find 
it,  from  the  reports  he  had  heard,  an  important  place  for  the  work¬ 
ing  of  silk.  Though  only  seventeen  years  of  age,  he  was  an  ex¬ 
perienced  throwster,  and,  disappointed  at  finding  no  opportunity 


SEWING  SILK  AND  MACHINE  TWIST. 


545 


for  employment  in  the  occupation  upon  which  he  had  relied  for  his 
support/he  interested  some  of -the  residents  of  the  town  in  his  de¬ 
scription  of  the  simplicity  of  the  machinery  required,  and  together 
they  resolved  to  construct  it  under  his  direction. 

These  men  were  Alfred  Lilly,  William  A.  Fisk,  Joseph  Conant, 
William  Atwood,  Jesse  Bingham,  and  Storrs  Hovey.  Incorporat¬ 
ing  themselves  under  the  title  of  the  Mansfield  Silk  Company, 
they  each  contributed  to  the  general  fund  fifty  dollars,  which  was 
afterwards  raised  to  seven  hundred  dollars.  Having  received  also 
a  bounty  from  the  state  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  the  company 
appeared  for  some  time  to  be  prosperous  ;  but  want  of  experience 
and  other  causes,  of  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  give  an  accu¬ 
rate  description,  led  to  their  embarrassment. 

It  would  seem  that  the  time  was  as  yet  premature  for  the  suc¬ 
cessful  establishment  of  the  business,  and  the  partners,  their  hearts 
made  sick  by  deferred  hope,  retired,  one  after  the  other,  until  only 
two  of  them  remained  long  enough  to  retire  from  it  without  loss. 
Very  few  industrial  enterprises  in  this  country  have  been  attended 
with  higher  hopes  and  more  utter  failure  than  the  various  attempts 
to  establish  the  silk  business  ;  but  the  time  has  now  come  when 
the  manufacture  is  successfully  established  ;  and  doubtless  the 
period  is  not  far  distant  when,  in  the  westward  march  of  empire, 
the  United  States  will  succeed  to  the  leading  position  in  this  in¬ 
dustry. 

With  the  introduction  of  the  sewing  machine,  it  was  found  that 
the  sewing  silk  then  made  was  not  in  all  respects  suitable  for  using 
on  it.  After  spending  much  time  in  experiment,  the  Nonotuck 
Silk  Company,  of  Florence,  Mass.,  succeeded  in  producing  a  ma¬ 
chine  twist  which  was  found  to  be  exactly  the  thing  needed.  The 
first  lot  of  this  new  industrial  product  was  made  and  spooled  in 
February,  1852,  and  being  tried  by  the  Singer  Sewing  Machine 
Company  upon  their  machines,  was  found  to  be  just  what  they 
had  been  desiring  to  find. 

From  that  time  to  this  the  demand  has  steadily  grown,  until 
now  there  are  more  than  fifty  manufactories  in  the  country  engaged 
in  its  production.  Of  these  the  chief  one  is  the  Nonotuck  Silk 
Company,  who  first  introduced  it.  Dating  back  their  record  in 
the  silk  business  to  1838,  they  have  increased  with  the  increase  of 
the  silk  business,  until  now  they  give  constant  employment  to 
three  hundred  and  fifty  hands,  and  are  the  largest  producers  of 
their  special  wares,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  the  world. 


546 


SEWING  SILK  AND  MACHINE  TWIST. 


The  demand  for  machine  twist  is  greater  in  this  country  than  in 
any  other,  since  the  sewing  machine,  as  a  purely  American  inven¬ 
tion,  has  become  so  much  more  generally  adopted  in  both  factory 
and  domestic  use.  Yet  it  is  singular  that  the  prejudice  in  favor 
of  Italian  silk  should  still  be  so  strong,  that,  though  in  fact  the 
supply  of  real  Italian  silk  imported  is  wholly  inconsiderable,  al¬ 
most  the  entire  supply  being  furnished  by  American  manufacturers, 
yet  they  are  forced,  in  deference  to  this  prejudice,  to  put  it  up  in 
packages  imitating  those  used  in  Itaty,  and  to  use  as  trade-marks 
the  names  of  supposititious  Italian  firms. 

It  would  seem  as  though  it  was  time  for  the  American  public  to 
free  themselves  from  this  childish  deference  to  foreign  names,  and, 
becoming  aware  of  the  importance^of  this  industry,  put  the  manu¬ 
facturers  no  longer  under  the  necessity  of  thus  appearing  to  be 
sailing  under  false  colors. 


HINGES. 


THE  FIRST  HINGE,  BY  THE  TRAP-DOOR  SPIDER.  —  LEATHERN  HINGES.  —  THE 
FIRST  PIVOT  HINGE  IN  ANCIENT  EGYPT.  —  THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  HINGES 
SIMILAR.  —  INTERESTING  ANCIENT  PIVOT  HINGES  IN  THE  RUINED  CITIES  OF 

BASHAN.  -  DIMENSIONS  AND  HANGING  OF  STONE  DOORS.  —  DIFFERENT 

PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  HINGES.  —  ORNAMENTAL  HINGES 
IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  —  MODERN  HINGES.  —  USUAL  SELF-CLOSING  ARRANGE¬ 
MENTS.  —  THE  AMERICAN  SPIRAL  SPRING  BUTT.  —  PRINCIPLE  OF  ITS  MECH¬ 
ANISM. —  OPERATION  OF  THE  SPIRAL  SPRING  BUTT.  — THB  DOUBLE- ACTION 
PATTERN,  THE  ONLY  CENTRE-REST  HINGE  IN  THE  MARKET.  —  ITS  MECHA¬ 
NISM  ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  LETTER  Z.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  DETAILS  OF 
THE  PARTS  OF  THE  SPIRAL  SPRING  BUTT.  —  ITS  SUCCESSFUL  INTRODUCTION 

i 

AND  INCREASING  USE.  —  ATTEMPTS  TO  STEAL  THE  PATENT. 

There  were  hinges  long  before  doors  or  houses  were  made  by 
man.  The  trap-door  spiders  of  warm  climates  lined  their  earth- 
dug  nests  with  silk,  closed  them  above  with  a  neatly  fitted  door, 
and  hung  this  door  by  a  delicate  and  flexible,  yet  strong  and  ser¬ 
viceable,  hinge,  permitting  the  door,  when  opened,  to  fall  back  to 
its  place  by  gravitation,  ages  before  man  had  reasoned  himself 
into  anything  better  than  a  hole  under  some  rock,  and  a  still  long¬ 
er  time  before  Newton  had  ascertained  the  law,  or  given  the  name, 
of  gravitation.  It  is  extremely  probable  that  the  earliest  hinge 
used  by  men  was  of  a  sort  still  common  enough  —  a  piece  of  leather, 
or  untanned  hide  or  skin,  fastened  to  both  door-post  and  door. 

It  is  in  Egypt  that  the  earliest  record  is  found  of  the  substitu¬ 
tion  of  the  actual  hinge  idea,  viz.,  a  pivot  or  joint,  in  place  of  a 
mere  flexible  texture.  The  Eg}rptian  doors  turned  on  wooden  or 
bronze  pins,  projecting  upward  and  downward  from  the  top  and 
bottom  of  the  back  of  the  door,  into  sockets  in  the  lintel  and 
threshold  ;  and  similar  pegs  were  used .  by  way  of  hinges  on  the 
lids  of  boxes.  The  same  arrangement  was  employed  in  the  domes¬ 
tic  architecture  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  it  became  usual 
32  •  (547) 


643 


IIINGES. 


to  have  the  upper  pin  or  pivot  a  little  nearer  the  middle  of  the 
doorway  than  the  lower  one,  the  back  of  the  door  sloping  accord¬ 
ingly,  so  that  the  top  of  the  doorway  was  narrower  than  the  bot¬ 
tom.  It  is  evident  that  when  the  door  thus  hung  was  opened  to 
a  right  angle,  for  instance,  the  whole  door  would  have  the  same 
slope  with  the  part  behind  it,  so  that  when  let  go,  it  would  fail 
back  of  itself  to  the  shut  position.  It  was  not  only  “hung,”  in 
the  usual  sense  of  the  term,  but  it  did  really  hang  forward  into  the 
shut  position,  being  held  there  by  gravity. 

A  curious  style  of  ancient  hinge  is  found  in  the  interesting  ruins 
so  numerous  in  what  constituted  the  kingdom  of  Bashan,  on  the 
eastern  boundary  of  the  northern  part  of  Palestine.  Here  is  a 
strang-e  area  of  bare  basaltic  rock,  rising  up  from  the  more  fertile 
land  around  it  as  suddenly  as  a  wall,  and  thickly  set  with  deserted 
towns,  whose  houses  are  so  well  preserved  as  to  be  still  habitable, 
being  built  of  slabs  of  the  basalt  itself,  a  black  stone,  as  heavy, 
and  almost  as  hard,  as  iron.  Few  travellers  have  examined  this 
singular  region.  Among  them  may  bo  mentioned  Burckhardt, 
Freshficld,  and  Porter,  the  latter  of  whom  thus  describes  the  door 
of  a  house  in  Burak,  one  of  these  deserted  cities  :  “  The  outer 
door  was  a  slab  of  stone,  four  and  one  half  feet  high,  four  feet 
wide,  and  eight  inches  thick.  It  hung  upon  pivots,  forming  two 
projecting  parts  of  the  slab,  working  in  sockets  in  the  lintel  and 
threshold,  and  though  so  massive,  I  was  able  to  open  and  shut  it 
with  ease.”  An  inscription  on  one  of  these  buildings,  in  Greek 
letters,  was  believed  by  Burckhardt  to  bear  the  date  of  306  B.  C., 
being  more  than  two  thousand  one  hundred  years  old. 

These  ancient  hinges  were  projections  from  the  door,  in  the  pro¬ 
longations  of  a  perpendicular  line  through  the  substance  of  the 
door  itself.  They  were  like  the  two  ends  of  a  spindle  run  through 
the  length  of  the  door.  The  modern  hinges  are  not  ends,  but  sec¬ 
tions  out  of  the  length  of  a  spindle,  not  through  the  door,  and 
playing  above  and  below  it,  but  between  door  and  door-post,  and 
held  to  one  by  a  bolt  carrying  the  spindle  or  pivot,  and  to  the 
other  by  the  eye  that  rides  on  the  pivot.  Through  all  the  modifi¬ 
cations  of  “  esses,”  cross-garnets,  II,  and  II  L  hinges,  etc.,  etc., 
these  three  elements  can  be  discerned,  viz.,  the  pivot,  the  piece 
that  carries  it,  and  the  piece  that  rides  upon  it. 

During  the  middle  ages  hinges  were  made  ornamental  as  well 
as  useful,  although  no  improvements  were  effected  in  the  mechan¬ 
ism  itself.  This  ornamenting  was  chiefly  managed  by  means  of 


HINGES. 


549 


the  attachments  upon  the  door,  which  were  worked  into  graceful 
floriated  curves,  pierced  forms,  and  other i  designs  of  many  kinds. 
Real  improvements  in  the  hinges  themselves  have  been  effected 
only  since  the  more  modern  improvements  in  iron  and  steel  work 
generally, — that  is,  within  the  last  hundred  years,  or  there¬ 
abouts. 

The  most  significant  patents  on  the  subject  have,  however,  been 
issued  both  in  Europe  and  America  within  a  much  shorter  period 
than  this.  Some  of  them  are  for  slopes  on  the  flanges  of  the 
hinge,  which  cause  the  door  to  rise  a  little  as  it  is  opened,  and, 
of  course,  to  slide  back  by  its  own  weight.  Others  are  for  com¬ 
binations- of  a  spring  with  the  hinge,  having  the  same  purpose. 
But  until  within  a  few  years,  the  labor-saving  idea  of  making  self¬ 
closing  doors  has*  more  usually  been  effected  by  means  of  a 
separate  spring  and  roller  behind  the  door ;  by  a  torsion  rod,  to  be 
twisted  in  opening  the  door,  and  to  shut  it  by  the  force  of  its  un« 
twisting ;  or  by  the  simpler  and  older  means  of  a  counterpoise 
hung  by  a  line  running  over  a  pulley.  Of  these  ideas  there  have 
been  numerous  modifications. 

As  in  so  many  other  cases,  it  was  an  American  idea  which  has 
been  developed  into  the  latest  and  greatest  advance  in  contri¬ 
vances  for  perfecting  hinges.  This  idea  is  embodied  in  what  are 
called  the  u  American  Spiral  Spring  Butts,”  and  which  are  manu¬ 
factured  exclusively  by  the  American  Spiral  Spring  Butt  Company, 
27  Park  Row,  New  York. 

A  butt,  as  most  people  know,  is  such  a  hinge  as  is  commonly 
used  for  a  door.  The  American  Spiral  Spring  Butt  is  a  combina¬ 
tion  of  spring  and  hinge,  in  which  the  rod  or  pivot  that  runs 
through  the  alternate  cylindrical  flanges  of  the  two  portions  of 
the  common  butt  is  replaced  by  a  cylindrical  sheath  containing 
a  strong  spiral  spring.  This  spring  is  so  placed  and  fastened  that, 
as  the  door  opens,  the  spring  is  forcibly  in  part  uncoiled,  by  be¬ 
ing  turned  or  pushed  backward  in  the  direction  of  the  coil.  Of 
course,  when  the  door  is  left  free  again,  the  powerful  pressure  with 
which  the  spring  returns  to  its  position  drives  back  that  part  of 
the  hinge  to  which  it  is  keyed  to  the  position  where  it  was  when 
the  door  was  shut,  and  drives  the  door  with  it.  That  is,  it  shuts 
the  door  —  the  action  of  the  spring  moving  the  hinge,  and  the 
hinge  carrying  the  door,  just  as,  in  opening,  the  door  had  carried 
the  hinge,  and  the  hinge  the  spring. 

The  spiral  spring  butts  are  made  of  about  thirty  different  sizes, 


550 


HINGES. 


from  those  of  only  three  inches  in  length,  for  light  baize  doors,  up 
to  those  a  foot  long,  for  heavy  outer  doors,  like  those  of  churches 
and  other  large  buildings.  All  the  sizes,  however,  are  larger  and 
heavier  than  ordinary  butts  of  the  corresponding  grade.  This  is  a 
great  advantage,  for  not  only  does  the  greater  quantity  of  metal  ren¬ 
der  the  butt  much  stronger,  but  its  distribution  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  butt,  and  particularly  in  the  roomy  cylinder  formed 

by  the  flanges,  adds  a  great  fur¬ 
ther  share  of  strength,  and  the 
large  surface  occupied  by  the  dif¬ 
ferent  bearings  of  the  parts  of 
the  butt  is  found  to  keep  them  re¬ 
markably  true  during  long  periods 
of  use.  This  is  an  important  ex¬ 
cellence,  as  a  door  that  sags  either 
downward  or  forward  from  the 
grinding  away  of  the  parts  of  the 
hinges  upon  each  other,  is  liable  to 
jam  very  inconveniently  either 
upon  the  threshold  or  upon  the 
outer  door-post. 

Another  very  desirable  quality 
in  these  spiral  spring  butts  is 
their  noiselessness.  The  creaking 
of  ill-oiled  hinges  is  extremely 
disagreeable;  and  the  same  breadth 
and  arrangement  of  bearings  that 
keep  these  hinges  so  true,  are  also 
found  to  make  them  very  silent  in 
working.  They  are  the  first  prac¬ 
tically  noiseless  metallic  hinges 

American  spiral  spring  butt.  ^at  have  ever  been  made. 

All  these  observations  relate 
to  butts  made  on  the  plan  of  the  common  hinge,  having  two 
flaps  and  one  cylinder  between  them,  through  which  passes 
the  pin  or  pivot.  A  modification  of  the  American  Spiral  Spring 
Butt  has,  however,  been  invented,  which  not  only  sends  the 
door  back  to  its  place  after  opening,  but  which  allows  the 
door  to  be  opened  indifferently  to  either  side,  and  sends  it 
back  equally  from  each.  These  are  called  “double-action  butts,” 
and  this  invention  is  the  only  centre-rest  hinge.  The  object  is 


Fig.  5. 


' 


. 


Tig*  S* 


Tig.  4* 


&§  TJ5t  &  F  J  O  NS* 

Fio.  1.  Double  Action  Butt,  for  swinging  doors  or  gates 
both  ways. 

Fio.  2.  Top,  holding  upper  end  of  Spring. 

Fig,  3.  Spiral  Spring,  encased  in  sheet  iron  cylinder, 

Fig.  4.  Bottom,  holding  lower  end  of  Spring. 

Fig.  5.  Section  of  single  Action  Butt. 

A,  Top — B,  bottom — C,  Flanges — D,  Spring. 

F.  F.  Screws  which  pass  through  the  Flange,  C, 

into  the  groove  of  the  Top  A,  securing 
the  latter  to  the  Flange,  and  also  allowing  it 
to  revolve. 

G.  G.  G.  Holes  in  Top  for  receiving.the  Lever, 
[Fig.  7,]  by  which  the  Spring  is  adjusted. 


H.  H.  H.  Holes  in  Top  for  receiving  the  Fin, 
[Fig.  8,]  which,  by  passing  through  the  Hole, 
H.  H.,  on  the  Flange,  secures  it  to  the  Top 
when  the  Spring  is  turned  up. 

I.  L  L  Holes  through  which  the  Rivet,  [Fig.  9,] 

passes,  securing  the  Bottom  to  the  Flange. 

J.  J.  Jaws  of  Top  and  Bottom,  clasping  ends  of 

Spring. 

K.  K.  Ends  of  Spring  in  Jaws,  J,  J, 

FiCk  6.  Flanges,  showing  joints  of  Butt.  / 

F.  F.  Screw  Holes. 

H.  H.  Pin  Hole. 

I.  I.  Rivet  Hole. 

Fig.  7.  Lever  for  adjusting  Spring. 

Fig.  8.  Pin  securing  Flange  and  Top. 

Fig.  9.  Rievt  securing  Flange  and  Bottom. 


Fro.  S, 


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V 


HINGES. 


553 


accomplished  by  giving  to  each  butt,  instead  of  one  cylinder 
with  its  spring  inside,  two  parallel  cylinders,  a  flap  between  them 
having  flanges  on  each  cylinder,  while  beyond  the  two  cylinders 
are  the  flaps  that  screw  upon  door  and  door-post  respectively.  To 
get  at  the  nature  of  this  arrangement,  it  is  only  necessary  to  ima¬ 
gine  a  capital  Z,  which  will  represent  a  section  of  the  double¬ 
action  butt :  suppose  a  cylinder  at  each  of  the  sharp  corners,  with 
a  spring  tending  to  shut  the  upper  and  lower  arms  of  the  Z  snug 
up  to  the  slanting  central  piece.  The  door-post  in  this  supposition 
would  have  one  of  the  arms  fast  to  it,  and  the  door  the  other ;  and 
it  is  evident  that  if  the  door  is  opened,  for  instance,  downward, 
as  the  Z  now  stands,  the  lower  arm  only  of  the  Z  diverges,  leav¬ 
ing  the  slanting  part  snug  up  to  the  upper  arm,  while  if  it  opens 
the  other  way,  arm  and  slanting  part  diverge  together  from  the 
upper  arm  of  the  Z,  which  is  fast  to  the  door-post. 

But  this  can  perhaps  be  more  easily  followed  from  the  engraving, 
in  which  the  letters  and  figures  refer  to  a  very  good  enumeration 
of  the  different  pieces  of  a  complete  spiral  spring  butt. 

The  clearest  way  to  see  exactly  how  this  spring  operates  is  to 
begin  with  the  spring  alone.  (Fig.  3.)  This  lies  in  a  close  coil,  one 
end  of  the  wire  being  laid  across  the  middle  of  the  opening  at 
each  end  of  the  coil.  First,  if  we  take  hold  of  the  coil  by  these 
two  cross-pieces  or  handles,  turning  them  in  opposite  directions, 
the  spring  can  be  either  coiled  tighter,  or  pushed  backwards,  as  it 
were,  so  as  to  part  the  different  turns  of  the  coil.  Next,  the 
same  thing  can  be  done  by  holding  the  cross-pieces,  not  with 
the  fingers,  but  in  the  jaws  of  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  butt 
(Figs.  2,  4),  the  two  parts  of  the  jaws  striding  the  cross-piece, 
and  passing  onward  into  the  interior  of  the  coil.  Lastly,  when 
the  bottom  is  pinned  fast  to  the  flange  from  one  side  of  the  hinge, 
and  the  top  to  that  from  the  other  side  (Fig.  5),  of  course  the 
opening  and  shutting  of  the  two  flaps  of  the  hinge  do  to  the  coil 
exactly  what  the  hands  alone  did  at  .first,  or  the  jaws  afterwards 
when  taken  in  the  hands.  Opening  the  door  drives  the  coil  back 
upon  itself,  or  separates  the  turnS  of  the  coil  and  enlarges  its  cir¬ 
cumference,  and  the  return  of  the  coil,  when  relieved,  to  its  former 
state  cannot  take  place  exc'ept  by  pushing  back  the  door  to  its 
shut  position. 

In  this  spiral  spring  hinge,  the  place  of  the  pivot  is  occupied 
by  a  cylinder  formed  by  the  coil  of  the  spring,  together  with  a 
thin  sheet  or  tube  of  metal  slipped  on  over  the  coil  to  hold  it  firm, 


554 


HINGES. 


to  re-enforce  and  stiffen  it  for  its  duty  as  pivot,  and  to  preserve  it 
from  the  wear  and  tear  of  friction  against  the  interior  of  the 
flanges.  This  sheet  or  tube  is,  in  fact,  the  pivot ;  being  a  cylin¬ 
der,  however,  in  place  of  a  solid  pin,  and  having  two  parts,  the 
outer  tube,  or  sheath,  to  give  it  the  proper  smooth  pivot  surface,  and 
the  inner  coil,  which  exerts  the  spring  power. 

If  more  stillness  is  required  from  one  of  the  spiral  spring  butts 
than  it  possesses  when  first  put  up,  the  rivet  (Fig.  8)  is  taken  out 
of  its  place  H  (Figs.  5,  6),  the  lever  (Fig.  7),  or  a  brad-awl, 
stout  wire,  or  equivalent  article,  is  inserted  in  one  of  the  holes  G 
(Fig.  5),  and  the  top  turned  as  if  the  hinge  were  upon  an  opening 
door,  that  is,  against  the  coil  of  the  screw,  until  the  resistance  is 
as  great  as  required.  When  this  point  is  reached,  the  rivet  (Fig.  8) 
is  replaced,  passing  through  its  former  place  in  the  flange,  but 
entering  the  top  of  the  butt  in  a  new  place,  and  so  as  to  hold  the 
spring  in  its  new  position  of  increased  stillness  and  strength. 

The  use  of  these  spring  hinges  saves  an  immense  number  of 
minute  portions  of  time  and  effort,  and  prevents  an  immense  num¬ 
ber  of  inconveniences  and  irritations  from  forgetfulness,  especially 
in  the  case  of  all  doors  in  constant  and  severe  use,  such  as  the 
heavily-made  doors  of  large  public  buildings,  those  of  railroad  cars, 
etc.  The  great  practical  value  of  the  spiral  spring  butts  is  conclu¬ 
sively  proved  by  the  large  and  constantly  increasing  number  in  use, 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  in  the  buildings  of 
the  Equitable  and  New  York  Life  Insurance  Companies,  the  Stock 
Exchange,  the  Sub-Treasury,  Custom  House,  the  Academy  of 
Design,  the  Park  Bank,  not  to  mention  numerous  hotels  and  other 
public  buildings,  besides  private  ones,  railroad  cars,  etc.,  etc. 

Another  usual  tribute  and  conclusive  testimony  to  inventive 
merit  has  been  promptly  given  in  the  present  case,  namely,  that 
of  counterfeiting  the  device,  or  using  it  in  infringement  of  the 
rights  of  its  patentees.  So  extremely  valuable  has  its  use  ap¬ 
peared  to  certain  persons  interested  in  some  western  railways, 
tiiat  they  have  been  attempting  to  manufacture  the  same  kind  of 
butt  in  a  secret  manner  ;  and  butts  claiming  to  be  those  of  the 
American  Spiral  Spring  Butt  Company,  or  else  to  be  on  the 
same  principle,  but  greatly  improved,  are  from  time  to  time 
put  upon  the  market.  It  is  only  genuinely  valuable  inventions 
which  are  liable  to  such  dishonesty  as  this  ;  just  as  it  is  real 
virtue  which  is  imitated  by  hypocrites. 


« 


FIRE-ARMS. 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  IN  THE  STYLE  OP  MODERN  FIRE-ARMS.  —  THE  NEW  METHODS 
OF  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  —  MESSRS.  FOREHAND  AND  WADSWORTH,  THE  SUC¬ 
CESSORS  OF  ETHAN  ALLEN  AND  CO.  —  THE  PROCESSES  USED  IN  THEIR  MANU¬ 
FACTORY.  —  SIX-SHOOTING  REVOLVERS.  —  BREECH-LOADING  SPORTING  RI¬ 
FLES.  —  METALLIC  CARTRIDGES.  —  BREECH-LOADING  DOUBLE-BARREL  SHOT¬ 
GUNS. —  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THIS  HOUSE.  — MR.  ETHAN  ALLEN.  —  HIS 
SUCCESSORS. 

The  improvement  in  the  making  of  fire-arms  is  one  of  the  most 
noticeable  features  of  the  modern  era  of  industry.  The  whole 
fashion  and  style  of  our  weapons  has,  within  the  last  half  century, 
undergone  a  change  almost  as  marked  as  that  in  the  method  of 
their  manufacture.  With  the  application  of  machinery,  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  fire-arms  has  been  as  much  cheapened  as  have  been  all 
other  articles  of  consumption  to  which  this  method  has  been  ap-  • 
plied,  while  their  perfection  has  also  by  the  same  means  been  made 
a  matter  of  certainty,  and  lightness,  accuracy,  and  gracefulness  of 
form  made  as  distinguishing  marks  of  the  fire-arms  of  modern 
times  as  the  want  of  them  was  of  the  “  blunderbuss/’  the  “  match¬ 
lock,”  and  the  “  flint-lock,”  which  are  now  consigned  to  our 
museums. 

The  present  results  attained  in  this  course  of  improvement  will 
be  most  easily  displayed  by  a  description  of  the  methods  used  in 
the  manufacture  of  fire-arms  by  Messrs.  Forehand  &  Wadsworth, 
of  Worcester,  Mass.  These  gentlemen  are  the  successors  of  the 
firm  of  Ethan  Allen  &  Co.,  the  chief  partner  of  whom,  Mr.  Ethan 
Allen,  is  well  known  for  the  success  which  attended  his  efforts 
in  introducing  the  improvements  for  which  the  modern  styles  of 
fire-arms  are  distinguished. 

To  commence  with  the  barrels.  These  are  made  of  the  best 

'(555) 


556 


FIRE-ARMS. 


English  decarbonized  steel,  which  comes  worked  into  bars,  usually 
of  a  round  form.  The  barrels  being  cut  off  the  right  length, 
are  then  drilled  and  reamed  to  the  proper  size  of  the  bore,  and 
then  milled  to  the  required  size  and  form.  With  the  repeat¬ 
ing  fire-arms,  the  cylinders  are  then  drilled  and  reamed  as  the  bar¬ 
rels  were,  and  the  chambers,  six  or  seven  in  number,  are  then 
drilled.  This  operation  requires  the  most  skilful  workmanship,' no 
deviation  from  the  most  exact  resemblance  to  the  pattern  being 
allowable.  The  chambers  must  be  precisely  parallel  with  each 
other,  and  must  be  perfectly  adjusted  with  reference  to  the  ratch¬ 
ets  by  which  the  cylinder  is  made  to  revolve,  so  that  they  are  pre¬ 
sented  in  an  absolutely  right  line  with  the  barrel  on  the  discharge 
of  the  cartridge,  since,  if  this  is  not  the  case,  the  ball  is  either 
split  or  shaved  as  it  passes  into  the  barrel,  or  the  pistol  is  broken, 
as  sometimes  happens  with  those  which  are  made  without  sufficient 
accuracy  of  workmanship. 


For  the  construction  of  the  cylinder,  Mr.  Ethan  Allen  invented 
several  machines,  which  added  greatly  to  the  production  of  pistols, 
as  well  as  secured  greater  accuracy  in  their  details,  and  durability 
of  the  whole  instrument.  Among  these  machines  is  one,  which  is 
exclusively  used  in  the  establishment  of  his  successors,  who  control 
the  patent,  and  by  which  the  cost  of  making  cylinders  is  lessened 
by  several  per  cent.,  while  making  them  more  valuable. 

The  “  milling  out,”  or  filing  out  of  the  ratchets  of  the  cylinders, 
in  the  way  used  by  other  manufacturers  of  fire-arms,  is  a  slow 


FIRE  ARMS  MANUFACTORY.  FOREHAND  &  WADSWORTH,  WORCESTER,  MASS. 


. 


FIRE-ARMS. 


559 


process,  and  not  always  accurate.  For  this  operation  Mr.  Allen 
invented  a  machine  by -which  the  ratchet  is  formed  by  pressure,  or 
indenting'  the  steel  under  the  combined  force  of  a  lever  and  a  screw. 
By  this  at  least  six  hundred  per  cent,  more  ratchets  can  be  made 
in  a  given  time  than  by  the  methods  used  elsewhere,  while  by 
compression  the  steel  is  hardened,  so  that  a  ratchet  made  by  this 
method  never  wears  away. 

The  frame  of  the  pistol  or  revolver,  which  includes  the  portion 
in  which  the  handle  is  set,  and  in  which  the  cylinder  moves,  is  by 
Messrs.  Forehand  &  Wadsworth  forged  from  the  best  Norway 
iron.  Forged  frames  are  much  better,  being  stronger  than  those 
made  from  cast  iron,  as  they  are  generally  manufactured,  there 
being,  we  believe,  only  one  other  manufactory  of  fire-arms  in  the 
country  where  the  frames  are  made  of  wrought  iron.  The  frames 
are  forged  hot,  under  dies,  and  all  the  parts  of  the  pistol,  except 
the  handle,  are  made  of  wrought  iron  and  steel. 

After  the  frame  is  forged,  it  undergoes  the  milling  process,  by 
which  the  recess,  or  place  for  the  lock,  is  cut  out  of  the  solid  met¬ 
al,  and  the  other  portions  of  the  frame  cut  to  the  proper  size  and 
shape,  the  contour  and  outer  surfaces  being  u  edged  ”  upon  a 
machine,  that  is  given  their  proper  lines  and  angles.  A  great  ad¬ 
vantage  possessed  by  the  pistols  made  in  the  Ethan  Allen  &  Co.;s 
works  is,  that  the  exploded  shells  can  be  removed  without  remov¬ 
ing  the  cylinder.  The  frame  is  whole,  or  fixed,  not  moving  on  a 
hinge.  Weapons  of  this  kind  are  made  very  strong  and  durable, 
weighing  only  from  six  to  thirteen  ounces,  and  are  beautifully 
finished.  Single-shot  cartridge  pistols,  of  the  Derringer  pattern, 
and  other  small  cartridge  pistols,  are  also  made  in  large  quantities 
by  this  house. 

The  Allen  breech-loading  sporting  rifle,  which  must  not  be  con¬ 
founded  with  the  Allyn  military  breech-loader,  is  also  largely  manu¬ 
factured  by  this  establishment,  and  is  in  great  demand  among  sports¬ 
men.  This  weapon  was  also  invented  by  Mr.  Allen,  and  was  the 
first  breech-loading  arm  made  for  the  use  of  the  metallic  cartridge, 
the  cartridge  before  having  been  made  of  paper.  The  metallic  car¬ 
tridge  is  a  French  invention  of  about  1831,  and  was  introduced  into 
this  country  shortly  after.  Some  improvements  upon  it  have  been 
invented  here,  and  the  method  for  its  manufacture  has  also  been 
improved,  and  chiefly  by  Ethan  Allen  &  Co.,  Mr.  Allen  having 
patented  machinery  of  his  own  invention  for  this  purpose,  which 


560 


FIRE-ARMS. 


is  now  used  in  a  measure  by  every  one  en- 
gaged  in  making  them.  The  chief  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  Allen  breech-loader  is  the  facili¬ 
ty  with  which  it  is  operated,  the  opening 
and  closing  in  charging  it,  and  the  security 
of  the  breech-block,  which  prevents  any  ac¬ 
cidental  discharge  of  the  cartridge.  The 
material  and  workmanship  of  this  breech¬ 
loader  are  the  best  possible,  and  perhaps 
the  best  test  of  its  excellence  is,  that  it  is 
in  larger  demand  than  any  arm  of  the  kind 
in  use. 

The  breech-loading  double-barrel  shot¬ 
gun,  manufactured  by  Ethan  Allen  &  Co., 
also  demands  mention.  The  peculiarity  of 
this  arm,  which  distinguishes  it  from  all 
other  breech-loading  shot-guns,  is,  that  the 
barrels  are  stationary,  and  do  not  tilt ;  that 
is,  that  the  barrels  are  stationary,  and  not 
connected  with  the  stock  by  a  hinge  at  or 
near  the  breech,  but  are  fixed,  like  those  of 
muzzle-loading  guns.  The  breech,  which  is 
hinged  on  the  side,  is  made  with  a  chamber, 
in  which  the  cartridge  or  charge  is  placed, 
and  a  cap,  and  is  prepared  for  receiving  the 
charge  by  lifting  the  cap,  as  is  shown  in  the 
accompanying  engraving,  which  shows  also 
the  cartridge  partly  withdrawn  from  the 
chamber  after  explosion. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  in  the  engraving 
the  guard  is  represented  as  thrown  forward. 
This  shows  the  manner  in  which  the  car¬ 
tridge  is  withdrawn  from  the  barrels,  a 
sreech-loading  sporting  ]ever  being  attached  to  the  guard,  which, 

RIFLE,  of  various  Calibres,  from  ®  ' 

22  to  44  hundredths.  when  thrown  forward,  acts  on  the  cartndge 

shell,  and  forces  it  from  the  chamber.  When  the  lid  is  down,  it 
is  held  firmly  in  place  by  a  lock,  operated  by  an  extension  lever, 
which  can  be  manipulated  instantly.  This  arm  can  bo  loaded,  or 
the  cartridge  withdrawn,  with  the  greatest  rapidity,  and  is  the 
most  secure  arm  made,  being  liable  to  no  accident.  The  breech 


FIRE-ARMS. 


5G1 


- 

lever  cannot  be  opened  for  receiving  the  cartridge  until  the  ham¬ 
mers  are  placed  in  the  safety-notch.  These  guns  are  made  of  va¬ 
rious  sizes,  varying  in  weight  from  seven  and  a  half  to  twelve 
pounds.  Either  paper  or  metallic  shells  can  be  used  with  this  gun, 
and  with  either  its  mechanism  is  such  that  no  gas  escapes,  on  the 
explosion,  into  the  rear  chamber.  Both  paper  and  metallic  shells 
accompany  the  gun.  The  barrels  are  made  of  laminated  steel, 
Damascus  steel,  and  of  “  fine  stub  and  twist/ ’  of  the  best  quality. 


BREECH-LOADING  DOUBLE-BARRELLED  SHOT-GUN,  PREPARED  FOR  LOADING. 

t 

These  are  also  made  at  this  establishment,  and  the  process  of 
their  manufacture,  from  the  mixing  of  the  metals  to  the  twisting  in 
their  various  forms  and  welding,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
features  in  the  whole  construction  of  the  arm.  Until  quite  recent¬ 
ly  all  barrels  of  the  better  qualities  for  shot-guns  were  brought 
from  Europe.  The  secret  of  manufacturing  the  metal,  so  as  to  pro¬ 
duce  the  various  figures,  was  not  known  to  the  American  manu¬ 
facturers  of  arms  ;  but  this  firm  set  themselves  at  work  to  dis¬ 
cover  the  process,  and  were  soon  rewarded  by  being  able  to 
produce  as  fine  a  quality  of  barrels  of  various  figures  as  were 
ever  brought  from  Europe,  and  they  claim  the  credit  of  being  the 


FIRE-ARMS. 


662 

first  manufacturers  in  the  United  States  who  were  able  to  make 
“  laminated/ 7  or  “  Damascus,”  barrels, 

This  house  was  established  in  1835  by  the  late  Ethan  Allen,  a 
man  of  great  mechanical  genius  as  well  as  force  of  character. 
Mr.  Allen  invented  not  only  many  new  forms  of  fire-arms  and 
modes  of  operating  them,  but  also  several  machines  of  great  im¬ 
portance  in  their  manufacture.  lie  was  a  gentleman  of  untiring 
industry,  and  gave  his  best  energies  to  his  business,  carrying  it 
successfully  through  the  financial  crises  of  1837  and  1857,  and  at 
his  death,  in  1871,  leaving  a  large  estate  as  the  result  of  his  suc¬ 
cessful  labors. 

The  business  he  had  built  up  passed  to  the  hands  of  his  sons-in- 
law,  Messrs.  Forehand  and  Wadsworth,  who  had  been  connected 
with  him  for  many  years  in  conducting  it.  These  gentlemen  are 
now  the  sole  proprietors  of  the  establishment,  which  is  one  of  the 
best  appointed  manufactories  in  the  country.  That  they  duly 
profited  by  the  instructions  of  Mr.  Allen,  and  are  worthy  succes¬ 
sors  of  the  house  for  which  his  talents  had  won  a  world-wide  rep¬ 
utation,  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Allen, 
although  so  recent,  yet  they  have  added  to  the  productive  capacity 
of  the  establishment  by  new  and  improved  machinery,  as  well  as 
by  new  devices  for  arms,  of  a  very  important  nature.  Every  part 
of  a  pistol  or  gun  is  manufactured  in  this  establishment,  it  being 
wholly  independent  of  any  outside  aid  for  any  portion  of  their 
work.  The  electro-plating  of  their  work,  as  well  as  the  chasing 
and  engraving,  is  done  in  the  establishment  by  the  most  skilful 
workmen. 


LATEST  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  UTILIZATION  OF 

STEAM. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  INVENTION.  —  THE  NECESSITY  FOR  IMPROVEMENT.  —  THE  LAW 
GOVERNING  IT.  —  ANALOGIES  FROM  NATURE.  —  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  STEAM 
ENGINE.  —  THE  CHIEF  POINTS  IN  THE  UTILIZATION  OF  STEAM.  —  THE  TEST  OF 
INDICATOR  DIAGRAMS.  — A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PROCESS.  —  THE  APPLICA¬ 
TION  OF  THIS  TEST  TO  THE  BABCOCK  AND  WILCOX  ENGINE.  —  THE  CAUSES 
OF  ITS  SUPERIORITY. THE  STEAM  JACKET.  —  THE  COURSE  OF  THE  IMPROVE¬ 
MENT  OF  THIS  ENGINE.  —  THE  DIFFICULTIES  TO  BE  OVERCOME.  —  THE  'WORK¬ 
INGS  OF  THE  ENGINE. - ITS  CONSUMPTION  OF  FUEL.  —  THE  TUBULOUS  BOILER. 

—  ITS  MERITS.  —  ITS  CONSTRUCTION.  —  THE  PREMIUM  OF  THE  AMERICAN  IN¬ 
STITUTE.  —  THE  STATEMENT  OF  THE  JUDGES. 

In  the  history  of  invention,  as  in  the  history  of  any  other  de¬ 
partment  of  human  energy,  the  student  is  struck  with  the  fact 
that  it  is  only  by  repeated  improvements  and  modifications  that 
ultimate  perfection  is  reached.  From  the  inception  of  the 
first  idea  up  to  its  subsequent  adaptation  to  practical  use,  the 
varying  conditions  require  varying  modifications  to  reach  the  new 
necessities  of  the  case. 

With  the  increasing  experience  of  mankind,  new  demands  are 
created,  and  our  conceptions  of  perfection  are  constantly  advan¬ 
cing.  The  raft  gives  place  to  the  canoe,  which  in  turn  yields  its 
place  to  the  galley,  to  be  replaced  by  the  sail  ship,  which  is  finally 
supplanted  by  the  steam  ship.  Nor  is  it  only  in  mechanical  ap¬ 
pliances  that  this  course  of  improvement  is  pursued.  The  theories 
of  one  age  are  found  inadequate  to  supply  the  necessities  arising 
in  the  next  from  an  increase  of  knowledge  gained  by  a  widened 
experience. 

This  need  of  innovation,  as  an  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  im¬ 
provement,  has,  however,  only  in  quite  modern  times  been  discov¬ 
ered  to  be  a  law  of  nature ;  and  man,  in  his  own  domain  of  intel¬ 
lectual  development,  must  of  necessity  follow  the  same  course  of 

(563) 


504 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  USE  OF  STEAM. 


evolution  which  Nature  herself  has  followed  in  the  production  of 
the,  at  present,  diversified  variety  of  her  organized  beings.  It  is 
by  modifications  to  suit  the  changing  conditions  that  the  clumsy 
monsters  of  the  primeval  world  have  been  replaced  by  the  more 
symmetrical  and  agile  creatures  of  to-day. 

Nor  does  this  law  hold  with  less  force  in  man’s  own  connection 
with  Nature  ;  and  the  influence  of  his  own  intelligence  in  this  do¬ 
main  we '  see  constantly  exemplified  on  every  hand.  It  is  thus 
that  most  of  our  vegetables  have  been  produced,  that  the  potato 
has  been  made  an  esculent  from  the  bitter  root  it  was  in  its  natu¬ 
ral  habitat.  It  is  thus  that  our  domestic  animals  have  been  pro¬ 
duced,  and  that  man  has  obtained,  in  civilization,  that  knowledge 
and  control  of  the  forces  of  Nature  which  divide  a  portion  of  the 
earth’s  inhabitants  to-day  from  the  periods  of  barbarism  out  of 
which  they  have  emerged. 

When  considered  from  this  point  of  view,  the  study  of  any 
single  branch  of  the  advance  of  human  society  along  the  path  of 
evolution  or  progress,  however  inconsiderable  it  may  at  first  ap¬ 
pear,  becomes  valuable  as  affording  an  indication  of  the  laws  of 
growth,  and  as  giving  a  suggestion  of  the  method  which  must  be 
observed  for  the  scientific  study  of  all  social  advance. 

The  history  of  the  steam  engine  is  a  record  of  the  slow  steps 
by  which  it  has  been  perfected,  and  the  opposition  which  the  indus¬ 
trial  conservatism  of  the  times  and  the  prejudices  of  vested  rights 
in  certain  methods  of  manufacture  have  constantly  offered  to  the 
acceptance  of  every  suggested  improvement ;  and  is  in  a  smaller 
degree  a  counterpart  of  the  larger  history  of  the  world’s  prog¬ 
ress. 

With  the  first  machines  for  utilizing  the  energy  of  steam,  the 
appliances  were  of  the  rudest  description.  Little  or  no  attention 
was  given  to  economies,  and  perhaps  even  less  to  symmetry  of 
design,  which  now  are  the  subjects  to  which  the  most  study  is 
given.  There  was  not  then  the  necessity  that  there  is  now  for 
such  study,  nor  was  there  the  knowledge  in  the  world  to  make  it. 
Now,  however,  that  modern  industry  depends  chiefly  upon  steam 
for  the  force  it  needs,  the  attention  of  the  builders  of  steam  en¬ 
gines  has  been  turned  chiefly  to  perfecting  the  utilization  of  steam, 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  inexorable  demands  for  economy,  necessi¬ 
tated  by  the  greater  activity  of  the  industrial  life  of  to-day. 

In  this  course  of  improvement  there  have  been  various  styles 
of  engines  produced,  varying  as  greatly  in  their  merits,  as  their 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  USE  OF  STEAM. 


565 


methods  of  construction  differed.  But  it  has  been  only  b}’'  such 
practical  trials  that  the  knowledge  has  been  gained  by  which  a 
scientific  examination  of  the  relative  values  of  engines  of  different 
models  could  be  made,  and  that  a  scientific  conception  of  the 
steam  engine  itself  has  been  arrived  at. 

The  chief  points  in  which  the  utilization  of  steam  consists  are 
evidently  in  the  expense  of  the  fuel  necessary  in  its  generation, 
that  is,  in  the  construction  of  the  boiler ;  and  then  in  the  appli¬ 
ances  by  which  the  steam  is  enabled  to  do  its  work  in  the  engine 
itself.  In  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  engine,  manufactured  by  the 
Hope  Iron  Works,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  the  improvements  intro¬ 
duced  have  secured  a  perfection  in  these  respects  which  is  proba¬ 
bly  as  great  as  it  is  possible  to  attain  with  present  knowledge. 

The  test  of  the  efficacy  of  an  engine  is  best  made  by  the  “  indi¬ 
cator  diagrams,”  by  which  the  action  of  the  steam  within  the 
cylinder,  the  time  and  rapidity  of  its  entrance,  the  point  of  cut-off, 
its  action  in  expanding,  the  time  of  release,  the  amount  of  back 
pressure,  compression,  and  so  on,  are  indicated.  This  is  done  by 
an  instrument  worked  by  the  pressure  of  the  steam  and  the  motion 
of  the  piston.  These  two  motions,  acting  at  right  angles,  pro¬ 
duce  a  curve  which  indicates  the  exact  pressure  of  the  steam  at 
each  portion  of  the  stroke. 

By  this  instrument  this  curve  is  drawn,  and  the  line  thus  made 
during  a  complete  revolution  of  the  engine  encloses  an  irregular 
figure,  the  shape  of  which  varies  with  every  different  condition  in 
the  elements  which  form  it ;  and  by  its  configuration  can  be  de¬ 
termined,  not  only  the  actual  power  exerted  by  the  steam,  but 
also  the  relative  perfection  of  the  valve  motion,  and  the  effect  of 
different  proportions  between  the  piston  and  the  passages. 

This  method  of  judging  of  the  action  of  a  steam  engine  has 
been  known  since  the  time  of  Watt ;  but  it  is  only  within  a  very 
few  years  that  an  instrument  has  been  invented  sufficiently  accu¬ 
rate  to  justify  any  confidence  in  its  indications  when  attached  to 
the  rapidly- working  engines  now  in  use.  Since  its  invention, 
however,  all  scientific  engineers  have  recognized  its  value,  and  to 
its  use  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  most  satisfactory  practical 
knowledge  of  the  action  of  steam,  and  of  the  best  means  for  ob¬ 
taining  the  highest  economical  results  in  its  use. 

In  order  to  compare,  by  the  use  of  the  indicator,  the  action  of 
one  steam  engine  with  another,  they  should  be  both  placed  in  ex¬ 
actly  the  same  circumstances.  As,  however,  it  is  almost  impossi- 
63 


0U>  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  USE  OF  STEAM. 

ble  to  ever  realize  this,  the  same  result  has  been  arrived  at  by 
selecting  a  standard  to  which  the  action  of  engines  to  be  tested 
may  be  compared,  and  thus  their  relative  value  arrived  at.  This 
standard  has  been  made,  for  every  engine,  the  results  which  would 
be  produced  by  a  theoretically  perfect  engine  of  the  same  capacity 
under  the  same  circumstances  ;  and  the  engine  which  more  nearly 
approximates  this  standard  is  of  course  considered  to  more  nearly 
approach  the  perfect  engine. 

Proved  by  this  test,  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  engine  has  shown 
a  utilization  of  ninety-five  and  nine-tenths  per  cent,  in  the  cylinder 
—  a  result  higher  than  has  been  reached  by  any  other  engine,  the 
best  never  exceeding  seventy-seven  per  cent. 

It  is  manifestly  impossible  to  construct  an  engine  in  which 
there  shall  be  no  loss  from  the  friction  of  the  steam  in  the  pipes 
and  passages,  or  from  the  clearances ;  but  the  nearest  approach 
which  has  yet  been  made  to  it  is  shown  in  the  indicator  diagrams 
made  from  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  engines. 

This  result  is  due  to  the  superior  mechanism  and  the  arrange¬ 
ment  of  these  engines.  In  the  first  place  the  cylinder  is  sur¬ 
rounded  by  a  steam  jacket,  in  which  a  constant  circulation  of  live 
steam  is  kept  up,  thus  keeping  the  cylinder  nearly  up  to  the 
point  of  boiler  pressure,  and  preventing  any  condensation  of  steam 
in  it. 

The  steam  jacket  was  suggested  by  Watt,  and  was  used  by  him 
in  some  cases,  but  has  since  his  time  fallen  into  general  neglect, 
though  the  admirable  effects  of  its  use  were  known.  One  of  the 
chief  reasons  for  this  has  been  the  difficulty  of  making  it  prop¬ 
erly.  To  cast  the  cylinder  and  the  jacket  together  requires  very 
great  mechanical  skill,  and  it  has  therefore  not  been  practised. 
With  the  Hope  Iron  Works,  however,  their  appliances  and 
experience  enable  them  to  do  this  successfully,  and  the  re¬ 
sults  have  justified  the  theoretical  conclusions  concerning  the 
advantages  of  keeping  the  cylinder  surrounded  always  with  live 
steam. 

There  has  also  been  a  prejudice  against  the  use  of  the  steam 
jacket  in  the  minds  of  those  engineers  who  have  supposed  that 
such  an  arrangement  would  cost  a  loss  of  power  by  radiation  ; 
but  the  practical  test  has  shown  that  this  is  a  mistake,  since  the 
saving  of  power  gained  by  its  use  has,  from  scientifically  con¬ 
ducted  tests,  been  estimated  as  equal  to  ten  per  cent.,  often 
more. 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  TIIE _ USE  OF  STEAM. 


5G7 


In  carrying-  the  improvements  of  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  en¬ 
gines  to  a  practical  result,  there  have  been  great  difficulties  to 
overcome.  As  it  requires  in  its  construction  many  new  appli¬ 
ances,  which  should  be  conscientious  and  thorough  in  their  work¬ 
manship,  at  first  the  reputation  of  the  engine  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  those  who  undertook  its  manufacture,  and  did  not,  either 
from  incompetence  or  ignorance,  perform  the  work  as  excellently 
as  it  should  be  done.  Besides,  too,  in  the  introduction  of  any 
novelty  in  machinery,  it  is  most  difficult  to  attain  perfection  from 
the  first.  Experiments  have  to  be  made,  and  it  is  only  by  trials 
that  the  best  methods  for  arriving  at  the  proposed  ends  can  be 
found.  Nor  can  it  be  certainly  known  from  the  first  what  it  is 
most  desirable  to  propose  to  do. 

The  theoretic  aim  in  the  steam  engine  is  of  course  to  produce 
the  engine  which  will  utilize  the  energy  of  steam  with  the  least 
loss ;  but  in  attaining  this  end,  the  various  appliances  necessary, 
and  the  numerous  questions  which  arise  concerning  the  adaptation 
of  the  parts,  and  their  combination,  with  the  comparative  merits 
of  each,  render  it  impossible  to  decide  without  experiment  exactly 
how  the  engine  should  be  built  to  attain  the  utmost  possible  de¬ 
gree  of  perfection. 

The  improvement  of  most  machinery  is  a  process  of  growth, 
and  as  with  most  of  the  results  of  human  labor,  it  is  by  steps  only 
that  perfection  is  reached.  In  bringing  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox 
engine  to  its  present  condition,  it  has  been  necessary  to  meet 
these  difficulties,  and  to  overcome  them  step  by  step  ;  but  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  years  has  become  finally  embodied  in  its  present 
arrangements,  and  in  this  course  of  improvement  the  engine  has 
been  really  remodelled. 

At  present  four  valves  are  used  in  place  of  one,  as  formerly ; 
all  the  working  parts  are  exposed  to  view,  and  immediately  acces¬ 
sible  for  adjustment.  The  component  parts  of  the  engine  have 
been  so  reduced  in  number  that  its  construction  has  been  made 
perfectly  simple,  and  its  action  so  regular  as  to  avoid  all  uneven¬ 
ness  of  wear. 

The  valves  are  so  arranged  that  they  can  be  easily  and  quickly 
removed  for  examination,  if  desired.  The  form  of  the  bed  gratifies 
the  requirements  of  elegance  of  design,  while  it  is  sufficiently 
solid  and  stiff.  In  the  balance-wheel  the  forms  of  the  spokes  and 
the  other  portions  have  been  so  designed  as  to  offer  the  least  re¬ 
sistance  to  the  air,  and  to  move  through  it  without,  commotion, 


508 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  USE  OF  STEAM. 


instead  of  driving*  it  like  a  fan  ;  and  the  result  has  been  a  saving 
of  power  which  has  been  estimated  at  five  per  cent.,  compared 
with  some  other  forms  in  use. 

Other  various  improvements,  whose  value  has  been  shown  by 
experience,  have  been  adopted  in  this  engine.  The  pistons,  pis¬ 
ton-rods,  and  valve-stems  are  steam  packed  ;  the  oilers  are  self¬ 
acting  ;  the  connecting-rods  are  of  steel ;  and  other  well-known 
improved  methods  of  construction  are  found  here. 

In  the  construction  of  these  engines,  it  is  also  a  rule  to  make 
all  the  important  parts  larger  than  the  proportions  usually  given 
them,  so  that  in  cases  of  necessity  there  is  no  danger  to  be  feared 
in  driving  the  engine  at  a  higher  pressure  of  steam  or  greater 
power  than  it  is  rated  at. 

In  addition  to  these  practical  merits,  the  elegance  of  design 
which  is  displayed  in  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  engines,  together 
with  the  perfection  of  their  mechanical  finish,  is  a  fitting  com¬ 
pliment  to  their  scientific  construction,  and  gives  them  even  a  fur¬ 
ther  beauty  than  that  which  lies  in  use. 

The  form  selected  for  the  valves  in  these  engines  is  the  flat  slide* 
valves,  which  experience  has  demonstrated  is  the  best  for  wearing 
“  tight,”  and  thus  avoiding  all  leaking.  The  ports  of  this  engine 
are  large  and  open,  forming  in  this  respect  a  feature  which  is 
peculiar  to  the  engines  of  this  make.  By  this  improvement  the 
steam  is  never  “  wire-drawn,”  as  is  commonly  the  case  where  the 
steam  is  cramped  in  its  passage  into  the  cylinder,  and  much  of  its 
energy  thus  lost,  especially  when  the  ports  are  only  partially  open. 

i  * 

In  this  engine  the  ports  are  always  wide  open  when  admitting 
steam,  without  regard  to  the  point  of  cut-off,  and  when  the  time 
for  closing  them  arrives,  they  close  with  lightning-like  rapidity. 

Usually  the  ports  are  opened  more  or  less  according  to  the 
amount  of  steam  to  be  admitted,  which  interferes  with  the  free 
passage  of  the  steam,  producing  the  effect  known  technically  as 
“wire-drawing;”  but  in  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  engine  the ' 
action  of  the  parts  avoids  this  fault,  and  admits  the  steam  to  the 
cylinder,  at  or  nearly  at  boiler  pressure,  regardless  of  the  greater 
or  less  quantity  it  is  desirable  to  admit,  thus  avoiding  in  every  case 
the  loss  of  any  portion  of  the  energy  of  the  steam  by  its  prema¬ 
ture  condensation.  By  this  means  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  en¬ 
gines,  which  are  now  in  use,  work  the  steam  in  the  cylinder  within 
one  or  two  pounds  of  the  pressure  in  the  boiler  —  a  result  wholly 
unexampled  in  the  history  of  the  steam  engine. 


3ABCOCK  &  WILCOX  PATENT  AUTOMATIC  CUT-OFF  ENGINE  AND  ISOCHRONAL  GOVERNOR. 


BABCOCK  &  WILCOX  PATENT  SAFETY  BOILER, 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  USE  OF  STEAM. 


571 


This  loss  of  a  pound  is  caused  by  the  friction  which  the  steam 
must  of  necessity  undergo  in  its  passage  through  the  pipes.  In 
the  important  matter  of  the  economy  of  fuel,  which  is  one  of  the 
chief  considerations  in  the  practical  use  of  the  steam  engine,  the 
Babcock  and  Wilcox  engine  attains  better  results  than  have  been 
reached  by  those  of  any  other  make. 

At  the  fair  of  the  American  Institute,  held  in  1869,  the  award 
of  the  first  premium  was  given  by  the  judges  to  the  Babcock  and 
Wilcox  engine.  In  answer  to  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  award, 
which  is  usual  in  such  cases,  the  judges  made  a  statement  of  their 
reasons  for  their  action,  which  will  be  found  in  the  Scientific  Amer¬ 
ican  for  January,  1870.  From  this  we  have  the  space  for  only  the 
following  extract.  After  giving  a  detailed  account  of  the  entire 
trial,  the  statement  concludes:  “With  those  facts  before  them, 
the  judges  had  no  difficulty  in  deciding  which  was  the  best  engine , 
and  they  plainly  indicated  that  opinion  by  awarding  the  first  pre¬ 
mium  to  the  Babcock  and  Wilcox  engine  ‘for  the  most  perfect  auto¬ 
matic  expansive  valve  gearing  supposing  that  the  engineering 
world,  at  least,  would  know  that  this  embodied  all  the  difference 
in  the  principle  of  construction  of  the  engines  in  competition. ” 

Besides  the  improvements  in  the  working  parts  of  these  engines, 
the  style  of  boiler  employed  with  them  deserves  notice.  This 
boiler  is  a  tubular  one.  It  is  neither  a  radical  departure  from 
the  forms  established  by  practice,  nor  a  mere  variation  from  them 
for  the  sake  of  novelty  ;  but  it  has  been  designed  so  as  to  com¬ 
bine  all  the  correct  principles  of  construction  and  operation  which 
science  and  experience  have  decided  are  essential  to  the  highest 
efficiency,  economy,  and  safety. 


THE  BABCOCK  AND  WILCOX  BOILER. 

The  manufacturers  claim  that  this  is  the  most  perfect  steam  boiler 
yet  devised,  upon  the  following  grounds  :  It  is  simple  in  construc¬ 
tion,  and  is  made  of  the  best  materials  ;  it  maintains  a  constant 
and  thorough  circulation  of  the  water  through  it,  so  as  to  keep  all 
parts  of  it  at  the  same  temperature  ;  it  is  provided  with  a  mud- 
drum,  which  receives  all  the  impurities  of  the  wrater,  and  is  so 
placed  as  to  be  free  from  the  action  of  the  fire  ;  its  combustion 
chamber  is  so  arranged  that  the  burning  of  the  gases,  commenced 
in  the  furnace,  is  completed  before  they  escape  through  the  chim- 


572 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  TIIE  USE  OF  STEAM. 


ney  ;  while  the  heating  surface  is  arranged  so  nearly  at  right 
angles  to  the  current  of  heated  gases  as  to  break  up  the  currents, 
and  extract  from  them  all  the  available  heat.  In  the  tubes  suffi¬ 
cient  water  surface  is  constantly  kept,  so  as  to  provide  for  the 
disengagement  of  the  steam  from  the  water,  and  thus  make  all 
“  foaming  ”  impossible  ;  while  at  the  same  time  not  less  than  two 
cubic  feet  of  water  capacity  for  each  horse  power  is  constantly 
preserved,  so  as  effectually  to  prevent  any  sudden  fluctuation  in 
the  water  level.  The  space  occupied  by  the  water  is  divided  into 
sections,  so  that,  should  any  one  part  give  out,  there  is  no  single 
body  of  water  to  rush  upon  the  overheated  iron,  and  flashing  into 
steam,  produce  the  destructive  explosions  so  frequent  where  this 
arrangement  does  not  prevail.  Finally,  these  boilers  have  a  great 
excess  of  strength  over  any  required  strain,  so  that  they  are  not 
liable  to  be  strained  by  any  unequal  expansion,  and  all  their  parts 
are  so  arranged  as  to  be  easily  and  readily  accessible  for  cleaning 
and  repair. 

These  boilers  are  constructed  of  lap-welded  iron  tubes,  con¬ 
nected  with  T  heads.  They  are  placed  in  an  inclined  position, 
and  “  staggered,”  that  is,  placed  in  tiers,  so  that  one  row  comes 
over  the  spaces  of  the  row  below.  A  horizontal  steam  and  water 
drum  is  provided  above,  and  a  mud-drum  at  the  lower  end.  The 
fire  is  made  under  the  higher  end  of  the  tubes,  and  the  products 
of  combustion  pass  out  between  the  tubes  into  a  combustion 
chamber  under  the  steam  and  water  drum  ;  from  thence  they  pass 
down  across  the  tubes,  then  up  again,  and  into  the  chimney.  The 
water  is  fed  in  at  one  end  of  the  mud-drum,  with  '‘blow  off”  at  the 
other,  while  the  steam  is  drawn  off  from  the  top  of  the  steam 
drum,  near  the  back  end  of  the  boiler. 

By  this  arrangement  a  constant  circulation  is  secured,  by  which 
every  particle  of  steam  is  taken  away  as  soon  as  formed,  and 
its  place  supplied  with  a  particle  of  water,  while  the  circulation 
keeps  up  an  equal  temperature  all  through  the  water,  preventing 
any  strain  upon  one  part,  and  besides,  preventing  in  a  great  meas¬ 
ure  any  incrustation  upon  the  heated  portions  of  the  tubes. 

The  perfect  combustion  and  thorough  absorption  of  the  heat 
causes  the  economic  use  of  fuel,  which  has  been  before  referred 
to,  while  by  the  circulation,  and  the  large  disengaging  surface 
obtained  by  its  method  of  construction,  the  steam  is  obtained  per¬ 
fectly  dry,  even  when  the  boiler  is  forced  to  its  utmost  capacity. 
This  method  of  construction  affords  also  other  incidental  udvun- 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  TIIE  USE  OF  STEAM.  573 

tag-es,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  ease  with  which  access 
is  had  to  any  part  of  it.  While  the  capacity  of  the  boiler  is  as  great 
as  that  of  any  other,  the  space  occupied  by  it  and  its  setting  is 
much  less  5  and  further,  the  ease  of  transportation,  the  parts  be¬ 
ing  so  readily  separated  and  put  together  again,  makes  it  very  de¬ 
sirable  for  shipment,  especially  as  any  of  the  parts  can  be  easily 
handled  by  one  man. 


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BABCOCK  &  WILCOX  STEAM  ENGIN6, 


ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK. 


RECENT  USE  OF  IRON  IN  ARCHITECTURE.  —  BRIDGE  OF  CAST  IRON  IN  1773.  — 
FIRST  CAST  IRON  BEAMS  IN  1801.  —  TUBULAR  BRIDGES. —  FIRST  CAST  IRON 
BUILDINGS.  —  SENTIMENTAL  OPPOSITION  TO  IRON  BUILDINGS.  —  GREAT  AD¬ 
VANTAGES  OF  IRON  AS  A  BUILDING  MATERIAL.  —  IRON  WORKS  OF  MESSRS. 

BARTLETT,  ROBBINS,  AND  CO.,  AT  BALTIMORE.  — THE  CAST  IRON  DOG.  - 

BEGINNING  AND  GROWTH  OF  THE  FIRM.  — EXTENT  OF  THEIR  BUSINESS. - 

DURABILITY  OF  THEIR  HOT-WATER  WARMING  APPARATUS.  —  ACCOUNT  OF 
TIIE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  THEIR  WORKS.  — HOUSES  AS  FURNISHED  AND  FITTED 
BY  THE  FIRM. — CAPABILITIES  OF  IRON  FOR  BEAUTY. 

Among  all  the  innumerable  uses  of  iron,  the  architectural  has 
been  one  of  the  latest.  It  has  been  used  for  nails,  bolts, 
locks,  hinges,  and  fastenings,  and  fixtures  of  every  kind,  as  well 
as  for  railings,  gratings,  and,  save  details,  for  exterior  finish  and 

ornament.  But  iron  houses  are  of  verv  recent  date. 

%/ 

Bridges  were  made  of  iron  before  houses  or  ships,  a  cast  iron 
bridge  of  a  single  arch  having  been  thrown  across  the  Severn  Riv¬ 
er  at  Colebrookdale  about  1773,  or  a  little  later.  The  idea  of  this 
bridge  originated  with  one  Thomas  F.  Pritchard,  an  architect,  and 
it  was  put  up  by  Mr.  John  Wilkinson,  iron-master. 

The  use  of  iron  in  house  building  began  with  the  introduction 
of  cast  iron  beams  in  fire-proof  buildings.  The  first  of  these  were 
designed  by  the  celebrated  firm  of  Boulton  &  Watt,  for  a  fire-proof 
cotton  mill,  built  at  Manchester  in  1801,  for  Messrs.  Phillips  & 
Lee ;  and  the  wonderful  genius  of  Watt  enabled  him,  as  if  by  in¬ 
tuition,  at  a  period  when  the  positive  knowledge  required  actually 
did  not  exist,  to  make  **  a  tolerably  correct  approximation  to  the 
true  proportion  of  the  parts  of  the  beam,  so  as  to  secure  a  maxi¬ 
mum  strength  with  a  given  quantity  of  material. ” 

This  mill  was  the  model  for  similar  buildings,  until  by  Mr.  ITodg- 
kinson’s  experiments  on  the  strength  of  iron  beams  at  Manchester, 
in  18‘27,  and  subsequently,  the  proper  size  and  shape  of  cast 

iron  beams  were  scientifically  calculated  and  determined.  Wrought 
(574) 


ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK. 


575 


iron  beams  were  not  used  until  some  time  later.  By  the  year  1840, 
or  before,  both  columns  and  beams  of  iron  were  commonly  used 
in  fire-proof  factories  and  other  large  edifices.  The  first  iron  ships 
were  built  in  1835.  The  experiments  made  in  1845-6  on  the  con¬ 
struction  of  tubular  bridges  and  beams,  preparatory  to  the  erection 
of  the  celebrated  Britannia  Bridge  over  Menai  Strait,  considerably 
increased  the  amount  of  positive  scientific  knowledge  of  the  archi¬ 
tectural  capacities  of  wrought  iron. 

The  erection  of  cast  iron  buildings  was  first  attempted  in  New 
York  about  1840  or  1845,  but  it  was  a  considerable  time  before 
either  American  or  English  capitalists  could  be  induced  to  invest 
in  the  business.  The  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  however, 
quickly  established  it,  for  it  was  found  that  the  American  cast  iron 
buildings  shipped  thither  could  be  put  up  in  a  day,  while  the 
wrought  iron  houses  sent  from  England  required  a  month,  and  it  is 
needless  to  add  that  there  was  an  immediate  and  remunerative  de¬ 
mand  for  them.  According  to  some  traveller,  the  Americans  “re¬ 
quire  that  everything  should  be  done  in  not  over  twenty  minutes,” 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  this  thirty-fold  superiority  in  point  of 
time  was  appreciated  in  California,  which  was  in  those  daj^s,  if  it 
is  not  now,  the  fastest  portion,  in  a  business  point  of  view,  of  the 
United  States. 

The  first  iron  building  in  New  York  was  put  up  about  the  same 
time,  the  authorities  consenting  only  with  extreme  reluctance,  for 
the  reason  that,  as  they  alleged,  in  case  of  fire  it  would  “burst” 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  extremely  dangerous  to  the  firemen. 
From  that  time,  however,  the  use  of  both  cast  iron  and  wrought 
iron  for  building  purposes  has  greatly  extended,  and  is  increasing 
more  and  more  rapidly,  although  at  the  same  time  this  use  for  it  is 
unquestionably  only  in  its  infancy. 

A  certain  class  of  architects  are  disposed  to  object  to  iron  in 
architecture  for  sentimental  reasons,  mostly  such*  as  will  be  found 
in  the  works  of  Mr.  John  Ruskin.  They  say,  substantially,  that 
it  is  not  proper,  and,  indeed,  that  it  is  sinful,  to  imitate  in  one  ma¬ 
terial  forms  used  in  another ;  that  it  is  wrong  to  put  iron,  for  in¬ 
stance,  into  forms  suitable  for  marble  or  granite.  The  trouble 
with  this  sentimental  school  of  criticism  is  that  it  wants  a  scien¬ 
tific  method  for  criticism  quite  as  much  as  those  it  criticises  want 
the  same  method  in  their  treatment  of  iron  as  an  architectural  ma¬ 
terial.  In  regard  to  churches,  in  particular,  it  is  said  that  iron 
structures  of  this  kind  are  too  cheap,  too  transient,  and  too  inex- 


576 


architectural  iron  work. 


pressive  of  religious  sentiments.  It  seems  singular  that  our  archi¬ 
tects  should  not  have  recognized  that  iron  is  a  legitimate  building 
material,  but  should  be  used  legitimately,  especially  when  the 
Crystal  Palace  has  afforded  so  notable  an  instance  of  its  value 
and  right  use.  In  this  country,  at  present,  the  fact  that  a  building 
material  is  cheap,  handy,  strong,  safe,  and  easily  movable,  will 
not  readily  be  opposed  by  any  other  consideration,  and  finally  in¬ 
creasing  culture  will  lead  to  its  scientific  use. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  list  of  advantages  for  building  purposes 
which  iron  presents,  is  very  remarkable.  Its  strength  to  bear 
weight  is,  for  equal  areas,  ten  or  eleven  times  as  great  as  the 
harder  granites  or  marbles,  twenty  times  as  great  as  white  oak, 
forty  times  as  great  as  freestone  (or  “brown  stone”),  nearly  two 
hundred  times  as  great  as  ordinary  brick  work.  Its  tensile 
strength  makes  it  fit  also  to  be  used  in  slender  pillars  and 
thin  sheets,  and  to  be  so  distributed  as  to  leave  an  unprecedented 
proportion  of  space  for  windows,  while  it  wastes  a  correspondingly 
small  proportion  for  thickness  of  wall.  The  combinations  of  cast¬ 
ing  and  forging  make  its  capability  of  receiving  forms  absolutely 
unlimited,  and  at  the  same  time  facilitate  the  exact  multiplication 
of  parts  to  any  extent.  But  it  will  be  sufficient  to  quote  an 
abridgment  of  the  nine  reasons  for  the  use  of  iron  in  buildings,  not 
long  ago  stated  in  a  paper  presented  to  the  American  Institute  :  — 

1.  Great  facility  in  embodying  any  architectural  design. 

2.  Great  economy  of  wall  space. 

3.  Economy  in  cost  of  foundations. 

4.  Economy  and  facility  of  moving  and  re-erecting. 

5.  Security  against  lightning. 

6.  Ease  of  ventilation. 

7.  Imperviousness  of  material,  saving  contents  from  damp,  de¬ 
cay,  etc. 

8.  Durability  o.f  material. 

9.  Incombustibility. 

It  is  not,  however,  intended  in  this  place  to  attempt  any  detailed 
exposition  of  the  merits  of  iron  as  an  architectural  material.  Those 
merits  are  already  extensively  recognized  among  scientific  men,  and 
are  rapidly  gaining  reputation  with  all  classes.  What  is  here  meant 
is  mainly  to  show,  by  some  account  of  one  of  the  largest  and  best 
established  architectural  ironworks  in  the  United  States,  —  that 
of  Messrs.  Bartlett,  Robbins,  &  Co.,  of  Baltimore,  —  how  com¬ 
plete  and  fully  fitted  a  house  can  be  turned  out  from  one  concern. 


ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK. 


577 


The  whole  description  by  which  the  business  of  this  firm  is  ordi¬ 
narily  set  forth,  will  suggest  something  of  the  breadth  and  variety 
of  its  industrial  activity.  “Manufacturers,”  the  phrase  is,  “of 
architectural  and  ornamental  iron  work,  stoves,  ranges,  and  heat¬ 
ing  apparatus.”  This  includes  outside,  inside,  comfort,  and  deco¬ 
ration  ;  and  after  going  through  their  extensive  works,  and 
examining  the  immense  variety  of  their  stock,  patterns,  and  de¬ 
signs,  the  visitor  would  really  hardly  be  surprised  to  find  depart¬ 
ments  for  turning  out  iron  carpets  and  iron  feather  beds,  iro«  wall 
paper,  and  iron  pictures.  Iron  statues  they  do  make.  They  have  fur¬ 
nished  a  good  many  copies  of  a  gigantic  cast  iron  Newfoundland 
dog,  one  of  which  is  usually  on  guard  at  the  door  of  their  store  in 
Light  Street,  and  which  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare  to  all  the  dogs 
that  pass  by.  Once,  at  least,  he  even  deceived  a  human  being. 
A  gentleman,  a  friend  of  the  partners,  told  them  one  morning  that 
late  the  night  before,  and  much  absorbed  in  some  business  thoughts, 
lie  was  passing  their  store  door,  when  the  sudden  view  of  this  gi¬ 
gantic  dog  standing  up  there,  with  a  vast  black  muzzle,  within  an 
inch  or  two  of  his  person,  startled  him  so  that  he  sprang  out  half 
across  the  street  before  he  remembered  that  it  was  a  cast  iron 
beast. 

The  firm  now  so  widely  known  as  Bartlett,  Robbins  &  Co.,  be¬ 
gan  business  as  Hayward,  Bartlett  &  Co.,  in  the  year  1844,  as  a 
stove  foundry.  The  manufacture  of  railing,  and  other  ornamental 
iron  work,  was  soon  added.  Next  came  the  architectural  depart¬ 
ment  proper  ;  and  then  further  special  departments  for  galvanized 
iron,  for  vault  lights,  and  for  heating  apparatus  by  high-pressure 
steam,  by  low-pressure  steam,  and  — which  is  believed  to  be  deci¬ 
dedly  a  cheaper  and  more  satisfactory  plan  than  either  —  by  hot 
water. 

For  several  years,  beginning'  with  1863,  the  firm  also  conducted 
the  whole  vast  business  of  the  Winans  Locomotive  Works,  and 
during  this  period  the  extent  and  responsibility  of  their  business 
operations  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  their  usual  pay-rolls 
were  about  one  thousand  dollars  a  day.  This  part  of  the  business 
has,  however,  been  dropped,  the  remainder  of  it  having  grown  to 
dimensions  sufficient  to  satisfy  any  ordinary  ambition.  A  great 
number  of  first-class  iron  buildings  erected  by  them,  are  to  be 
found  in  many  parts  of  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and  many  others  are 
standing  as  monuments  of  their  mechanical  skill  in  New  York  and 
other  cities,  while  they  have  filled,  and  are  constantly  filling,  im- 


578 


ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK. 


portant  contracts  in  all  the  branches  of  their  business  in  the  prin¬ 
cipal  cities  of  the  United  States,  from  one  end  of  the  country  to 
the  other.  Their  heating  apparatus,  for  instance,  is  employed  in 
the  state  house  at  Richmond,  in  the  treasury  building  at  Washing¬ 
ton,  in  the  United  States  custom  houses,  or  other  large  public  edi¬ 
fices,  at  Portland,  New  York,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Indi¬ 
anapolis,  Chicago,  etc.,  etc.,  besides  numerous  private  residences. 
The  oldest  heating  apparatuses  put  in  by  the  firm  have  now  been 
in  u^  about  fifteen  years,  and  are  still  working  perfectly,  and  with 
only  trifling  cost  or  delay  for  repairs.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that 
the  water  with  which  every  part  of  the  hot-water  apparatus  for 
warming  buildings  is  filled,  preserves  the  pipes  from  rust,  and  its 
waste  from  evaporation  is  so  trifling  that,  although  the  circuit  of  sin¬ 
gle  systems  of  pipe  has  been  as  much  as  half  a  mile,  a  pail  or  two  of 
water  daily  keeps  the  whole  full.  Working  with  not  over  200°  F. 
at  the  boiler,  and  supplied  from  an  open  reservoir,  there  can  be  no 
danger  of  fire  or  explosion,  and  the  low  temperature  of  the  radi¬ 
ating  surfaces  insures  a  quality  of  air  as  much  superior  to  steam 
or  hot-air  furnaces  as  the  difference  in  the  temperature  of  their 
surfaces. 

We  give  an  extract  from  a  characteristic  letter  of  the  firm, 
written  in  reply  to  inquiries  respecting  their  hot-water  fixture. 
This  letter  illustrates  the  entire  faith  they  feel  in  their  own  work, 
and  also  shows  a  sort  of  pride  with  regard  to  what  is  called 
“puffing”  in  general,  that  is  not  so  universal,  perhaps,  as  some 
other  good  qualities  :  — 

a  We  do  not  run  this  as  a  hobby,  and  do  not  desire  to  over¬ 
rate  the  apparatus,  having  always  preferred  inviting  investi¬ 
gation  of  fixtures,  tested  by  long  use,  in  preference  to  publishing. 

“  They  have  been  used  in  most  exposed  positions,  and  left  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  officials,  constantly  changing,  many  seem¬ 
ingly  anxious  to  condemn  what  is  in,  to  make  a  job  for  friends. 

.  .  .  How  long  they  will  last  we  are  not  yet  able  to  say,  as  we 
think  all  we  have  ever  made  are  still  in  use.  Some  of  the  largest 
have  been  in  use  twelve  to  fifteen  years,  with  very  trifling  re¬ 
pairs.  .  .  .  The  reply  to  the  only  objection  that  can  be  made  to 
them, — their  first  cost,  —  is,  that  they  last  so  much  longer,  and 
consume  so  much  less  fuel  than  any  other,  that  they  are  really 
cheaper.” 

The  extensive  foundry  and  workshops  of  Messrs.  Bartlett,  Rob¬ 
bins  &  Co.  occupy  three  squares  of  ground  in  the  southern  part  of 


BARTLETT,  ROBBINS  &  CO’S  ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORKS,  BALTIMORE,  MD. 


ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK. 


681 


Baltimore,  at  the  corner  of  Pratt  and  Scott  Streets,  containing 
an  area  of  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  by  six  hundred 
feet ;  and,  roomy  as  they  are,  they  are  becoming  so  overcrowded 
by  the  growth  of  the  business  as  to  be  already  lelt  inconveniently 
small  in  several  departments. 

A  brief  enumeration  of  the  departments  of  these  works,  which 
are  organized  in  a  business-like  way,  with  a  separate  foreman  and 
force  for  each  room,  all  under  the  general  superintendence  of  Mr. 
Bartlett  (a  son  of  D.  L.  Bartlett,  Esq.,  one  of  the  firm),  will 
show  the  remarkable  variety  and  extent  of  work  done.  The 
first  room,  of  course,  in  order,  is  the  foundry,  where  the  pig 
iron  is  received,  smelted,  and  cast.  Iron  castings,  when  taken 
out  of  the  mould,  are  rough,  with  a  sandy,  scaly  coat,  which  has 
to  be  removed.  This  removal  is  effected  by  what  is  called  the 
scratch  house,  where  wire  brushes  and  scrapers  are  plied,  if  neces¬ 
sary,  and  where  a  great  proportion  of  the  work  is  accomplished 
by  “tumbling  machines. ”  These  are  large  iron  cylinders,  set  on 
an  axle,  like  large  rotary  coffee-roasters.  The  castings  to  be 
cleaned  are  perched  into  these,  the  interstices  filled  with  a  miscella¬ 
neous  mess  of  waste  scrap  castings,  and  then  the  cylinder  is  de¬ 
liberately  turned  round  and  round  for  an  hour  or  two,  or  as  long 
as  is  necessary,  until  the  friction  has  relieved  the  castings  from 
their  rough  coat,  and  left  them  smoothly  finished. 

The  mounting  room  comes  next,  where  the  different  pieces,  thus 
cleaned,  are  set  up,  and  bolted  or  riveted  together  into  the  com¬ 
pleted  utensil.  Of  stoves  alone,  the  firm  can  furnish  about  two 
hundred  different  styles  and  sizes  ;  so  that,  as  may  be  imagined,  the 
total  variety  of  work  turned  out  from  this  room  is  extensive  enough. 
There  are,  however,  other  departments  where  work  is  finished. 
The  large  architectural  structures  must  be  set  up  in  one  of  the 
roomy  sheds  or  in  the  open  air  —  for  no  piece  of  work,  from  a 
house  down  to  the  smallest  stove,  is  permitted  to  leave  the  prem¬ 
ises  until  it  has  been  fitted  together,  and  carefully  marked,  if  it  has 
to  be  taken  apart  for  transportation.  Boilers,  again,  are  built  in 
the  boiler  room ;  railings  and  verandas,  in  the  railing  room ; 
vault  lights  and  heating  apparatus,  galvanized  iron  work  for  roofs, 
cornices,  etc.,  in  their  respective  separate  places,  etc.  There 
is  also  a  blacksmithing  room,  a  machine  shop,  a  pattern  room,  a 
japanning  room,  and  all  the  subsidiary  premises  necessary  to  a  com¬ 
plete  and  fully  furnished  establishment. 

Now,  returning  to  the  counting-room,  if  we  sit  down  and  con- 


582  . 


ARCHITECTURAL  IRON  WORK. 


suit  the  series  of  lithographs,  wood  cuts,  and  photographs  laid 
before  us,  and  ask  any  additional  questions,  we  find  that  the  firm 
can  make  for  us  a  house,  all  complete,  with  walls,  floors,  doors, 
windows,  roof,  verandas,  and  balconies,  cornices,  and  external  orna¬ 
ments  of  many  kinds,  vaults,  and  vault  lights,  ventilators,  with 
fences  and  gates,  ornamental  fountains,  summer  house,  vases,  statu¬ 
ary,  and  garden  seats,  chairs  or  settees,  gas  and  water  fixtures,  a  heat¬ 
ing  apparatus,  and  either  kitchener,  range,  or  cooking  stove,  as  re¬ 
quired,  parlor  stoves  or  grates  of  any  kind,  ornamental  brackets 
for  shelving,  hitching  posts,  and  stable  fixtures,  such  as  mangers, 
rack,  partitions,  etc.,  drain  pipe,  iron  pavements,  bath  tubs,  and 
plumbers’  castings,  and  pipe  of  all  kinds.  Cast  iron  pots  and 
kettles,  and  culinary  implements  of  all  kinds,  go  with  the  stove. 
Bedsteads  of  cast  iron  or  wrought  iron,  or  both,  can  also  be  fur¬ 
nished.  In  fact,  in  case  of  strict  necessity,  the  firm  of  Bartlett, 
Robbins  &  Co.  could  turn  out  a  dwelling  which,  with  the  addition 
of  the  necessary  textile  fabrics,  would  be  surprisingly  near  to  com¬ 
plete  readiness  for  its  inmates. 

The  great  capabilities  of  iron  for  beautiful  forms  are  well  shown 
in  its  use  for  architectural  purposes,  as  its  strength  makes  it  suit¬ 
able  for  structures  and  tracery  of  a  light  and  graceful  effect  alto¬ 
gether  beyond  what  is  possible  in  wood  or  stone.  In  it  can  be 
rendered  both  the  simpler  and  the  richer  beauties  of  the  Greek 
orders,  the  characteristic  arches  and  stratifications  of  Rome,  the 
points  and  pinnacles  of  Gothic  design,  and  the  traceries  and  ara¬ 
besques,  domes  and  pinnacles,  of  the  Moors.  Some  of  the  com¬ 
binations  produced  by  a  union  of  light  castings  and  wire  or  rod 
work  in  trellises  and  verandas  are  wonderfully  rich  and  light  in 
effect. 

Both  Mr.  Bartlett  and  Mr.  Robbins  are  of  New  England  birth, 
and  have  been  wholly  the  architects  of  their  own  fortunes.  Mr. 
Bartlett’s  training  was  on  the  mechanidal  side  of  the  business,  and 
Mr.  Robbins’s  was  chiefly  financial  ;  so  that  they  are  fortunately 
associated  for  the  requirements  of  so  extensive  a  concern. 


o 


BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING. 

COMPARISONS.  —  AMERICAN  AND  FOREIGN  BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING.  —  THE  BANK 
OF  ENGLAND.  —  ENGRAVING  ON  THE  CONTINENT.  —  THE  ART  IN  AMERICA.  — 
THE  PIONEER  IN  THE  PROCESS.  —  INVENTION  OF  TRANSFERS.  —  SECURITIES 
AGAINST  COUNTERFEITERS.  —  LATHE  AND  OTHER  MACHINE  WORK.  —  THE  DE¬ 
MAND  FOR  BANK  NOTES.  —  COMBINATION  OF  COMPANIES.  —  THE  AMERICAN 
BANK-NOTE  COMPANY.  —  PRESENT  PROCESSES  OF  ENGRAVING  AND  PRINTING. 
—  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  TRANSFERS.  —  HOW  THE  PLATES  ARE  PREPARED  AND 

PRINTED  FROM.  —  PRESSES  WHICH  DETECT  THEFT. - MACHINES  WHICH 

COUNT.  —  THE  FIRST  GREENBACKS. — NATIONAL  BANK  NOTES.  — THE  FINEST 
SPECIMENS  IN  THE  WORLD. 

The  earlier  specimens  of  bank  note  engraving,  as  compared  with 
the  elaborate  and  artistic  productions  of  the  present  day,  were 
crude  and  rude  indeed.  Between  the  Continental  notes  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  government  issues  of  to-day,  and  even  between 
the  bank  notes  of  fifty  years  ago  and  the  present  national  bank 
bills,  there  is  almost  as  great  a  contrast  as  there  is  between  the 
“block-books  ”  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  finest  typographi¬ 
cal  efforts  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  yet  this  fairly  amazing 
advance  in  bank  note  engraving  is  exhibited  —  as  the  special  art 
itself  was  invented  —  in  the  United  States  alone.  The  Bank  of 
England,  after  printing  for  more  than  a  century  notes  so  simple 
and  inartistic  that  they  might  be  counterfeited  by  any  lithographer 
or  wood-engraver,  and  also  by  any  expert  penman,  owes  the  very 
few  improvements  adopted  to  American  invention,  and  even  now 
prints  its  notes  from  electrotypes.  The  notes  of  the  Bank  of 
France,  and  other  continental  issues,  are  a  little,  but  not  much, 
better ;  while  all  the  European  bank  notes,  by  their  simplicity  of 
design  and  comparative  coarseness  of  execution,  fairly  invite 
counterfeiting. 


34 


(583) 


584 


BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING. 


The  Art  in  America. 

To  Jacob  Perkins,  already  mentioned  as  the  inventor  of  engrav¬ 
ing  on  steel,  we  owe  much  of  our  superiority  over  all  other  nations 
in  this  particular  art.  Ilis  discovery  of  the  transferring  process 
made  it  possible  to  produce,  at  a  reasonable  cost,  steel  bank  note 
plates  and  parts  of  plates,  with  vignettes  and  decorations  capable 
of  almost  infinite  combinations,  thus  giving  the  banks  throughout 
the  country  issues  which  appealed  to  the  eye  and  the  taste  by 
their  beauty,  and  necessitated  that  the  counterfeiters  should  at 
least  be  first-class  engravers.  Not  but  that  counterfeiting  has 
been  frequent,  for  what  one  engraver  can  do  can  be  done  by  an¬ 
other  ;  but  the  constant  progress  in  the  art,  and  the  introduction 
of  intricate  and  expensive  machinery  for  some  portions  of  the 
work,  have  lessened  the  number  and  the  danger  of  counterfeits 
year  by  year,  while  the  art  itself  has  now  reached  a  point  of  per¬ 
fection  beyond  which  further  progress  seems  almost  impossible. 

The  invention  of  the  transfer  process,  the  introduction  of  lathe 
work,  the  employment  of  superior  designers  and  engravers,  and 
the  immense  demand  for  plates  in  every  section  by  banks,  all  com¬ 
peting  with  each  other  in  issuing  the  “  handsomest  bills, ”  very 
soon  made  bank  note  engraving  a  most  important  industry  in  this 
country.  The  five  or  six  great  companies,  which  had  the  capital 
to  buy  or  build  the  best  machinery,  secured  the  best  talent,  and  were 
able  to  keep  on  hand  large  stocks  of  plates,  vignettes,  and  designs, 
and  have  branch  offices  in  nearly  every  state  where  bank  notes 
were  demanded.  In  1858  nearly  all  the  leading  firms  united  in 
what  is  known  as  the  American  Bank  Note  Company,  thus  com¬ 
bining  capital,  stocks,  experience,  the  best  engravers  in  the  sepa¬ 
rate  companies,  and  securing  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  business, 
as  well  as  of  the  similar  elaborate  engraving  of  plates  for  checks, 
drafts,  certificates  of  stock,  bonds,  etc.,  with  much  other  of  the 
finer  sort  of  engraving  required  especially  by  business  men,  cor¬ 
porations,  and  mining  and  manufacturing  companies.  This  com¬ 
bination,  which  then  nearly  controlled  the  entire  bank  note  engrav¬ 
ing  of  the  United  States,  and  thus  brought  the  whole,  as  it  were, 
under  one  supervision,  materially  lessened  the  opportunities  for 
counterfeiting,  or  altering  the  denominations  of  notes,  since  it 
could  afford  to  banks  more  elaborately  engraved  plates  at  nearly 
the  same  rate  heretofore  paid  for  inferior  designs. 


BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING. 


585 


The  Processes  of  Bank  Note  Engraving. 

-  The  present  processes  of  bank  note  engraving,  which  is,  in  some 
of  its  details  at  least,  the  highest  style  of  engraving  in  America, 
are,  in  brief,  as  follows  :  All  the  “  pictures,”  such  as  portraits, 
views,  copies  of  celebrated  paintings,  or  vignettes  of  whatever 
character,  are  engraved  by  first-class  artists  in  line  engraving  upon 
small  pieces  of  plate,  which  are  softened  and  annealed.  When  the 
engraving  is  finished,  and  the  proof  is  satisfactory,  the  plate  is 
hardened,  and  is  then  transferred  to  another  plate,  or  more  fre¬ 
quently  to  a  steel  cylinder,  which,  when  hardened  in  turn,  presents 
a  raised  impression,  which  will  cut,  in  the  short  space  of  fifteen 
minutes,  by  pressure  or  by  rolling  under  heavy  pressure,  a  dupli¬ 
cate  of  the  original  plate  on  the  plate  finally  to  be  used  in  print¬ 
ing.  This  is  an  important  part,  but  by  no  means  the  whole  of  the 
work.  Other  portions  of  the  plate  for  the  note  have  been  cut  by 
machinery,  and  transferred  to  the  plate  ;  the  “  counters,”  on 
which  the  figures  of  the  denomination  of  the  note  are  printed, 
have  been  put  in  by  lathe-work  patterns  ;  and  indeed  the  greater 
part  of  the  plate,  even  the  lettering,  formerly  all  done  by  hand  on 
the  plate  itself,  is  now  done  by  machinery,  leaving,  if  anything, 
only  the  large  figures  indicating  the  denomination  to  be  cut  in  by 
the  engraver.  The  plate,  thus  completed  by  the  various  transfers, 
is  now  hardened,  and  is  ready  for  printing.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  where  the  engraving  of  a  vignette  may  occupy  weeks,  with 
the  transfer  of  this,  and  transfers  of  other  portions  of  the  work 
originally  done  by  the  engraver  or  by  machinery,  the  actual  prepara¬ 
tion  of  the  plate  for  printing  is  made  the  work  of  a  few  hours  only. 
The  plates  for  printing,  as  made  by  the  transfers,  are  thin  plates 
of  steel,  with  sometimes  two,  three,  or  four  notes  on  a  plate,  and 
sometimes  a  single  note.  Notes  of  the  larger  denominations,  one 
hundred  dollars  and  upwards,  requiring  fewer  impressions  than  the 
lesser  notes,  have  sometimes  been  engraved  on  copper. 

In  printing  from  the  plates,  the  same  care  is  necessary  as  in  the 
best  plate  printing,  and  special  presses  are  used  which  will  regis¬ 
ter  every  impression  taken,  so  that  not  a  single  sheet  can  be  ab¬ 
stracted  by  dishonest  persons  during  the  process.  After  printing, 
the  sheets  are  dried,  and  are  subsequently  pressed  under  hydraulic 
pressure.  The  numbering  of  the  notes  with  red,  or  other  colored 
figures,  is  done  by  a  curious  machine,  which  itself  seems  to  count 
intelligently. 


586 


BANK  NOTE  ENGRAVING. 


United  States  Treasury  and  National  Bank  Notes. 

The  recent  system  of  United  States  Treasury  and  National 
Bank  Notes,  which  has  given  a  similar  currency  to  the  entire  coun¬ 
try,  has  done  away  with  the  vast  variety  of  designs  which  were 
displayed  in  the  state  bank  bills.  Thus,  whatever  the  face  of  a 
national  bank  note  may  display,  as  to  state,  city,  name  of  bank, 
etc.,  etc.,  the  backs  of  all  these  bills,  according  to  denomination, 
display  the  same  design,  which,  for  different  denominations,  is  a 
copy  of  one  of  the  historical  pictures  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol 
at  Washington.  In  1862,  when  the  government  made  its  first 
issues  of  what  are  popularly  called  “  greenbacks/ ’  the  work  of 
designing  and  engraving  the  face  of  these  issues  was  intrusted  to 
the  American  Bank  Note  Company,  another  large  company  secur¬ 
ing  the  first  contract  for  the  work  on  the  backs.  All  the  resources 
of  the  American  Bank  Note  Company  were  brought  to  bear  in  the 
production  of  these  elaborate  and  most  artistic  plates.  The  most 
eminent  engravers  in  the  country  were  employed  to  engrave  the 
portraits  and  other  vignettes,  and  all  that  taste,  talent,  and  ma¬ 
chinery  could  do,  was  employed  on  these  issues.  Every  guard  in 
device  and  in  tint  that  could  be  devised  to  prevent  copying,  by 
photography  or  counterfeiting  by  engravers,  was  introduced.  The 
result  has  been  that  in  the  greenbacks,  and  in  the  subsequently 
issued  National  Bank  notes,  have  been  exhibited  the  most  perfect 
specimens  of  bank  note  engraving  ever  executed  in  America,  and 
consequently  ever  shown  in  the  world. 


UNITED  STATES  TREASURY,  WASmNGTON. 


CLOTHING. 


CLOTHING  IN  OL»  TIMES.  —  HOMESPUN  AND  HOMEMADE.  —  THE  FIRST  INNOVA¬ 
TION  ON  THE  PRIMITIVE  STYLE.  —  THE  CUTTER.  — THE  VILLAGE  TAILOR.  — 
SLOP-SHOPS  FOR  SAILORS.  —  HOW  JACK  WAS  CHEATED.  —  SECOND-HAND 
CLOTHING  BUSINESS.  —  CLASS  OF  CUSTOMERS.  —  WHAT  BECOMES  OF  OLD 
CLOTHES.  —  CHEAP  READY-MADE  CLOTHING.  —  THE  CLOTHIERS  OF  TO-DAY.  — 
SUPERIORITY  OF  THEIR  GOODS.  —  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE 
BEST  CLOTHING  FOR  THE  BEST  PURCHASERS.  —  REVOLUTION  IN  FASHIONS.  — 
BEGINNING  OF  THE  CLOTHING  BUSINESS  IN  NEW  YORK.  —  REVULSION  OF  1837. 

- REVIVAL  OF  THE  TRADE.  —  ITS  PRESENT  MAGNITUDE.  —  FELT  SEAMLESS 

CLOTHING.  —  IMPULSE  TO  THE  TRADE  DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR.  —  SHODDY 
UNIFORMS.  —  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  A  FIRST-CLASS  ESTABLISHMENT.  —  HOW 
THE  BUSINESS  IS  CONDUCTED.  —  EMINENT  CLOTHIERS.  —  JOHN  SIMMONS.  — 
ANDREW  CARNEY.  — MACULLAR,  WILLIAMS,  AND  PARKER,  OF  BOSTON.  —  AN 
EXTENSIVE  MODEL  ESTABLISHMENT. — THEIR  BUSINESS.  — DESCRIPTION  OF 
THE  DIFFERENT  DEPARTMENTS. 

Until  within  comparatively  a  few  years,  men’s  and  boys’  cloth¬ 
ing,  like  women’s  clothing,  was  almost  entirely  an  article  of  home 
manufacture  ;  that  is,  the  clothes  were  actually  cut  and  made  in 
the  household  where  they  were  to  be  worn.  This  was  especially 
true  in  the  rural  regions  of  the  United  States,  when  every  farmer’s 
wife  knew  how  to  weave  wool  into  stout  “homespun  ”  cloth,  and 
could  dye  it,  cut  the  clothes,  and  make  serviceable,  if  not  elegant, 
articles  of  apparel.  This  is  still  true  of  many  parts  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  particularly  of  newly-settled  portions  of  the  West  and  South, 
where  the  well-known  “  butternut  ”  cloth  of  home  manufacture 
supplies  good  stout  clothing  for  farmers  and  their  sons.  In  the 
old  colonial  days,  country  housewives  vied  with  each  other  in 
weaving  cloth,  and  during  the  Revolution,  when  embargoes  and 
prejudice  alike  prevented  the  importation,  of  foreign  cloths,  the 
best  and  richest  men  in  the  country  appeared  in  the  legislature,  in 
Congress,  and  everywhere  in  public,  in  well-made  suits  of  hand¬ 
some  cloth,  which  they  boasted  was  of  strictly  “  domestic  manu¬ 
facture,”  the  wool  being  grown,  the  cloth  manufactured,  and  the 
clothes  cut  and  made,  **  at  home.” 


(587) 


588 


CLOTHING. 


The  first  innovation  on  the  primitive  and  independent  manufac¬ 
ture  of  clothing  in  and  for  the  household  was  the  employment  of 
some  expert,  —  generally  a  woman,  —  who  went  from  house  to 
house,  and  cut  out  the  clothes,  which  the  wife  and  daughters  of 
the  household  subsequently  made  up.  Then  came  the  village  tai¬ 
lor,  who  took  the  homemade  cloth,  and  cut  and  made  the  clothes. 
The  growth  of  villages  and  towns  might  be  marked  by  the  num¬ 
ber  and  the  business  of  the  tailors.  The  next  step  in  advance 
was  joining  the  business  of  the  draper,  or  one  who  sells  cloth,  to 
that  of  the  tailor,  so  that  those  who  did  not  make  their  own  cloth, 
or  buy  from  the  manufacturers  to  take  to  the  tailor,  could  select 
what  they  wanted  in  the  shop  where  they  were  measured  for  new 
suits.  The  number  of  misfitting  garments,  which  were  turned 
back  on  the  tailor,  and  which  had  to  be  sold  to  some  one  whom 
they  did  fit,  or  more  nearly  fit,  may  have  suggested  the  idea  of 
making  suits  of  different  sizes  to  be  sold  ready  made  to  those  who 
might  desire  them.  The  enormous  and  perfect  business  in  this 
line,  which  is  now  conducted  in  every  leading  city  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  nearly  every  important  city  in  the  world,  was  a\. 
aftergrowth. 

The  business  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  cheap  “  slop¬ 
shops,”  as  they  are  called,  which  fitted  out  sailors  with  all  the 
clothing  they  wanted  for  long  or  short  voyages,  and  with  thick 
and  thin  articles  of  wear  for  different  climates.  With  this  branch 
of  business  was  generally  joined  a  supply  of  hats,  shoes,  canvas 
bags,  thread,  combs,  soap,  needles,  knives,  scissors,  and  such 
small  stores  as  were  necessary  to  make  up  the  sailor’s  “  kit.”  It 
is  presumed  with  the  growth  of  this  business,  and  particularly 
with  the  competition  which  has  sprung  up  in  the  trade,  that  “poor 
Jack  ”  is  better  and  more  cheaply  served  than  he  was  in  the  days 
when  the  slop-sellers  in  cities  and  in  seaport  towns  were  either 
sailor  boarding-house  keepers,  or  in  league  with  these  and  other 
sharks,  who  fattened  upon  Jack,  and  who  sold  him  ill-made  and 
ill-fitting  clothing  of  the  worst  materials  at  exorbitant  prices.  The 
time  has  gone  by  when  all  the  sailors’  out-fitting  shops  were  of 
this  character  ;  there  are  enough  of  precisely  this  kind  now  ;  but  in 
most  seaport  places  tliere  are  perfectly  respectable  and  fair-dealing 
stores  and  shops,  which  supply  excellent  clothing  for  sailors  at 
most  reasonable  prices,  so  that  Jack  as  his  own  tailor  on  ship¬ 
board  is  a  much  rarer  spectacle  than  he  was  a  few  years  ago. 

The  second-hand  clothing  business,  largely  conducted  by  Jews, 


CLOTHING. 


589 


who  bought,  cleansed,  and  repaired  old  clothing,  making  it  “  as 
good  as  new,”  and  sometimes  selling  it  as  if  it  was  new,  became 
in  a  few  years  so  important  a  traffic  that  almost  every  town  of  any 
consequence  in  the  country  had  its  miniature  representative  of 
Chatham  Street  in  New  York.  A  very  large  business  is  done  in 
New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  in  restoring,  and  sometimes 
remaking,  the  old  clothes  which  are  picked  up  by  agents  or 
smaller  second-hand  clothing  dealers,  and  which  are  sent  to  the 
South  and  West,  and  frequently  abroad,  to  be  sold  at  retail.  The 
clothing  is  bought  sometimes  for  money,  but  more  frequently  for 
fancy  china  and  porcelain,  or  other  goods,  which  pedlers  carry 
about  the  country  to  exchange  for  old  clothes,  thereby  making  a 
considerable  profit  on  both  what  they  sell  and  what  they  buy.  If 
trustworthy  statistics  of  this  business  could  be  gathered,  the  trade 
would  be  shown  to  be  an  enormous  one,  giving  employment,  the 
means  of  livelihood,  and  in  some  instances  much  wealth,  to  a  large 
class  of  people.  The  number  of  advertisements  in  the  city  papers 
for  second-hand  clothing,  for  which  “  the  highest  prices  ”  will  be 
paid,  is  an  indication  that  the  business  is  extensive  and  profitable. 
Old  clothes,  by  skilful  cleansing  and  repairing,  and,  if  necessary, 
dyeing,  become  new  clothes  for  a  second  set  of  wearers. 

The  next  step  which  the  slop  and  second-hand  clothing  business 
suggested  was  cheap  ready-made  clothing,  manufactured  from  low- 
priced  and  slightly  damaged  goods.  Cloths  partially  damaged  by 
fire  or  water  were  worked  up  into  clothing,  which  found  a  ready 
sale  in  cities.  All  ready-made  clothing,  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  trade,  was  called  “slop-work,”  and  the  most  of  it  deserved  no 
better  title.  Poor  and  cheap  coarse  cloths  were  generally  worked 
up  ;  no  special  attention  was  paid  to  fit  or  fashion  ;  most  of  the 
work  was  done  at  starvation  prices  by  women,  and  the  goods  were 
bought  and  worn  by  those  who  could  not  afford  to  employ  a  tailor 
or  buy  better  articles.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  was  any  economy  in 
such  purchases,  for  the  shiny  cloth  soon  took  on  a  dingy,  rusty 
hue  ;  the  “  all-wool  ”  cloth  turned  out  to  be  more  than  half  cotton  ; 
and  the  garments  were  so  hastily  and  poorly  put  together  that 
they  soon  came  to  pieces.  There  was  a  time  when  a  ready-made 
garment  of  any  kind  could  be  readily  recognized  almost  as  far  as 
the  wearer  could  be  seen.  Hence  there  was  a  sort  of  shame  in 
the  purchase  and  wear  of  such  clothing,  and  it  was  considered  al¬ 
most  disreputable  to  buy  it ;  it  was  at  once  a  reflection  upon  a 
man’s  taste  and  a  supposed  indication  of  his  poverty. 


590 


CLOTHING. 


Very  different  is  it  nowadays,  when  the  most  fashionable  young 
men  avail  themselves  of  the  extensive,  well-made,  and  admirably- 
fitting  stocks  of  retail  clothiers,  to  fit  themselves  out  with  suits 
made  of  the  best  of  cloths  for  business  wear,  and  even  for  full- 
dress  occasions.  There  are  thousands  of  men,  even  among  those 
who  are  most  fastidious  in  matters  of  dress,  who  never  think 
of  being  measured  for  a  suit  of  clothes,  but  who  go  to  a. clothier, 
and  supply  themselves  from  his  stock.  The  obvious  advantages 
are  the  saving  of  time  and  the  better  chance  of  getting  exactly 
what  one  wants ;  but  in  addition  to  these  there  is  a  further  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  getting  a  better  and  better-fitting  article  at  a  much  more 
reasonable  price  than  that  for  which  one  could  order  the  same 
goods  from  a  tailor. 

From  the  cheap  ready-made  clothing  to  better  clothing  for  a 
better  class  of  customers,  the  advance  was  natural,  and  a  new,  re¬ 
spectable,  and  remunerative  business  was  inaugurated.  Over¬ 
coats  were  among  the  ready-made  goods  of  the  more  expensive 
class  which  first  became  popular.  These,  at  the  very  outset  of 
the  business,  were  made  every  summer  for  the  fall  and  winter 
trade,  and  men  who  still  depended  upon  their  tailors  for  every¬ 
thing  else  found  it  very  convenient  to  go  to  a  clothier  for  a  hand¬ 
some,  well-made  overcoat,  which  could  be  selected  from  a  great 
variety,  and  of  quality  and  price  to  suit  every  purchaser.  Then 
the  country  was  flooded  with  linen  dusters  and  summer  suits,  the 
best  of  which  could  be  bought  cheaper  than  a  tailor  would  make 
them.  Spring  and  fall  light  overcoats,  which  in  times  gone  by 
scarcely  one  man  in  a  thousand  thought  of  ordering  made  for  him, 
are  now  almost  universal,  simply  because  the  clothiers  brought 
them  into  market,  and  made  them  as  fashionable  and  indispensable 
as  they  are  cheap  and  convenient.  Indeed,  to  the  makers  of 
ready-made  clothing  we  owe  a  complete  revolution  in  our  fashions. 
To  them  is  due  the  banishment  of  the  once  universally-worn  black 
clothes,  including  such  abominations  as  black  satin  vests,  —  the 
funereal  garb  appearing  at  all  times  and  in  all  seasons,  —  and  the 
substitution  of  the  great  variety  of  neat  business  suits  of  tasteful 
colors  and  handsome  shape.  Cloth  manufacturers  now  make  a 
vast  number  of  beautiful  patterns,  expressly  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  clothiers ;  and  so  far  as  the  style  of  clothing  goes,  what  we 
call  “  the  fashion/’  from  year  to  year  and  from  season  to  season, 
is  now  furnished  by  the  clothiers  to  the  tailors,  and  not  by  the 
tailors  to  the  clothiers.  It  is  generally  the  case,  too,  that  a  first- 


CLOTHING. 


591 


class  city  clothier  is  able  to  furnish  everything  essential  to  a  gen¬ 
tleman’s  wardrobe;  and  so  complete  are  some  of  these  establish¬ 
ments  that  they  might  boast  of  their  ability  to  clothe,  at  a  mo¬ 
ment’s  notice,  the  “  naked  truth.” 

The  wholesale  clothing  business  began  in  New  York  about  thir¬ 
ty-five  years  ago,  and  almost  immediately  assumed  an  importance. 
It  gave  employment  to  thousands  of  women  and  girls,  who  were  very 
glad  to  work  even  for  the  poor  wages  they  then  received  for  their 
labor,  and  men  in  considerable  numbers  were  employed  in  cutting 
and  in  making  the  heavier  garments.  The  financial  crisis  of  1837 
was  most  disastrous  to  this  business,  and  the  sudden  throwing  out 
of  employment  of  a  large  number  of  workmen  and  sewing  women 
created  much  suffering.  In  a  short  time,  however,  the  business 
revived  again,  and  from  that  time  forward  it  steadily  increased, 
spread  to  other  cities  throughout  the  Union,  and  has  now  become 
one  of  the  most  important  industries  in  the  United  States.  Within 
twenty-five  years,  in  1860,  there  were  nearly  four  thousand  cloth¬ 
ing  manufactories,  —  exclusive  of  those  devoted  to  making  shirts, 
collars,  and  articles  of  men’s  underwear, — which  required  twen¬ 
ty-five  millions  of  capital,  employed  one  hundred  thousand  per¬ 
sons,  and  made  nearly  eighty  million  dollars’  worth  of  goods,  of 
which  five  eighths  were  made  in  the  Middle  States. 

In  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and  in  one  or  two 
more  states,  patents  have  been  taken  out,  and  manufactories  estab¬ 
lished,  for  the  production  of  felt  seamless  clothing,  which  lias  be¬ 
come  quite  an  important  business. 

The  civil  war  (1861-5)  gave  an  immense  impulse  to  the  clothiers’ 
business  in  the  demand  for  thousands  upon  thousands  of  uni¬ 
forms,  and  enormous  fortunes  were  made  by  many  of  the  contract¬ 
ors.  Some  of  these  contractors  attained  an  unenviable  notoriety 
by  furnishing  the  soldiers  with  shoddy  uniforms,  which  were  little 
better  than  brown-paper  suits  for  service  in  the  camp  and  field. 
The  introduction  of  sewing  machines,  and  other  labor-saving  de¬ 
vices,  wonderfully  facilitated  the  ready-made  clothing  manufacture, 
and  since  1860  the  business  has  so  increased  that  it  is  estimated 
as  the  third  in  importance  in  the  industries  of  the  country. 

An  extensive  wholesale  clothing  establishment  must  be  con¬ 
ducted  with  the  greatest  skill  and  economy  in  the  management  of 
every  department.  The  cloths  are  bought  months  before  the  sea¬ 
son  when  they  are  to  be  worn,  in  order  to  give  time  to  make  them 
up.  The  cloths  are  to  be  cut,  the  buttons,  thread,  linings,  etc., 


502 


CLOTHING. 


arc  to  be  supplied,  and  a  careful  account  in  every  department  must 
be  kept  before  the  work  is  given  out.  The  large  houses  employ 
superior  cutters,  and  the  workmen  and  workwomen  generally  use 
sewing  machines,  which  their  wages  enable  them  to  hire,  or  to  pay 
for  in  small  weekly  or  monthly  instalments.  As  the  cloth  is 
bought  long  before  it  returns  to  the  clothier  in  garments,  and  as 
his  goods  arc  sold  sometimes  on  credits  of  several  months,  the 
business  requires  a  large  capital,  and  a  large  amount  of  money 
is  needed  for  the  weekly  payment  of  the  hands.  In  New  York 
thousands  of  Germans  and  others  work  for  the  clothiers  ;  in  New 
England  the  garments  are  cut  in  the  cities,  and  arc  then  sent  to,  or 
taken  by,  workwomen  in  the  country,  who  make  the  clothes  and 
return  them.  Thus,  in  addition  to  the  vast  amount  of  work  fur- 
nislied  to  those  immediately  employed  in  and  near  the  city  estab¬ 
lishments,  the  clothiers  supply  the  means  of  livelihood  to  thou¬ 
sands  of  farmers’  and  laborers’  wives  and  daughters  in  the  inte¬ 
rior  towns  remote  from  Boston  and  other  centres,  but  with  which 
communication  is  frequent  and  easy  by  railroad.  In  addition  to 
the  manufacture  of  men’s  clothing,  the  making  of  boys’  clothing 
in  infinite  variety  is  an  important  department  in  all  large  clothing 
establishments,  and  a  few  of  them  are  exclusively  devoted  to  this 
branch  of  the  business.  Nearly  all  of  the  large  establishments  in 
the  principal  cities  have,  besides  their  wholesale  department,  a 
retail  department,  a  custom  department, — making  goods  to  meas¬ 
ure  for  customers,  —  and  sometimes  a  general  furnishing  depart¬ 
ment. 

Among  those  who  have  made  large  fortunes  in  the  clothing  trade 
arc  the  Devlins,  and  Brooks  Brothers,  in  New  York  ;  the  late 
John  Simmons,  of  Boston,  who  bequeathed  two  million  dollars  to 
endow  a  female  seminary  ;  and  the  late  Andrew  Carney,  by  whose 
liberality  the  Carney  Hospital  at  South  Boston  was  established. 
Several  other  extensive  wholesale  dealers  in  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Philadelphia  have  attained  high  rank  in  the  mercantile  and 
manufacturing  world,  and  have  made  themselves  very  wealthy, 
besides  giving  remunerative  employment  to  thousands  of  persons. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  manufacture  of  ready-made  clothing  in 
Boston  was  located  principally  in  Ann  Street,  and  in  the  immedi¬ 
ate  vicinity.  Prominent  among  the  clothiers  in  1852  was  the  firm 
of  M  essrs.  Macullar,  Williams,  &  Parker,  whose  steady  increase 
of  business  and  the  imperative  demand  for  more  commodious 
premises  necessitated  their  removal,  in  1854,  to  Milk  Street.  At 


WAREROOMS  OF  MACULLAR,  WILLIAMS  &  PARKER,  BOSTON 


' 


V* 


• 

• 

•  • 


t  •  ■-wja 


' 

' 


- 


...  , 


CLOTHING. 


595 


first  their  business  was  exclusively  confined  to  the  wholesale  trade  ; 
but  a  constant  application  for  their  goods  at  retail  induced  them, 
in  1857,  to  remove  to  Washington  Street,  to  what  was  formerly 
the  old  “Washington  Coffee-house,”  one  of  the  revolutionary  relics 
of  the  city.  In  1860  the  increase  in  their  business  compelled  them 
to  remove  to  the  large  store  previously  rented  to  the  well-known 
firm  of  George  W.  Warren  &  Co.,  and  here  they  added  a  custom 
department. 

Another  removal  was  soon  imperative,  and  they  had  a  store  built 
for  their  business.  By  a  contract  with  the  trustees  of  the  estate 
of  Joshua  Sears,  the  beautiful  marble  building,  No.  200  Washing¬ 
ton  Street,  now  occupied  by  the  firm,  was  built  expressly  for  their 
use.  Their  business  comprises  the  following  departments  :  An 
importing  and  wholesale  cloth  department,  a  wholesale  clothing 
department,  a  retail  clothing  department,  a  custom  clothing  de¬ 
partment,  and  a  furnishing  goods  department. 

The  building,  which  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the  city,  has  a  front¬ 
age  of  fifty  feet  on  Washington  Street,  and  runs  through  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  feet  to  Hawley  Street.  The  basement,  which  has 
about  twelve  thousand  square  feet  of  flooring,  is  devoted  to  the 
reception,  examination,  and  sale  of  cloths  and  other  materials 
bought  from  commission  merchants,  or  directly  from  foreign  and 
domestic  manufacturers.  The  firm  import  fine  woollen  goods  of 
English,  Scotch,  French,  and  German  manufacture,  for  their  own 
use  and  for  supplying  tailoring  establishments  throughout  the 
country. 

The  first  story  affords  an  immense  salcs-room  for  ready-made 
clothing  at  retail.  It  is  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long,  by  fifty 
feet  in  width,  and  twenty  feet  high,  finished  in  oak,  and  contains 
the  counting-rooms  and  public  and  private  business  offices  of  the 
establishment.  The  second  .story  is  devoted  to  the  sale  of  manu¬ 
factured  clothing  at  wholesale.  In  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 
stories  are  cutting  and  manufacturing  rooms,  containing  twenty- 
five  thousand  feet  of  flooring,  and  here  are  employed  men,  wo¬ 
men,  and  children  engaged  in  various  departments  of  the  manu¬ 
facture.  There  is  also  a  separate  department  for  the  manufacture 
of  white  linen  summer  garments,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
the  making  of  no  less  than  fifteen  thousand  white  vests  in  a 
year.  The  same  hands  are  employed  in  this  department  the 
entire  year  through,  which  has  given  this  style  of  goods,  manu¬ 
factured  by  Messrs.  Macullar,  Williams,  &  Parker,  a  reputation  for 


596 


CLOTHING. 


uniform  excellence  that  lias  led  to  a  constant  demand  from  all  parts 
of  the  country. 

Messrs.  Macullar,  Williams,  &  Parker  employ  five  hundred 
hands  in  their  building,  and  all  their  custom  and  ready-made  cloth¬ 
ing,  both  for  the  wholesale  and  retail  department,  is  made  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  the  firm,  whose  main  object  has  been 
from  the  beginning  of  their  business  to  establish  a  reputation  for 
thoroughly  trustworthy  work.  The  attainment  of  this  purpose  has 
given  this  firm  a  character  and  business  standing  second  to  no 
other  house  in  the  whole  country. 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 

IRON-CLAD  VESSELS.  —  ROBERT  L.  STEVENS.  —  THE  STEVENS  BATTERY.  —  JOHN 
ERICSSON.  —  HIS  INVENTIONS.  —  CONGRESSIONAL  APPROPRIATION  FOR  IRON¬ 
CLADS.  —  THE  FIRST  MONITOR.  —  THE  REVOLVING  TURRET.  —  NEW  AND 

LARGER  MONITORS. - PURITAN,  DICTATOR,  MONADNOCK,  MIANTONOMOH,  AND 

KALAMAZOO.  —  SEA  SERVICE  AND  HARBOR  DEFENCE.  —  ANCIENT  ARTILLERY. 
—  CHINESE  THE  SUPPOSED  INVENTORS.  —  ARTILLERY  IN  THE  FIFTEENTH, 
SIXTEENTH,  AND  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURIES.  —  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.  — 

GERMAN  ARTILLERISTS.  - NAPOLEON.  —  ARTILLERY  IN  AMERICA.  —  CANNON  IN 

THE  COLONIES.  —  FIELD  GUNS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION.  —  MODERN  ARTILLERY.  — 
DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  DAHLGREN,  RODMAN,  PARROTT,  WIARD,  AND  AMES  GUNS. 
THE  GREAT  CANNON  FOUNDERIES  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  —  WEIGHT  AND  RANGE  OF 
GUNS.  —  PROJECTILES  AND  TORPEDOES.  —  USES  IN  T^E  LATE  WAR.  —  AMERI¬ 
CAN  INGENUITY  AND  INVENTION. 


To  Robert  Livingston  Stevens,  who  was  born  at  Hoboken,  New 
Jersey,  in  1788,  and  died  there  in  1856,  belongs  the  invention  of 
applying  iron  plates  to  vessels  as  a  defence  against  shot  and  shells. 
He  made  the  discovery  in  1811,  and  in  1842  he  began  experiments 
for  a  floating  shot  and  shell-proof  battery,  making  a  contract  with 
the  Navy  Department  for  its  construction  in  1849.  The  plan  pro¬ 
posed  a  large  vessel  to  be  built  entirely  of  iron,  and  the  work  was 
not  begun  till  1856.  It  has  since  been  carried  on  at  intervals  by 
the  executors  of  the  estate,  and,  in  1871,  after  costing  many  hun¬ 
dreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  is  not  yet  completed.  Operations 
have  been  carried  on  with  an  assumed  secrecy,  though  full  descrip¬ 
tions  of  the  battery,  so  far  as  it  has  progressed,  have  been  pub¬ 
lished  in  the  New  York  journals.  The  Stevens  estate  appropri¬ 
ates  money  for  its  completion,  and  when  finished  the  battery  be¬ 
comes,  under  certain  conditions,  the  property  of  the  State  of  New 
Jersey.  It  is  presumed  to  be  the  largest  and  most  powerful  ves¬ 
sel  of  its  kind  yet  projected. 

John  Ericsson,  now  of  New  York,  is  the  inventor  of  the  iron 

(597) 


598 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 


turret  as  applied  to  armor-clad  vessels.  He  was  born  in  Sweden 
in  1803,  and  entered  the  army  as  an  ensign  in  1820,  soon  attaining 
a  lieutenancy.  In  1826  lie  went  to  England  to  introduce  his  flame 
engine.  In  1833  he  perfected  his  caloric  engine.  In  1839  he 
came  to  the  United  States,  and  two  years  later  he  was  engaged  in 
the  construction  of  the  United  States  ship  of  war  Princeton,  the 
first  steamship  built  with  machinery  placed  under  the  waterline  out 
of  reach  of  shot.  The  same  vessel  also  exhibited  other  ingenious 
improvements  suggested  by  Mr.  Ericsson.  A  merb  enumeration 
of  his  many  important  inventions  would  fill  a  large  catalogue.  A 
new  form  of  the  caloric  engine  was  introduced  in  the  ship  Ericsson 
in  1852,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  recommended  an  appropri¬ 
ation  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  build  a  similar  ship  for 
the  government.  The  recommendation  failed  in  Congress,  but  the 
engine  has  been  successfully  employed  in  numerous  manufacturing 
establishments. 

In  1854  Mr.  Ericsson  made  his  first  model  for  an  iron  tower  on 
an  armor-clad  vessel.  Experiments  had  heretofore  been  made  in 
iron  plates  as  a  defence  for  ships,  Robert  L.  Stevens  and  E.  A. 
Stevens  having  suggested  them  for  coast  and  harbor  defence  as 
early  as  181G  ;  and^vith  this  view,  plates  were  tested  in  England 
in  1840,  in  the  United  States  in  1852,  and  in  France  in  1854.  In 
1860  the  French  iron-clad  La  Gloire,  and  in  1861  the  English 
Warrior  were  built,  neither  of  them  having  the  sea-going  or  offen¬ 
sive  as  well  as  defensive  powers  subsequently  developed  in  the 
American  iron-clads. 

0 

Soon  after  the  commencement' of  the  civil  war,  in  1861,  Congress 
appropriated  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  con¬ 
struction  of  one  or  more  armored  ships.  Plans  were  presented  by 
seventeen  different  inventors,  manufacturers,  or  companies,  and  of 
these  three  were  accepted  —  the  corvette  Galena,  plated  with  iron 
three  inches  thick,  and  hulled  through  and  through  by  ten-inch 
shot  in  the  attack  on  Fort  Darling ;  the  frigate  New  Ironsides, 
which,  with  her  battery  of  eleven-inch  guns,  proved  very  effective 
in  attack  ;  and  Ericsson’s  Monitor,  which  introduced  the  principle 
upon  which  all  the  successive  and  successful  iron-clad  batteries 
were  built. 

The  principle  of  the  Monitor,  and  of  all  vessels  on  the  same 
general  plan,  with  such  modifications  as  may  be  adopted,  is  the 
revolving  iron  turrets,  which  shields  the  battery,  and  the  power  to 
submerge  the  hull  so  that  the  deck  is  but  a  few  inches  above 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 


599 


water.  The  model  was  generally  ridiculed,  and  was  popularly 
known  as  a  “  cheese-box  on  a  raft ;  ”  but  when  the  Monitor  en¬ 
countered  and  defeated  the  Confederate  iron-clad  Merrimac  at 
Hampton  Roads,  public  opinion  changed, — indeed,  was  enthusi¬ 
astic,  —  and  forthwith  government  ordered  the  construction  of  ten 
monitors,  of  eight  hundred  and  forty-four  tons  each,  with  one  tur^ 
ret  and  two  eleven  and  fifteen-inch  guns. 

The  advantage  in  the  Monitor,  on  which  the  invention  of  Ericsson 
rests,  is  the  revolving  turret,  in  which  the  guns  and  their  shot-proof 
shields  turn  together,  so  that  whatever  may  be  the  position  of  the 
ship,  or  even  if  the  ship  is  aground,  the  guns  can  instantly  be 
trained  round  the  entire  circle  to  any  point  of  the  horizon. 
Mounting  the  battery  in  the  centre,  and  directly  over  the  keel, 
permits  the  use  at  sea  of  the  heaviest  American  guns,  with  no 
danger  of  rolling  the  vessel  under,  or  tearing  her  to  pieces.  In 
addition  to  the  steadiness  of  this  class  of  vessels  at  sea,  the  power 
of  submerging  allows  the  heavy  armor  to  be  placed  only  on  the 
small  surface  exposed,  when  a  similar  thickness  on  the  whole 
broadside  would  sink  the  vessel.  The  monitors  of  all  classes  re¬ 
quire  also  a  comparatively  small  number  of  men  to  work  them. 

The  original  Monitor  had  an  extreme  length  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-three  feet ;  beam,  forty-one  feet  six  inches  ;  depth,  twelve 
feet ;  thickness  of  armor  above  the  water  line,  five  inches,  dimin¬ 
ishing  below  to  four  and  three  inches  ;  thickness  of  wood  above 
water,  two  feet  three  inches  ;  the  turret,  twenty  feet  in  diameter 
and  nine  feet  high,  was  constructed  of  eight  thicknesses  of  one- 
inch  iron  plates  ;  armament,  two  eleven-inch  guns. 

The  nine  monitors  next  built  were  two  hundred  feet  long  on 
deck,  and,  while  built  on  the  general  plan  of  the  first,  were  supe¬ 
rior  in  speed  and  in  construction.  The  turrets  were  eleven  inches 
thick,  and  some  of  them  carried  one  eleven  and  one  fifteen-inch 
gun,  and  others  a  fifteen-inch  smooth-bore  and  a  Parrott  rifle,  a 
150-pounder  or  a  200-pounder.  Eight  vessels  of  this  class,  with 
the  Ironsides  carrying  thirty-two  guns,  were  engaged  in  the  attack 
on  Charleston,  when  the  turret  of  the  Passaic  was  disabled,  and 
the  Keokuk  alone  was  sunk. 

The  next  class  of  monitors  built  by  the  government  were  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  long,  and  of  one  thousand  tons  bur¬ 
den,  with  side  armor,  besides  the  wooden  backing,  equal  to  eleven 
inches  thickness  of  iron.  The  government  next  constructed  the 
Puritan  and  the  Dictator,  one  of  them  double-turreted,  both  on  the 


600 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 


Monitor  plan,  and  intended  as  swift  ocean  cruisers.  The  ram 
frigate  Dunderberg,  built  by  W.  TI.  Webb,  of  New  York,  and 
subsequently  sold  to  the  Russian  government,  was  a  combination 
of  the  advantages  of  the  turreted  and  broadside  vessels.  She 
is  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  feet  long,  sixty-eight  feet  wide, 
and  thirty-two  feet  deep,  and  so  far  as  armor  and  armament  go,  a 
more  formidable  ship  was  never  built. 

The  Monadnock  and  Miantonomoh,  double-turreted  ocean  cruis¬ 
ers,  with  a  speed  of  eleven  knots,  represent  the  next  class  of 
monitors  planned  by  the  government.  They  are  two  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  feet  long,  with  turrets  twelve  inches  thick,  side  armor 
eleven  inches  thick,  and  armament  four  fifteen-inch  guns,  capable 
of  throwing  a  broadside  of  eighteen  hundred  pounds  of  solid  shot. 
A  still  more  formidable  class,  represented  by  the  Kalamazoo,  has 
a  length  of  three  hundred  and  forty-two  feet ;  breadth,  fifty-six 
feet  qiglit  inches  ;  depth,  twenty-one  feet  six  inches  ;  iron  plating, 
fourteen  inches  thick  ;  thickness  of  deck,  twelve  inches,  including 
three  inches  of  iron  plating ;  and  turrets,  fifteen  inches  thick. 

Nearly  all  these  vessels  were  built  by  contractors,  and  were 
armored  with  American  rolled  plates.  Their  success  in  the  late 
war  shows  their  perfect  adaptability  to  the  required  conditions, 
that  they  should  be  shot-proof,  able  to  fight  in  shallow  water,  and 
equally  able  to  endure  a  heavy  sea.  In  all  the  engagements  with 
forts  on  shore,  the  loss  of  life  on  board  the  monitors  was  singular¬ 
ly  small.  In  competition  with  the  Confederate  iron-clads,  the 
monitors  were  generally  the  conquerors,  and  their  use  shows  them 
to  be  invaluable  both  for  service  at  sea  and  for  harbor  defence. 

Ancient  Artillery. 

Setting  aside  the  claims  of  the  Chinese,  who  assume  to  have 
had  artillery  as  early  as  618  B.  C.,  it  is  conceded  that  the  inven¬ 
tion  of  guns  and  gunpowder  is  of  Eastern  origin,  and  the  Moors 
in  Spain,  who  used  artillery  at  the  siege  of  Saragossa,  in  1118,  in¬ 
troduced  the  new  weapons  of  warfare  into  Europe  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  the  alleged  discovery  of  Roger  Bacon. 
The  Spaniards  took  Gibraltar  with  cannon  in  1308.  Some  histori¬ 
ans  state,  and  others  deny,  that  the  English  had  artillery  at  the 
battle  of  Crecy  in  1346.  The  Venetians  used  cannon  against  the 
Genoese  in  1378.  The  guns  of  the  fourteenth  century,  however, 
were  of  extremely  rude  construction,  and  from  their  facility  in 
bursting  were  nearly  as  dangerous  to  friends  as  to  foes. 


AMERICAN  SHIPS  OF  WAR  AND  GUNBOATS. 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  FORT  SUMTER  APRIL  12  1861. 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 


603 


In  the  fifteenth  century  great  improvements  in  artillery  were 
made,  and  guns,  heretofore  made  by  hooping  iron  bars  together, 
were  cast  in  iron,  copper,  and  brass.  Charles  VII.,  of  France, 
introduced  guns  with  trunnions,  carriages  on  wheels,  and  iron  shot 
instead  of  stones  or  other  projectiles.  His  successors  added  other 
improvements,  tending  to  lighten  field  artillery.  With  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century  came  the  introduction  of  cartridges,  grape  shot, 
case  shot,  hollow  shot,  mortars,  howitzers,  shells,  fuses,  and,  with¬ 
al,  a  complete  revolution  in  the  art  of  fortification,  which  the  new 
implements  of  war  demanded.  In  the  wars  of  Louis  XIV.,  com¬ 
plete  artillery  trains  of  as  many  as  two  hundred  guns  were  fre¬ 
quent.  In  1690  France  founded  the  first  artillery  school.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  most  European  countries  in¬ 
corporated  the  artillery  service  regularly  in  their  armies.  Frederic 
the  Great  introduced  the  effective  service  of  horse  artillery,  and 
before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  Germany  developed  the 
leading  scientific  artillerists  of  the  age.  Napoleon  was  a  born 
artillerist,  and  with  light  field  guns  and  immense  numbers  of  them 
he  conquered  all  Europe. 

After  the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  in  1815,  the  artillery  of  Europe 
was  greatly  improved  by  the  abolition  of  light  calibres,  and  the  in¬ 
troduction  of  heavier  artillery  of  the  English  model.  Among  re¬ 
cent  European  rulers,  Louis  Napoleon  paid  great  attention  to 
improvements  in  artillery,  and  the  late  continental  wars  have  led 
to  the  invention  and  introduction  of  new  arms  for  sea,  field,  and 
fort  service  ;  heavy  guns  for  ships  and  fortresses,  pivot  guns,  shell 
guns,  mitrailleuses,  etc. 

Artillery  in  America. 

According  to  one  of  the  historians  of  New  Netherlands,  the 
Massachusetts  colonists,  as  early  as  1664,  were  casting  cannon  and 
cannon  balls.  In  1148  a  foundery  at  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts, 
made  guns  of  from  three  to  forty-two  pounders  in  brass  and  iron, 
cast  solid,  and  then  bored.  During  the  Revolution  Cannon,  can¬ 
non  balls,  and  shell  were  made  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland,  and  were 
distributed  in  considerable  quantities  throughout  the  country. 
William  Denning,  of  Cumberland  County,  Pennsylvania,  made  a 
very  effective  wrought  iron  gun  of  iron  staves,  hooped,  and  boxed, 
and  breeched  like  other  cannon.  At  Springfield,  Massachusetts, 
and  at  Salisbury,  Connecticut,  guns  of  from  four  to  thirty-two 

35 


601 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AXD  ARTILLERT. 


pounders  were  made.  Heading  and  Warwick,  in  Pennsylvania, 
were  important  seats  of  this  manufacture.  A  contract  was  made 
with  the  Hughes  Brothers,  of  Frederick  County,  Maryland,  for 
one  thousand  tons  of  cannon,  upon  which  the  sum  of  eight  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  was  advanced,  and  subsequently  an  additional  twenty- 
two  and  two  thirds  dollars  per  ton  was  paid.  Indeed,  through  the 
Revolution  abundant  artillery  of  American  manufacture  was  fur¬ 
nished,  and  additional  supplies  were  secured  by  capture.  A  well- 
known  revolutionary  anecdote  makes  a  British  officer  ask,  with 
surprise,  “  Where  do  you  Americans  get  all  your  guns  ?  ”  “  We 

make  them.”  “  But  where  do  you  get  your  patterns  ?  ”  “At 
Saratoga,”  was  the  reply. 

In  1810  there  were  several  founderies  in  the  country,  which  cast 
shell,  shot,  and  cannon  of  small  calibre,  and  at  Cecil  County, 
Maryland,  near  Washington,  and  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  three  es¬ 
tablishments  were  started,  capable  of  casting  the  largest  guns, 
and  with  machinery  for  boring  them,  each  of  them  able  to  turn  out 
pieces  at  the  rate  of  three  hundred  a  year.  In  1813  a  brass  foun- 
clery  at  Watervliet,  New  York,  made  cannon  by  contract  for  Con¬ 
necticut.  The  following  year  Joseph  McClurg’s  iron  foundery 
was  established  at  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  which  cast  the  cannon 
for  the  fleet  on  Lake  Erie,  and  for  the  defence  of  New  Orleans. 
Previous  to  1836  patents  were  granted  for  an  improved  method  of 
elevating  cannon,  and  for  a  rn any-chambered  cannon.  Up  to  1857 
about  three  hundred  patents  for  cannon,  projectiles,  and  other  im¬ 
plements  of  war  were  recorded  in  this  country. 

Among  the  heavy  guns  of  American  invention,  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  are  the  Dahlgren,  the  Rodman,  the  Parrott,  the  Wiard,  and 
the  Ames,  named  respectively  after  the  inventors.  Lieutenant, 

subsequently  Rear-Admiral  John  A.  Dahlgren,  became  connected 

» 

with  the  Ordnance  Department  at  Washington  in  1847,  and  during 
his  long  connection  with  the  service,  he  effected  many  important 
changes,  and  introduced  several  inventions,  such  as  liglit  boat 
howitzers,  with  iron  carriages,  for  field  service,  and  his  heavy  shell 
gun.  The  Dahlgren  guns,  generally  of  smooth  bore,  are  distin¬ 
guished  by  their  peculiar  shape  and  the  heaviness  of  the  breech, 
which  materially  lessens,  if  it  does  not  prevent,  the  tendency  to 
recoil.  The  guns  arc  cast,  and  after  cooling  are  annealed,  and  are 
turned  down  to  the  required  size.  The  Dahlgren  ten-inch  shell 
gun  has  a  length  of  bore  of  one  hundred  and  seven  inches  ;  the 
eight-inch  shell  gun,  with  a  length  of  bore  of  one  hundred  inches, 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 


605 


weighs  sixty-three  hundred  weight,  and  at  five  degrees  elevation, 
at  nine  feet  elevation  above  water  level,  with  a  charge  of  nine 
pounds  of  powder,  has  a  range  of  seventeen  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  yards. 

The  Rodman  gun,  on  the  principle  of  which  all  the  heavy  ord¬ 
nance  of  the  United  States  is  now  made,  is  cast  on  a  hollow  core, 
in  which  water  is  introduced,  so  that  the  metal  is  cooled  from  the 
interior,  which  gives  greater  hardness  to  the  interior  surface,  and 
renders  guns  less  liable  to  burst. 

The  Parrott  rifled  guns  and  projectiles  proved  very  serviceable 
in  the  late  war.  The  first  Parrott  gun  was  cast  at  the  West  Point 
Foundery  in  1861.  The  year  following  the  inventor  began  to  make 
two-hundred-pounders  of  eight-inch  calibre,  and  afterwards  three- 
hundred -pounders  of  ten-inch  calibre. 

Mr.  Norman  Wiard,  of  the  Trenton  Wiard  Ordnance  Works, 

r  -  ‘ 

made  the  first  steel  guns  in  this  country,  and  his  field  batteries, 
with  improved  carriages,  attained  high  reputation  for  their  range 
and  precision.  He  also  made  heavy  steel  rifled  guns  for  naval 
service,  and  fitted  out  the  Burnside  expedition  to  North  Carolina 
with  its  entire  armament.  In  1864  he  constructed  a  large  navy 
gun  at  a  cost  of  eighty  thousand  dollars  —  the  largest  in  the 
country,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  Rodman,  at  Fortress 
Monroe. 

Mr.  Horatio  Ames,  of  Falls  Village,  Connecticut,  invented,  in 
1854,  a  wrought-iron  gun,  which  is  stated  to  surpass  other  guns, 
of  equal  weight,  in  its  power  to  sustain  heavy  charges  with  no 
danger  of  explosion. 

The  great  cannon  founderies  of  the  United  States  are  at  West 
Point,  the  Fort  Pitt  Works,  at  Pittsburg,  and  the  Scott  Foundery, 
at  Reading,  Pennsylvania.  The  Fort  Pitt  Works  have  been  in 
operation  since  1813.  It  was  in  this  establishment  that  lieuten¬ 
ant,  subsequently  General  Rodman,  while  superintending  some 
work  for  government,  conceived  the  idea  of  casting  guns  hollow, 
and  cooling  them  from  the  interior.  In  1859  the  fifteen-inch  Rod- 
man  gun,  weighing  forty-nine  thousand  pounds,  and  capable  of 
sustaining  charges  of  from  thirty-five  to  fifty  pounds  of  powder, 
with  shells  weighing  from  three  hundred  to  three  hundred  and 
thirty  pounds,  was  successfully  cast  at  these  works,  and  was  re¬ 
moved  to  Fortress  Monroe,  where  it  was  repeatedly  fired.  Fol¬ 
lowing  this  have  been  guns  with  enlarged  calibres  —  two  of  twen¬ 
ty  inches,  capable  of  throwing  a  projectile  weighing  a  thousand 


606 


ARMORED  VESSELS  AND  ARTILLERY. 


pounds.  The  Scott  Foundery,  at  Reading,  has  manufactured 
many  guns  of  fifteen-inch  calibre,  weighing  forty  tons. 

Projectiles  and  Torpedoes. 

It  has  been  noted  in  the  foregoing  that  shell,  as  well  as  cannon 
shot,  were  manufactured  in  this  country  during  the  Revolution. 
In  1813  Robert  Livingston  Stevens,  the  inventor  of  iron-plate  armor 
for  ships,  invented  an  elongated  bombshell,  and  imparted  the  se¬ 
cret  of  its  construction  to  the  government,  receiving  in  return  a 
considerable  annuity.  During  the  late  civil  war  many  patents 
were  granted  for  new  and  most  destructive  projectiles,  some  of 
them  of  many  hundred  pounds  weight,  which  could  be  thrown  by 
the  large  guns  to  a  distance  of  four  and  even  five  miles. 

Torpedoes,  designed  for  blowing  up  ships,  were  used  against 
the  British  fleet  during  the  Revolution.  Robert  Fulton,  the  in¬ 
ventor  of  the  steamboat,  devised  a  very  ingenious  and  effective 
torpedo  in  1805.  The  modern  use  of  the  electric  battery  in  firing 
them  has  made  torpedoes  doubly  dangerous.  During  the  late  war 
in  the  United  States  torpedoes  were  freely  used  in  the  Southern 
waters,  and  sometimes  with  most  destructive  effect.  American 
ingenuity  has  brought  the  construction  of  these  terrible  imple¬ 
ments  of  warfare  to  great  perfection. 


LINEN  COLLAR  AND  CUFF  MANUFACTURE. 

ANCIENT  PROHIBITION  OF  SEWING.  - SUBDIVISION  OF  LABOR.  —  SIGNIFICANCE 

OF  WHITE  UNDER-CLOTHES.  —  STATISTICS  OF  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS.  —  HOME¬ 
MADE  COLLARS.  —  SCALE  OF  MESSRS.  CLUETT  BROS.  AND  CO.’S  WORKS.  — 
PROCESS  OF  GETTING  OCT  A  NEW  STYLE.  —  SIZES  OF  PEOPLE’S  NECKS.  — 
CUTTING  THE  CLOTH. — SERIES  OF  OPERATIONS  IN  SEWING.  —  THE  SEWING- 
MACHINE  ROOM.  —  THE  LAUNDRY  AND  ITS  INVENTIONS.  —  FINISHING  AND 
INSPECTION  OF  THE  GOODS.  —  FORETHOUGHT  AND  ENTERPRISE  IN  PREPAR¬ 
ING  BUSINESS.  —  THE  PARASITIC  METHOD  OF  DOING  BUSINESS.  — RELATIONS 
WITH  OPERATIVES.  —  REQUISITES  OF  MEN’S  AND  WOMEN’S  GOODS. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  processes  of  manufacture  have  been 
prohibited,  not  only  from  business  prejudice,  but  from  religious 
feelings,  as  mistaken  as  those  of  the  pious  old  gentleman  who  ac¬ 
tually  argued  against  canals,  within  a  century,  because,  he  said,  if 
God  had  meant  to  have  water  run  in  these  channels,  he  would 
have  made  it  do  so.  Until  the  period  of  the  Mohammedan  in¬ 
vasion  of  India  (A.  D.  664),  it  was  universally  held  a  sacrilege  in 
that  country  to  wear  garments  made  from  pieces  of  cloth  sewed 
together.  Every  garment  was  therefore  woven  in  a  single  piece, 
or  cut  from  a  larger  one  ;  needlework  was  at  an  enormous  dis¬ 
count  ;  and  the  sewing  machine  would  have  been  reckoned  a  tre¬ 
mendous  engine  of  wholesale  damnation. 

It  is  far  different  now.  The  tendency  to  multiply  the  varieties 
of  all  manner  of  commodities,  to  apply  machinery  to  the  making 
of  separate  parts  of  each,  on  wholesale  principles,  and  to  di¬ 
vide  and  subdivide  those  parts  almost  to  infinity,  has  become  the 
very  spirit  of  the  age  ;  and  the  employment  of  the  sewing  machine 
is  one  of  the  very  latest,  and  largest,  and  most  wonderfully  useful 
of  all  the  steps  of  this  social  progress. 

The  first  period  in  the  history  of  dress  was  that  of  skins  and 
fig  leaves.  Next  came  the  use  of  woven  fabrics,  but  thus  far 

(GOT) 


608 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


•always  of  family  make.  Then  those  better  gifted  or  situated  for 
the  purpose  began  to  weave  goods  for  others  to  make  ;  and  “  pur¬ 
ple  and  fine  linen  ”  are  among  the  very  earliest  commodities  named 
in  the  history  of  commerce. 

The  ready-made  clothing  business,  of  comparatively  recent  date 
in  Christendom,  was  obviously  likely  to  be  introduced  far  earlier 
where  garments' were  mostly  constructed  on  the  model  of  a  sheet. 
There  have,  however,  been  “slop-shops”  in  Europe  for  centuries, 
although  the  application  of  the  wholesale  methods  of  modern 
manufacture  has  been  much  later ;  and  after  the  separate  clothing 
business  had  grown  up,  and  even  after  a  still  further  division  had 
set  apart  the  under-clothing  business,  and  yet  again  the  men’s  un¬ 
der-clothing  business,  came  the  latest  subdivision  of  all  —  the  col¬ 
lar  and  cuff  business.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  extensive 
business  houses  will  be  founded  in  the  future  for  nothing  except  to 
make  button  holes.  The  button  business  is  already  set  apart. 

Cleanliness  and  white  garments  always  go  together  ;  and  the 
frequent  mention  of  the  two  in  the  Bible  is,  as  it  most  evidently 
must  naturally  be,  in  precise  harmony  with  the  constitution  of 
humanity.  Where  any  clothes  at  all  are  worn,  it  will  be  .found 
that  white  under-clothes  go  with  cleanliness  of  the  person. 

Dress  serves  more  than  one  purpose.  It  is  for  modesty,  for 
comfort,  and  for  ornament.  And  the  tendency  of  modern  im¬ 
provements  in  costume  is,  to  serve  all  three  of  these  purposes,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  avoid  interference  with  the  requirements  of 
business  engagements  and  physical  activity.  Now,  the  most  char¬ 
acteristic  and  elegant  finish  of  modern  costume  is  given  by  per¬ 
mitting  the  appearance  of  the  white  margin  of  the  innermost 
garments  at  the  neck  and  wrists,  those  being  the  only  places  (except 
so  far  as  ladies  allow  their  shoulders,  arms,  etc.,  to  be  visible) 
where  the  person  is  uncovered.  The  white  borders  thus  displayed 
are  themselves  an  agreeable  finish,  in  point  of  color,  for  artistic 
reasons  ;  they  also  give  the  further  agreeable  intimation  of  physi¬ 
cal  cleanliness  ;  and  they  are  susceptible  of  being  treated  with  a 
great  variety  of  effective  and  graceful  ornament. 

It  is  evident  that  the  daily  emergencies  of  life  should  soil 
more  rapidly  white  surfaces  exposed  to  the  outer  atmosphere  than 
those  which  are  covered  ;  and  this  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  putting 
on  a  clean  collar  and  clean  cuffs  oftener  than  a  clean  shirt.  There 
are  no  authentic  statistics  of  shirts,  so  far  as  our  present  knowl¬ 
edge  extends,  but  it  requires  no  very  complicated  calculation  to 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


609 


show  that  the  number  of  collars  and  cuffs  which  must  be  manu¬ 
factured  in  the  United  States  in  a  year  is  immense.  We  have  a 
population  of  about  forty  million  persons.  Suppose  the  very  liberal 
allowance  of  one  quarter  deducted  as  too  young  for  such  elabo¬ 
rate  articles  of  costume,  and  another  quarter  as  too  slovenly  or 
too  poor,  and  twenty  millions  remain.  Now,  at  six  collars  and  six 
pairs  of  cuffs  each,  —  an  extremely  moderate  rate,  —  being 
eighteen  items  in  all,  the  United  States  at  any  given  moment  is 
using  three  hundred  and  sixty  million  articles  of  white  goods  — 
or  thirty  million  dozen  —  for  dress  finish  at  neck  and  wrists. 
These  six  collars  and  six  pairs  of  cuffs  will  not,  on  an  average, 
last  more  than  a  year;  and  therefore  the  above  total  quantity  must 
be  manufactured  anew  every  year.  Even  if  these  sums  total 
should  be  greatly  too  large,  it  remains  beyond  question  that  the 
actual  totals  are  enormous. 

The  history  of  arts  and  trades  shows  many  instances  of  the  con¬ 
centration,  for  one  reason  or  another,  of  the  manufacture  of  some 
one  article  in  some  one  place.  Thus  the  hat  business  has  been 
established  at  Danbury,  Connecticut,  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years ;  clocks  are  made,  as  if  by  a  natural  local  growth,  at  Terry- 
vi!le  ;  cheap  jewelry,  at  Attleboro’ ;  and  so  on. 

It  is  by  the  operation  of  this  law  of  aggregation  that  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  manufacturing  collars  and  cuffs,  along  with  one  or  two 
other  closely  related  occupations,  has  grown  up  at  Troy,  New 
York,  where  about  eighteen  firms,  some  of  them  quite  wealth}^, 
and  all  energetic,  are  established  in  this  one  business.  It  is  pro¬ 
posed  in  this  paper  to  describe  the  organization  and  operations  of 
one  of  these  firms — that  of  George  B.  Cluett,  Brother  &  Co. — 
as  an  illustration  at  once  of  the  actual  extent  and  importance  of 
the  demand  for  articles  seefningly  of  trifling  significance,  of  the 
surprising  investment  of  money  and  inventive  talent,  and  the  as¬ 
tonishing  complexity  of  the  operations  that  are  carried  on,  in  order 
to  produce  goods  which  shall  suit  the  increasing  fastidiousness 
of  customers  about  style  and  workmanship,  which  shall  at  the 
same  time  not  cost  too  much  for  the  average  purse  of  the  citizen, 
and  which  shall  nevertheless  afford  to  the  manufacturer  a  just 
compensation  for  his  time,  labor,  and  talents. 

The  wife  or  mother  who  sits  down  to  finish  off  the  wardrobe  of 
one  of  her  **  men  folks  ”  with  half  a  dozen  collars,  has  a  simple 
task  to  perform.  She  measures  the  neck,  and  receives,  or  should 
receive,  a  kiss  for  her  trouble ;  or  takes  the  measure  from  a  shirt, 


G10 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


or  an  old  collar.  If  the  latter,  she  has  a  pattern  all  ready  ;  if  the 
former,  she  cuts  out  a  paper  pattern,  by  memory,  or  by  judgment, 
or  by  hap-hazard.  Then  she  cuts  the  linen  for  the  bands  and  the 
collar-pieces,  bastes  them,  sews  them,  makes  the  button-holes, 
rinses  them,  starches  them,  rough-dries  them,  sprinkles  them,  irons 
them,  and  it  is  done. 

At  the  very  furthest  opposite  extremity  of  the  scale  of  indus¬ 
trial  establishments  from  this  solitary  needlewoman,  stands  a  great 
factory  like  that  of  George  B.  Cluett,  Brother  &  Co.,  with  its  dozen 
of  great  rooms,  each  occupied  by  the  hands  busied  in  one  special  stage 
of  the  manufacture  ;  its  hundreds  of  outside  hands,  all  checked  and 
organized,  to  carry  the  work  through  certain  stages  ;  its  lofty, 
airy  sewing  room,  with  a  hundred  clattering  sewing  machines, 
driven  by  steam ;  its  departmental  laundry,  supervised  by  a  prac¬ 
tical  chemist  and  inventor  ;  its  extensive  depot  of  goods  ready 
for  the  market ;  and  its  endless,  innumerable  mass  of  daily  accu¬ 
mulations,  that,  if  whirled  abroad  upon  the  air  before  some  tem¬ 
pest  employed  for  the  purpose,  would  whiten  a  whole  country 
with  a  linen  snow-storm  of  tens  of  thousands  of  flakes,  in  cuffs, 
and  wristlets,  and  collars,  and  fronts,  and  habits  for  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  of  every  imaginable  pattern,  at  the  rate  of  acres  per 
day. 

Not  the  least  important  era  in  the  history  of  a  collar  is  that 
before  it  exists.  Suppose,  for  instance,  you  buy  in  September  a 
new  supply  of  collars,  of  the  newest  fall  style,  from  the  manu¬ 
factory  of  Messrs.  George  B.  Cluett,  Brother  &  Co.  If  the  processes 
attending  the  development  of  this  style  went  through  a  usual  course, 
that  course  began  in  June,  in  the  brain  of  Mr.  Cluett,  or  of  one  of  his 
three  brothers,  or  perhaps  of  one  of  their  employes,  and  began 
with  an  idea.  This  was  the  idea  of  tfcollar,  to  be  in  one  way  or 
another  improved  upon,  or  varied  from,  the  current  styles.  Per¬ 
haps  it  is  to  be  broader  in  the  band  ;  or  rounded  in  front ;  or  with 
sharp  points  in  front ;  or  with  points  turned  down  ;  or  sloped  off 
at  the  tie  at  a  wide  angle,  or  at  a  narrow  angle  ;  or  stitched  with 
a  new  arrangement  of  the  lining  ;  or  with  a  new  device  for  secur¬ 
ing  clean,  sharp  corners;  and  so  on. 

Well :  this  idea  grows  and  develops  until  it  is  complete  enough 
to  be  embodied  in  a  pattern  ;  and  if  it  is  considered  likely  to 
please  the  public,  the  next  question  is,  How  much  cloth  will  it 
waste  ?  This  is  ascertained  by  trying  the  pattern  on  the  width 
of  the  cloth  ;  and  it  is  accepted,  modified,  or  rejected,  as  may  bo  re- 


—  ■■  I 


’ 


. 


' 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


613 


quired.  This  being  decided,  from  twenty  to  thirty  pieces  of  wood 
have  next  to  be  fashioned  —  being  the  working  patterns  which  the 
cutters  use  in  shaping  the  pieces  from  the  cloth  ready  for  sewing. 
The  number  is  fixed  as  follows  :  One  wooden  pattern  gives  the 
form  of  the  band,  and  another  of  the  collar.  But  necks  are  not 
all  of  the  same  size.  Practically,  men's  necks  are  from  twelve 
and  a  half  to  eighteen  inches  round,  and  women’s  from  ten  to  six¬ 
teen  and  a  half  inches,  though  extra  sizes  are  sometimes  furnished 
to  order  as  far  as  to  twenty-one  inches.  It  is  found  that  a  scale 
of  half-inch  differences  is  best  between  these  extremes ;  so  that, 
for  the  band  of  the  supposed  new  style  of  collar,  there  must  be  a 
separate  wooden  pattern  for  the  12^-inch,  13-inch,  13j-inch,  and 
so  on,  up  to  eighteen  inches,  being,  in  this  instance,  —  which 
is  an  average  one, — twelve  patterns.  Twelve  patterns  more  to 
match  these  are  also  made  for  the  collar  part.  These  patterns  are 
cut  out  of  carefully  seasoned  thin  boards  of  maple  wood. 

Next  comes  the  cutting.  For  this  purpose,  a  whole  piece  of 
cloth,  or  even  more,  is  carefully  laid  out,  even  and  smooth,  on  the 
cutting-board,  which  is  a  thick  plank  of  white  pine.  This  wood 
blunts  the  knives  less  than  any  other ;  and  when  the  surface  is 
roughened  and  crumbled  under  the  innumerable  knife-strokes,  it  is 
planed  down  to  a  new,  clean  stratum  again.  The  cloth  is  laid 
forty-eight  thick  ;  and  a  number  of  heavy  bell  shaped  masses  of 
iron,  like  large  paper  weights,  are  placed  on  it  to  keep  it  in  place. 
The  knives  used  have  short  blades,  somewhat  after  the  style  of  a 
small,  short  shoe-knife,  and  the  blade  is  separate,  fastening  into 
the  handle  while  in  use  with  a  small  set  screw.  There  is  one  sin¬ 
gle  blacksmith  in  Troy  who  possesses  exclusively  the  secret  of 
giving  to  these  knives  exactly  the  right  temper  to  go  through 
forty-eight  thicknesses  of  linen  with  the  least  possible  trouble.  He 
keeps  his  secret,  like  the  legendary  forgers  of  fairy  blades  in  the 
old  stories  of  chivalry,  and  makes  a  very  good  thing  of  it. 

Having  thus  been  cut  out,  the  pieces  are  put  together  in  little 
parcels,  each  containing  the  materials  for  a  dozen  collars,  and  the 
family  thus  formed  remains  together  through  all  the  subsequent 
vicissitudes  of  its  youth  in  the  factories,  until,  having,  as  it  were, 
grown  up  to  maturity,  it  is  dispersed  abroad  into  the  great  world, 
each  member  to  shift  for  itself;  i.  e.,  it  goes  into  the  hands  of  a 
customer,  to  be  retailed  or  worn  out. 

The  successive  operations  which  now  follow  are  these  :  The 
collars  having  been  (1)  cut,  are  (2)  run,  (3)  turned,  (4.)  stitched,. 


614 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


(5)  bands  run  over,  (6)  bands  turned,  (7)  bands  stitched,  (8)  but¬ 
ton-holes  cut,  (9)  button-holes  worked.  Of  these  operations, 
some  parts  are  done  by  outside  hands,  but  most  of  them  in  the 
factory.  All  the  rooms  of  Messrs.  Cluett  Bros.  &  Co.’s  building 
are  unusually  ligdit,  airy,  and  well  ventilated  ;  and  their  sewing- 
machine  room  in  particular,  which  was  formerly  a  public  hall,  is  a  re¬ 
markably  lofty  and  airy  room.  The  balcony  which  the  fiddlers  used 
to  occupy  is  still  there,  but  the  innumerable  sharp  chatter  of  a  hun¬ 
dred  sewing  machines  fills  the  room  with  a  noise  that  leaves  no  place 
for  other  music,  and  the  vibration  of  the  needles  beats  the  speed 
of  a  fiddler’s  elbow  quite  out  of  sight. 

The  machines  are  arranged  in  rows  across  the  room,  and  each 
is  belted  to  a  shaft  that  runs  along  the  floor  and  supplies  the  neces¬ 
sary  power.  This  arrangement  wholly  obviates  the  well-known 
serious  objections  to  sewing-machine  work  by  treadle  power.  The 
day’s  work  of  each  machine  is  equal  to  what  could  be  done  by  at 
least  twenty  women,  and  the  hundred  together  therefore  constitute 
a  working*  force  equal  to  two  thousand  sewing-women  without  ma¬ 
chines.  An  extreme  estimate  would  add  another  thousand’ to  this 
total. 

When  all  these  sewing  processes  are  at  last  complete,  the  col¬ 
lars —  and  so  of  other  articles,  for  we  are  following  the  fortunes 
of  the  collar  as  a  representative  of  the  rest  —  are  transferred  to 
the  laundry,  where  a  second  series  of  eleven  processes  is  gone 
through  with,  besides  the  mere  transfer.  These  are  as  follows  : 
(1)  Washing  in  suds,  to  remove  the  manufacturer’s  “dressing” 
from  the  goods ;  (2)  bleaching,  by  means  of  hyperchloride  of 
soda;  (3)  application  of  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  to  complete  the 
bleaching  process ;  (4)  washing  in  suds,  to  remove  the  acid  ; 
(5)  boiling;  (6)  rubbing  and  rinsing;  (7)  bluing  and  rolling; 
(8)  starching  with  thin  starch  ;  (9)  starching  with  thick  starch  ; 
(10)  drying;  (11)  ironing. 

These  operations  are  greatly  facilitated  by  the  arrangement  and 
fitting  up  of  the  different  rooms,  and  by  various  devices  for  econo¬ 
mizing  labor  and  power.  Thus  a  peculiar  formation  of  the  stove 
for  heating  irons  keeps  forty  of  them  hot  all  the  time,  with  a  small 
average  consumption  of  coal  ;  the  order  of  the  tubs  used  is  such 
as  to  make  the  progress  of  the  goods  easy  through  the  successive 
processes,  etc.  The  starch  used  is  not  of  wheat,  but  of  corn,  which 
is  found  to  be  equally  efficient,  cheaper,  and  much  less  disagree¬ 
able  to  the  fingers  of  the  operatives.  This  is  a  pretty  important 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


C15 


consideration,  for  it  is  found  to  make  the  difference  between  sore 
fingers  and  healthy  ones, — that  is,  work  or  idleness, — besides 
pain,  which  is  sometimes  no  small  item,  as  the  very  agonizing  local 
inflammation  called  felon  has  occasionally  been  somewhat  frequent 
among  those  who  work  in  the  starching  rooms. 

After  the  ironing,  each  family  of  a  dozeti  collars  is  once  more  as¬ 
sembled,  and  carried  to  the  inspecting  department.  A  system  of  in¬ 
spection  is,  however,  maintained  throughout  all  the  works  ;  and  it 
is  necessary  to  use  a  good  deal  of  strictness  in  order  to  prevent 
the  destruction  of  much  valuable  property  by  careless  making  up. 
This  final  inspection,  however,  decides  upon  the  quality  of  the 
completed  goods  as  adapted  for  the  market,  and  upon  passing, 
each  separate  article  is  stamped  with  the  name  of  its  style,  and 
size,  after  which  the  dozen  is  enshrined  in  its  neat  paper  box, 
there  to  remain  until  sold  to  the  consumer.  The  firm  for¬ 
merly  packed  in  larger  single  parcels ;  but  the  convenience  of 
trade  has  made  it  an  invariable  rule  to  pack  everything  by  single 
dozens,  and  the  dozen  is  accordingly  the  sole  ultimate  numeral 
standard  of  the  business,  no  smaller  or  larger  number  of  any  arti¬ 
cle  being  packed  in  one  paper  box. 

The  finished  goods  sent  to  market  by  Messrs.  George  B.  Cluett, 
Brother  &  Co.,  being  thus  thought  out  and  adapted  in  advance  of  the 
demand,  are  accumulated,  according  to  the  practice  of  the  firm,  to 
a  very  considerable  extent.  It  is  not  unusual  for  them  to  have 
on  hand  thirty  thousand  dozen  or  more  of  articles  all  ready  for  use, 
each  having  gone  through  the  whole  series  of  twenty  processes 
that  have  been  described,  and  representing,  of  course,  a  very  large 
sum  of  money  paid  out  for  materials  and  labor. 

Moreover,  this  forethought  in  determining  styles  must  be  suc¬ 
cessful,  or  the  result  must  be  a  serious  loss  to  the  firm.  No  mod¬ 
erate  number  of  collars,  for  instance,  can  be  made  up  at  once  and 
sent  out  as  specimens,  with  the  expectation  of  manufacturing  to 
fill  orders  if  the  new  style  suits.  There  will  not  be  time  for  that ; 
for  there  are  plenty  of  rival  houses  ready  to  snatch  after  any  good 
new  idea,  and  who  do,  in  fact,  do  so  as  it  is  ;  so  that  the  chief 
advantage  which  this  shrewd  and  wide-awake  firm  can  reap  from 
their  good  judgment  and  invention,  depends  upon  their  running 
the  risk  of  success.  They  therefore  take  it  for  granted  that  each 
new  style  will  succeed.  In  sporting  language,  they  “  back  them¬ 
selves  heavily  every  time.”  The  result  justifies  this  bold  practice  ; 
for  hitherto,  with  unimportant  exceptions,  the  large  stocks  which 


GIG 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


they  have  ventured  to  make  up  on  this  principle  have  enabled 
them  to  constantly  keep  in  advance  of  their  competitors,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  unfair  as  well  as  fair  efforts  of  others  in  the  same 
business.  Cases  have  been  known,  indeed,  of  a  systematic  boast 
that  such  a  one  would  keep  up  with  all  of  duetts’  new  styles,  and 
have  them  in  the  market  as  soon  as  they,  which  is  very  much  as 
if  a  parasite  insect  should  boast  that  his  blood  was  as  good  as  that 
of  the  man  he  sucked  it  from.  Such  boasts  have  been  in  some 
measure  accomplished,  too,  by  secret  espionage  among  the  hands, 
and  similar  methods,  but  as  yet  without  any  signs  that  this  para¬ 
sitic  method  is  materially  injuring  either  the  invention,  the  temper, 
or  the  pocket  of  George  B.  Cluett,  Brother  &  Co. 

This  firm,  on  the  contrary,  is  well  satisfied  with  that  sort  of 
success  which  is  the  only  really  desirable  one  in  business  —  hon¬ 
est  gains  from  enterprise,  industry,  and  fair  dealing.  Steady  kind¬ 
ness,  and  at  the  same  time  as  much  strictness  as  is  necessary, 
keep  them  popular  with  their  hands,  of  whom  they  employ  from 
five  hundred  to  eight  hundred.  This  treatment,  and  the  pleasant 
quarters  afforded  to  their  operatives,  secure  the  important  advan¬ 
tage  of  steady  help.  Some  of  those  in  the  establishment  have 
been  with  the  firm  for  twelve  years  or  more  ;  and  it  has  repeatedly 
happened  that  those  who  left,  for  one  or  another  reason,  have  re¬ 
turned  and  asked  to  be  employed  again,  having  found  neither  their 
new  employers  nor  their  new  quarters  as  comfortable.  This  ami¬ 
cable  state  of  things  does  not,  however,  prevent  a  strenuous  ad¬ 
herence  to  their  rights.  A  few  years  ago,  a  so-called  11  Working- 
women’s  Union  ”  was  set  up  among  the  hands,  and  at  once  went  to 
work  to  raise  wages.  Apparently  there  was  a  measure  of  justification 
for  the  step,  since  the  required  advance  was  granted,  as  was  another 
within  a  few  months.  A  third?  however,  met  with  a  prompt  refu¬ 
sal  ;  the  manufacturers,  though  not  organizing  into  any  formal 
body,  agreed  to  put  a  stop  to  the  performances,  the  Messrs.  Cluett 
being  among  the  very  first  in  taking  this  ground.  The  de¬ 
mand  of  the  “  Union  ”  was  peremptorily  refused,  work  stopped, 
the  ill-advised  strikers  were  let  alone  until  they  returned  to  work 
at  previous  rates,  and  the  Union  was  exterminated,  as  no  member 
of  it  would  be  employed. 

There  are  some  noticeable  differences  between  men’s  goods  and 
women’s  goods  as  they  appear  in  a  large  house  like  that  of  George 
B.  Cluett,  Brother  &  Co.  Women’s  collars,  cuffs,  etc.,  very  properly 
admit  of  much  more  ornament,  both  in  form  and  finish,  than  is 


LINEN  COLLARS  AND  CUFFS. 


C17 


allowable  on  men’s  goods,  and,  accordingly,  they  cost  decidedly 
more  per  article.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ladies’  goods  do  not  have 
to  be  made  and  put  up  with  nearly  so  much  accuracy  in  respect  to 
length  by  inches  and  halves,  etc.,  as  the  pin  method  of  fastening, 
and  ladies’  ways  of  finishing  with  a  bow  of  ribbon  or  the  like, 
render  it  easier  to  fit  them. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  much  and  how  effective  ornament  can 
be  put  on  work  turned  out  in  the  wholesale  style  of  this  firm.  In¬ 
sertion,  cords,  plain  and  colored  stripes,  dots,  edgings,  embroi¬ 
deries  of  many  kinds,  besides  the  endless  varieties  of  graceful  out¬ 
line,  are  used  on  the  collars,  cuffs,  under-sleeves,  habits,  etc.,  of 
the  ladies’  goods  department,  affording,  of  course,  a  much  wider 
field  for  the  inventive  and  artistic  faculties  of  the  firm  than  the 
comparatively  monotonous  and  plain  goods  which  are  “  good 
enough  for  the  men.” 

This  house,  which  offers  so  admirable  an  instance  of  how  readily 
the  American  business  world  adapts  itself  to  new  conditions,  and 
turns  them  to  its  own  uses,  is  composed  of  four  brothers,  whose 
names  may  well  be  given  here  in  full,  as  belonging  to  the  history 
of  American  industry :  George  B.  Cluett,  J.  W.  Alfred  Cluett, 
Robert  Cluett,  Edmund  Cluett. 


BROAD  AND  NARROW  GAUGE  RAILROAD  CARS. 

TRANSPORTATION,  TRAVEL,  AND  COMMUNICATION  OF  THOUGHT,  AS  POLITICAL 
INFLUENCES.  —  ELEMENTS  OF  SUCCESSFUL  RAILROAD  OPERATION.  —  IMMENSE 
NUMBER  OF  RAILROAD  CARS  MADE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  QUANTITY  OF 
WORK  ON  ONE  CAR.  —  AMERICAN  AND  ENGLISH  STYLES  OF  PASSENGER  CARS. — 

WILMINGTON  MAKES  MORE  RAILROAD  CARS  THAN  ANY  OTHER  OF  OUR  CITIES. - 

LOCATION  OF  JACKSON  AND  SHARP  CO.’S  DELAWARE  CAR  WORKS. —  ARRANGE¬ 
MENT  OF  THEIR  BUILDINGS.  —  LUMBER-YARD  AND  MODE  OF  SEASONING. — 

•  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  A  CAR.  —  TIME  USED.  —  “  LIFE  ”  OF  A  CAR. 

.  —  WEIGHT  AND  COST  OF  CARS.  —  NUMBER  OF  TRADES  CONCERNED  IN  A  CAR.  — 

JACKSON  AND  SHARP  CO.’s  SHIPYARD  AND  MARINE  RAILWAY. — THE  NARROW- 
GAUGE  SYSTEM.  —  ORIGIN  AND  PROGRESS.  — NARROW-GAUGE  PASSENGER  CARS 
j  DESCRIBED.  — ANALYSIS  OF  THE  ECONOMY  AND  ADVANTAGES  OF  TIIE  NARROW- 
GAUGE  SYSTEM.  —  LEGALLY  UNIFORM  TIIREE-FOOT  GAUGE  RECOMMENDED. 

•  # 

There  is  an  important  political  necessity  for  ease,  speed,  safety, 
cheapness,  and  comfort  in  travel,  transportation,  and  communication 
of  thought.  The  two  former  are  the  circulation,  the  last  is  the  ner¬ 
vous  system  of  the  body  politic.  A  rope  long  enough  will  break  by 
its  own  weight.  It  is  a  well-known  truth  in  Zoology,  that  an  animal 
whose  size  should  be  extravagant  would  become  a  mechanical 
absurdity.  Its  materials,  like  those  of  the  rope,  would  be  unable  to 
withstand  the  effects  of  gravitation,  and  the  creature  would  break 
down  —  would  smash,  in  fact  —  from  its  own  weight.  If,  however, 
we  imagine  the  density  and  hardness  of  the  bones,  skin,  muscle,  and 
other  tissues  greatly  increased,  the  circulation  made  very  powerful, 
and  the  supply  of  nervous  energy  increased  untihthe  distant  parts  of 
the  great  frame  are  as  swiftly  and  surely  supplied  as  those  of  a  small 
one,  in  that  case  the  organism  might  exist.  A  cow  must  be  on  an 
average  of  denser  texture  and  harder  than  a  mouse,  and  an  elephant 
than  a  cow.  Giants  have  always  been  represented  as  stupid  and 
clumsy;  it  is  very  frequently  the  case  that  small  men  are  swift  in 
movement,  and  brilliant  in  thought  and  action. 

It  is  steam  and  electro-magnetism  that  make  so  large  a  single  coun- 

o  O  O 

try  as  the  U nited  States  possible.  With  no  other  means  of  intercom-  • 
munication  than  existed  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  our  present 

existence  would  be  mechanically  out  of  the  question.  The  Pacific 
.  (018) 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


619 


States,  for  instance,  would  not  endure  the  authority  of  a  government 
seated  at  the  extremest  opposite  verge  of  a  continent,  distant  by  a 
tenth  of  the  earth’s  whole  circumference,  and  at  the  end  of  a  land 
journey  of  certainly  not  less  than  six  months,  and  very  likely  entirely 
impracticable ;  or  of  a  sea  voyage  of  not  far  from  the  same  length 
around  Cape  Horn.  It  is  because  we  can  travel  between  W ashington 
and  San  Francisco  in  a  few  days,  and  can  communicate  between  them 
in  a  few  seconds,  that  our  country  still  extends  from  ocean  to  ocean. 

Within  that  vast  railroad  organism,  which  this  figurative  repre¬ 
sentation  takes  as  a  circulating  system  in  the  United  States,  there 
may  be  further  distinguished  several  elements.  Thus,  we  find  that 
speed  depends  upon  the  excellence  of  the  road,  locomotives,  and 
trucks.  Cheapness  and  safety  depend  upon  the  judgment,  skill,  and 
honesty  employed  in  construction,  equipment,  and  operation.  But 
comfort  and  convenience,  which  are  not  much,  if  at  all,  less  important 
in  promoting  travel  and  attracting  patronage,  are  chiefly  dependent 
upon  the  structure  and  details  of  Railroad  Cars. 

The  extent  of  business  transacted  in  providing  for  this  single 
department  of  one  of  the  several  business  interests  concerned  in  pro¬ 
moting  the  sole  purpose  of  land  transportation  is  enormous.  How 
enormous,  it  would  take  a  long  compilation  of  figures,  and  consider¬ 
able  labor  in  statement  and  in  understanding,  to  fully  realize.  But 
there  are  somewhere  about  two  thousand  railroads  in  operation  in  the 
United  States ;  of  these,  one  single  one  owns  more  than  sixteen  thou¬ 
sand  cars,  including  all  kinds ;  others  have  between  nine  and  ten  thou¬ 
sand  ;  and  quite  a  number  as  many  as  five  or  six  thousand.  These 
have  to  be  frequently  renewed,  for  a  car  lasts  certainly  not  more  than 
nine  years  on  an  average.  And  new  roads  are  coming  into  operation 
at  the  rate  of  over  two  thousand  miles  a  year,  all  requiring  complete 
new  outfits.  Cars  cost  from  $  600,  which  will  buy  a  “  flat  ”  or  platform 
car,  up  to  $  20,000,  which  is  the  cost  of  one  of  those  gorgeous  travel¬ 
ling  hotels  called  “  Palace  Cars.”  It  is  evident  that  the  quantity  of 
capital  invested  in  car  manufacturing  alone  must  be*very  great.  To 
represent  intelligibly  the  quantity  of  work  invested,  would  be  still 
more  difficult,  whether  the  number  of  hands  employed,  or  the  number 
of  days’  work  represented  by  each  completed  car,  or  the  quantity 
of  materials  and  number  of  separate  pieces  in  a  single  car,  should  be 
adopted  as  a  criterion.  For  instance,  there  were  counted  on  one  side 
of  one  car,  standing  half  finished  in  the  Jackson  and  Sharp  Company’s 
Works,  at  Wilmington,  183  wooden  pegs,  408  brads,  288  nails,  and 
132  pieces  of  wood.  This  included  only  one  side  of  the  wooden 


G20 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


skeleton  of  the  car,  not  including  floor,  top,  or  ends,  trucks  or  roof, 
nor  seats,  upholstering,  fitting,  and  finishing.  A  memorandum  hung 
up  near  by  showed  that  576  bolts  and  other  iron  fastenings  (not 
counting  screws,  nails,  brads,  tacks,  Ac.)  had  been  called  for  for  two 
cars.  This  makes  1,299  articles  used  for  much  less  than  half  the 
items  of  a  complete  car.  Indeed,  it  would  take  a  day  to  inquire  out, 
note  down,  and  compute  the  whole  number  of  single  parts  and  pieces 
that  go  to  make  up  that  marvel  of  strength,  lightness,  and  endurance, 
called  a  Railroad  Car. 

The  present  American  style  of  railway  passenger  coach  is  a 
natural  and  legitimate  product  of  American  ideas.  Few  know  how 
greatly  it  differs  from  the  passenger  vehicle  of  the  first  railroads, 
which  is  still  substantially  the  model  of  the  English  roads.  It  may 
be  described  as  the  democratic  palace  instead  of  a  nest  of  aristo¬ 
cratic  closets.  The  first  railway  coaches  retained  the  arrangements, 
as  they  did  the  name,  of  the  stage-coaches  they  have  superseded. 
They  were  simply  a  coach  body  placed  on  a  four-wheeled  truck, 

with  room  for  six  inside,  and  with  a  seat  for  one  more  passenger 

projecting  outside  at  each  end,  as  if  to  secure  a  pair  of  human 

“  buffers  ”  between  each  two  cars.  This  plan  was  soon  varied  by 

building  one  car  of  capacity  equivalent  to  several  coach-bodies,  and 
divided  into  compartments  with  two  transverse  seats  in  each,  while 
the  conductor  climbed  along  a  foot-board  outside.  The  English 
and  European  cars  are  still  built  on  this  plan,  whose  seclusion  and 
difficulty  of  access  have  repeatedly  been  made  use  of  for  perpe¬ 
trating  robberies  and  murders,  as  there  is  no  practical  and  prompt 
mode  of  attracting  the  attention  of  other  passengers  or  of  the  con¬ 
ductor. 

The  present  or  American  car  effectually  prevents  any  danger 
from  criminal  violence,  while  the  bell-cord  which  runs  through  the 
train  —  an  American  device,  coming  slowly  into  use  in  Europe  — 
affords  an  almost  certain  means  of  notifying  both  conductor  and 
engineer  of  any  emergency  out  of  the  regular  order  of  events. 
While  on  this  point  it  may  be  added  that  American  inventors  have 
also  introduced  the  swinging  truck,  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
short  curves  of  our  railroads ;  a  separate  baggage  car,  instead  of 
piling  the  baggage  along  the  roofs  of  the  passenger  coaches  ;  and  the 
mode  of  warming  by  a  stove.  English  cars  are  wanned,  it*  at  all,  by 
boxes  of  hot  water  set  in  the  compartments. 

Many  other  points  of  improvement,  both  in  general  and  in  detail, 
might  be  mentioned.  The  last  result  of  them  all,  the  so-called 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


621 


M  Palace  Cars,”  illustrates  almost  as  strikingly  as  our  great  hotels 
do  the  curious  tendency  to  accumulate  in  accommodations  for  the 
public  luxuries,  or  at  least  showy  trappings,  greatly  beyond  what 
most  travellers  enjoy  or  would  enjoy  at  home. 

More  railroad  cars  are  manufactured  at  Wilmington,  Delaware, 
than  in  any  other  city  of  the  United  States.  Some  account  of  one 
of  the  more  extensive  and  complete  car  manufactories  of  that  place, 
the  Delaware  Car  Works,  belonging  to  the  Jackson  and  Sharp 
Company,  will  consequently  afford  a  fair  idea  of  the  scale  on  which 
the  business  is  conducted,  and  the  outlines  of  its  organization  and 
management. 

The  Jackson  and  Sharp  Company’s  works  stand  on  a  tract  of 
about  eight  acres  of  land,  very  conveniently  situated,  the  track  of 
the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington,  and  Baltimore  Railroad  passing  across 
their  front  line,  while  Christiana  River  bounds  them  on  one  side, 
and  Brandywine  River  on  the  other,  —  an  arrangement  which  affords 
them  singular  facilities  for  transportation,  both  by  land  and  water. 

The  buildings  of  the  Company  have  been  erected  on  purpose  for 
their  business,  and  are  arranged  in  a  very  convenient  manner  to 
accommodate  their  car-building  business,  an  extensive  sash,  door, 
and  blind  business  which  they  carry  on  at  the  same  time,  and  cer¬ 
tain  parts  of  their  shipyard  and  marine  railway  business.  Outside 
of  the  buildings  themselves  a  large  area  is  occupied  with  great  piles 
of  lumber,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  over  1,000,000  feet,  pass¬ 
ing  through  the  seasoning  process,  —  a  peculiarly  necessary  one 
in  this  business,  as  the  enormous  strain  on  the  frames  of  railroad 
cars  makes  it  absolutely  necessary  that  they  should  be  made  of 
the  best  materials,  prepared  in  the  best  manner.  This  lumber- 
yard  indeed  is  quite  extensive  enough  of  itself  for  a  very  handsome 
lumber  business,  without  any  of  the  other  departments. 

The  seasoning  often  occupies  a  year  or  more,  and  is  very  carefully 
watched,  the  piles  of  lumber  being  laid  in  a  kind  of  open  order,  with 
the  ends  toward  the  prevailing  winds,  so  as  to  get  all  the  drying 
that  the  air  can  give.  For  cabinet  work,  of  course,  the  wood  is 
kiln-dried  in  addition. 

The  history  of  making  a  car  is  somewhat  as  follows  :  When  ready 
for  use  the  lumber  is  hauled  into  the  planing-mill,  a  roomy  and 
thoroughly  furnished  department,  where  it  is  planed  and  sawed  to 
the  right  dimensions.  Next  is  the  setting-up  room,  where  is  per¬ 
formed  a  process  of  laying  the  sills,  framing  up,  and  covering  in., 
which  is  about  half-way  between  ship-building  and  house-building. 
36 


622 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


When  the  wood-work  is  complete  the  car  goes  to  the  painting-room, 
where  it  receives  a  long  course  of  treatment,  one  coat  alter  another 
of  paint,  to  the  number  of  six,  being  laid  on,  left  to  dry  into  the  w'ood, 
and  rubbed  off,  until  a  proper  surface  is  prepared  for  the  three  coats 
of  varnish  which  form  the  last  finish,  much  of  which  is  of  the  same 
transparent  and  wonderfully  brilliant  surface  that  most  of  us  have 
admired  so  much  on  a  piano.  In  this  painting-room  great  pains 
have  to  be  taken  to  keep  the  temperature  at  an  even  warmth,  and 
it  is  never  allowed  to  fall  below  sixty-five  degrees. 

After  the  painting  comes  the  upholstering.  The  seats  have  been 
made  in  the  cabinet  shop,  the  cushions,  &c.  prepared,  and  they  are 
now  put  in  place  and  screwed  down.  The  frescoed  cloth,  whose 
graceful  designs  look  so  prettily  on  the  roof,  has  also  been  made 
ready  in  a  roomy  loft  occupied  for  the  purpose  by  a  force  of  skilful 
decorative  painters.  It  was  m  this  establishment  that  this  branch 
of  the  car-manufacturing  business  was  first  introduced.  Their 
operations  have  an  asj)ect  that  reminds  one  of  the  old-fashioned 
“  quilting-frames,”  each  piece  of  cloth  being  stretched  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  painting  on  a  wooden  frame,  which,  however,  stands  edge- 
ways  before  the  workman,  instead  of  lying  horizontally  on  four 
chairs. 

The  trucks  have  also  been  made  in  their  separate  shop.  They  are 
nowT  brought  up,  and  the  car,  hitherto  moved  about  on  temporary 
trucks,  mounted  on  them  ;  and  it  trundles  out  of  the  front  shop  upon 
a  side-track  from  the  railroad,  all  complete  and  shining,  and  ready 
for  its  purchaser. 

The  disposition  of  the  various  buildings  through  which  the  car  has 
passed  is  such  that,  from  the  lumber  pile  into  the  planing-mill,  and 
thence  to  where  the  completed  carVolls  out  of  the  door  upon  the  rail¬ 
road  track,  it  describes  a  course  somewhat  like  that  of  an  enormous 
letter  S,  moving  forward  through  one  long  building,  back  through  a 
second,  and  forward  again  through  a  third.  The  whole  time  occu¬ 
pied  has  been  about  two  months,  a  large  part  of  it  being  taken  up  by 
the  slow  drying  of  the  different  coats  of  paint.  The  whole  distance 
thus  moved  has  been  about  1,600  feet,  or  800  feet  a  month,  which 
comes  to  about  half  a  car’s  length  a  day.  A  well-made  car,  carefully 
used,  its  bolts  and  fastenings  watched  and  “turned  up”  from  time 
to  time,  and  repairs  made  when  needed,  would  last  twenty  or  even 
thirty  years.  In  practice,  however,  the  life  of  a  car  is  not,  on  an 
average,  much  more  than  nine  years.  The  works  of  the  Company 
are  extensive  enough  to  enable  them  to  have  fifty  or  sixty  cars  in 
process  of  manufacture  at  a  time. 


JACKSON  &  SHARP  CO.  CAR  WORKS,  WILMINGTON,  DEL 


. 

• 

• 

1 

-•-*  i-  -  • 

’  4. 


l 


X 


ttij  j 


» 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


6_5 


The  following  little  table  shows  the  approximate  weight  and  cost 
of  different  styles  of  cars :  — 


Designation  of  Car. 

Weight,  lbs. 

Cost. 

Pullman  .... 

.  56,000 

$12,000  to  20,000 

Passenger  .... 

.  39,000 

5,000  “  6,000 

Do.  2d  class 

.  35,000 

3,000  “  4,000 

Freight  (box)  .... 

.  16,000 

700  “  800 

Flat  or  platform  . 

.  12,000 

550  “  650 

The  number  of  different  kinds  of  materials  used,  and  of  different 
trades  employed,  in  completing  an  ordinary  passenger  car  is  sur¬ 
prising.  For  instance,  the  sills  and  plates  and  the  floor  are  made 
of  yellow  pine ;  the  posts  of  the  frame,  of  ash ;  the  bolsters  and 
the  truck  frames,  of  oak;  the  sheathing,  of  white-wood,  and  the 
roof,  of  white  pine  and  cypress,  —  being  seven  varieties  of  wood, 
besides  the  cherry,  black  walput,  and  other  ornamental  woods 
commonly  used  for  the  inside  ornamental  work.  As  for  the  dif¬ 
ferent  cloths,  plush,  tacks,  nails,  screws,  hinges,  catches,  locks,  and 
small  hardware,  and  other  upholstery  and  metal  goods,  there  are  too 
many  to  enumerate.  And  the  tradesmen  and  mechanics  who  must 
have  a  hand  in  finishing  the  elaborate  structure  are  as  follow;  a 
complete  list  would  reach  fifty  in  number,  or  thereabouts  :  — 


Car  Builder, 

Spring-maker, 

China  dealer, 

Varnisher, 

Sawyer, 

Seat-maker, 

Glazier, 

Carpet-maker, 

Carpenter, 

Pattern-maker, 

Gilder, 

Plush-maker, 

Joiner, 

Upholsterer, 

Tinman, 

Silk  manufacturer, 

Cabinet-maker, 

Hardware  man, 

Electro-plater, 

Cotton  “ 

Turner, 

Glue-maker, 

Rubber  manuf., 

Woollen  “ 

Veneerer, 

Lamp-maker, 

Engraver, 

Thread  •* 

Carver, 

Stove-maker, 

Chaser, 

Oil  Cloth  “ 

Machinist, 

Plumber, 

Painter, 

Trimming  “ 

Blacksmith, 

Ventilator  dealer, 

Fresco  painter, 

Oilman, 

Iron  Founder, 

Steam-pipe  fitter, 

Letterer, 

Laborer. 

Brass  Founder, 

Wheel-maker, 

Axle-maker, 

9 

The  great  strength  and  accuracy  of  workmanship,  and  peculiar 
style  of  framing  and  fastening  required,  are  much  alike  in  car-building 
and  ship-building.  The  peculiarly  convenient  location  of  the  Dela¬ 
ware  Car  Works  in  connection  with  this  similarity,  together  with 
the  ease  with  which  good  ship  timber  can  be  delivered  on  the  prem¬ 
ises  from  a  very  great  extent  of  country  both  by  land  and  water 
carriage,  very  naturally  determined  the  establishment  of  a  shipyard 
in  connection  with  the  car  factory.  This  is  fully  supplied  with  all 


626 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


the  requisites  for  its  business,  and  commands  a  fair  share  of  it.  Tlie 
works  offer  unusual  conveniences,  particularly  for  repairing  vessels, 
having  a  well-furnished  marine  railway,  on  which  any  vessel,  not  ex¬ 
ceeding  twelve  feet  draft  of  water,  can  be  hauled  up  high  and  dry, 
repaired  to  any  desired  extent,  and  slid  easily  back  into  the  water. 
A  train  of  powerful  but  simple  wheels  driven  by  a  steam-engine 
operates  the  large  endless  chain  that  hauls  the  cradle  of  this  railway; 
and  the  suit  of  tools,  machinery,  and  materials  of  all  kinds  for  repair 
work  is  very  full  and  efficient.  One  great  advantage  possessed  by 
the  Works  is  the  abundant  steam  power,  which  can  be  used  at 
pleasure  in  any  department.  Thus,  not  only  is  steam  power  eco¬ 
nomically  used  in  operating  the  marine  railway,  and  in  running  the 
other  machinery  of  the  Works,  but  it  is  applied  with  great  efficiency 
to  the  sawing  and  planing  machines  in  the  saw-mill,  and  to  a  pecu¬ 
liar  and  valuable  suit  of  saws  used  in  cutting  out  and  shaping  ship 
timber  of  all  kinds,  one  machine  being  capable  of  dealing  with  tim¬ 
bers  sixty  feet  long. 

This  account  of  the  Delaware  Car  Works  and  their  operations 
would  be  quite  imperfect  without  some  reference  to  their  Narrow- 
Gauge  Freight  and  Passenger  Car  business,  in  which  they  are  the 
pioneer  manufacturers  on  the  Western  Continent.  The  Narrow- 
Gauge  principle,  indeed,  although  in  this  country  it  has  barely  begun 
its  career,  is  already  causing  a  change  in  railroad  business  almost 
great  enough  to  be  called  revolution.  It  was  first  thoroughly  “  proved 
up  ”  on  the  Festiniog  Railway  in  Wales,  under  the  management  of 
Mr.  C.  E.  Spooner,  who  may  be  called  the  father  of  the  narrow- 
gauge  railroad.  It  was  next  introduced  by  Carl  Phil,  a  Norwegian 
engineer,  into  Norway.  It  was  rapidly  adopted  for  a  number  from 
among  the  network  of  railroads  with  which  the  English  are  opening 
up  the  vast  and  rich  interior  of  their  Indian  empire,  in  Russia,  Aus¬ 
tralia,  and  South  America,  and  in  Canada  and  the  United  States. 
Narrow-gauge  roads  are  already  either  in  operation  or  in  rapid  course 
of  construction  in  Colorado,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Utah,  Georgia,  New 
York,  Ohio,  Missouri,  Illinois,  and  Iowa,  while  many  others  are  in 
contemplation.  It  is  an  unaccountable  circumstance,  by  the  way, 
that  in  “  Poor’s  Manual  of  the  Railroads  of  the  United  States  for 
1871-2,”  which  pretends  to  give  a  “  Sketch  of  the  Railroads  of  the 
United  States,”  there  is  not  even  a  hint  that  there  exists  a  narrow- 
gauge  system  or  road.  This  is  much  as  if  Mr.  Poor  should  publish 
a  History  of  Transportation  without  referring  to  steam-engines. 

Rut  the  Narrow-Gauge  system  will  very  quickly  make  its  owu 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


627 


history,  with  or  without  any  recording  angel,  as  the  J ackson  and 
Sharp  Company  have  excellent  reason  to  know  ;  for  they  are  not  only 
the  firsthand  up  to  this  time  the  only  builders  in  the  country  of  nar¬ 
row-gauge  passenger  and  freight  cars,  but  they  are  already  filling,  or 
have  filled,  contracts  for  such  cars  for  eleven  or  more  different  roads. 
One  order,  for  a  train  of  cars  for  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Rail¬ 
way,  has  been  filled,  and  the  cars,  including  two  passenger  cars,  two 
smoking  cars,  and  two  baggage  and  mail  cars,  the  first  ever  con¬ 
structed  in  America,  were  delivered  at  Denver  August  2,  1871,  in 
eighteen  days  from  Wilmington,  attracting  great  attention  and 
praise  from  railroad  men  and  others  wherever  they  passed.  These 
passenger  cars  are  35  feet  long,  7  wide,  and  10£  high.  They  weigh 
15,000  pounds  each,  and  carry  36  passengers,  being  416  pounds  of 
ear  for  each  passenger,  while  the  ordinary  car,  carrying  54  passengers, 
weighs  39,000  pounds,  or  722  pounds  per  head.  The  seats  are 
double  on  one  side  and  single  on  the  other,  with  one  alternation 
in  the  centre,  so  as  to  maintain  a  balance  of  weight  when  full. 
Except  in  these  points  of  size  and  arrangement,  they  corre¬ 
spond  to  other  elegantly  finished  passenger  cars.  The  sills  of 
these  cars  are  only  27  inches  from  the  ground,  the  usual  height 
being  45  inches ;  a  difference  which  lowers  the  centre  of  gravity 
so  much  that  the  narrow-gauge  cars  are  less  liable  to  be  overset 
than  the  broad  ones.  The  “  angle  of  stability,”  as  it  is  called,  for 
the  cars,  empty  and  loaded,  is  50£  degrees  and  47 J-  degrees  respec¬ 
tively  ;  figures  wThich  demonstrate  to  the  railroad  lhechanic  a  remark¬ 
ably  broad  base  for  the  car  while  in  motion. 

These  cars  have  been  drawn  at  a  speed  of  forty  miles  per  hour 
toy  locomotives  (built  at  the  celebrated  “  Baldwin  Works”  of  Phila¬ 
delphia),  and  have  encountered  gales  whose  severity  is  too  well 
known  to  travellers  in  the  Colorado  Uplands;  in  fact  no  effort 
has  been  spared  to  put  them  to  the  severest  test.  Their  success 
under  such  circumstances  fully  insures  their  future  performance,  and 
demonstrates  that  the  gloomy  doubts  entertained  by  many  minds, 
respecting  narrow-gauge  rolling  stock,  were  utterly  without  foun¬ 
dation,  and  worthy  only  of  a  past  age. 

It  is  easy  to  show  how  immense  a  saving  can  be  made  by  the  use 
of  the  narrow-gauge.  This  system,  to  begin  with,  saves  in  respect 
to  all  the  heavier  work  of  grading,  embanking,  tunnelling,  &c.,  an 
important  proportion  of  land  damages ;  half  the  expense  of  rails 
(which  weigh  30  pounds  per  yard  instead  of  60)  ;  besides  that  shorter 
curves  can  be  used,  w  hich  makes  the  engineering  part  of  railroad 


628 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


work  both  easier  and  cheaper ;  so  that  roads  built  on  this  principle 
cost  about  five  eighths  the  expense  of  broad-gauge  roads.  About  one 
third  of  the  cost  of  fares  and  freights  is  saved,  from  the  small  cost 
of  hauling.  This  results,  in  great  measure,  from  the  gain  in  strength 
on  smaller  cars,  in  consequence  of  which,  on  the  narrow-gauge 
road,  one  ton  of  freight  car  will  carry  one  ton  of  freight,  while  on 
the  broad  gauge  for  every  ton  of  freight  there  is  hauled  2T6^  tons 
of  car.  The  saving  oti  passenger  car,  dead  weight,  being  about  300 
pounds  per  passenger,  or  over  30,000  pounds  for  each  hundred 
passengers,  has  been  mentioned.  An  equal  degree  of  speed  is  at¬ 
tainable,  and  greater  safety  ;  and  from  the  shortness  of  the  axles  the 
wheels  slip  less  on  the  outer  sides  of  curves.  This  diminishes  the 
consequent  twisting  force  applied  to  the  axles,  which  is  known  as 
the  “  torsion  strain,”  which,  as  is  well  known,  destroys  the  fibre  of 
the  iron,  makes  all  car-axles  useless  after  a  time,  and  causes  numer¬ 
ous  railway  accidents.  Lastly,  this  cheapness  of  construction  and 
operation  renders  railroads  attainable  in  many  districts  which  are 
not  rich  enough  to  afford  the  cost  of  a  broad-gauge  road. 

General  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  in  a  recent  letter  on  the  subject  of  nar¬ 
row-gauge  railroads,  goes  into  some  interesting  calculations,  which 
show  that  if  the  railroads  of  the  United  States,  down  to  the  end  of 
1867,  had  been  built  on  the  narrow  gauge,  the  saving  in  first  cost 
would  have  been  $  480,000,000  ;  the  annual  interest  of  which  is,  at  six 
per  cent,  $28,800,000;  that  the  annual  saving  on  haulage  would  be 
$  100,800,000,  —  in  all  an  annual  saving  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  of  $  129,600,000.  He  shows,  further,  that  a  much  greater  sav¬ 
ing  is  in  question  for  the  future  ;  for,  he  reasons,  provided  the  whole 
country  is  to  be  as  well  furnished  with  railroads  as  the  State  of 
Ohio,  there  will  be  a  total  length  of  165,800  miles  of  railroads;  and 
the  annual  saving  on  this  length  of  roads  on  the  narrow-gauge  sys¬ 
tem  would  be  $547,540,515;  which  would  pay  off  our  present 
national  debt  in  about  five  years.  Moreover,  he  shows  that  rail¬ 
roads,  on  the  average,  add  ten  dollars  an  acre  to  the  value  of  lands 
within  ten  miles  of  them;  the  narrow-gauge  roads  can  be  afforded 
in  districts  where  broad-gauge  roads  could  not,  to  an  extent  which 
it  is  moderate  to  call  30,000  miles ;  which  would  add  to  the  value 
of  the  land  bordering  these  roads  $  3,800,000. 

Even  if  we  subtract  a  large  margin  from  these  figures  to  allow 
for  speculative  estimates,  the  remainder  demonstrates  a  saving  in 
money  so  monstrous  that  it  is  actually  scarcely  within  our  compre¬ 
hension. 


RAILROAD  CARS. 


629 


Before  dismissing  this  interesting  subject,  it  is  worth  while  to 
direct  attention  to  one  point,  —  a  legal  uniformity  of  gauge.  Some 
thirty  or  forty  different  gauges  have  been  used  tor  railroads,  from 
seven  feet  down.  A  variety  of  narrow  gauges  has  already  begun 
to  be  introduced  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  will  naturally  be 
used  in  our  own  country  unless  an  effort  is  made  to  prevent  it.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  show  what  immense  advantages  would  arise  from 
an  absolute  uniformity  in  the  gauge  of  all  railroad  lines,  in  respect 
of  ease  and  cheapness  of  travel  and  transportation.  Engineering 
authorities  of  the  first  rank  have  settled  that  a  three-foot  gauge  is 
the  best  for  practical  purposes.  The  State  of  Massachusetts  has 
actually  by  law  provided  that  this  shall  be  the  width  of  all  narrow- 
gauge  roads  within  her  borders.  It  would  be  a  great  gain  to  the 
public  if  all  other  States  who  shall  charter  narrow-gauge  railroads 
would  do  so  upon  this  express  condition. 


HAIR  CLOTn. 

EARLY  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — TAURINE  CLOTH. — HOR8B 
HAIR  CLOTH.  —  SOURCES  OF  SUPPLY.  —  SIBERIAN  AND  SOUTH  AMERICAN 
HAIR.  — PROCESSES  OF  MANUFACTURE.  -  CLEANSING,  ASSORTING,  AND  DYE¬ 

ING. —  INGENIOUS  POWER  LOOMS. —  ISAAC  L1NDSLEY. —  OLD  PROCESSES.  — 
INSPECTION,  TRIMMING,  AND  PACKING. —  WIDTHS,  DESCRIPTIONS,  AND  PRICES. 
—  AMOUNT  OF  MANUFACTURE. 


Tiie  beginning  of  the  hair  cloth  manufacture  in  the  United 
States  was  at  Rahway,  New  Jersey,  in  1813,  by  two  New  York 
patentees,  for  a  process  of  making  what  was  called  Taurine  cloth 
and  carpets,  —  coarse  fabrics  from  the  hair  of  cattle,  with  a  mix¬ 
ture  of  wool,  —  and  the  business  was  profitably  pursued  for  sev¬ 
eral  years.  In  1835  there  were  two  horse  haircloth  manufactories 
in  the  country  ;  but  until  within  a  few  years  past  nearly  all  the 
hair  cloth  used  in  the  United  States  was  imported,  and  was  em¬ 
ployed  almost  wholly  in  covering  furniture. 

The  sources  of  supply  for  horse  hair  are  Siberia,  which  furnishes 
two  thirds  of  the  amount,  South  America,  which  gives  one  fourth, 
and  the  rest  is  collected  in  other  countries.  The  hair  is  cut  al¬ 
most  wholly  from  the  tails  of  horses,  and  what  is  collected  in  Tar¬ 
tary,  Siberia,  and  the  Russian  possessions  is  brought  for  sale  to 
Tobolsk,  Siberia,  where  there  is  an  annual  fair,  in  which  horse  hair 
is  an  important  article  of  merchandise. 

The  hair  is  assorted  in  lengths  of  from  eighteen  inches  to  forty 
inches,  and  is  packed  in  bundles  two  and  one  half  inches  in  diame¬ 
ter,  weighing  about  four  pounds  each,  and  costing,  according  to 
quality,  from  sixty-five  cents  to  three  dollars  and  seventy-five  cents 
a  pound,  “  quality  ”  relating  almost  exclusively  to  length,  and  the 
longest  hairs  bringing  the  largest  prices.  The  long  white  hairs 
are  used  for  fiddle-bows,  though  the  dark  hairs  can  be  bleached, 
and  subsequently  dyed  of  any  color  ;  the  long  black  and  gray 
(6  SC) 


HAIR  CLOTH. 


631 


hairs  arc  dyed  black,  and  are  employed  in  cloth-making ;  the 
medium  lengths  are  woven  into  small  sieves,  strainers,  filtering- 
bags,  gloves,  mittens,  etc.  ;  the  short  hairs  are  curled  for  stuffing 
for  furniture  seats,  arms,  and  backs,  and  for  mattresses  ;  and  the 
shortest  are  made  into  brushes. 

Processes  of  Manufacture. 

The  hair  comes  to  the  manufactory  in  bags,  containing  from  one 
hundred  to  three  hundred  pounds,  and  of  all  shades  —  black, 
brown,  gray,  and  white  —  the  black  predominating.  If  it  arrives 
in  a  rough  state,  it  is  first  cleansed  and  assorted.  After  assort¬ 
ment,  the  hair  for  cloth,  even  the  black,  is  put  into  steam-heated 
coloring  matter  in  vats,  where  it  remains  from  one  to  two  hours, 
and  receives  a  perfectly  black  color,  which  will  not  fade.  Pre¬ 
vious  to  dyeing,  all  the  animal  matter  is  removed  by  allowing  the 
hair  to  lie  twelve  hours,  or  all  night,  in  a  solution  of  soft  soap. 
After  dyeing  and  drying,  the  hair  is  hackled  and  assorted  by  ma¬ 
chinery  into  nearly  uniform  lengths,  is  put  up  in  bundles  of  about 
one  fourth  of  a  pound  each,  and  is  “squared,”  that  is,  the  ends 
are  cut  off  to  give  uniform  length  for  weaving. 

In  one  manufactory  in  this  country  there  are  three  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  power  looms,  to  the  use  of  which  this  company 
has  the  exclusive  right.  The  inventions  for  feeding  the  hair  and 
regulating  the  machinery  are  exceedingly  ingenious,  and  one  girl 
can  attend  to  ten  looms.  The  warp  is  black  cotton  thread,  and 
the  general  process  is  like  that  of  weaving  ordinary  cloth,  only, 
instead  of  placing  the  hair,  as  in  the  woof  of  wool  and  cotton 
fabrics,  on  bobbins,  and  thrusting  it  through  the  warp  on  a  shuttle, 
it  is  placed  on  an  arm  of  the  weaving-beam,  with  its  squared  ends 
so  presented  that  the  “  needle  device,”  or  “pick-up,”  lifts  a  hair 
to  the  “  nipper-stick,”  which  catches  it,  and  shoots  through  the 
warp  at  the  rate  of  fifty  times  a  minute.  If  in  any  instance  the 
needle  device  fails,  the  whole  process  of  weaving  is  instantly 
stopped,  as  the  machinery  works,  or  ceases  to  work,  auto¬ 
matically. 

This  ingenious  power  loom  costs  about  two  hundred  dollars,  and 
is  the  invention  of  Mr.  Isaac  Lindsley,  of  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  who 
has  invented  other  valuable  machinery.  The  process  of  picking 
up  the  hair  by  machinery  is  pronounced  by  the  Encyclopedia  Bri- 
tannica  to  be  an  “  impossibility,”  and  that  long  after  Mr.  Lindsley’s 
invention  was  in  successful  operation.  Before  the  invention  of 


632 


HAIR  CLOTII. 


the  power  loom  for  this  kind  of  weaving,  hand  looms,  each  requiring  the 
attendance  of  two  girls,  were  used,  and  the  hairs  were  furnished  one  at 
a  time  to  the  weaver  by  a  girl,  or  child,  who  threw  the  hair  over  the 
hook  of  the  shuttle  for  the  weaver  to  draw  through.  Now  one  girl  attends 

ten  looms. 

After  weaving,  the  cloth  is  thoroughly  inspected,  points  or  broken 
hairs  are  cut  off,  and  other  slight  defects  are  remedied.  It  is  then  trim¬ 
med  by  machinery,  which  cuts  off  all  excrescences,  and  smooths  it.  This 
was  formerly  done  by  hand,  it  costing  a  dollar  to  trim  a  piece,  while  by 
machinery  the  cost  is  only  eight  cents  a  piece,  and  thirty  pieces  can  be 
trimmed  in  ten  hours.  The  fabric  is  finally  hot  calendered,  to  give  it  a 
fine  lustre  ;  it  is  subjected  to  tremendous  pressure  by  hydraulic  power,  to 
make  the  cloth  keep  its  finish,  and  to  prevent  it  from  rising  up  when 
it  is  dampened,  and  is  then  packed  for  market.  The  width  regulates  the 
price,  and  the  widest  and  highest  priced  is  about  forty  inches. 

The  probable  amount  manufactured  annually  in  the  United  States  is 
about  six  hundred  thousand  yards,  varying  in  price,  at  wholesale,  from 
fifty  cents  to  two  dollars  and  eighty-five  cents  per  yard,  or  say  an  aver¬ 
age  of  one  dollar  per  yard.  The  different  descriptions  are  “  hair-seating  ” 
for  upholstering  chairs  and  sofas,  “  padding  ”  for  tailors,  and  “  skirtings,” 
or  “crinoline.” 


FURS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE. 


THE  TERM  “  FUR.”  —  THE  EARLY  USE  OF  SKINS  FOR  CLOTHING.  — THE  TRADE 

BEFORE  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA. - THE  FRENCH  IN  CANADA.  — THE 

‘‘  COUREURS  DES  BOIS.”  —  THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY.  —  THE  NORTH-WEST 

COMPANY.  -  OTHER  COMPANIES.  —  J.  J.  ASTOR  AND  THE  AMERICAN  FUR 

COMPANY.  — THE  VALUE  OF  TIIE  TRADE  IN  FURS.  —  THE  VAlflETY  OF  ANI¬ 
MALS  WHOSE  SKINS  ARE  USED. 

The  term  "fur”  is  generally  applied  to  the  skins  which  are 
dressed  with  the  fur  on,  of  certain  animals  found  on  the  land  or 
water  of  cold  countries.  Before  these  skins  are  prepared  for  use, 
they  are  known  in  trade  as  "peltry.”  As  these  skins,  when  softened 
by  proper  dressing,  possess  the  qualities  of  warmth,  durability, 
and  beauty,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  be  employed  as  cloth¬ 
ing,  for  comfort  and  protection  in  cold  climates.  In  fact  we  find  that 
from  the  earliest  time  garments  made  of  the  skins  of  animals  have 
been  used  for  clothing  —  in  warm  countries,  the  hairy  skins,  and 
in  cold  countries,  the  fine  and  soft  furs.  In  the  religious  tradi¬ 
tions  of  most  nations,  the  first  clothing  used  is  thus  represented  to 
have  been  “  coats  of  skins.”  In  reference  to  this  fact,  it  has  been 
quaintly  observed,  "  Clothes  came  in  with  sin  ;  little  reason  have 
we,  therefore,  to  be  proud  of  our  clothes,  which  are  but  the  badges 
of  our  poverty  and  infamy.”  Yet  these  traditions  of  the  ad¬ 
vent  of  sin,  like  that  of  the  custom  of  wearing  clothes,  are 
simply  the  traditions  of  an  ignorant  time,  made  before  the 
knowledge  in  the  world  was  sufficient  to  arrive  at  any  gener¬ 
alization  competent  to.  account  for  the  position  of  mankind  in 
the  hierarchy  of  nature. 

The  heroes  of  classic  story  are  represented  as  wearing  the  skins 
of  animals  —  JEneas  in  a  lion’s  skin,  and  Alcestes  in  that  of  a  rough 
Libyan  bear.  Virgil  may  have  drawn  on  his  imagination  for  his 
facts,  since  Pliny  asserts  that  no  bears  are  to  be  found  in  Africa, 
because  the  climate  is  too  hot  for  them.  Not  only  the  Scythians  and 

(G33) 


634 


FUIlS  AND  TIIE  FUR  TRADE. 

other  rude  people  known  to  the  Romans  as  barbarians,  were  clothed 
in  skins,  but  choice  furs  were  the  ornament  and  luxury  of  senators 
and  kings.  As  early  as  the  eleyenth  century  furs  became  fashion¬ 
able  throughout  Europe,  and  dresses  of  costly  furs  were  seen  in 
the  courts  of  royalty.  Louis  IX.  required  for  the  lining  of  one 
of  his  garments  seven  hundred  and  forty-six  ermines.  In  the  four¬ 
teenth  century,  Edward  111.  prohibited  the  use  of  furs  to  all  per¬ 
sons  whose  income  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  pounds  a  year. 

At  a  very  early  period,  furs  in  northern  countries  constituted 
the  wealth  of  the  people,  and  valuable  skins  were  used  as  currency 
in  payment  of  debts,  and  in  commercial  exchanges  with  other 
countries.  When  the  Russians  took  possession  of  Siberia,  they 
received  tribute  in  furs.  A  similar  condition  of  things  existed  in 
some  of  our  Western  states,  if  we  accept  as  history  the  old  song :  — 

“  General  Jaekson  !  Who  is  he  ? 

They  say  he  lives  in  Tennessee; 

But  Tennessee  is  no  great  things,  — 

She  pays  her  debts  in  raccoon  skins.” 

The  trade  in  furs  was  carried  on  extensively  in  Western  Europe 
by  the  Hansards,  —  merchants  belonging  to  the  Hanseatic  League, 
—  who  occupied  the  towns  on  the  southern  shores  of  the  Baltic 
Sea.  Later,  an  English  company  was  formed,  by  which  a  direct 
trade  was  established  between  England  and  Russia,  the  company 
being  protected  and  encouraged  by  the  Russian  emperor.  This 
company  had  posts  on  the  White  Sea,  and  sent  trading  parties 
into  distant  regions,  both  for  buying  and  selling  peltry.  The 
choicest  furs  in  these  times  were  appropriated  by  the  princes  and 
nobles  of  Russia,  Turkey,  and  Persia.  They  often  constituted  the 
gifts  of  royalty  to  kings  and  others  favored  or  honored  by  them. 
The  Emperor  of  Russia  sent  presents  of  costly  furs  to  Queen  Mary 
and  to  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  but  the  Virgin  Queen  soon  after  inter¬ 
dicted  the  wearing  of  any  but  native  furs,  which  so  interfered  with 
the  trade  that  it  declined  and  was  abandoned. 

The  French,  who  at  an  early  period  established  themselves  in 
the  northern  parts  of  North  America,  very  soon  discovered  the 
value  of  the  fur-producing  animals  found  in  the  rivers  and  forests 
of  those  extensive  regions.  They  found  a  ready  market,  and  an 
increasing  demand  for  all  the  furs  they  could  procure.  They  em¬ 
ployed  the  Indians,  who  knew  the  habits  of  these  animals,  as 
hunters  and  trappers  generally,  paying  for  the  skins  taken  by  them 


FURS  AND  THE  FUR  TRA^)E. 


635 


with  some  insignificant  articles,  always  including  the  demoralizing 
fire-water,  of  which  the  aborigines  seemed  to  be  unnaturally  fond. 
The  French  readily  apprehended  the  character  and  wants  of  the 
natives,  and  engaged  themselves  in  exploring  the  country,  joining 
the  Indians  in  the  hunting  and  trapping  of  animals.  The  versatility 
of  the  French  character  fitted  them  to  visit  with  comparative  safe¬ 
ty  the  savage  tribes,  to  gain  their  confidence,  and  guide  and  direct 
them,  so  as  to  secure  for  themselves .  the  greatest  pecuniary  bene¬ 
fit.  This  course  was,  in  some  respects,  necessary,  as  valuable 
furs  soon  began  to  be  scarce  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
trading  posts  and  settlements.  The  Indians,  therefore,  accom¬ 
panied  by  some  of  the  traders  or  their  dependants,  were  stimulated 
to  take  a  wider  range  in  their  hunting  expeditions.  In  this  way, 
the  best  trapping  grounds  were  discovered,  and  distant  tribes  of 
Indians  were  induced  to  bring  their  furs  to  the  white  settlements. 
At  the  close  of  each  hunting  season  the  Indians  descended  the 
Ottawa  in  their  canoes  laden  with  peltry,  the  product  of  the  chase, 
and  formed  a  kind  of  encampment  outside  the  city  of  Montreal, 
where  they  exchanged  their  furs  for  knives,  hatchets,  kettles, 
blankets,  brilliant  colored  cloth,  and  other  articles  suited  to  their 
wants,  including  arms  and  ammunition.  No  money  was  employed 
in  their  transactions ;  but  the  French  traders  expected  to  clear  at 
least  two  hundred  per  cent,  on  the  goods  which  the  Indians  re¬ 
ceived.  After  they  had  disposed  of  their  furs,  the  Indians  broke 
up  their  encampment,  launched  their  canoes,  and  returned  up  the 
Ottawa  to  the  lakes  in  search  of  more  game. 

A  peculiarity  of  the  fur  trade  about  this  time  consisted  in  the 
appearance  of  certain  French  settlers,  called  “  wood-rangers  ” 
( Goureurs  des  Bois).  They  left  Montreal  at  the  proper  season  in 
canoes  laden  with  such  articles  of  merchandise  as  were  in  demand 
among  the  Indians,  and  proceeded  up  the  river  to  the  hunting- 
grounds.  They  remained  there  an  indefinite  time,  often  more  than 
a  year,  trading  with  the  native  trappers  till  their  goods  were  all 
exchanged,  when  they  returned,  their  canoes  loaded  with  beaver 
skins  and  other  valuable  peltries.  Some  of  these  ivood-r  angers, 
while  engaged  in  these  protracted  expeditions,  conformed  to  the 
modes  of  life  of  the  tribe  with  whom  they  were  associated,  adopt¬ 
ing  their  dress,  and  not  unfrequently  taking  to  themselves  Indian 
wives.  The  wood-rangers  who  carried  on  this  trade  were  without 
capital,  their  investments  of  European  goods  being  furnished  by 
the  merchants  of  Montreal.  The  return  cargo  was  generally  more 


63G 


FlfRS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE. 


valuable  than  the  investments,  in  the  proportion  of  six  to  one.  If 
the  investment  amounted  to  one  thousand  dollars,  and  the  furs  re¬ 
turned  sold  for  six  thousand,  the  merchant  first  repaid  himself  the 
original  outlay,  and  secured  an  equal  amount  for  interest  and  com¬ 
missions,  after  which  the  remaining  four  thousand  •were  equally 
divided  between  himself  and  the  Coureur  des  Bois. 

To  carry  on  and  protect  the  fur  trade,  it  became  necessary  to 
establish  forts  at  various  places  in  the  Indian  territory,  at  the  con¬ 
fluence  of  rivers,  and  on  the  lakes.  The  most  important  of  these 
was  established  at  Mackinaw,  which  became  the  place  of  deposit 
for  goods  and  furs,  the  place  of  rendezvous  for  the  wood-rangers, 
and  soon  took  the  place,  in  some  respects,  of  Montreal  itself. 
From  this  establishment  new  expeditions  were  fitted  out  for  the 
Mississippi,  Lake  Superior,  and  the  North-west ;  and  from  that 
point,  also,  furs  were  embarked  for  Montreal. 

The  French  trappers  and  traders  very  soon  found  troublesome 
competitors  in  English  traders  established  in  New  York.  The  im¬ 
portance  of  this  trade  attracted  the  attention  also  of  rich  and  in¬ 
fluential  persons  connected  with  the  government  of  Great  Britain, 
so  that  a  still  more  formidable  competition  appeared  in  an  organi¬ 
zation  called  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  A  charter  of  incorpora¬ 
tion  was  procured  from  Charles  II.  in  1670,  granting  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  trading  with  the  Indians  in  the  vast  and  not  well 
defined  region  lying  north  and  west  of  the  great  inlet,  from  which 
the  company  took  its  name.  The  territory  they  claimed  extended 
from  Hudson’s  Bay  west  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  north  to  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  excepting  only  those  parts  occupied  by  French  and 
Russians.  The  association  founded  several  establishments,  and 
carried  on  their  operations  with  great  vigor  and  success,  often  di¬ 
viding  among  the  stockholders  dividends  of  fifty  per  cent.  The 
affairs  of  the  company  were  under  the  direction  of  a  governor, 
deputy-governor,  and  a  committee  of  management  chosen  from  the 
stockholders  resident  in  London.  They  established  their  forts  and 
trading  posts  far  into  the  interior  of  British  America,  and  asserted 
an  absolute  power  in  the  country,  and  over  the  Indians  employed 
by  them  in  hunting  and  trapping,  although  the  charter  of  this  com¬ 
pany  was  not  confirmed  by  act  of  Parliament. 

In  the  year  1762  the  French,  by  the  fortunes  of  war,  lost  posses¬ 
sion  of  Canada,  and  the  fur  trade  came  under  the  control  of  British 
subjects.  Without  the  aid,  however,  of  the  French  wood-rangers, 
who  did  not  readily  adapt  themselves  to  their  British  employers, 


FURS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE. 


/ 


637 


the  trade  was  greatly  diminished.  It  was  not  until  the  year  1766 
that  the  trade  regained  its  former  channels  ;  but  it  was  then  pur¬ 
sued  with  much  avidity  and  emulation  by  Canadian  merchants,  and 
soon  exceeded  its  former  bounds.  By  reason  of  rivalship  and 
jealousies  the  trade  was  injured ;  the  old  French  rule  which  had 
forbidden  the  sale  of  “  fire-water  ”  to  the  Indians  was  disregarded, 
in  consequence  of  which  scenes  of  drunkenness,  brawls,  and  bru¬ 
tality  were  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  Indian  villages  and  at 
the  trading  posts. 

These  sordid  and  ruinous  contentions  among  individual  mer¬ 
chants  and  traders  were  in  part  prevented  by  the  principal  mer¬ 
chants  of  Montreal,  who  formed  a  copartnership,  in  the  year  1783, 
under  the  name  of  the  North-west  Company.  This  company  was 
composed  of  twenty-three  shareholders,  comprising  some  of  the 
most  wealthy  and  influential  British  settlers  in  Canada,  and  em¬ 
ployed  about  two  thousand  persons  as  clerks,  guides,  interpreters, 
and  boatmen,  who  were  distributed  over  all  parts  of  the  country. 
This  famous  North-west  Company  held  for  a  time  a  lordly  sway 
over  the  vast  lakes,  and  forests,  and  rivers  of  the  Canadas.  Such 
of  the  shareholders  as  took  an  active  part  were  called  agents, 
some  of  whom  resided  at  the  different  posts  established  by  the 
company  in  the  Indian  territory,  and  others  at  Quebec  and  Mont¬ 
real,  where  each  attended  to  the  business  of  the  association.  The 
young  men  who  were  employed  as  clerks  were,  for  the  most  part, 
the  younger  members  of  respectable  families  in  Scotland,  who 
were  willing  to  brave  the  hardships,  and  privations,  and  dangers 
incident  to  a  residence  for  many  years  in  these  inhospitable  re¬ 
gions.  The  inducements  offered  them  were  the  advantages  of 
succeeding  to  a  share  in  the  profits  of  the  company,  and  if  they 
had  acquired  the  experience  necessary  for  the  management  of  the 
business,  of  becoming  partners,  as  others  died,  or  retired  from  the 
association.  • 

The  active  partners  of  the  company  met  once  a  year  at  Fort 
William,  one  of  their  stations  near  the  Grand  Portage,  on  Lake 
Superior,  to  discuss  the  affairs  of  the  association,  and  agree  upon 
plans  for  the  future.  The  partners  from  Montreal  went  forth  to 
these  annual  councils  in  great  state.  They  were  wrapped  in  rich 
furs,  their  huge  canoes  loaded  with  every  convenience  and  luxury. 
They  took  with  them  cooks  and  bakers,  delicacies  of  every  kind, 
and  abundance  of  choice  wines  for  the  banquets  which  were  given 
at  the  great  convocation.  At  the  great  feast,  the  tables  groaned 


v 


G3S 


FURS  AiS'I)  THE  FUR  TRADE. 


under  the  weight  of  game  of  all  kinds  :  venison  from  the  forest, 
fish  from  the  lake,  with  hunters’  delicacies,  such  as  buffaloes’ 
tongues  and  beavers’  tails.  There  was  an  abundance  of  wine,  for 
it  was  in  the  days  of  hard  drinking,  loyal  toasts,  and  bacchanalian 
songs.  While  the  chiefs  revelled  in  the  banqueting  chamber, 
there  were  noisy  responses  without  from  the  mixed  multitude  of 
retainers,  boatmen,  half-breeds,  and  Indian  trappers,  who  had  their 
characteristic  feasts,  and  revels,  and  songs,  and  dances. 

It  was  perhaps  natural  that  much  rivalry  and  hostility  should 
arise  between  the  agents  of  the  Hudson’s  Bay  and  North-west 
Companies.  On  this  account  the  operations  of  both  parties  were 
impeded,  and  their  prosperity  interrupted.  This  opposition  con¬ 
tinued  till  the  year  1821,  when  a  union  of  the  two  companies  was 
formed,  and  the  trade  since  has  been  peacefully  and  successfully 
prosecuted  under  the  name  of  the  Hudson’s  Bay  Company. 

The  early  settlement  of  some  of  the  western  territories  of  the 
United  States  is  due  in  part  to  the  commercial  interest  awakened 
by  the  fur  trade.  As  early  as  the  year  H63  a  French  company 
was  formed  at  New  Orleans,  which,  under  the  guidance  of  M.  La¬ 
clede,  the  principal  director,  established  a  trading  centre  at  a  place 
now  occupied  by  the  city  of  St.  Louis.  The  brothers  Chouteau 
were  connected  with  this  party,  and  remaining  in  the  country, 
their  name  has  been  associated  with  the  history  of  the  fur  trade 
and  with  that  part  of  the  country,  then  a  wilderness,  but  now  one 
of  the  most  important  portions  of  the  United  States.  The  enter¬ 
prise  of  this  company  led  them  to  explore  the  numerous  tributa¬ 
ries  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri ;  and  passing  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  they  established  themselves  on  Lewis  and  Columbia 
Rivers.  Several  other  companies  were  organized  at  different  pe¬ 
riods,  in  which  appear  the  names  of  Major  A.  Ilenry,  General  W. 
II.  Ashley,  B.  Pratte,  J.  J.  Astor,  Pierre  Chouteau,  and  Cabann6, 
making  St.  Louis  their  centre  of  business.  The  average  annual 
value  of  furs  brought  to  St.  Louis  during  a  period  of  more  than 
sixty  years  previous  to  1845,  was  estimated  at  about  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

The  name  of  John  Jacob  Astor  is  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous 
of  the  eastern  merchants  who  have  been  engaged  in  the  fur  trade. 
Born  in  the  village  of  Waldorf,  near  Heidelberg,  on  the  Rhine, 
Astor,  while  a  very  young  man,  left  his  home  for  the  busy  scenes 
of  London.  At  the  close  of  the  American  revolution  he  was  still 
in  that  great  city,  but  was  induced  by  an  elder  brother  to  seek  his 


FURS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE. 


639 


fortunes  in  the  United  States.  Before  reaching  New  York  he  be¬ 
came  acquainted  with  a  countryman  of  his,  a  furrier  by  trade, 
from  whom  he  learned  the  quality  and  value  of  different  furs,  and 
the  mode  of  carrying  on  the  traffic.  In  the  year  1184  he  made 
investments  in  furs,  with  which  he  sailed  to  London,  and  disposing 
of  them  to  advantage,  he  returned  the  same  year,  and  de¬ 
termined  to  settle  in  the  United  States.  He  entered  at  once  into 
this  branch  of  commerce,  making  annual  visits  to  Montreal,  where 
he  purchased  furs,  and  shipped  them  from  Canada  to  London.  As 
soon  as  the  restrictions  imposed  on  the  trade  with  the  colonies  of 
Great  Britain  were  removed,  he  opened  a  direct  trade  between 
Canada  and  the  United  States.  From  New  York  he  shipped  furs 
to  different  parts  of  Europe  and  to  China.  After  years  of  profit¬ 
able  trade  he  endeavored  to  bring  the  fur  trade  within  the  limits- 
of  the  United  States  into  the  hands  of  American  citizens.  To 
accomplish  this,  he  obtained,  in  the  year  1809,  a  charter  from  the 
Legislature  of  New  York  incorporating  the  “  American  Fur  Com¬ 
pany,”  with  a  capital  of  one  million  of  dollars,  with  the  privilege- 
of  increasing  it  to  two  millions.  He  furnished  the  capital,  and 
constituted,  in  fact,  the  company.  He  succeeded  in  forming  other 
companies ;  but  his  plans  were  seriously  interrupted  by  the  war 
with  Great  Britain  in  1812.  After  the  war  the  operations  of  Mr.. 
Astor  were  limited  to  the  territory  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mourn- 
tains. 

Before  the  year  1848  the  fur  trade  constituted  the  principal  busi¬ 
ness  interest  of  the  territory  of  Minnesota.  Later,  St.  Paul  be¬ 
came  a  great  rendezvous  for  traders  and  trappers,  and  the  place 
from  which  furs  are  shipped  to  New  York.  The  value  of  furs  sent 
from  St.  Paul  in  the  year  1857  was  $182,491.  The  number  of 
skins  of  all  kinds  sent  to  England  from  1855  to  1858,  from  the 
Hudson’s  Bay  Company  and  from  the  United  States,  amounted  to 
2,272,755.  Among  these  were  the  skins  of  1,168,250  muskrats, 
440,196  raccoon  skins,  11,805  skunk  skins. 

The  choicest  fur  is  that  of  the  ermine,  which  is  found  almost 
exclusively  in  the  cold  regions  of  Russia,  Sweden,  and  Norway., 
The  stoat  is  said  to  be  identical  with  the  ermine,  but  has  greatly 
inferior  fur,  and  is  found  in  North  America.  The  fur  of  the  ermine- 
is  of  a  pure  whiteness  throughout,  with  the  exception  of  the  tip> 
of  the  tail,  which  is  black.  The  fur  of  the  ermine  changes  from 
a  dingy  brown  to  a  pure  white  in  the  winter  ;  the  best  fur  is  yield¬ 
ed  by  the  oldest  animals ;  their  bodies  are  from  ten  to  twelve 

37 


640 


FURS  AND  THE  FUR  TRADE. 


inches  long.  They  are  taken  in  snares  and  traps,  and  are  some¬ 
times  shot,  while  running,  with  blunt  arrows.  The  sable  is  a  na¬ 
tive  of  Northern  Europe  and  Siberia;  those  of  the  darkest  color 
are  most  esteemed ;  they  are  rated  at  from  forty-five  dollars  to 
fifty  dollars  each ;  a  cape  of  full  size  requires  about  sixteen  skins. 
The  skin  of  the  American  sable,  or  marten,  is  less  valuable,  though 
many  among  them  are  rich  and  of  a  beautiful  dark-brown  color. 
The  fur  of  the  beaver  had  once  a  high  value,  but  hats  being 
now  made  of  cheaper  materials,  the  demand  for  beaver  skins  has 
declined.  The  sea  otter  is  found  in  the  North  Pacific  Ocean,  on 
the  coasts  of  Asia  and  America.  Its  fur  is  highly  prized  in  Rus¬ 
sia  and  in  China  ;  that  of  the  young  animal  is  of  a  beautiful  brown 
color,  but  when  older  it  becomes  jet  black.  Many  thousands  of 
skins  of  the  skunk  are  annually  exported  from  this  country  ;  they 
are  worth  from  fifty  to  seventy  cents  each.  The  common  cat  is 
bred  in  Holland  for  its  fur  ;  many  of  the  skins  are  used  in  the  Uni¬ 
ted  States,  and  are  worth  from  ten  to  fifty  cents  each.  Bears  of 
various  kinds  and  colors,  many  varieties  of  foxes,  beavers,  rac¬ 
coons,  badgers,  minks,  lynxes,  muskrats,  rabbits,  and  squirrels  are 
found  in  North  America.  The  hides  of  bisons  or  buffaloes,  and 
various  kinds  of  deer,  form  part  of  the  fur  trade  of  North  Amer¬ 
ica  ;  and  sometimes  the  skin  of  the  white  arctic  fox  and  of  the 
polar  bear  are  found  in  the  packs  brought  to  the  traders  by  the 
most  northern  tribes  of  Indians. 


FIRE-WORKS. 


THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  FIRE-WORKS  IN  EUROPE.  —  THE  EARLIER  KNOWLEDGE 
OF  THE  CHINESB.  —  THEIR  LOVE  OF  FIRE-WORKS.  —  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  THEIR 
DISPLAYS.  —  FIRE-WORKS  IN  EUROPE.  —  THE  MATERIALS  USED  IN  THEIR 
PREPARATION.  —  THEIR  USE  FOR  OTHER  PURPOSES  THAN  SIMPLY  DISPLAY. 
—  DR.  JOHNSON  UPON  THIS  MATTER.  —  THE  CONTRIBUTION  OF  CHINA  TO 
CHRISTIANITY. 

The  knowledge  of  fire-works  in  Europe  cannot  be  historically 
traced  to  a  great  antiquity.  They  are  an  invention  of  compara¬ 
tively  modern  times,  and  may  be  said  to  have  been  unknown  in 
Europe  until  the  discovery  and  use  of  gunpowder  and  cannon. 
But  the  Chinese,  from  a  much  earlier  period,  having  some 
knowledge  of  the  properties  of  saltpetre  and  sulphur,  seem  to 
have  acquired  great  skill  in  the  preparation  and  exhibition  of  fire¬ 
works.  The  English,  in  their  early  intercourse  with  the  Chinese, 
attempted  to  surprise  and  interest  them  by  a  display  of  fire-works 
from  one  of  their  ships.  But  the  attempt  only  excited  the  deris¬ 
ion  and  ridicule  of  the  Celestials,  who,  in  their  turn,  soon  showed 
their  superiority  to  the  English  in  the  most  astounding  and  amus¬ 
ing  exhibitions  of  the  art.  Travellers  in  China  have  given  ac¬ 
counts  of  the  great  variety  and  brilliancy  of  the  fire-works  in  that 
countrjq  which  appear  to  greatly  surpass  those  of  all  other  nations. 
“  One  piece  of  remarkable  interest  was  a  box  suspended  at  an  eleva¬ 
tion  of  some  sixty  feet,  from  which  descended  lanterns  which  gradual¬ 
ly  unfolded  themselves  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,-  each  one  hav¬ 
ing  a  light  of  beautifully  colored  flame  burning  within  it.  From 
other  boxes  at  the  sides  descended  at  the  same  time  an  immense 
network  of  fire,  divided  into  regular  figures  of  the  greatest  diver¬ 
sity  of  form  and  colors,  flashing  in  great  splendor,  and  constantly 
changing.  The  whole  concluded  with  a  volcano,  or  general  ex¬ 
plosion  and  discharge  of  suns  and  stars,  squibs,  crackers,  rockets, 

(641) 


FI  RE- WORKS. 


,642 

and  gronadocs,  which  involved  the  garden  for  above  an  hour  in  an 
intolerable  smoke.” 

Travellers  in  China  are  often  treated  to  a  serenade  of  bad  music, 
and  a  very  brilliant  display  of  fire-works.  Of  the  latter,  a  recent 
traveller  says,  “  These  were  comprised*,  first  of  a  prodigious  quan¬ 
tity  of  crackers,  suspended  in  large  bunches  on  bamboo  poles, 
their  dry  and  noisy  detonations  never  ceasing  for  a  single  moment. 
This  perpetual  cracking  noise  was  only  interrupted  by  the  explo¬ 
sion  of  a  sort  of  bombshell  that  went  off  very  suddenly,  and  with 
a  great  noise  ;  but  the  grandest  pieces  were  placed  at  the  angles 
of  the  court,  where  dragons  and  other  fabulous  beasts  vomited  fire 
at  every  pore.  There  were  rockets  of  various  colors,  that  shot 
into  the  air  with  splendid  effect,  and  also  a  kind  of  wheel  called 
by  the  Chinese  1  a  flying  sun/  which  pleased  us  most  of  all.  It 
has  merely  to  be  put  on  a  large  plate,  and  placed  on  the  ground  ; 
the  wheel  is  then  kindled,  and  immediately  it  begins  to  turn  rapid¬ 
ly,  throwing  out  bluish  flames  in  all  directions,  and  then  suddenly 
springing  into  the  air,  it  rushes  to  an  immense  height,  and  lets 
fall  a  fiery  rain  of  all  sorts  of  brilliant  and  varied  colors.” 

The  Chinese  have  always  been  passionately  fond  of  powder,  of 
which  they  knew  the  use  long  before  the  Europeans,  but  their  taste 
is  less  decided  for  the  kind  made  use  of  in  war  than  for  the  milder 
sort  employed  for  fire-works.  They  were  fire-work  makers  before 
they  were  artillerists,  and  they  have  remained  faithful  to  their  first 
inclinations,  liking  squibs  and  crackers  a  great  deal  better  than 
cannon.  In  all  their  festivals  and  solemnities  of  whatever  charac¬ 
ter,  —  births,  marriages,  funerals,  meetings  of  friends,  theatrical 
representations,  receptions  of  mandarins  and  great  men,  —  they  are 
sure  to  manage  somehow  or  other  to  bring  in  fire-works.  In  the 
towns  and  villages  you  hear  them  popping  and  cracking  at  almost 
every  hour  of  the  night  and  day,  so  that  one  might  take  the  whole 
Chinese  empire  for  one  great  pyrotechnic  establishment. 

Among  Europeans,  the  Italians  appear  to  have  been  the  first  to 
acquire  skill  in  the  manufacture  of  fire-works,  and  at  the  present 
time  they  probably  excel  all  other  European  nations  in  the  pyro¬ 
technic  art.  The  Florentines  and  the  Siennese  were  the  first  to 
prepare  gunpowder  with  other  ingredients  for  public  amusements. 
They  also  invented  machines  and  decorations  adapted  to  increase 
the  pleasure  of  the  spectacle.  They  began  their  exhibitions  at  the 
feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  and  the  Assumption,  on  wooden  edi¬ 
fices,  which  they  adorned  with  painted  statues,  from  whose  mouths 


FIRE-WORKS. 


6ia 


and  eyes  issued  a  beautiful  fire.  Specimens  of  these  pa¬ 
geants,  under  a  great  variety  of  grotesque  forms,  have  been  en¬ 
graved,  representing  dragons,  swans,  eagles,  etc.,  which  were 
built  up  large  enough  to  carry  many  persons,  while  they  vomited 
forth- the  most  amusing  fire-works.  The  Florentines  continue  to 
the  present  day  to  introduce  the  festival  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
the  ancient  protector  of  Florence,  by  illuminations,  and  an  exhibi¬ 
tion  of  fire-works  on  the  Ponte  alia  Carraja. 

The  use  of  fire-works  soon  became  popular  at  Rome  ;  and  when 
popes  were  elected  they  had  illuminations  and  pyrotechnic  displays 
from  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo.  These  exhibitions  are  still  contin¬ 
ued  on  various  festivals,  though  they  are  shown  from  Monte  Pincio, 
instead  of  the  castle.  The  celebrated  Girandola  is  among  the 
grandest  exhibition  of  fire-works  iif  the  world,  embracing  the  dis¬ 
charge  of  four  thousand  five  hundred  rockets  at  one  and  the  same 
time.  Architectural  forms  of  great  beauty,  outlined  with  various 
colored  fire,  with  figures  and  names,  are  common  in  Italian  exhi¬ 
bitions  of  this  art. 

An  account  of  decorative  fire-works  is  given  in  the  Secret  Me¬ 
moirs  of  France.  The  exhibition  was  given  by  an  Italian  artist 
named  Torre.  The  Parisians  admired  the  variety  and  brilliancy  of 
the  colors  and  the  ingenious  forms  of  his  fire.  But  the  first  exhi¬ 
bition  was  disturbed  by  the  populace  from  some  apprehension  of 
danger.  The  exhibition  was  repeated  in  such  a  way  that  the 
beauty  of  the  fire  might  be  admired  without  fearing  it.  The  dis¬ 
play  was  closed  with  a  transparent  triumphal  arch,  and  a  curtain 
illuminated  by  the  same  fire,  admirably  exhibiting  the  palace  of 
Pluto.  Around  the  columns  verses  were  inscribed,  among  which 
appeared  the  following,  announcing  a  more  perfect  exhibition  :  — 

“  THe  icy  gale,  the  falling  snow, 

Extinction  to  these  fires  shall  bring; 

But,  like  the  flowers,  with  brighter  glow, 

They  shall  renew  their  charms  in  spring.” 

According  to  this  promise  of  the  artist,  the  exhibition  was 
greatly  improved.  Ilis  subject  was  a  representation  of  the  forges 
of  Vulcan  under  Mount  Etna.  The  interior  of  the  mount  discov¬ 
ered  Vulcan  and  his  Cyclops.  Venus  was  seen  to  descend  and 
demand  of  her  consort  armor  for  iEneas.  Opposite  to  this  was 
seen  the  palace  of  Vulcan,  which  presented  a  deep  and  brilliant 
perspective.  The  labors  of  the  Cyclops  produced  numberless 


G44 


FIRE-WORKS. 


very  happy  combinations  of  artificial  fires.  The  public  with  pleas¬ 
ing-  astonishment  beheld  the  effects  of  the  volcano,  so  admirably 
adapted  to  the  nature  of  these  fires.  At  another  entertainment, 
the  same  artist  gratified  the  public  with  a  representation  of  Or¬ 
pheus  and  Eurydice  in  hell ;  many  striking  circumstances  occa¬ 
sioned  a  marvellous  illusion. 

Besides  the  amusement  afforded  by  fire-works,  they  are,  in  one 
form  at  least,  very  useful.  The  sky-rocket  is  often  used  as  a  sig¬ 
nal  at  night,  as  a  projectile  in  time  of  war,  and  as  a  means  of  car¬ 
rying  a  line  to  accessible  objects,  as  to  a  wreck  from  the  shore. 
The  idea  of  using  rockets  in  war  was  suggested  by  a  Frenchman, 
—  Hauzelet,  —  in  the  year  1598;  but  little  or  no  progress  was 
made  in  using  this  weapon  until  the  experiments  of  Sir  William 
Congreve,  in  the  early  part  of  this  century,  illustrated  its  im¬ 
portance.  These  rockets  were  first  used  with  great  effect  by  the 
British  in  the  siege  of  Copenhagen  in  1  SOT .  At  the  battle  of 
Leipsic,  a  mass  of  French  infantry  were  instantly  routed  by  a  vol¬ 
ley  of  “  Congreve  rockets.”  Some  thousands  of  them  were  made 
at  the  arsenal  at  Washington  for  use  in  the  Mexican  war.  They 
have  been  very  useful  as  a  means  of  saving  life.  When  a  heavy 
surf  prevents  the  life-boat  from  reaching  a  stranded  vessel,  a  line 
attached  to  a  rocket  may  be  sent  over  the  ship,  by  which  those  on 
board  may  be  rescued.  Lines  have  been  carried  from  six  to  eight 
hundred  yards  by  this  means.  The  rockets  for  military  use  are 
made  with  strong  iron  cases,  terminating  at  the  head  with  a  cone, 
and  the  rod,  instead  of  being  at  the  side,  is  so  attached  that  its 
axis  shall  coincide  in  direction  with  that  of  the  rocket.  They 
are  made  of  three,  six,  twelve,  and  even  thirty-two  pounds  weight. 
They  are  generally  fired  from  tubes,  in  order  that  the  direction  of 
their  flight  may  be  more  certain  ;  the  proper  elevation,  at  least  for 
the  smaller  rockets,  is  about  one  degree  for  each  hundred  yards  in 
the  required  range. 

There  are  three  prime  materials  used  in  making  fire-works  — 
saltpetre,  sulphur,  and  charcoal,  combined  with  filings  of  iron, 
steel,  copper,  zinc,  rosin,  camphor,  etc.  Gunpowder  is  used  either 
in  g-rain,  half  crushed,  or  finely  ground,  for  different  purposes. 
The  longer  the  iron  filings,  the  brighter  red  and  white  spots  they 
give,  those  being  preferred  which  are  made  with  a  coarse  file,  and 
quite  free  from  rust.  Steel  filings  and  cast-iron  borings  contain 
carbon,  and  afford  a  more  brilliant  fire,  with  wavy  radiations. 
Copper  filings  give  a  greenish  tint  to  flame  ;  those  of  zinc,  a  fine 


FIRE-WORKS. 


645 


blue  color  ;  the  sulphuret  of  antimony  gives  a  less  greenish  blue 
than  zinc,  but  with  much  smoke  ;  amber  affords  a  yellow  fire,  as 
well  as  rosin  and  common  salt ;  but  the  last  must  be  very  dry. 
Lampblack  produces  a  very  red  color  with  gunpowder,  and  a  pink 
one  with  nitre  in  excess ;  it  serves  for  making  golden*  showers. 
Camphor  yields  a  very  white  flame  and  aromatic  fumes,  which 
mask  the  bad  smell  of  other  substances.  Lycopodium  burns 
with  a  rose  color,  and  a  magnificent  flame ;  but  it  is  principally 
employed  in  theatres  to  represent  lightning,  or  to  charge  the  torch 
of  a  fury. 

The  process  of  making  fire-works  should  be  conducted  with 
great  carefulness,  in  order  to  prevent  explosions ;  the  ingredients 
sometimes  ignite  spontaneously  by  being  kept  too  long. 

In  the  year  1T49  it  was  proposed  to  celebrate,  in  London,  the 
peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  by  an  exhibition  of  fire-works.  The  pro¬ 
posal  called  forth  an  earnest  letter  of  remonstrance  from  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson.  He  urged  that  debtors,  widows,  and  orphans,  the  results  of 
the  war,  might  be  relieved  by  the  expense  which  was  about  to 
evaporate  in  smoke,  and  to  be  scattered  in  rockets.  Instead  of 
erecting  some  monument  worthy  not  only  of  wealth,  and  power, 
and  greatness,  but  of  learning,  wisdom,  and  virtue,  the  most 
costly  preparations  were  made  with  no  other  design  than  a  crowd, 
a  blaze,  and  a  shout ;  the  mighty  work  of  artifice  and  contrivance 
was  to  be  set  on  fire  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  show  how  idle 
pyrotechnical  virtuosos  had  been  busy. 

However  just  and  reasonable  such  protests  may  be  against  the 
waste  of  money  and  time  in  the  preparation  and  display  of  fire¬ 
works,  they  were  as  little  heeded  a  hundred  years  ago  as  they 
would  be  now.  The  “  Heathen  Chinee  ”  has  given  certain  kinds 
of  light  to  Christian  nations  not  soon  or  easily  to  be  extinguished. 


CARD  CLOTHING. 


EXPLANATION  OF  THE  TERM.  —  CARDING  AMONG  TIIE  ANCIENTS.  —  CARD-MAKINO 
BY  MACHINERY.  —  THE  EARLIEST  KNOWN  ATTEMPTS.  —  TIIE  BUSINESS  DURING 
THE  LAST  CENTURY.  —  DURING  THIS  CENTURY.  —  THE  USE  OF  DOG  POWER.  — 
THE  CONDITION  OF  THIS  INDUSTRY  FORTY  YEARS  AGO.  —  THE  SARGENT  CARD 
CLOTHING  COMPANY.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  TIIE  ACTION  OF  THEIR  MACHINES.  — 
THE  ACCURACY  OF  THEIR  MOVEMENTS.  — THE  DAILY  PRODUCT  OF  A  MACHINE. 
—  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  PRODUCTION  IN  TIIE  UNITED  STATES.  — THE  CAUSES 
OF  THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  SARGENT  CARD  CLOTHING  COMPANY. 

The  term  “  card  clothing*  ”  is  used  by  manufacturers  to  desig¬ 
nate  the  “  cards,”  or  species  of  comb,  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  and  woollen  cloths,  for  the  purpose  of  carding  out  the  fibres 
and  arranging  them  in  even  and  parallel  lines,  preparatory  to  spin¬ 
ning  them  into  threads.  From  the  very  earliest  times  some  ap¬ 
pliance  must  have  been  used  for  the  purpose  of  transforming  the 
tangled  masses  of  wool  or  cotton,  which  were  destined  to  be  spun, 
into  an  even  texture,  which  could  be  used  for  this  purpose. 

Among  the  ancients,  most  probably,  a  utensil  resembling  a  comb 
was  used,  and  the  wool  or  cotton  was  combed  out.  In  modern 
times,  even  when  all  the-  spinning  was  done  by  hand,  the  cards 
were  made  of  bits  of  wire,  fitted  into  a  strip  of  leather,  or  of 
wood.  These  were  the  hand-cards  which  those  of  us  who  are  old 
enough  to  remember  the  time  when  spinning  was  the  regular  oc¬ 
cupation  of  the  women  in  every  family,  must  have  frequently  seen 
in  use. 

With  the  introduction  of  spinning  by  machinery,  the  process  of 
carding  has  come  to  be  carried  on  in  the  same  way,  and  “  card 
clothing  ”  is  the  cards  made  in  strips  long  enough  to  cover  the 
large  cylinders  in  which  this  operation  is  now  performed  in  our 
manufactories. 

The  making  of  cards  by  machinery  is  also  one  of  the  novelties 

of  the  modern  era  of  industry,  and  the  machine  with  which  this 

(646) 


CARD  CLOTHING. 


C47 


difficult  and  delicate  process  is  performed  is  also  an  American  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  mechanical  progress  of  civilization. 

During  the  colonial  period  of  the  history  of  the  United  States, 
the  manufacture  of  hand-cards,  by  the  process  of  hand  labor,  was 
an  important  branch  of  the  industry  of  the  country.  This  method 
of  manufacture  continued  in  use  until  this  century,  though  various 
attempts  had  been  made  to  substitute  machine  labor  for  it. 

In  1775  Nathaniel  Niles,  of  Norwich,  Conn.,  set  up  in  that  place 
a  manufactory  for  making  the  wire  to  be  used  in  making  cards  ; 
and  the  Assembly,  in  view  of  the  importance  of  the  project  for  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  and  woollen  cloth,  granted  him,  in  answer 

to  a  memorial  addressed  to  this  body  by  Mr.  Niles,  a  loan  of  three 

✓ 

hundred  pounds  for  four  years.  This  manufactory  was  continued 
in  operation  during  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 

Following  the  example  thus  set,  several  other  of  the  legislatures 
in  the  colonics  recommended  the  manufacture  of  cards,  with  other 
appliances  for  the  production  of  textile  fabrics,  and  encouraged 
them  by  bounties  or  loans. 

In  1777  Oliver  Evans,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  pioneers  in 
the  army  of  American  inventors,  being  then  a  young  man  of  about 
twent}"-two,  having-  been  engaged  in  manufacturing  the  teeth  for 
cards  by  the  hand  process  then  in  use,  invented  a  machine  for 
manufacturing  them,  which  is  said  to  have  been  efficient,  and  to 
have  produced  them  at  the  rate  of  three  hundred  a  minute. 

lie  made  proposals  to  the  state  for  aid  in  esta&ishing  a  factory 
for  drawing  the  wire  and  making  it  into  card-teeth  by  the  machine, 
in  less  time  than  it  took  to  coil  the  wire  into  hanks.  Ilis  proposals 
not  having  been  accepted,  he  sold  his  invention  to  private  parties  ; 
but  it  does  not  appear  that  it  was  put  into  practical  operation. 

It  is  also  stated  that  he  subsequently  invented  another  machine, 
which  would  prick  the  leather,  and  cut,  bend,  and  set  the  teeth,  but 
which  he  abandoned  for  personal  reasons. 

In  Massachusetts,  in  1788,  Giles  Richards  &  Co.  began  in  Bos¬ 
ton  the  manufacture  of  cards  with  machinery,  which,  it  has  been 
suggested/was  that  invented  by  Evans.  In  1793  there  were  three 
manufactories  of  cards  in  Boston,  with  an  annual  production  of 
twelve  thousand  dozen  cards,  all  of  which  were,  of  course,  hand- 
cards,  Nor  were  these  the  only  manufactories  in  Boston,  or  in  the 
state. 

In  1784  a  machine  was  invented  by  Mr.  Crittenden,  of  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  which  cut  and  bent  the  teeth,  and  was  capable  of 
producing  eighty-six  thousand  in  an  hour. 


643 


CARD  CLOTHING. 


In  1196  Amos  Whittemore  took  out  a  patent  for  an  improvement 
in  making  cards. 

During  the  early  part  of  this  century  the  making  of  cards  in¬ 
creased,  and  became  an  important  branch  of  industry  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  Machines  were  used  quite  generally,  and  were  frequently 
run  by  dog  power.  New  England  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  manu¬ 
facture,  and  Mr.  Joseph  D.  Sargent,  of  Leicester,  was  one  of  the 
largest  producers  of  cards  in  the  country. 

He  at  first  used  dog  power  for  cutting  the  teeth  by  machinery. 
A  dog  was  able  to  run  about  six  machines,  each  of  which  would 
cut  about  twelve  pounds  of  teeth  in  a  day,  from  No.  32  wire,  or 
wire  of  medium  size.  The  daily  product  of  each  machine  was 
enough  to  cover  about  twelve  square  feet  of  leather,  or  “  fillet/ 7 
as  it  was  technically  called. 

These  teeth  were  put  up  iir  bags,  and  distributed  to  the  resi¬ 
dents  of  the  vicinity,  who  stuck  them  into  the  leather,  and  re¬ 
turned  the  cards.  All  through  Worcester  County,  Mass.,  card¬ 
making  was  a  recognized  business,  and  frequently  a  factory 
sent  out  its  work  within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles.  Men,  women, 
and  children  engaged  in  it,  and  some  of  them  made  it  their  sole 
occupation.  The  pay  for  the  work  averaged  from  twenty-five  to 
forty  cents,  according  to  the  fineness  of  the  teeth,  for  a  11  sheet, ” 
which  averaged  five  inches  in  width  by  thirty-six  inches  in  length. 
For  setting  the  teeth  in  a  “  fillet,”  forty  feet  long  by  an  inch  and 
a  half  wide,  wit%  which  to  cover  the  small  cylinders  on  a  carding 
machine,  the  price  in  those  days  was  two  dollars  and  a  half.  Women 
and  girls  were  found  to  be  the  most  expert  workers,  and  were  very 
generally  engaged  in  this  work  when  there  was  a  factory  in  the 
vicinity.  Foreign  labor  was  then  almost  unknown  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  ancestors  of  many  of  the  richest  and  most  influential 
families  of  the  present  day  were,  as  girls,  engaged  in  the  work  of 
card -making. 

Machines  for  forming  the  teeth  were  then  in  use,  and  though 
most  of  the  wire  #used  was  imported,  yet  wire  was  then  made  in 
the  country,  a  factory  at  Leicester,  Mass.,  being  driven  by  a  wind¬ 
mill.  In  1812  the  largest  card  factory  at  Leicester,  Mass.,  em¬ 
ployed  about  eighteen  hands  in  the  cutting  of  teeth,  two  thirds  of 
whom  were  girls  employed  in  turning  the  machines. 

Until  within  about  twenty  years  this  town  was  the  principal 
seat  of  the  card  manufactory  in  the  United  States,  and  is  to-day 
one  of  the  richest  towns  of  its  size,  as  the  result  of  its  devotion 
to  this  industry. 


CARD  CLOTHING. 


649 


WORKS  OF  THE  SARGENT  CARD  CLOTHING  COMPANY,  WORCESTER,  MASS. 

The  operations  are  all  carried  on  by  machines,  which  are  an  im¬ 
proved  arrangement  upon  a  machine  invented  by  a  Mr.  Smith, 
who  is  said  to  have  realized  but  little  from  its  invention.  It  is  a 
combination  of  a  “  drawer,”  a  “  cutter,”  “  doubler,”  “  pricker,” 
“  second  bend,”  “dogs,”  and  “  feed-wheel,”  as  the  principal  parts. 
The  wire  is  placed  upon  a  reel  beside  the  machine,  and  one  end 
of  it  being  placed  by  hand  in  the  “drawer,”  all  the  other  processes 
of  the  work  are  done  automatically  by  the  machine. 

T1  le  leather  in  which  the  teeth  are  to  be  set  is  “  fed  up  ”  from 
beneath  the  machine,  and  drawn  gradually  along,  as  the  teeth  are 
set,  over  a  pulley  set  in  the*ceiling  above. 


The  leading  representative  house  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
card  clothing  is  the  “  Sargent  Card  Clothing  Company,”  of  Worces¬ 
ter,  Mass.  The  business  has  partaken  of  the  great  industrial  ac¬ 
tivity  of  the  present  century,  and  is  now  one  of  the  most  important 
industries  of  the  country.  This  company  was  formed  by  its  presi¬ 
dent,  Mr.  Edward  Sargent,  the  son  of  the  late  Joseph  D.  Sargent, 
of  Leicester,  who  was  in  the  business  of  manufacturing  cards  as 
early  as  1812  ;  and  under  his  management  the  company  holds  the 
first  rank  among  the  firms  engaged  in  this  branch  of  business, 
producing  daily  about  seven  hundred  square  feet  of  card  clothing, 
besides  about  two  hundred  dozen  pairs  of  hand-cards. 


C50 


CARD  CLOTHING. 


The  l<  drawer  ”  pulls  along  enough  of  the  wire  to  make  a  tooth, 
and  places  it  in  front  of  the  **  doubler, ”  where  it  is  cut  off  by  the 
“  cutter/’  and  seized  in  the  middle  by  the  doubler,  and  bent  into 
the  shape  of  a  card-tooth,  ready  to  be  inserted  in  the  leather.  At 
the  same  moment  the  tooth  is  driven  into  the  holes  in  the  leather, 
which  the  “  pricker  ”  has  made  just  before  for  the  reception  of 
the  two  prongs  of  the  tooth.  Then  the  “  plate,”  a  portion  of  the 
“  doubler,”  sticks  the  tooth  nearly  its  full  length  into  the  leather, 
when  the  shoulder  of  the  pricker,  as  the  latter  makes  the  holes  for 
the  next  tooth,  finishes  sticking  the  tooth  in  and  fastening  it. 

These  machines  are  so  accurate  in  their  movements,  that,  should 
the  wire  give  out  or  prove  defective,  or  any  of  the  operations  be 
imperfectly  performed,  the  fact  is  discovered  by  another  portion 
of  the  machine,  which  keeps  a  constant  and  vigilant  scrutiny  over 
the  work,  and  by  a  “  stop  motion,”  as  it  is  called,  stops  the  work¬ 
ing  of  the  machine.  This  portion  of  the  machine  is,  however, 
more  frequently  called  into  action  by  imperfections  or  kinks  in  the 
wire  than  by  a  failure  in  any  of  the  automatic  motions. 

One  of  these  machines  will  set  about  four  square  feet  of  teeth  in 
ten  hours,  there  being  about  thirty-three  thousand  teeth,  or,  as 
technically  described,  sixty-six  thousand  points  to  a  square  foot, 
making  about  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  thousand  points  set  in 
a  day. 

The  Sargent  Card  Clothing  Company’s  Works  are  spacious  and 
handsomely  built.  They  are  situated  at  the  side  of  the  railroad, 
so  as  to  forward  their  goods  economically.  In  the  United  States 
there  are  about  twelve  hundred  card  clothing  machines  in  opera¬ 
tion,  producing  daily  about  thirty-six  hundred  square  feet  of 
“  clothing,”  of  which  the  Sargent  Card  Clothing  Company  pro¬ 
duces  about  one  fifth,  or  seven  hundred  feet  a  day,  besides  the 
hand-cards  they  also  make.  The  successful  organization  of  this 
leading  business  in  this  specialty  is  due  chiefly  to  the  ability  with 
which  it  has  been  managed  by  Mr.  Sargent,  who  devotes  his  entire 
time  to  it,  and  to  the  high  reputation  the  company  has  always  en¬ 
joyed  for  the  probity  of  their  dealings  and  the  excellence  of  their 
products,  it  having  been  an  invariable  rule  from  the  beginning  that 
no  goods  of  theirs  should  leave  the  establishment  unless  they  were 
perfect  of  their  kind. 


CALLIOPES. 

\  *  *  -  ‘ 

A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  CALLIOPE.  —  ITS  FIRST  INTRODUCTION.  —  ITS  INSPIRA¬ 
TION  OF  THE  MUSE.  —  A  DESCRIPTION  OF  ITS  MUSIC.  —  A  SUGGESTION  FOR 
ITS  PROPER  USE.  • 

The  Calliope  is  an  invention  by  which  steam  whistles  are  made 
to  discourse  very  loud,  if  not  sweet  music.  It  is  a  simple  but 
ingenious  machine,  consisting  of  a  steam  cylinder,  along  the  top 
of  which  valve  chambers  are  arranged,  having  double,  steam-tight, 
metallic  valves.  By  means  of  a  stem  or  rod  passing  from  each  of 
the  valves  through  the  steam  chamber,  they  may  be  opened  by  a 
slight  pressure  ;  when  the  pressure  ceases,  the  valves  instantly 
close.  A  steam  whistle,  having  its  own  peculiar  tone,  is  placed 
over  each  valve.  The  instrument  is  double  in  its  construction, 
and  can  be  played  by  striking  keys  similar  to  those  of  an  organ; 
or,  by  means  of  a  cog  wheel,  may  be  set  to  a  particular  tune,  like 
a  common,  music-box.  Its  musical  strains,  in  well-expressed  tunes, 
may  be  heard  five  miles  on  land,  and  much  farther  on  water. 

When  the  Calliope  was  first  introduced  to  the  public  by  the 
inventor,  Mr.  I.  C.  Stoddard,  the  people  of  Worcester,  Mas?., 
were  greatly -surprised  by  strains  of  music,  very  loud,  very  clear, 
and  very  singular.  The  programme  of  that  memorable  evening 
concert  consisted,  in  part,  of  the  “  Marseilles  Hymn,”  “  Life  on 
the  Ocean  Wave,”  “  Sweet  Home,”  “Susannah,  don’t  you  cry,” 
“  Old  Hundred,”  “  Old  Bog  Tray,”  and  “  Flow  gently,  sweet 
Afton.”  All  the  city  heard  the  music,  and  at  the  distance  of  five 
miles  the  air  was  full  of  the  melody.  Everybody  wondered  what 
band  it  was,  or  what  instrument  had  waked  up  ;  and  one  old  lady 
thought  the  ‘Angel  Gabriel  had  come  with  the  last  trump. 

The  appearance  of  one  of  the  Muses,  under  the  inspiration  of 
steam,  secured  a  poetical  record,  in  which  Calliope  is  thus  rep¬ 
resented  :  — 


(651) 


C52 


CALLIOPES. 


“  O’er  fields  and  seas  she  takes  her  airy  flight, 

Until  on  fair  Columbia's  soil  they  light; 

Here  to  achieve,  by  nobler  deeds  sublime, 

What  had  been  lost  in  the  iEgean  clime. 

And  first,  the  railroad  horse’s  lungs  she  stole, 

And  next,  by  wood  or  Pennsylvania  coal, 

Expands  her  giant  voice,  so  loud,  so  great, 

It  shook  all  round,  throughout  the  Old  Bay  State. 

Such  music  tali  was  never  heard  before, 

No,  not  in  Greece  or  Rome,  in  days  of  yore.” 

The  music  is  represented  as  indescribably  droll  —  the  comicality 
of  melody.  A  dozen  or  two  of  the  steam  whistles  of  ordinary 
locomotives,  with  their  screaming*  element  materially  softened  ;  a 
hand  organ  or  two,  without  their  usual  grating'  sensation,  which 
sets  the  teeth  on  edge ;  a  few  flutes,  through  which  every  note  is 
clearly  and  distinctly  tongued ,  and  a  very  slight  piano  accompani¬ 
ment,  all  acting  in  perfect  accord  as  to  time,  give  a  good  idea, 
expressed  in  words,  of  the  wonderful  Calliope.  The  music  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  good  for  the  dyspepsia,  has  an  excellent  influence  on 
torpid  livers,  and  cures  melancholy  in  a  moment ;  in  short,  it  is 
the  music  for  invalids. 

If  this  instrument  should  be  generally  adopted  where  steam 
whistles  are  now  used,  which,  like  the  hinges  of  Milton’s  “  infer¬ 
nal  doors,”  “  grate  harsh  thunder,”  a  great  nuisance  would  be 
replaced  by  this  comical,  but  not  altogether  disagreeable,  Steam 
Piano. 


SHOT. 

THE  PROCESS  OP  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  TRADITIONAL  ACCOUNT  OF  ITS  FIRST 

SUGGESTION.  —  THE  VARIOUS  SIZES  OF  SHOT.  —  HOW  THEY  ARE  ASSORTED. 

—  WEIGHING  BY  GRAVITY.  —  THE  FIRST  SHOT-TOWER  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

—  THE  NEW  METHOD  PROPOSED  FOR  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  SHOT. 

• 

Shot  are  generally  made  of  lead,  with  which  arsenic  has  been 
mixed,  although  sometimes  lead  of  an  inferior  quality  is  used  sim¬ 
ply  for  this  manufacture.  The  effect  of  the  arsenic  is  to  render 
the  lead  softer  and  more  ductile,  instead  of  hard  and  brittle,  so 
that  when  melted  and  subjected  to  the  usual  process  in  shot-mak¬ 
ing,  it  will  more  readily  take  the  globular  form.  The  softer  the 
lead,  the  less  arsenic  is  required  ;  but  hard  lead  requires  arsenic 
in  the  proportion  of  ten  parts  in  one  thousand.  When  the  lead  is 
properly  combined  with  the  arsenic,  which  is  determined  by  trial, 
it  is  formed  into  bars,  and  raised  to  the  top  of  a  tower,  erected 
for  the  purpose,  to  be  melted  again,  and  transformed  into  shot. 

The  usual  method  of  shot-making  has  some  resemblance  to  the 
process  by  which  rain  is  transformed  into  hail.  The  liquid  lead  is 
made  to  fall  from  a  high  elevation  ;  in  passing  through  the  air  this 
leaden  rain  becomes  cool,  and  hardens  into  leaden  hail  or  shot. 
The  common  method  of  shot-making  is  said  to  have  originated 
with  a  plumber  of  Bristol,  named  Watts.  About  the  year  1782, 
he  dreamed  that  he  was  exposed  to  a  shower  of  rain,  that  the 
clouds  rained  lead  instead  of  water,  and  that  the  drops  of  lead 
were  perfectly  round.  Inspired  by  this  dream,  he  determined  to 
try  the  experiment.  He  accordingly  ascended  the  tower  of  a 
church,  and  poured  some  melted  lead  into  some  water  below  ;  the 
plan  was  successful,  and  he  sold  his  invention  for  a  large  sum  of 
money.  * 

In  carrying  out  the  idea  suggested  by  this  dream,  if  such  was 
its  real  origin,  shot-towers  have  been  constructed,  varying  in 

(653) 


SHOT. 


0-34 

height  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  according 
to  the  size  of  the  shot  to  be  made,  the  larger  size  requiring  the 
greater  height.  The  lead  is  melted  at  the  top  of  the  tower,  and 
poured  into  a  colander,  and  the  drops  are  received  in  a  vessel  of 
water  at  the  bottom.  The  surface  of  the  lead,  when  melted,  is 
cover#!  with  a  spongy  crust  of  oxide,  called  cream,  which  is  used 
to  coat  over  the  bottom  of  the  colander,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
lead  from  passing  too  rapidly  through  the  holes,  and  to  perfect 
the  roundness  of  the  shot.  The  colanders  are  made  of  sheet 
iron,  the  holes  differing  according  to  the  size  of  the  shot,  though 
the  shot  are  always  larger  than  the  holes  through  which  the 
melted  lead  passes.  The  lead  passes  through  the  colander  in 
fine  threads,  which  collect  in  globules  of  the  size  of  the  shot  on 
the  under  surface  of  the  colander.  In  falling  to  the  bottom  of 
the  tower,  the  entire  surface  of  the  shot  is  equally  acted  on  by  a 
current  of  air.  By  this  means  they  take  their  proper  form,  and 
are  sufficiently  cooled,  though  still  soft,  to  bear  the  shock  of  fall¬ 
ing  into  water,  without  flattening  or  changing  their  shape.  The 
holes  in  the  colander  for  shot,  known  as  No.  0,  are  one  fiftieth 
of  an  inch  in  diameter  ;  for  No.  1  the  holes  are  one  fifty-eighth  of 
an  inch  ;  and  from  No.  5  to  No.  9  the  diameter  decreases  by  regu¬ 
lar  gradations,  the  latter  being  only  one  three  hundred  and  sixtieth 
of  an  inch.  When  the  shot  are  removed  from  the  water,  which  is 
sometimes  done  by  an  endless  chain  of  boxes,  they  are  thoroughly 
dried  by  steam  on  iron  plates,  or  in  iron  boxes.  The  imperfect 
shot  are  then  separated  from  those  which  are  well  formed  by  caus¬ 
ing  them  to  pass  over  a  number  of  inclined  planes,  arranged  one 
above  another.  The  perfect  shot  proceed  rapidly  in  a*  straight 
line,  and  fall  into  boxes  placed  to  receive  them  a  few  inches  from 
the  edge  of  the  inclined  plane.  The  ill-shapen  pieces  of  lead  — 
oblong,  or  partly  round  —  move  in  zigzag,  and  more  slowly,  and 
fall  into  boxes  placed  immediately  at  the  edge  of  the  plane.  If 
the  first  boxes  do  not  receive  all  the  imperfect  pieces,  they  are 
likely  to  disappear  in  the  boxes  below  the  second  inclined  plane ; 
so  that  at  the  bottom  of  the  slope  only  the  perfect  ones  fall  into 
the  trough  placed  to  receive  them.  The  good  shot  thus  separated 
from  the  bad  are  of  a  dead,  silvery-white  color.  They  are  then 
placed  in  the  polishing  barrel,  containing  a  small  quantity  of  pul¬ 
verized  plumbago,  where,  after  many  revolutions,  they  receive 
their  superficial  finish.  They  are  then  assorted  according  to  their 
sizes  by  sifting  them  from  boxes,  the  bottoms  of  which  have  holes 


SHOT. 


0  oo 

corresponding  to  the  different  sizes  of  shot,  or  by  sifting  them 
through  a  revolving  copper  cylinder  placed  on  an  incline,  having 
holes  which  increase  in  size  towards  the  lower  end.  Thus  the 
smaller  drop  through  first,  and  the  larger  lower  down,  each  size 
being  received  in  its  own  box.  Being  thus  assorted,  they  fall  into 
boxes,  each  of  which  has  a  tube  and  a  faucet,  so  arranged  that 
the  bag  placed  over  the  mouth  of  the  opened  tube  receives  pre¬ 
cisely  twenty-five  pounds  of  shot,  when  it  instantly  closes,  obviat¬ 
ing  in  this  way  the ‘necessity  of  weighing  each  bag  of  shot. 

In  the  year  1801  the  patent  shot-tower  of  Paul  Beck  was  erected 
on  the  Schuylkill.  It  was  on  a  large  scale,  being  one  hundred  and 
seventy  feet  high,  and  very  complete  in  its  machinery.  It  was 
supposed  to  be  capable  of  supplying  the  entire  demand  for  shot  in 
the  United  States.  Many  other  shot-towers  have  been  built  since 
that  date.  A  mode  of  manufacturing  shot  without  the  high  tow¬ 
ers  has  recently  been  patented,  substituting  in  their  place  a  low 
elevation,  up  which  a  powerful  current  of  air  is  made  to  pass,  thus 
producing  the  effect  of  a  long-continued  fall. 


38 


GLOVES. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  WORD  GLOVE.  —  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  THEIR  USE.  —  ANCIENT 
CUSTOMS  CONNECTED  WITH  WEARING  GLOVES.  —  THROWING  DOWN  THE  GLOVE 
AS  A  CHALLENGE.  —  THE  CHIVALRIC  USES  OF  THE  GLOVE.  —  THE  GLOVE  IN 
POETRY  AND  ROMANCE.  —  QUEEN  ELIZABETH’S  GLOVES.  —  GLOVES  IN  MODERN 
TIMES.  — THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  MATERIALS  FOR  GLOVES.  — THE 
DECREE  OF  FASHION. 


Glove,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  glof,  signifies  a  covering  for  the 
hand.  It  has  a  separate  cover  for  each  finger,  and  is  used  both  as 
a  protection  for  the  hand  and  as  an  article  of  dress.  Doubtless 
some  form  of  the  glove,  as  a  hand-covering,  lias  been  in  use  among 
different  peoples  from  a  very  early  period.  It  was  a  very  ancient 
custom  to  conclude  a  contract  by  giving  as  a  pledge  a  glove. 
When  Boaz  purchased  the  field  of  Ruth  the  Moabitess,  there  ex¬ 
isted  a  similar  custom  of  confirming  the  contract.  In  earliest 
times,  among  the  Hebrews,  estates  were  exchanged  or  bought,  not 
by  written  agreements,  but  by  signs  or  ceremonies.  “  To  confirm 
all  tilings,  a  man  plucked  off  his  shoe,  and  gave  it  to  his  neigh¬ 
bor  ”  {lluth  iv.  I),  as  in  later  times  a  house  was  transferred  by 
giving  the  key,  and  land  by  giving  turf  and  a  twig.  In  transfer¬ 
ring  the  possession  of  Ruth  to  Boaz,  the  ceremony  used  was,  “  he 
drew  off  his  shoe  ;  ”  but  the  Chaldee  paraphrase  reads,  “  the  glove 
of  the  right  hand.”  This  would  seem  to  be  a  more  agreeable  and 
reasonable  ceremony  than  that  of  plucking  off  the  shoe.  It  is 
conjectured  that  gloves  were  worn  by  the  Chaldeans,  from  the 
word  here  mentioned  being  explained,  in  the  Talmud  Lexicon, 
“the  clothing  of  the  hand.” 

The  rude  Tartars  used  a  covering  for  the  hands  something  like 
gloves,  not  separated  into  fingers.  The  Persians  are  charged  in 
history  with  effeminacy,  because,  not  satisfied  with  covering  their 
heads  and  their  feet,  they  protected  their  hands  from  cold  by  wear- 

(656) 


GLOVES. 


657 


ing  thick  gloves.  The  secretary  who  accompanied  Pliny  in  his 
journey  to  Vesuvius  had  gloves  on  his  hands,  that  the  coldness  of 
the  weather  might  not  prevent  him  from  recording  whatever  oc¬ 
curred  remarkable.  The  records  of  ancient  manners  and  customs 
speak  of  using  gloves  to  protect  the  hands  from  thorns ;  of  olives 
gathered  by  the  naked  hand  as  better  than  those  gathered  with 
gloves  ;  also  of  a  celebrated  glutton,  who  always  came  to  the 
table  with  gloves  on  his  hands,  that  he  might  handle  and  eat  the 
meat  while  hot,  and  so  devour  more  than  the  rest  of  the  company. 
As  early  as  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  the  wearing  of 
gloves  by  the  Romans  was  regarded  as  a  departure  from  the  ordi¬ 
nary  habits  of  the  people.  “  It  is  shameful,”  said  a  philosopher 
of  that  age,  “that  persons  in  perfect  health  should  clothe  their 
hands,  and  feet  with  soft  and  hairy  coverings.”  But  it  may  be 
supposed  that  their  convenience  and  utility  soon  induced  their 
general  use. 

In  the  middle  ages,  kings,  nobles,  and  dignitaries  of  the  church 
used  most  costly  gloves  as  articles  of  dress  ;  they  were  sometimes 
richly  adorned  with  precious  stones  ;  though  a  council,  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  ordered  that  monks  should  only 
wear  gloves  made  of  sheep-skin.  Bishops  were  sometimes  put  in 
possession  of  their  sees  by  receiving  a  glove.  A  similar  gift  often 
accompanied  the  ceremony  of  investiture  and  the  conferring  of  dig¬ 
nities.  They  were  at  one  time  regarded  as  a  peculiarity  Of  the 
dress  of  bishops  ;  and  in  some  parts  of  France  other  lower  orders 
of  the  clergy  were  forbidden  to  wear  them.  As  dignities  and  of¬ 
fices  were  conferred  by  the  giving  of  gloves,  so  they  were  taken 
away  as  a  mark  of  degradation.  It  is  related  of  the  Earl  of  Car¬ 
lisle,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  impeached  and  condemned  to  die 
as  a  traitor,  that  his  spurs  were  cut  off  with  a  hatchet,  and  his 
gloves  and  shoes  were  taken  off. 

To  throw  the  glove,  by  way  of  challenge  to  a  duel,  is  mentioned 
as  early  as  the  year  1245.  Throwing  down  the  glove  as  a  chal¬ 
lenge,  which  the  opposite  party  accepted  by  taking  it  up  and 
throwing  down  his  own,  is  spoken  of  as  mos  Francorum  —  a 
French  custom.  When  Conradin  lost  his  crown,  and  was  about 
.  to  suffer  death  on  the  scaffold,  he  threw  his  glove  among  the 
crowd,  asking  that  it  might  be  conveyed  to  some  of  his  relatives, 
who  would  avenge  his  death.  It  was  taken  up  by  a  knight,  and 
carried  to  the  King  of  Arragon,  who,  in  virtue  of  this  glove,  was 
afterwards  crowned  at  Palermo.  At  the  coronation  of  English 


658 


GLOVES. 


sovereigns,  the  ceremony  of  challenging  by  a  glove  is  still  observed. 
When  Henry  IV.  was  crowned,  a  knight,  44  armed  for  wager  of 
battle,”  entered  the  dining-hall,  and,  in  the  presence  of  the  king, 
threw  down  his  glove,  as  a  challenge  to  any  knight  or  gentleman 
who  should  dare  maintain  that  King  Henry  was  not  a  lawful  sov¬ 
ereign.  Later,  the  king’s  champion  has  been  accustomed  to  make 

his  challenge  in  Westminster  Hall,  which  he  entered  armed  and 
* 

mounted,  as  was  done  when  Victoria  was  crowned. 

In  the  days  of  chivalry,  the  glove  of  a  lady,  worn  in  the  helmet 
as  a  favor,  was  a  very  honorable  token  ;  and  the  faithful  knight’s 
success  was  supposed  to  come  from  the  virtue  of  the  lady  ;  whence 
the  desperate  boast  of  Henry  of  Monmouth,  — 

“  His  answer  was,  he  would  unto  the  stews, 

And  from  the  commonest  creature  pluck  a  glove , 

And  wear  it  as  a  favor;  and  with  that 
He  would  unhorse  the  lustiest  challenger.” 

Schiller,  in  his  poem  The  Glove,  describes  the  incidents  attend¬ 
ing  a  combat  among  wild  beasts  :  — 

“  Now,  from  the  balcony  above, 

A  snowy  hand  let  fall  a  glove ; 

Midway  between  the  beasts  of  prey, 

Lion  and  tiger,  there  it  lay  — 

A  winsome  lady’s  glove! 

Fair  Cunigonde  said,  with  a  lip  of  scorn, 

To  the  Knight  Dclorges,  ‘If  the  love  you  have  sworn 
Were  as  gallant  and  leal  as  you  boast  it  to  be, 

I  might  ask  you  to  bring  back  that  glove  to  me.’  ” 

The  knight  accomplished  the  perilous  service,  and,  amid  loud 
expressions  of  joy  and  praise,  he  bore  back  the  glove. 

“  With  a  tender  look  in  her  softening  eyes, 

That  promised  reward  to  his  warmest  sighs, 

Fair  Cunigonde  rose,  her  knight  to  grace; 

He  tossed  the  glove  in  the  lady’s  face ! 

4  Nay,  spare  me  the  guerdon,  at  least,’  quoth  he ; 

And  he  left  forever  that  fair  ladye.” 

A  similar  incident  is  the  subject  of  poems  by  Leigh  Hunt,  and 
by  Browning. 

The  Saxon  origin  of  the  word  44  glove  ”  (glof)  shows  its  very 
early  use  in  England.  Queen  Elizabeth  had  a  great  partiality  for 
perfumed  gloves  trimmed  with  roses  of  colored  silk,  especially  for 
those  presented  to  her  by  Edward  Vere,  when  he  came  from  Italy. 


GLOVES. 


659 


At  the  sale  of  the  Earl  of  Arran’s  effects,  in  the  year  17 59,  the 
gloves  given  by  Henry  VIII.  to  Sir  Anthony  Denny  were  sold  for 
thirty-eight  pounds  seventeen  shillings  ;  those  given  by  James  I. 
to  his  son,  Edward  Denny,  for  twenty-two  pounds  four  shillings  ; 
and  the  mittens  given  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Sir  Edward  Denny’s 
lady,  for  twenty-six  pounds  four  shillings.  The  expression  glove 
silver  is  found  in  the  old  English  records,  signifying  money  given 
to  servants  to  buy  gloves.  This  is  probably  the  origin  of  giving 
a  pair  of  gloves  for  any  favor  or  service.  The  custom  of  giving 
gloves  and  a  scarf  to  the  clergy  and  bearers  at  funerals  is  still  ob¬ 
served  in  this  and  other  countries. 

Gloves  are  made  of  a  variety  of  materials  —  silk,  cotton,  thread, 
linen,  and  woollen,  and  the  skins  of  animals,  with  and  without  the  fur. 
In  France  and  Italy  the  manufacture  of  gloves  has  been  carried 
on  for  centuries  ;  and  in  these  countries  this  industrv  has  been 
brought  to  a  great  degree  of  perfection.  In  this  product  the  English 
cannot  compete  with  the  French  and  Italians,  though  of  the  heavier 
varieties  of  leather  they  make  large  quantities  of  very  superior 
gloves.  In  the  process  of  making  gloves,  the  skin  is  stretched  on 
a  marble  slab  ;  it  is  cut  with  a  pair  of  scissors  through  the  middle, 
dividing  it  into  two  equal  parts  ;  the  single  strip  for  the  palm  and 
back  is  cut  from  one  end  of  the  half  skin  ;  the  other  smaller  pieces 
required  are  cut  from  the  same  skin,  or  from  others  precisely  like 
it.  By  skilful  management  the  French  and  Italian  glove-makers 
will  get  one  or  two  pairs  more  than  an  Englishman  from  the  same 
skins.  And  this  is  a  great  gain,  when  it  is  considered  that  in 
France  above  four  and  a  half  millions  of  skins  are  cut  up  into 
gloves  every  year.  Formerly,  in  making  the  hole  for  the  thumb, 
great  care  and  skill  were  required  to  secure  a  good  fit ;  but  later 
improvements  secure  the  cutting  of  the  thumb-piece,  like  the  fin¬ 
gers,  in  the  same  piece,  requiring  no  seam  for  its  attachment. 
The  cutting  is  also  chiefly  done  by  means  of  punches  of  suitable 
patterns,  which  are  provided  with  an  apparatus  which  pricks  the 
places  for  the  stitches,  so  that  the  seams  can  be  sewed  with  great 
regularity  and  precision.  When  the  gloves  are  sewed,  they  are  . 
stretched,  wrapped  in  damp  linen  cloth,  and  beaten,  so  as  to  ren- 
.  der  them  soft  and  pliable  ;  they  are  then  pressed,  and  are  ready 
for  market. 

Leather  gloves  are  made  in  England  in  Worcester,  Woodstock, 
Yeovil,  Ludlow,  and  London.  In  the  town  and  neighborhood  of 
Worcester  six  millions  of  pairs  are  made  annually.  The  manufac- 


660 


GLOVES. 


ture  of  gloves  is  most  extensively  carried  on  in  France,  and  the 
best  French  gloves  are  said  to  be  made  in  Grenoble.  Many  gloves 
are  made  in  Italy,  Naples,  Milan,  and  Turin  being  the  principal 
places  where  they  are  manufactured.  They  arc  inferior  in  quality 
to  French  gloves,  and  are  much  cheaper,  though  in  appearance 
there  is  not  much  difference.  Great  quantities  of  gloves  in  France 
and  Italy,  called  kid ,  are  really  made  of  rat.  Buckskin  gloves  are 
peculiarly  American,  and  are  largely  manufactured  in  the  State  of 
New  York. 

As  an  article  of  dress,  gloves  are  of  great  importance.  In  the 
month  of  July,  1871,  the  style  of  gloves  is  thus  described  :  Pa¬ 
lest  primrose  buff  is  the  leading  color  in  the  new  stock  of  gloves  ; 
and  next  in  proportion  is  pale  gray,  with  a  lavender  cast  —  a 
shade  specially  pretty  with  black  toilets.  Gloves  fastened  by  but 
one  button  are  seldom  seen  on  well-dressed  ladies.  Long-wristed 
gloves,  the  wrist-piece  cut  in  one  with  the  glove,  instead  of  being 
a  separate  band,  are' preferred.  Those  fastened  by  two  or  three 
buttons  are  most  used  in  the  daytime.  From  four  to  six  buttons 
are  on  evening  gloves.  Those  without  fancy  stitching  on  the  back 
are  in  best  taste. 

Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes  has  given  his  opinion  about  gloves,  as  he  has 
of  many  other  things  out  of  the  line  of  his  profession. 

“Wear  seemly  gloves;  not  black,  nor  yet  too  light, 

And  least  of  all  the  pair  that  once  was  white: 

Let  the  dead  party,  where  you  told  your  loves, 

Bury  in  peace  its  dead  bouquets  and  gloves. 

Shave  like  the  goat,  if  so  your  fancy  bids, 

But  be  a  parent  —  don’t  neglect  your  kids." 

The  Italians  have  a  proverb,  Gafla  guantata  non  piglia  sorice, 
which  we  translate,  “  Cats  in  gloves  catch  no  mice,”  or,  “  A 
muffled  cat  is  no  good  mouser.”  It  is  spoken  of  those  who  go 
about  their  work  without  first  preparing  for  it,  or  removing  those 
things  which  may  impede  their  progress  or  endanger  their  success. 


OIL  CLOTII. 


THE  USE  OF  OIL  CLOTH.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  ITS  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  APPLI¬ 
CATION  OF  THE  COLORS.  —  THE  METHOD  FOR  TRANSFERRING  THE  PAT¬ 
TERNS. —  THE  BLOCKS  USED  IN  THE  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE 
MANUFACTURE. 

The  custom  of  covering  floors,  halls,  and  passages  is  very  gen¬ 
eral.  Where  warmth  and  comfort  are  desired,  carpets  are  used. 
Where  something  more  durable  and  less  costly  is  demanded,  a 
covering  of  oil  or  floor  cloth  has  been  invented.  This  cloth  or 
canvas  is  a  very  strong  fabric,  made  of  flax  and  hemp,  painted  on 
both  sides,  the  under  side  being  plain,  the  upper  side  ornamented 
with  patterns  or  designs  of  two  or  more  colors.  The  cloth  used 
for  this  purpose  should  be  without  seam  ;  so  that  when  pieces  of 
great  width  are  required,  two  men  are  employed  at  the  loom,  one 
on  each  side,  for  throwing  the  shuttle  back  and  forth.  This  kind 
of  cloth  being  woven  for  this  purpose  alone,  its  manufacture  forms 
a  distinct  branch  of  business.  Pieces  are  made  from  eighteen  to 
twenty-four  feet  wide,  and  the  length  often  exceeds  one  hundred 
yards. 

When  the  canvas  is  received  at  the  manufactory,  the  bales, 
containing  one  hundred  or  more  yards,  and  weighing  nearly  six 
hundred  pounds,  are  opened,  and  cut  in  pieces  of  sixty  or  one 
hundred  feet,  as  may  be  required.  These  pieces  are  then  taken  to 
the  “  frame  room,”  which  consists  of  a  number  of  strong  wooden 
frames,  standing  upright,  a  few  feet  from  each  other.  The  space 
between  the  frames  is  occupied  by  a  scaffold  of  four  tiers,  which 
may  be  reached  by  means  of  a  ladder  at  one  end  of  each  frame. 
The  edges  and  ends  of  the  canvas  are  fastened  to  the  frame,  and 
by  means  of  screws  the  beams  of  the  frame  are  moved  so  as  to 
tighten  and  stretch  it  to  its  utmost  tension.  In  this  position  every 
part  of  the  cloth  can  be  reached  from  the  several  platforms.  Tho 

’  (661) 


662 


OIL  CLOTH. 


first  operation,  preparatory  to  painting,  is  covering  the  back 
of  the  canvas  with  a  weak  solution  of  size,  applied  with  a  brush ; 
and  while  yet  damp,  the  canvas  is  thoroughly  rubbed  with 
pumice-stone.  By  this  means  the  irregularities  of  the  surface 
are  removed,  and  the  size  penetrates  the  interstices  of  the  cloth, 
so  preventing  the  paint,  which  is  afterwards  applied,  from  pene¬ 
trating  too  far,  which  would  render  the  oil  cloth  hard  and  brittle. 
This  priming  and  scouring  are  carried  on  from  the  top  downwards. 

When  the  surface  is  dry,  a  coat  of  paint,  made  of  linseed  oil 
and  some  cheap  coloring  matter,  is  applied.  This  paint  is  very 
thick,  and  is  thrown  on  to  the  canvas  in  dabs  with  a  short  brush  ; 
it  is  then  spread  with  a  long  and  very  elastic  steel  trowel.  The 
paint  is  thus  thoroughly  worked  into  the  web  of  the  cloth,  filling 
up  all  inequalities,  and  rendering  the  surface  smooth  and  level. 
This  “  trowel-color/ ’  as  it  is  called,  is  allowed  to  dry  ten  days  or 
longer,  according  to  the  weather,  after  which  a  second  coat  is 
smoothly  laid  on  with  the  trowel,  which  completes  the  work  for  the 
under  side  of  the  canvas.  After  the  first  coat  of  paint  is  applied 
to  the  under  side,  the  same  process  is  commenced  on  the  face  side 
of  the  cloth  ;  the  size  is  applied,  then  rubbed  in  with  pumice- 
stone  ;  the  first  trowel-color  is  then  put  on,  which,  when  dry,  is 
also  rubbed  down  with  pumice-stone  ;  two  more  coats  are  applied 
with  the  trowel,  with  a  pumice-stone  rubbing  after  each.  Finally, 
a  fourth  coating  of  paint  is  applied  with  the  brush,  which  is  the 
ground  color  for  the  designs  which  are  to  be  printed  on  it.  The 
.floor  cloth  is  thus  completed,  the  various  operations  occupying 
from  two  to  three  months,  when  it  is  ready  to  be  removed  from 
the  frames  and  transferred  to  the  printing  rooms. 

The  printing  of  the  cloth  is  done  on  a  flat  table,  over  which  it  is 
drawn  as  fast  as  the  designs  are  impressed.  This  is  done  with 
wooden  blocks,  not  unlike  those  used  in  the  old  method  of  calico 
printing.  As  the  patterns  generally  consist  of  several  colors, 
there  are  as  many  blocks  and  as  many  separate  printings  as  there 
are  colors  in  the  designs.  “In  preparing  a  set  of  blocks  for 
printing  oil  cloths,  an  accurate  colored  sketch  of  the  design  is 
first  made  on  stout  paper.  A  blank  sheet  of  paper  is  then  placed 
under  this,  and  by  means  of  a  sharp  point,  all  that  portion  of  the 
device  including  one  color  is  marked  on  the  under  sheet  in  a  series 
of  dots,  or  holes.  This  being  removed,  another  blank  sheet  is 
placed  under  the  pattern,  and  all  the  figures  of  another  color  are 
pricked  out  in  a  similar  manner.  Thus  the  pattern  is  dissected  on 


OIL  CLOTH. 


663 


as  many  sheets  of  paper  as  there  are  colors  to  be  printed.  One 
of  the  pricked  sheets  is  then  fixed  on  the  surface  of  a  block,  and 
a  little  powdered  charcoal  is  dusted  over  it  from  a  muslin  bag,  so 
as  to  penetrate  the  hole.  The  dotted  line  thus  made  on  the  block 
serves  to  guide  the  pencil  of  the  engraver  when  the  paper  is  re¬ 
moved,  and  enables  him  to  draw  the  portion  of  the  pattern  re¬ 
quired  for  that  block.  The  same  plan  is  pursued  with  other 
blocks,  which  are  then  ready  for  the  engraver,  who  cuts-  away  the 
wood,  and  leaves  the  pattern  in  relief.” 

The  blocks  used  for  printing  are  generally  about  eighteen  inches 
square,  the  engraved  portion  being  made  of  some  close-grained 
wood,  such  as  the  pear  tree,  and  fastened  to  blocks  of  pine. 
These  engraved  blocks,  in  large  establishments,  constitute  a  very 
valuable  portion  of  the  stock.  Before  the  designs  are  impressed 
on  the  cloth,  it  is  made  slightly  rough  by  means  of  a  steel  scraper 
and  a  scrubbing-brush,  which  prepare  it  to  receive  the  colors  more 
readily.  Near  the  printing-table  is  placed  a  number  of  flat  cush¬ 
ions,  on  which  the  coloring  matter  is  first  placed  with  a  brush. 
The  printer  presses  the  block  on  the  cushion,  which  is  charged  with 
the  color,  and  then  applies  it  to  the  cloth,  holding  it  firmly,  at 
the  same  time  striking  it  several  blows  with  the  handle  of  a  heavy 
hammer.  A  second  printer  charges  his  block  with  a  different 
color,  and  applies  it  in  the  same  manner.  He  is  followed  by  a 
third,  and  as  many  others  as  may  be  required  to  form  the  most 
variously-colored  pattern.  As  fast  as  the  cloth  is  printed  it  passes 
through  an  opening  in  the  floor  to  the  drying  room,  where  it  be¬ 
comes  hard  and  ready  for  use.  Narrow  pieces,  for  halls  and  stairs, 
are  first  cut  the  required  width,  and  printed  in  the  same  manner, 
except  that  a  space  is  left  on  each  side  for  a  border,  which,  requir¬ 
ing  smaller  blocks,  is  put  on  afterwards.  Sometimes  drying  oils 
are  used  to  hasten  the  completion  of  the  work  ;  but  this  makes  the 
cloth  brittle,  and  of  inferior  quality. 

There  are  various  large  manufactories  of  oil  cloths  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  value  of  their  production  is  about  two  millions 
and  a  half  of  dollars  yearly.  A  still  cheaper  floor  covering  is 
made  of  stout,  strong  paper,  painted  in  colors,  but  has  not  yet 
attained  an  extent  which  enables  it  to  be  called  a  “  great  in¬ 
dustry.” 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


SCOPE  OP  THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES.  —  MR.  ALDF.n’s  BIRTII  AND  BUSINESS  CAREER. — 
INVENTS  CONDENSED  MILK.  — BEGINS  THE  BUSINESS  OF  DESICCATING  FRUIT 
AND  VEGETABLES.  — PERFECTS  THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. — ABSORBENT  POWER 
OF  AIR.  —  SUPERMATURATION,  AN  IMPROVEMENT  ON  NATURAL  RIPENING. — 

INCREASED  PROPORTION  OF  SUGAR  FROM  THE  ALDEN  PROCESS. - DETAILS 

OF  MODE  OF  USING  THE  AIR-BLAST.  —  THE  REMAINING  WATER  CHEMICALLY 
BOUND. — EFFECTS  OF  THE  ALDEN  PROCESS  IN  CONDENSING  AND  PRESERVING. 
—  COST  AND  CAPACITY  OF  THE  ALDEN  EVAPORATOR. 

If  he  were  a  benefactor  beyond  estimation  who  should  mate  an¬ 
other  blade  of  grass  grow  beside  each  blade  of  grass  that  grows,  is  he 
less  who  presents  us  with  another  fruit  and  another  vegetable  res¬ 
cued  from  decay  for  every  one  (of  the  perishable  kinds)  which  the 
methods  hitherto  in  use  have  preserved  from  the  bountiful  largess 
of  Nature?  —  who  puts  an  end  to  a  waste  of  food  and  a  destruction 
of  wealth  that  had  run  through  half  the  sustenance  of  man,  cutting 
it  down  by  from  one  fourth  to  one  half  in  every  department  of  conse¬ 
quence  except  cereals,  and  probably  inflicting  more  loss  than  all  the 
ravages  of  lire,  flood,  and  tempest  on  land  and  sea,  with  drought, 
mildew,  and  vermin  to  boot  ?  * 

To  the  incredulous  reader,  who  may  suspect  some  rhetorical  exag¬ 
geration  in  the  estimate  of  the  Alden  processes,  above  expressed, 
we  hereby  give  warning  that  we  shall  tax  his  faith  with  a  great  deal 
more  than  that,  and  aggravate  the  offence  by  proving  it.  We  shall 
also  show  that  Mr.  Alden’s  contribution  to  organic  and  applied 
chemistry  is  as  far-reaching  and  as  wide-reaching  as  we  have  rep¬ 
resented  his  reformation  of  our  modes  of  preserving  the  fruits  of 
God’s  bounty  to  be.  It  will  turn  out  that  he  has  showed  us  how  to 
increase  and  improve,  directly  and  to  a  seemingly  fabulous  extent, 
the  product  of  all  vegetable  and  animal  substances  that  require  an 


*  An  authentic  statement  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  of  August  23,  1871,  informs  us  of 
the  case  of  a  single  fruit-grower  in  Delaware,  whose  loss  of  peaches  in  that  season  by  rot 
amounted  to  not  less  than  ten  thousand  bushels,  for  want  of  a  market;  while  the  total 
loss  in  the  same  little  State  from  the  same  cause  is  described  by  hundreds  of  thousands; 
all  of  which  will  be  saved  annually  by  a  few  Alden  Evaporators  at  convenient  locations. 

(664) 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


665 


elemental  change  in  preparation  or  preservation  for  the  food  of  man. 
The  details  in  the  development  of  the  twofold  subject  will  prove 
as  beautiful  and  remarkable  as  the  exordium  is  startling. 

As  these  results  are  not  accidental,  but  the  ripe  fruit  of  a  life 
laboriously  devoted  to  the  subject,  we  can  hardly  go  amiss  if  we 
first  invite  the  reader  to  a  personal  introduction,  and  a  review  of 
the  hidden  rise  and  unobserved  progress  of  the  new  art.  We  may 
take  it  for  granted  that  he  has  heard  of  condensed  milk ;  also  of 
desiccated  vegetables  and  meats ;  also,  very  likely,  of  prepared 
cream  coffee,  clarified  cream  cocoa,  etc.  All  these  are  an  old 
familiar  tale.  Permit  us,  then,  to  introduce  in  the  first  place  the 
author  of  condensed  milk  and  the  other  preparations  named,  be¬ 
sides  many  as  yet  unnamed  here  or  elsewhere,  —  Charles  Alden, 
of  Newburgh.  Mr.  Alden  has  been  a  citizen  of  Newburgh  (on  the 
Hudson)  the  last  twelve  years,  but,  like  a  majority  of  inventors, 
he  was  born  a  Yankee.  It  was  in  Randolph,  Massachusetts,  the 
great  (men’s)  shoe  town,  a  few  more  miles  south  of  Boston  than 
Lynn,  its  feminine  counterpart,  is  north  of  the  same,  that  a  son  was 
born  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century  to  Silas  Alden,  Jr., 
progenitor  also  of  the  large  leather-working  industry  for  which  the 
place  is  now  famous.  The  son  was  named  Charles,  and  was  early 
destined  for  college  in  the  paternal  mind.  But  having  tasted  to 
his  satisfaction  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  at  Phillips  Academy  at 
Andover,  by  the  age  of  fifteen  he  manifested  another  vocation  by 
going  to  sea,  —  a  two  years’  voyage  to  Africa,  as  clerk  and  steward  in 
the  brig  Minerva  of  New  Bedford,  Captain  Gifford.  This  experi¬ 
ence  wTas  undoubtedly,  though  unconsciously,  a  determining  element 
in  his  after  career.  Doing  with  his  might,  as  he  always  did,  what¬ 
ever  his  hands  could  find  to  do,  he  became  so  good  a  sailor  that  he 
had  the  opportunity  to  refuse  the  position  of  second  mate  for  a 
second  voyage,  and  settled  down  at  home  to  the  life  of  a  live  Yan¬ 
kee,  inventing  and  manufacturing,  marrying,  assisting  to  carry  on 
his  father’s  business,  and  initiating  a  number  of  successful  manufac¬ 
tures,  one  of  which  was  that  of  palm-leaf  hats,  and  another  the 
single-seam  over-shoe,  which  prospered  until  Goodyear’s  invention 
undid  it. 

But  it  is  unnecessary  to  trace  the  enterprises  and  vicissitudes  of 
Mr.  Alden’s  busy  life  until  we  find  him  settled  in  New  York,  in 
1842,  as  a  -wholesale  shoe  and  leather  dealer,  subsequently  in  the 
City  Council,  and  in  1850,  having  eagerly  embarked  in  a  succession 
of  inventions  with  varied  luck,'  at  last  out  of  business,  and  at  the 


666 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


very  “nadir”  of  his  fortunes.  It  was  the  most  fortunate  juncture 
of  liis  life ;  perhaps  we  might  say  of  any  life  in  this  century.  His 
old  stewardship  at  sea  now  bore  its  long-hidden  fruit.  A  cup  of 
coffee  in  a  powder,  with  milk  and  sugar,  clarified  and  ready  (boiling 
water  but  granted)  to  drink  at  a  moment’s  notice,  was  his  idea.  He 
went  straight  home  with  it,  and  brought  the  thing  to  pass  before  he 
slept.  It  eventually  took  the  form  of  a  paste,  rather  than  a  powder, 
however,  and  such  was  the  birth  of  Condensed  Milk.  Mr.  Alden 
immediately  hired  a  secluded  tenement  for  his  laboratory,  and  pur¬ 
sued  his  experiments  until  he  produced  the  preparations  known  as 
condensed  milk  and  clarified  cream  coffee  and  cocoa,  reduced  by 
the  evaporation  of  three  fourths  of  the  water,  ana  put  up  in  cans 
ready  for  sale,  at  a  fair  pirofit.  With  these  he  opened  a  traffic  with 
shipping  merchants,  sea  captains,  travellers,  and,  to  a  limited  extent, 
families.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  opportune  than  this  new 
product  for  the  immense  picnic  of  gold-hunters  just  then  begun  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  and  depending  for  every  necessary  and  comfort  of 
life  upon  supplies  shipped  from  New  York  around  Cape  Horn.  A 
standing  California  contract,  demanding  a  large  daily  production  of 
condensed  milk,  was  provided  for  by  the  erection  of  the  first  regular 
factory  for  the  purpose  in  the  vicinity  of  Poughkeepsie.  At  this 
establishment  were  condensed  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred 
quarts  daily.  After  this,  improvements  began  to  be  made  in  the 
apparatus.  The  evaporating-pans  were  increased  from  a  capacity 
of  eight  or  ten  gallons  to  two  barrels.  They  were  set  in  steam, 
and  the  steam-stirring  fan  was  introduced,  which  consisted  of  two 
blades  on  a  vertical  shaft,  revolving  rapidly  in  the  milk,  and  creating 
strong  currents  of  air  through  the  agitated  liquid,  for  hastening 
evaporation  while  lowering  the  temperature.  This  involved  the 
germ  principle  of  the  ultimate  and  universal  evaporating  process 
now  under  consideration.  In  1857  patents  were  obtained  for  these 
improvements,  under  which  condensed  milk  is  still  manufactured. 
Diplomas  were  also  given  by  the  American  Institute,  and  a  medal 
at  the  Crystal  Palace,  where  the  product  competed  for  the  first  time 
with  a  foreign  article  in  cakes.  All  this  time  Mr.  Alden  had  also 
carried  on  experiments  in  the  desiccation  of  vegetables  and  meats. 
Among  other  things,  he  concentrated  eggs,  and  also  egg- nogg  and 
milk-punch,  which  sold  well  for  sea  service  and  tropical  markets. 

In  1858  Mr.  Alden  established  the  business  of  condensing  and 
desiccating  milk,  meats,  and  vegetables  at  Newburgh.  About  this 
time  Mr.  Borden  also  entered  the  market  with  the  product  of 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


667 

his  factory  at  Amenia.  Both  establishments  made,  perhaps,  six 
hundred  quarts  per  day.  To-day  the  business  of  eight  or  ten  fac¬ 
tories  demands  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  quarts  of  natural  milk 
per  day,  or  fifteen  millions  a  year,  worth  a  million  of  dollars; 
engrossing,  say,  thirty  thousand  acres  of  land,  using  at  least  ten 
thousand  cows,  and  supporting  fifteen  hundred  men  and  their 
families.  Yet  all  this  is  but  the  beginning  of  a  single  branch 
among  the  many  into  which  the  Alden  Preserving  Processes  ramify. 
Of  course  credit  is  du«  to  a  number  of  inventors  for  important 
improvements,  and  to  enterprising  parties  who  have  extended  the 
manufacture  and  market  for  these  products  from  time  to  time.  But 
we  must  turn  our  attention  from  these  to  the  ultimate  and  main 
development. 

When  the  Rebellion  broke  out  a  heavy  joint-stock  concern  was 
formed  at  Newburgh,  the  whole  resources  of  which  were  engaged 
on  Government  contracts  for  the  army  and  navy  to  the  end  of  the 
war.  At  the  end  of  this  time  Mr.  Alden  retired  from  business,  but 
did  not  lay  aside  his  cherished  studies  and  experiments.  He  built 
and  tried  many  different  models  of  apparatus,  and  discovered  by 
experiment  and  comparison  the  effects  of  evaporation  by  different 
methods  upon  a  multitude  of  animal  and  vegetable  substances.  To 
make  a  long  story  short,  in  1869  he  had  matured  an  apparatus  and 
exact  rules  of  proceeding  in  regard  to  a  number  of  leading  articles, 
which  gave  him  satisfaction.  The  apparatus  is  simple  and  easily 
understood ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  -  amount  and  cost  of 
experiment  by  which  the  art  of  successfully  applying  the  principle 
to  so  great  a  variety  of  products  has  been  perfected. 

Mr.  Alden’s  intimate  relation  to  the  origin  and  past  progress  of 
the  art  of  desiccation  had  not  rendered  him  insensible  to  the  un¬ 
satisfactory  quality  of  its  products.  He  was  bent  on  producing  a  radi¬ 
cally  different  result  from  that  of  desiccation  so  called,  —  a  product 
that  should  be  not  only  imperishable,  but  undistinguishable  in  any 
substantial  sense  from  the  fresh  fruit  or  vegetable ;  and  he  rested 
not  until,  strange  to  say,  he  had  realized  this  object  in  regard  to 
some  of  the  most  important  articles.  Stranger  still,  this  development 
of  the  original  art  had  arrived  of  itself,  in  the  most  natural  manner, 
at  a  stage  where  it  proved  to  be  an  essentially  novel  art ;  not  only 
distinct  from,  but  opposite  to,  desiccation  as  practised,  in  its  chemical 
principles  and  practical  results.  It  turns  out  to  be  a  process  which 
not  only  forestalls  decay,  —  that  is  the  least  of  its  merits,  —  but 
which  in  doing  this  at  the  same  time  carries  out  the  organic  process 


6G8 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


of  ripening  to  an  artificial  perfection,  on  the  same  principles  incom¬ 
pletely  used  by  Nature,  and  with  a  correspondent  increase  of  the 
nutritive  product.  This  remarkable  instance,  among  others,  goes 
far  to  convince  us  that  \rhen  the  Creator  rested  from  his  work 
it  was  only  to  put  into  his  place  a  representative  ordained  to 
carry  it  onward ;  an  intelligence  entering  into  nature  like  a  sev¬ 
enth  creative  impulse,  destined  ultimately  to  dominate  every  pro¬ 
cess,  to  wield  every  function  at  will,  and  to  lead  all  things  up  to 
perfection. 

The  means  employed  by  Mr.  Alden  to  produce  these  results  are 
threefold ;  namely,  rapid  circulation  of  air,  accurately  adapted  and 
progressive  warmth,  and  a  certain  proportion  of  humidity, — all  of 
which  are  realized  at  once,  in  a  very  simple  yet  effective  manner,  from 
a  single  process.  It  will  be  noticed  that  each  of  these  points  stands 
directly  contrary  both  to  the  process  of  desiccation  or  kiln-drying 
and  to  that  of  ordinary  air-drying.  In  both  the  latter  processes 
the  circulation  of  air  is,  whatever  may  happen,  and  under  any  cir¬ 
cumstances,  insufficient  to  dry  the  fruit  with  proper  rapidity ;  the 
temperature  in  the  heated  chamber  is  too  high  at  certain  stages, 
and  in  the  common  atmosphere  too  low,  and  in  neither  is  it  adapted 
to  the  changes  in  the  progress  of  the  fruit  from  wet  to  dry ;  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  humidity,  which  varies  with  the  atmosphere 
from  too  little  to  too  much,  and  is  quite  as  likely  to  act  most  upon 
the  fruit  at  the  wrong  stage  as  at  the  right. 

In  all  forms  of  life,  animated  or  vegetative,  water  is  the  circu¬ 
lating  vehicle  of  life  and  growth  until  these  are  perfected,  and  then 
reverses  its  function  and  becomes  the  minister  of  death  and  decay. 
To  absorb  the  water,  therefore,  is  to  stop  the  integrating  or  the  dis¬ 
integrating  process,  whichever  may  be  going  on,  with  equal  certain¬ 
ty.  The  great  absorbent  is  atmospheric  air,  and  the  only  condition 
requisite  for  the  instantaneous  absorption  of  any  amount  of  water 
is  instantaneous  contact  with  a  sufficient  amount  of  air.  Nothing 
drinks  like  air.  It  soaks  up  water  much  more  rapidly  than  sponge. 
The  only  difficulty  is  that  its  capacity  for  water  is  much  less  than 
its  eager  absorption  would  seem  to  promise.  It  is  quickly  satiated, 
soaked,  wet  through,  and  falls  into  an  extremely  forlorn  and  sticky 
condition,  as  everybody  testifies  in  one  of  those  “muggy”  (murky) 
days,  when  the  sluggish  atmosphere  hangs  about  us,  loaded  with  the 
warm  moisture  it  has  drunk,  and  unable  to  move.  In  this  condition, 
air,  like  a  soaked  sponge,  so  far  from  absorbing  further  moisture  from 
objects  in  contact  with  it,  only  serves  to  keep  them  wet.  To  ol>- 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


660 


tain  rapid  and  continuous  evaporation,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to 
change  the  air  rapidly,  just  as  we  should  change  sponges  if  in  haste 
to  soak  up  a  puddle  of  water. 

Such  is  the  importance  of  this  point  that  it  makes  all  the  differ¬ 
ence  between  a  partial  and  often  entire  decay  of  fruit,  and  that 
perfect  preservation  of  every  particle  which  keeps  the  product 
essentially  fresh,  and  incapable  of  being  distinguished,  in  confections 
for  the  table,  from  those  prepared  without  previous  evaporation  of 
any  kind.  Pneumatic  evaporation  is  therefore  the  appropriate  gen¬ 
eral  term  by  which  the  Alden  process  is  designated.  The  substance 
to  be  freed  of  its  water  is  exposed  to  a  blast  of  rarefied  air  by  a  pe¬ 
culiar  arrangement  causing  every  particle  of  the  surface  (extended 
as  much  as  possible)  to  be  swept  by  a  rapid  succession  of  thirsty 
atmospheric  particles,  which  drink  off  its  moisture  before  the  faintest 
symptom  of  decay  can  be  manifested.  The  contrast  of  the  result  to 
the  film  of  dark-colored  rust  (decayed  matter)  which  covers  the  sur¬ 
face  of  all  dried  fruit  and  flavors  it  throughout,  is  very  striking  in 
the  statement,  but  it  is  still  more  so  in  the  tasting.  No  person  not 
informed  of  the  fact  would  suppose  that  a  pie  or  sauce  of  Alden 
fruit  was  anything  but  fresh  from  the  tree  or  the  natural  condition. 

The  action  of  the  other  two  conditions —  accurately  adjusted  and 
progressive  temperature  and  humidity  —  is  more  occult  and  still 
more  remarkable.  In  brief,  it  amounts  to  a  continuation  and  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  ripening  process  of  nature,  precisely  analogous,  by 
chemical  comparison,  to  that  which  takes  place  in  the  grape  on  the 
vine,  and  afterwards  in  the  transition  of  the  grape  to  the  far  sweeter 
raisin ;  or  to  that  which  takes  place  in  the  ripening  of  a  Bartlett 
pear,  which  is  picked  in  a  hard  and  acrid  condition,  and  afterwards 
matures  spontaneously  by  itself  into  the  most  luscious  and  delicate 
of  fruits.  The  term  used  to  designate  this  new  artificial  process  — 
which  is  really  an  advance  upon  Nature,  carrying  forward  her  own 
operation  to  a  pitch  to  which  she  is  unable  usually  to  conduct  it  — 
is  Supermaturation.  Very  few  fruits  are  capable,  like  the  Madeira 
grape,  or  the  fig,  of  a  spontaneous  supermaturation.  But  the  Alden 
process,  by  an  application  of  the  same  genial  influences  of  warmth 
and  moisture  which  Nature  uses,  under  conditions  which  at  the  same 
time  arrest  and  prevent  the  least  decay,  is  found  by  chemistry  to 
have  produced  in  fruits  like  the  apple,  peach,  and  tomato,  for  which 
Nature  had  done  all  she  could,  a  large  additional  proportion  of  arti¬ 
ficial  saccharine  matter,  in  place  of  cruder  ingredients  heretofore 
unimproved.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  all  fruits  and  vege- 


670 


T IIE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


tables  containing  an  unconverted  residuum  of  mucous  or  starchy  in¬ 
gredients  are  subject  to  supermaturation  by  the  Alden  process,  and 
will  thus  be  enabled  to  develop  an  increased  saccharine  richness. 

The  proof  of  the  fact  of  supermaturation,  as  above  stated,  is  found 
in  the  remarkable  sweetness  of  Alden  apples,  tomatoes,  and  other 
fruits  and  vegetables.  Less  than  one  half  the  sugar  ordinarily  re¬ 
quired  will  make  an  Alden  apple  or  pumpkin  pie  as  rich  as  may  be 
desired,  and  one  must  have  a  very  sweet  tooth  who  calls  for  sugar 
on  Alden  tomatoes.  The  testimony  of  chemical  analysis  is  no  less 
emphatic  than  that  of  the  senses.  From  a  variety  of  very  careful 
comparative  analyses  conducted  by  Professor  Stephen  Krackowizer, 
of  Vienna  (now  of  New  York),  it  appears  that  the  usual  increase  of 
saccharine  matter  in  Alden  fruit,  as  compared  with  the  same  fruit 
in  its  original  state,  and  also  after  being  subjected  to  the  most  care¬ 
ful  scientific  desiccation,  is  not  far  from  twenty-five  per  cent.  At 
the  same  time  this  increase  is  chemically  accounted  for  by  an  ac¬ 
curately  corresponding  diminution  of  the  starchy  ingredients  which 
constitute  the  raw  material  of  sugar  in  vegetation.  The  change  is 
precisely  the  same  as  the  natural  progress  of  the  fruit  from  green 
to  ripe,  carried  onward  with  the  same  well-known  improvement  in 
wholesomeness,  delicacy,  and  nutrition. 

To  attain  this  novel  and  invaluable  result  evidently  required  an 
exact  experimental  adaptation  of  the  air-blast  to  every  stage  of 
evaporation  in  the  fruit.  At  first,  while  fresh  and  wet  on  the  sur¬ 
face,  it  must  not  encounter  air  that  is  either  too  warm  or  too  dry. 
If  too  warm,  the  too  rapid  rarefaction  and  expansion  of  the  latent 
vapor  within  the  still  copious  juice  will  have  the  effect  of  con¬ 
gestion  rather  than  circulation,  crowding  and  perhaps  breaking 
the  cells.  If  too  dry,  the  exposed  surface  mucus  will  dry  too 
fast ;  that  is,  the  dry  air  will  lick  up  its  water  faster  than  that 
within  can  flow  to  the  surface  and  take  its  place;  and  the  result 
will  be  the  sudden  formation  of  a  leathery  cuticle  which  must  im¬ 
pede  both  circulation  and  evaporation.  After  the  whole  mass  has 
been  equably  reduced  in  moisture  and  raised  in  temperature,  being 
kept  all  the  time  as  nearly  as  possible  alike  in  these  respects 
throughout  its  texture,  then  it  will  bear,  and  even  require  for  ac¬ 
tive  circulation  and  evaporation,  a  warmer  and  less  humid  blast,  to 
“hurry  up”  the  attenuated  remains  of  moisture  through  the  nearly 
exhausted  channels  which  now  offer  unobstructed  exit.  The  ex¬ 
terior  mucus  itself,  instead  of  drying  to  a  tough  film,  will  have  been 
converted  partly  to  sugar  and  water  (aiding  to  keep  the  surface 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


671 


in  the  moist  condition  peculiar  to  this  process),  and  the  surface  will 
not  toughen  and  thicken  in  the  hot  blast.  The  vapor  from  within 
passes  freely  through  it,  and  keeps  it  still  pliant,  at  a  temperature  of 
160  degrees.  In  the  pneumatic  evaporator,  therefore,  the  fruit  usu¬ 
ally  enters  where  the  blast  comes  out,  reduced  in  temperature,  and 
partly  saturated  with  moisture  from  some  twenty  to  forty  layers  of 
fruit  already  passed  through.  The  fruit,  being  spread  on  screens, 
passes  downward  in  the  vertical  pneumatic  shaft  or  chamber,  by 
regular  time  stages,  meeting  at  every  stage  a  warmer  and  less 
humid  blast,  until  it  reaches  the  bottom,  and  meets  the  blast  as 
issued  from  the  blower  through  a  coil  of  hot  steam-pipe,  at  the 
standard  temperature  ascertained  for  the  proper  maturing  and 
curing  of  the  particular  fruit  or  vegetable  in  hand. 

The  part  borne  by  humidity  in  this  evaporating  process  —  para¬ 
doxical  as  it  seems  —  is  remarkable  and  somewhat  mysterious.  An 
effect  of  the  want  of  it  in  the  dry  heat  of  desiccation  is  noted  by 
Professor  Krackowizer  in  the  presence  of  dextrine  or  starch  gum  pe¬ 
culiar  to  desiccated  fruit.  On  the  other  hand,  he  notes  the  presence 
in  Alden  fruit  of  chemically  bound  water,  or  hydrate ,  in  increased 
proportion,  as  a  consequence  of  the  humidity  of  the  blast,  which  he 
thinks  has  an  important  chemical  agency,  as  a  “  hydratic  mediator.” 
At  the  same  time  one  result  of  this  agency  is  that  it  really  makes 
up  for  its  moistening  effect,  and  practically  aids  instead  of  hindering 
the  prompt  removal  of  the  water.  That  is,  it  hydratizes  (if  w*e  may 
so  speak)  a  portion  of  the  water,  or  chemically  binds  it,  so  that  it  is 
as  harmless  for  decay  as  if  it  were  actually  removed.  The  result 
is  sensibly  apparent  in  the  peculiar  softness  and  moistness  of  all 
Alden  fruit,  —  a  moisture  which  is  chemically  bound  and  harmless, 
while  it  is  of  great  value  in  preserving  the  flavor,  richness,  and  fresh 
quality,  and  which  could  not  be  accounted  for  in  fruit  just  issued 
from  the  hottest  and  driest  part  of  the  blast,  except  by  the  above 
explanation  from  the  distinguished  chemist  referred  to.  It  will  be 
observed  that  this  quality  also  preserves  the  fruit  from  the  great 
changes  in  weight  and  condition  which  dried  fruits  undergo  when 
the  atmosphere  changes  from  dry  to  damp,  and  vice  versa. 

Save  the  transformation  of  starchy  ingredients  to  sugar,  fruits  and 
vegetables  in  the  Alden  process  lose  nothing  but  water,  and  gain  no 
new  ingredient  to  change  their  flavor  or  the  character  of  their  most 
delicate  tissues.  They  return  in  water,  after  indefinite  periods,  to  a 
condition  scarcely  distinguishable  in  any  respect  from  their  origi¬ 
nals.  The  cells  and  granules  swell  to  their  original  fullness,  and  not 
39 


C72 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


only  so,  but  to  their  original  form  and  consistency.  The  microscope 
shows  the  structure  to  be  intact  in  all  its  symmetry.  It  is  crisp, 
tough,  or  tender,  as  its  nature  may  require,  entirely  natural  in  odor 
and  taste,  and  even  the  coloring  matter  is  undisturbed.  A  spinach 
or  lettuce  leaf,  for  example,  which  had  been  reduced  to  the  condition 
of  a  tea  leaf,  if  again  moistened,  will  afford  to  an  uninitiated  ob¬ 
server  no  evidence  that  it  is  anything  but  a  leaf  freshly  plucked.  It 
is  not  limp  and  dull,  but  crisp,  bright,  and  green.  So  with  a  dish 
of  cucumbers  and  onions,  which  yield  up  very  large  proportions  of 
water  and  become  shrivelled  shavings.  Moistened,  full,  crisp,  suc¬ 
culent,  and  bright,  the  partial  eye  and  tooth  will  find  it  just  such  a 
fresh  salad  as  a  June  morning  might  be  expected  to  bring,  —  and 
that  in  mid-winter,  mid-ocean,  or  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  !  A  slice  of  squash  or  pumpkin  as  thin  as  a  knife-blade  becomes 
in  water  as  thick  as  a  finger.  The  summer  squash  becomes  an  all- 
the-year  vegetable  for  every  climate  and  market  on  the  globe.  A 
large  load  of  pumpkins  maybe  driven  in  from  the  field  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  and  shipped  to  the  antipodes  at  noon,  in  a  barrel.  The  sweet 
potato,  which  perishes  so  rapidly  as  to  be  unknown  to  most  of  the 
markets  of  the  world,  is  reduced  to  an  imperishable  condition  by 
pneumatic  evaporation,  and  will  soon  become  a  familiar  luxury  on  the 
tables  of  the  whole  world,  and  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  alike.  Its 
slices,  placed  in  cold  water  and  brought  to  a  boil,  for  thirty  minutes, 
are  ready  for  the  table  or  frying-pan,  and  in  no  respect  inferior 
to  the  original  vegetable.  The  northern  potato,  like  the  turnip, 
improves  by  evaporation,  and  for  spring  use,  for  ship-stores,  and 
for  exportation,  leaves  its  original  out  of  sight,  occupies  little  room, 
and  is  proof  against  decay.  Parsnips  and  carrots,  grass  and  clover, 
prepared  by  pneumatic  evaporation,  will  become  practically  new 
articles  for  fodder,  fresh  at  all  seasons  and  in  all  places.  Cabbages, 
celery,  salads,  asparagus,  greens,  peas,  lima  beans,  and  other  delicate 
vegetables,  are  no  more  to  be  identified  in  their  perfection  with  a 
particular  season,  but  will  be  the  same  at  all  times,  and  to  the  end 
of  the  earth  and  seas.  Sweet  corn  is  rejuvenated.  If  taken  strictly 
in  the  milk,  and  treated  before  wilting,  either  on  or  oil*  the  cob,  it 
will  be  as  tender  and  sweet  at  the  world’s  end  as  at  the  start.  Green 
currants  and  gooseberries  retain  their  favorite  characteristics  of 
flavor  sealed  up  in  them  for  travel  and  time.  The  same  of  the 
pie-plant.  Forty  pineapples  have  been  compressed  in  a  small  cake 
which  an  infant  might  hold  in  its  hand,  and  afterwards  resurrected 
as  forty  pineapples  again. 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


673 


The  Alden  tomato  is  a  remarkable  product.  No  successful  at¬ 
tempt  had  ever  before  been  made  to  remove  the  condition  of  fermen¬ 
tation  (water)  from  this  fruit.  The  pneumatic  evaporator  reduces  the 
whole  pulp  of  the  tomato  to  a  condition  like  that  of  the  dried  fig. 
A  bushel  of  the  fruit,  after  evaporation,  is  compressed  into  a  solid 
cube  like  plug  tobacco,  measuring  four  or  five  inches  each  way. 
Every  pound  of  this  makes  eight  quarts  qf  tomatoes  in- the  original 
state.  Tomatoes  may  now  be  raised  with  advantage,  like  so  many 
other  things,  wherever  there  is  an  Alden  Evaporator  at  hand.  It  is 
impossible,  within  our  limits,  to  glance  at  one  half  of  the  important 
applications  of  this  great  invention.  To  those  named  may  be  added 
all  the  small  fruits  and  berries,  grapes,  plums,  quinces,  pears,  etc. 
The  application  to  meats,  fish,  and  clams,  is  most  satisfactory,  more 
effective  for  preservation  than  salt,  and  nearly  doubling  both  the 
nutritive  value  and  the  relish  of  the  article,  as  compared  with  the 
method  of  salting,  and  with  less  cost.  .The  drying  of  tobacco,  glue, 
india-rubber,  and  many  other  articles,  by  pneumatic  evaporation, 
will  almost  revolutionize  the  manufacture.  The  same  of  the  beet- 
sugar*  manufacture,  in  which  immense  losses  are  suffered  by  the 
deterioration  and  decay  of  the  root  crop  before  it  can  be  worked 
up.  An  analysis  of  the  Alden  beet  has  shown  that  the  saccharine 
matter  is  preserved  without  diminution  for  years. 

Mr.  Alden’s  exhausting  process,  appropriate  to  the  evaporated 
products,  forms  a  distinct  branch  of  business  of  first-class  impor¬ 
tance.  The  refuse  of  apples,  peaches,  etc.,  is  rendered  thereby  as 
valuable  as  any  part  of  the  fruit ;  being  first  evaporated  and  then 
exhausted  of  the  soluble  matter,  which  is  concentrated  without 
boiling  to  solid  jelly  of  the  richest  character,  which  will  keep  with¬ 
out  sugar  in  any  climate.  The  sweet  potato  and  pumpkin,  by  the 
same  process,  yield  a  sirup  surpassing  the  finest  manufactured  by 
our  sugar-refiners,  such  as  the  Stuarts,  alike  for  richness,  delicacy, 
and  lustre.  The  large  profit  of  raising  these  vegetables  for  sirup 
will  soon  give  them  a  leading  ^)lace  in  the  inventory  of  our  national 
wealth. 

All  these  products  are  prepared  for  market  with  little  expense  and 
with  great  rapidity.  One  evaporator,  costing  say  $2,500  for  the  en¬ 
tire  apparatus,  will  preserve  one  thousand  bushels  of  fruit  or  vegeta¬ 
bles  per  week,  at  a  total  cost  of  twenty-five  to  thirty  cents  per  bushel. 
The  apparatus  consists  of  (1)  an  evaporating-chamber,  usually  of 
wood,  five  feet  square  and  twenty  feet  high.  2.  A  revolving  endless 
chain  at  each  corner  of  the  chamber,  running  vertically,  and  carrying 


C74 


THE  ALDEN  PROCESSES. 


brackets  nine  inches  apart  to  support  the  fruit-frames.  3.  Twenty 
frames,  or  screens,  of  galvanized  iron,  on  which  the  fruit  is  spread, 
each  carrying  about  half  a  bushel.  One  of  these  frames  of  fruit  is 
laid  on  its  brackets  once  in  four  or  five  minutes,  the  chains  revolve 
one  stage  (nine  inches),  and  a  finished  frame  is  taken  out  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft  while-  the  fresh  frame  goes  in  and  starts  on  its 
journey  at  the  top.  4.  Below  the  chamber  a  steam  coil  containing 
about  three  thousand  feet  of  iron  pipe,  between  which  the  blast 
from  the  blower  passes  to  obtain  its  heat.  5.  The  blower.  6.  The 
boiler  and  engine  for  driving  the  blower  and  supplying  steam  heat  to 
the  coil  and  thence  to  the  air-blast.  The  fruit  entering  at  the  top  is 
exposed  at  first  to  that  part  of  the  blast  which  has  acquired  most 
humidity  and  become  reduced  to  a  tepid  temperature  by  its  passage 
through  the  fruit  below.  This  blast  here  takes  off  the  surface  moist¬ 
ure  from  the  fruit  rapidly  enough  to  leave  it  no  time  to  commence 
fermentation,  but  not  so  perfectly  as  to  efccrust  it.  At  every  pre¬ 
scribed  interval  the  carrying’ chains  move  the  whole  series  of  fruit- 
frames  downward  in  the  chamber  a  given  stage ;  being  removed  in 
a  finished  state  at  the  bottom,  as  fast  as  they  are  introduced  £t  the 
top.  As  the  fruit  descends,  the  blast  becomes  gradually  warmer 
and  freer  from  humidity,  until  its  highest  temperature  is  found  at 
the  lowest  interval,  where  it  is  in  most  cases  from  1G0  to  195  degrees 
Fahrenheit,  according*  to  the  nature  of  the  article  in  hand.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  Alden  blast  is  at  any  stage  a 
dry  blast.  On  the  contrary,  provision  is  made  for  imparting  moist¬ 
ure  to  the  blast  at  the  beginning ;  and  in  some  cases  it  is  found  ad¬ 
vantageous  to  reverse  the  order,  feeding  in  the  fruit  at  the  bottom 
and  taking  it  off  at  the  top. 


SOAP;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 

SOAP  NOT  REFERRED  TO  IN  THE  BIBLE.  —  INVENTED  BY  THE  GAULS  OR  GERMANS. 
—  KNOWN  TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS. — EARLY  MANUFACTURES  IN  ITALY, 

SPAIN,  FRANCE,  AND  ENGLAND. - WHAT  SOAP  DOES  IS  UNKNOWN.  —  SOAP  IS 

CHEMICALLY  A  SALT.  — EXTENT  OF  ITS  MANUFACTURE. - PROCESS  OF  MAKING 

YELLOW  SOAP.  —  DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  SOAP. — GREAT  VARIETY  OF  MATERIALS 
EMPLOYED.  —  ATTEMPT  TO  MAKE  SOAP  FROM  PETROLEUM.  —  ALUMINA  AND 
OTHER  THIRD  INGREDIENTS.  —  SAPOLIO.  —  HISTORY  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  ENOCH 

Morgan’s  sons. 

The  word  “soap”  is  found  in  two  places  in  our  “authorized  ver¬ 
sion”  of  the  Bible ;  namely,  Jeremiah  ii.  22,  and  Malachi  iii.  2.  The 
exact  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word,  however,  is  not  known,  and  the 
best  authorities  suppose  that  what  is  meant  by  it  was,  probably,  the 
ashes  of  the  glass-wort,  a  plant  common  in  the  dry  parts  of  the  East, 
and  which  may  be  used  as  a  substitute  for  soap.  Soap  itself  the  Jews 
at  that  time  had  not.  There  is  no  reason,  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson  says, 
for  believing  that  the  ancient  Egyptians,  from  whom  the  Jews  derived 
so  much  of  their  civilization,  knew  or  used  it.  Nitre,  or  a  lye  from 
the  ashes  of  glass-wort  and  similar  plants,  or  the  juice  of  sapona¬ 
ceous  plants,  was  used  instead.  So  was  fuller’s  earth,  and  so  was 
mere  washing  in  water,  accompanied  by  rubbing  or  stamping. 

Soap,  as  we  now  know  it,  appears  to  have  been  a  barbarous  rather 
than  a  civilized  invention,  and  to  have  been  discovered  by  the  Gauls 
or  Germans,  or  both,  before  the  Christian  Era.  Soft  soap  was  appar¬ 
ently  made  before  hard  soap,  as  a  potash  lye  from  the  ashes  of  trees 
was  at  first  used,  and  not  soda.  From  these  barbarians  the  Romans 
learned  to  make  it,  and  from  the  Romans,  the  Greeks,  —  an  order 
of  introduction  the  reverse  of  that  which  commonly  prevails.  Some 
kind  of  soap  —  probably  a  pretty  caustic  kind  of  soft  soap  —  was 
used  by  the  Roman  ladies  to  dye  their  hair  red  or  yellow.  Soap 
was  found  in  one  of  the  houses  of  Pompeii  (destroyed  A.  D.  79)  ;  so 
that  it  was  pretty  quickly  and  generally  adopted  by  the  most  civil¬ 
ized  people  of  ancient  times  after  they  became  acquainted  with  it. 

No  records  appear  to  be  known  of  the  continuance  of  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  soap'  during  the  first  seven  centuries  of  the  Christian  Era, 

(675) 


G7G 


SOAr;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


though  it  is  extremely  probable  that  it  was  constantly  made.  There 
is,  however,  good  authority  to  prove  the  existence  of  soap  manufac¬ 
tories  in  Italy  and  Spain  in  the  eighth  century.  About  the  twelfth 
the  business  was  established  at  Marseilles,  that  part  of  France  afford¬ 
ing  olive  oil  and  soda,  two  excellent  materials,  and  soap  has  been 
made  there  ever  since.  Within  two  centuries  afterwards  the  busi¬ 
ness  was  begun  in  England,  and  Bristol  furnished  most  of  that 
country  with  it  for  a  long  time,  at  a  cost  of  one  penny  a  pound.  In 
15*24  the  first  was  made  in  London. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  although  we  know  very  well  what  soap  is 
used  for,  and  what  it  does,  we  do  not  know  how  it  does  it. 

The  usual  statement  made  on  the  subject  is  this:  Soap,  consisting 
of  fat  and  alkali,  removes  grease  or  other  dirt  by  surrendering,  when 
dissolved  in  water,  part  of  its  alkali,  which  thereupon  proceeds  to 
combine  with  the  grease  or  dirt,  forming  a  new  material,  or  ad¬ 
ditional  portion  of  soapy  matter,  which  water  will  remove.  But  if 
this  were  the  case,  the  “  part  of  the  alkali  ”  all  alone  would  do  the 
business.  We  do  not  send  a  hundred  men  to  bring  a  parcel,  of 
whom  one  brings  it,  after  all. 

Soap  is  a  chemical  compound,  and  is,  chemically  speaking,  a  “  salt,” 
resulting  from  the  combination  of  an  acid  with  an  alkali.  The  acid 
is  a  “  fatty  acid,”  namely,  stearic,  margaric,  oleic,  etc. ;  the  alkali 
is  almost  universally  either  soda,  which  makes  hard  soap,  or  potash, 
which  makes  soft  soap.  And  soap-making  is  simply  conducting  this 
combination  of  the  acid  and  alkali. 

A  few  figures  will  show  how  important  the  soap  business  is.  At 
Marseilles  alone  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  millions 
of  pounds  of  soap  are  made  each  year.  In  1800  more  than  six 
million  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  invested  in  soap  and 
candle  factories  in  the  United  States,  turning  out  about  eighteen  and 
a  half  millions  of  dollars’  worth  annually  of  the  manufactured  articles, 
without  including  in  this  total  value  a  very  great  quantity  of  home¬ 
made  soft  soap.  In  1852  there  were  made  in  only  eighty  towns  of 
Great  Britain  (not  including  Ireland)  more  than  one  hundred  and 
five  millions  of  pounds  of  soap. 

Until  the  present  century,  soap  had  always  been  made,  to  use 
a  common  expression,  by  “rule  of  thumb”  ;  that  is,  according  to  the 
practice  which  had  grown  up  in  one  or  another  locality.  The  first 
important  scientific  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  business  was  the 
introduction  of  a  mode  of  making  artificial  soda  in  the  beginning  of 
this  century  by  Leblanc,  who  thus  supplied  to  Marseilles  the  want 


SOAP;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE.  677 

caused  by  the  war  with  Spain,  which  cut  off  the  usual  importations  of 
barilla.  Not  long  afterwards  the  celebrated  French  chemist  Chevreul 
made  a  series  of  investigations  into  oils  and  fats,  being  the  second 
important  scientific  epoch  in  the  history  of  soap,  and  which  resulted 
in  placing  the  business  of  making  both  soap  and  candles  on  a  really 
scientific  basis. 

The  best  and  clearest  account  of  the  process  of  soap-making  will 
be  given  by  following  it  through  the  works  of  a  large  and  scientifi¬ 
cally,  as  well  as  successfully,  conducted  factory.  For  the  purpose  of 
accomplishing  this  object,  the  old  established  firm  of  Enoch  Mor¬ 
gan’s  Sons,  of  New  York  City,  was  visited,  and  the  materials  fol¬ 
lowed  from  the  pan  to  the  package,  with  constant  explanations  from 
one  of  the  members  of  the  firm,  himself  a  practical  chemist  and  a 
practical  manufacturer.  For  the  present  purpose,  it  may  be  supposed 
•that  the  article  to  be  made  is  the  common  yellow  or  bar  soap ;  and 
what  is  sought  is  neither  a  strictly  scientific  statement,  nor  a  ful¬ 
ness  of  information  that  would  enable  the  reader  to  build  and  run  a 
soap-factory  for  himself,  but  a  plain  and  readable  account  of  the 
operations. 

Filling  the  central  part  of  the  first  floor  of  the  factory  of  Enoch 
Morgan’s  Sons,  near  the  foot  of  Bank  Street,  in  New  York,  is  a  range 
of  four  or  five  immense  iron  structures  called  pans.  These  extend 
from  the  floor  through  the  ceiling,  and  breast  high  into  the  room 
above.  They  are  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  wide  and  of  about  the  same 
depth,  and  will  hold,  if  filled  to  the  brim,  about  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds  each,  or,  some  eleven  or  twelve  thousand  gallons. 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  prepare  some  lye;  that  is,  a  solution  of 
caustic  soda  in  water.  This  is  done  by  the  action  of  fresh-slacked 
lime,  which,  on  being  mixed  with  carbonate  of  soda  in  water,  seizes 
the  carbonic  acid,  becomes  a  carbonate  of  lime,  and  leaves  the  soda 
in  its  caustic  state  dissolved  in  the  water.  Several  different  portions 
of  this  lye  are  prepared,  varying  in  strength. 

Next  comes  “  pasting,”  which  is  the  first  union  of  the  materials 
into  a  soap-like  form.  It  is  accomplished  by  repeatedly  and  slowly 
boiling  refined  white  tallow,  first  with  the  weakest  and  then  with 
stronger  and  stronger  lyes.  At  each  boiling,  a  successive  portion  of  the 
tallow  divides  into  its  constituents  of  oleic  and  stearic  acids  and  gly¬ 
cerine.  The  former,  which  are  “fatty  acids,”  combine  with  the  soda 
from  the  lye,  and  the  glycerine  drains  out  and  mixes  into  the  water 
of  the  lye.  After  each  boiling  the  pan  is  allowed  to  settle ;  the  light 
soap  material  rises  to  the  top,  and  the  heavy  “  spent  lye  ”  and  gly- 


678 


SOAP;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


cerine  sink  to  the  bottom,  and  are  drawn  off,  when  more  lye  is  added 
and  the  process  repeated. 

“Pasting”  is  complete  when  the  grease  is  thoroughly  “killed”; 
that  is,  when  soda  enough  has  united  with  the  stearine  to  sepa¬ 
rate  all  the  glycerine ;  which  of  course  makes  an  end  of  the  grease, 
and  puts  soap  in  its  place.  The  new  material  consists  of  little  yellow¬ 
ish  grains  (the  soap)  floating  on  the  liquid  of  the  “  spent  lye.” 

After  pasting  is  complete,  a  third  or  fourth  as  much  resin  as  there 
was  tallow  is  added  in  coarse  powder,  and  stirred  in.  The  effect  of 
the  resin  is  to  improve  the  yellow  color  of  the  soap,  to  make  it  more 
uniform  in  texture,  and  softer  and  easier  of  solution  in  water. 

The  next  process  is  to  add  an  excess  of  solution  of  caustic  soda 
over  what  is  necessary  to  thoroughly  saponify  the  grease  and  resin. 
After  settling,  this  excess  is  run  off,  and  the  soap  is  now  ready  for 
finishing.  This  finishing  is  done  by  thinning  down  the  soap  by’ 
heat  and  adding  water  to  it  until  the  heavy  impurities  sink  to  the 
bottom,  while  the  light  ones' rise  to  the  top.  Upon  once  more  set¬ 
tling  the  pan,  the  soap  collects  in  the  upper  part  of  it,  not  now  in 
the  grained  state  of  the  “  paste,”  but  in  a  clear,  uniform,  semi-trans¬ 
parent  molasses-like  fluid.  On  the  top  floats  a  scum  a  few  inches 
thick,  which  the  workmen  call  the  “fob”;  it  is  yellow  and  light  of 
structure,  with  foam-white  scales  and  light  impurities  about  it. 
Down  below,  in  the  bottom  of  the  pan,  is  the  heavy  sullen  mass  of 
spent  lye,  and  next  above  it  a  layer  of  imperfect  soap,  containing 
a  certain  portion  of  impurities,  and  which  is  called  by  the  workman 
the  “  nigger.”  The  word  appears  to  be  quite  an  old  one,  and  to  be 
a  true  derivative  from  the  Latin  niger ,  black,  as  the  stuff  itself  is 
dark  colored. 

As  soon  as  the  soap  is  cool  enough,  and  before  it  is  too  cool,  it  is 
ladled  out  of  the  pan  into  “  frames.”  These  are  in  the  form  of  a 
large  deep  bureau-drawer  set  up  edgeways,  and  each  will  hold  about 
twelve  hundred  pounds  of  soap.  They  are  open,  however,  at  the  top, 
corresponding  with  what  would  be  the  front  of  the  drawer.  They 
were  formerly  made  by  laying  square  wooden  frames  one  above  the 
other,  someM'hat  as  a  log-cabin  is  built,  but  are  at  present  usually  of 
iron,  which  cools  much  faster. 

When  cool,  the  iron  frame  is  removed,  and  the  great  lump  of 
soap  —  also  called  a  frame  —  is  left  standing  naked  all  by  itself. 
^  liile  still  soft  and  helpless  it  is  slit  horizontally  into  slabs ;  these 
are  cut  perpendicularly  into  bars,  and  these  bars,  whose  length  rep¬ 
resents  the  tliickness  of  the  frame,  are  the  well-known  “bar  soap.” 


SOAP  MANUFACTORY  OF  E.  MORGAN'S  SONS, 
(Inside  View.) 


* 


*  • 

. 


* 

'  ■  . 


• 

I 


I 


t 


SOAP;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


681 


Swiftly  the  stamp  of  “  Enoch  Morgan’s  Sons  ”  is  spatted  upon  the 
top  of  the  upper  layer  of  bars ;  they  are  laid  into  a  box ;  spat,  spat, 
spat,  goes  the  stamp  again,  and  the  next  layer  is  packed ;  and  in  a 
few  minutes  the  whole  twelve  hundred  pounds  are  boxed,  nailed, 
labelled,  and  ready  for  shipment. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  is  the  only  soap  made  by  the 
firm,  by  any  means.  The  number  of  kinds  and  styles  is  very  con¬ 
siderable,  and,  from  the  great  number  of  different  practicable  combi¬ 
nations  of  materials  and  variations  of  process,  can  be  increased  almost 
without  limit.  Thus,  the  house  of  Enoch  Morgan’s  Sons  not  only 
manufactures  large  quantities  of  the  yellow  or  bar  soap,  which  we 
have  been  following  through  the  process  of  its  manufacture,  but 
regularly  supplies  other  kinds.  For  instance  may  be  mentioned 
the  “mottled  soap,”  usually  termed  Castile  soap,  probably  from  hav¬ 
ing  been  first  made  in  Spain,  where  the  soap  business  was  very 
ancient.  This  mottling  is  accomplished  by  keeping  the  soap  thick, 
so  that  the  “nigger”  cannot  fall  down  through  it  to  the  bottom,  but 
has  to  gather  into  streaks  and  veins  throughout  its  substance,  the 
purer  and  whiter  soap  doing  the  same.  If  the  coloring  matter  thus 
supplied  is  not  sufficient,  a  proper  quantity  of  oxide  of  iron  is 
added.  This  mottled  soap  is  a  harder  and  befter  article  than  the 
resin  soap,  and  dissolves  more  slowly  in  water.  Again,  the  firm 
makes  a  soap  with  cocoa  oil,  which  is  hard,  light,  and  will  wash 
with  salt  water.  This  is  well  known  as  “  salt-water  soap,”  or 
“  marine  soap.”  It  is  unnecessary  to  enumerate  further. 

Many  different  materials  are  used  in  making  soaps,  and  many 
modifications  of  the  process  above  described  are  employed,  —  some 
cold,  some  hot,  some  under  pressure,  etc. ;  but  they  all  come  under 
the  one  brief  statement  of  a  chemical  union  of  caustic  alkali  with 
the  acid  part  of  a  fat  or  oil.  Tallow,  suet,  butter,  spermaceti,  whale 
oil,  fish  oil,  goose-grease,  horse-fat,  and  many  more,  have  all  been 
used.  Even  human  fat  has  been  made  into  soap,  which,  Professor 
Dussauce  says,  “  dries  quickly,  and  turns  yellow.”  An  equal  or 
greater  number  of  vegetable  oils  have  been  tried,  including  olive 
oil,  linseed  oil,  nut  oil,  poppy-seed  oil,  castor  oil,  sunflower-seed  oil, 
cotton-seed  oil,  cocoa  and  palm  oils,  etc.,  and  quite  a  number  of 
these  different  fats  and  oils  have  not  only  been  manufactured  exper¬ 
imentally,  but  are  regularly  used  in  the  business.  Even  turpen¬ 
tine,  wax,  and  resin,  with  alkalies,  will  form  soaps,  though  not  very 
good  ones.  Among  the  numerous  improvements  that  have  been 
devised  in  soap-making  have  been  a  number  of  plans  for  making 


i 


G82 


SOAP;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


soaps  from  petroleum.  The*  blunder  of  expecting  a  soap  from 
petroleum  because  it  is  greasy  is  a  good  deal  like  expecting  that 
alcohol  will  put  .out  a  fire  because  it  is  a  fluid.  That  which  com¬ 
bines  with  the  alkali  must  be  an  acid ;  to  be  such  an  acid,  it  must 
have  oxygen  in  it.  Now  there  is  no  oxygen  in  petroleum,  and 
therefore  it  has  not  in  it  what  can  make  soap. 

The  variety  of  alkalies  available  for  soap-making  is  not  so  great 
as  that  of  oils,  and  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  any  besides  soda  and 
potash  are  commercially  used  in  the  business.  .  There  exists  a  pro¬ 
cess  for  using,  instead  of  soda,  an  “  aluminate  of  soda,”  consisting  of 
nearly  equal  quantities  of  alumina  and  soda,  which  is  claimed  to 
give  a  soap  of  much  greater  cleansing  power  than  soda  alone.  Am¬ 
monia  has  been  employed  as  the  alkali  of  a  soap  for  medical  use. 
Lime  or  baryta,  being  alkaline  earths,  will  make  soap.  Some  me¬ 
tallic  oxides  will  do  so ;  and  a  soap  made  by  boiling  olive  oil  with 
oxide  of  lead  is  known  as  “  lead  soap,”  and  is  used  in  medicine,  as 
is  a  so-called  “  arsenical  soap.” 

A  certain  number  of  other  matters  are  used  like  the  alumina  just 
mentioned  as  third  ingredients  in  soap,  besides  coloring  matters  and 
scents.  Adulterations  of  many  kinds  have  been  practised,  not 
merely  by  mixing  cheap  oils  with  costly  ones,  and  the  like,  but  by 
adding  mashed  potatoes,  or  starch,  or  fine  clay,  or  marble  dust,  or 
sulphate  of  baryta,  to  tallow,  or  to  the  soap  itself. 

Several  materials  have,  however,  been  avowedly  and  openly  mixed 
.with  soaps  as  improvements.  The  use  of  resin  has  been  described. 
Silex,  either  as  sand  or  in  the  form  of  “  water-glass,”  or  soluble  glass 
(silicate  of  soda),  is  one  of  the  most  common  ;  and  some  of  the 
soaps  made  in  this  way  are  extremely  efficient  and  useful.  Modified 
soaps  for  various  special  purposes  are  made  by  mixing  lime  water, 
dissolved  alum,  etc.,  with  soap  already  made. 

One  of  the  best  known  of  all  these  modifications  of  soap  is  that 
known  as  “  Sapolio,”  invented  and  introduced  by  the  firm  of  Enoch 
Morgan’s  Sons,  already  referred  to.  This  is  a  refined  hard  white 
soap,  with  which,  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  process,  a  very  finely 
divided  powder  is  incorporated,  the  result  being  a  material  possessed 
of  an  extraordinary  union  of  chemical  and  mechanical  cleansing 
powers.  It  is  intended  not  so  much  for  purifying  cloths  as  for  clean¬ 
ing  paint,  woodwork,  brass,  copper,  windows,  statuary,  machinery, 
oilcloth,  polishing  bright  surfaces,  etc.,  and  its  nature  is  such  as 
to  require  a  particular  mode  of  application  ;  but  if  the  printed 
directions  are  complied  with  it  has  extraordinary  efficacy.  It  has, 


SOAP;  ITS  HISTORY  AND  MANUFACTURE. 


C83 


however,  been  used  with  much  success  for  removing  grease-spots 
from  clothes,  etc.,  —  a  quality  which  was  brought  before  the  public 
once,  and  discovered  twice,  by  a  sort  of  accident.  When  the  Sapo- 
lio  was  first  introduced,  and  all  the  force  of  the  house  of  Enoch 
Morgan’s  Sons  had  their  hands  and  heads  full  to  overflowing  with 
making  it  and  talking  of  its  virtues,  one  of  their  employees,  on  go¬ 
ing  home  one  evening,  found  his  wife  at  her  wits’-end  over  a  desper¬ 
ate  grease-spot  on  the  clothes  of  her  son.  “  Pshaw !  ”  exclaimed  the 
father,  half  vexed  and  half  joking,  and  recurring  to  what  had  been 
praised  in  his  hearing  all  day  as  equal  to  almost  everything,  from 
purifying  an  evil  conscience  down  to  scouring  paint,  —  “pshaw!  Try 
Sapolio  !  ”  The  mother  promptly  did  so,  and  the  Sapolio  promptly 
took  out  the  grease.  This  was  reported  at  head-quarters  next  day, 
but  not  much  notice  was  taken  of  it  until,  at  a  subsequent  period, 
Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  published  in  his  newspaper  a  strongly 
worded  commendation  of  the  Sapolio  for  the  very  same  good  quality, 
which,  it  seems,  he  had  discovered  very  much  in  the  same  way. 
“  You  might  go  and  ask  Beecher  for  a  recommendation  till  the  day 
of  judgment,  you  know,  and  not  get  it,”  observed  the  gentleman 
who  told  this  story  ;  “  and  so  we  think  that  recommendation  means 
something.” 

Like  many  of  the  soundest  firms  in  New  York,  the  house  of  Enoch 
Morgan’s  Sons  has  quite  a  history.  It  was  founded  by  the  maternal 
grandfather  of  the  present  partners,  Mr.  D.  R.  Williams,  about  sixty 
years  ago,  at  the  same  site  now  occupied  by  their  down-towm  store, 
No.  211  Washington  Street.  The  business  has  thus  descended 
directly  and  prosperously  to  the  third  generation  of  hereditary  own¬ 
ers,  and  seems  likely  to  stand  as  much  longer.  In  the  days  of 
its  origin  soap  and  candles  were  commonly  manufactured  at  the 
same  establishment,  the  fats  used  being  applicable  for  either  pur¬ 
pose.  The  making  of  candles  was  kept  up  until  some  ten  or  fifteen 
years  ago,  when  the  use  of  those  ancient  artificial  lights  had  be¬ 
come  so  diminished,  in  consequence  of  the  introduction  of  gas, 
burning-fluid,  kerosene,  etc.,  that  it  was  given  up,  and  the  only 
work  done  at  present  by  the  firm  besides  soap-making  is*the  prepara¬ 
tion  by  wholesale  of  a  few  chemicals,  where  the  processes  can  be  so 
carried  on  as  to  combine  economically  with  the  soap  processes. 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 

THE  IRON  AGE.  —  THE  SPIRIT  OF  MODERN  INDUSTRY.  —  THE  WORKING  OF 
IRON.  —  MESSRS.  WOOD,  LIGHT  AND  CO.  — THEIR  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THIS 
ART.  — THEIR  IMPROVED  BOLT  CUTTER.  — A  DESCRIPTION  OF  ITS  WORK¬ 
ING. —  THE  DOUBLE  MILLING  MACHINE.  —  INVENTED  BY  MR.  WOOD.  — A 
DESCRIPTION  OF  IT.  —  AN  AUTOMATIC  SHAFTING  LATHE,  INVENTED  BY  MR. 
WOOD.  —  ITS  ADVANTAGES  DESCRIBED.  —  A  CUTTING-OFF  AND  CENTRING 
MACHINE,  INVENTED  BY  MR.  WOOD.  —  ITS  OPERATION  DESCRIBED.  —  PLAN¬ 
ING  IRON.  —  THE  WARREN  PATENT  SHAPING  MACHINE,  INVENTED  BY  MR. 
WARREN.  — A  DESCRIPTION  OF  ITS  ADVANTAGES.  — THE  DOWN  FEEDER.  — 
IMPROVEMENTS  ON  THE  SLOTTING  MACHINE. 

In  the  classification  of  the  eras  of  social  advance,  the  present  age 
may  well  be  called  the  iron  age.  The  most  widely  diffused  of  the 
metals,  forming,  as  it  does,  a  constituent  part  of  almost  everything 
we  see  about  us  in  the  material  world,  iron  has,  in  the  present  age, 
become  the  most  important  adjunct  of  the  industrial  advance  which 
characterizes  the  present  century. 

By  the  slow  but  sure  process  of  generations,  mankind  has  come 
to  learn  that  our  position  in  nature  is  dependent  upon  ourselves,  and 
that  only  as  we  apply  ourselves  can  we  obtain  control  over  the 
conditions  in  which  we  are  placed.  As  a  corollary  of  the  advance 
which  the  philosophy  of  the  present  day  has  made  over  the  meta¬ 
physical  vagaries  of  the  past,  the  industry  of  the  present  era  has 
partaken  of  the  same  positive  spirit,  and  by  observation  and  ex¬ 
periment  has  obtained  the  ability  to  perform  operations  which  for¬ 
merly  appeared  out  of  the  reach  of  human  capacity. 

In  hardly  any  other  special  branch  of  industry  is  this  shown 
more  thoroughly  than  in  the  working  of  iron.  The  ingenuity  of 
the  inventors  has  kept  pace  with  the  increasing  requirements  for  new 
processes  to  meet  the  new  demands,  and  the  increasing  necessity 
for  economy  of  time  in  the  greater  activity  of  our  industrial  life. 
At  the  present  day  the  application  of  machinery  to  the  working 
of  iron  has  become  almost  universal,  and  the  preparation  of  such 

(684) 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 


685 


machinery  a  special  branch  of  industry  of  great  and  growing  im¬ 
portance. 

Among  the  numerous  firms  engaged  in  this  specialty,  that  of 
Messrs.  Wood,  Light  &  Co.,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  may 
be  justly  selected  as  especially  representative.  Not  only  does 
this  firm  hold  this  position  from  the  importance  of  their  business, 
and  its  deserved  reputation,  but  also  from  the  fact  that  the  mem¬ 
bers  composing  it  have,  by  their  various  inventions,  done  much 
towards  extending  the  application  of  machinery  to  the  working  in 
iron,  and  opening  new  fields  for  the  use  of  iron  in  the  arts.  Being 
themselves  practical  mechanics,  and  having  a  knowledge,  from  ex¬ 
perience,  of  what  was  needed  in  the  application  of  machinery  to 
the  working  of  iron,  the  members  of  this  firm  have  been  enabled  to 
devote  their  inventive  talents  to  supplying  the  wants  universally 
felt  for  improvements  in  certain  directions,  while  the  reception 
their  inventions  have  met,  is  a  proof  of  the  general  existence  of 
the  want  they  have  supplied. 

At  their  establishment  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  they  have 
the  appliances  for  making  any  and  every  kind  of  machinery, 
though  their  business  is  chiefly  confined  to  certain  specialties, 
wrhich  they  control,  as  they  own  the  patents.  A  description  of 
some  of  these  will  show  the  character  of  the  modern  appliances 
for  working  iron. 

First  we  will  mention  an  improved  bolt  cutter,  the  patent  right 
to  which  they  control.  This  simply  constructed  but  ingenious 
machine  is  a  great  improvement  upon  the  methods  formerly  in. 
use.  Its  chief  features  are  four  movable  dies  placed  in  an  adjust¬ 
able  holder,  and,  by  a  simple  and  durable  arrangement,  opened 
and  closed  by  the  automatic  action  of  the  machine,  or  by  hand  if 
necessary.  For  all  square-headed  bolts  it  has  a  holder  into  which 
a  bolt  can  be  put,  or  from  which  it  can  be  removed,  in  an  instant, 
without  the  use  of  a  screw  or  wrench.  When  the  bolt  is  placed 
in  the  holder  and  moved  forward  until  it  meets  the  dies,  a  lever  on 
the  front  of  the  machine  is  pressed  down,  the  bolt  enters  the  hold¬ 
er  and  is  carried  on  by  the  action  of  the  machine  until  the  threads 
are  cut  into  the  desired  length.  Then  an  adjustable  rod  lifts  a 
latch,  and  a  hand  falls  into  a  notch  and  holds  a  cam,  while  the  dies 
revolve  and  are  instantly  opened,  as  a  cam  on  the  driving  gear 
presses  a  rod  against  the  bolt  holder,  and  the  bolt  is  released  and 
thrown  out  of  the  dies,  which  are  then  ready  for  repeating  the 
process  upon  another  bolt. 


686 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 


The  dies  and  die-holders  are  all  made  to  fit  a  steel  templet,  and 
are  drilled  and  tapped  in  a  machine,  in  every  respect  exactly  alike. 
The  holders  in  every  machine  are  so  made  that  several  sets  of  dies 
will  work  equally  well  in  them,  so  that  the  operator  can  supply 
himself  with  dies  of  any  required  size  from  the  manufacturer,  at  a 
cheaper  rate  than  they  could  be  made  by  any  one  else  not  having 
the  same  facilities. 

In  this  machine  the  size  of  the  thread  on  the  bolts  may  be  in¬ 
stantaneously  adjusted  to  any  variation  in  the  nut.  The  machine 
is  entirely  automatic,  requiring  only  to  be  11  fed/7  when  it  performs 
its  work  with  more  accuracy  than  could  be  done  by  hand. 
When  the  dies  of  the  machine  become  worn  and  dulled,  they  may 
be  annealed  and  re-set  in  the  machine,  and  re-cut  in  place,  the 
ingenious  device  by  which  the  dies  are  made  to  accommodate 
themselves  to  the  different  sizes  of  the  bolts,  acting  now  to  adjust 
the  dies  themselves,  made  shorter  by  the  process  of  re-cutting,  so 
that  in  relation  to  each  other  the  aperture  between  them  shall  be 
no  longer  than  it  was  before.  In  this  way  the  difficulty  attending 
the  wearing  away  of  the  dies,  and  the  shortening  of  the  die  plates 
by  repeated  re-cutting,  is  overcome,  and  the  dies  are  made  useful 
until  their  substance  is  worn  away. 

Another  machine  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Wood,  Light  &  Co. 
is  a  double  milling  machine,  which  was  recently  invented  and  pat¬ 
ented  by  Mr.  Wood.  This  machine  is  already  in  great  demand 
among  manufacturers,  since  it  not  only  accomplishes  twice  as  much 
as  a  single  milling  machine,  but  performs  it  with  greater  accuracy. 
It  is  found  to  be  of  especial  importance  in  the  milling  of  gun 
work,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  sewing  machines,  besides  a  thou¬ 
sand  other  branches  of  industry  to  which  its  rapidity  of  work  and 
convenience  make  it  peculiarly  applicable. 

Another,  invention  by  Mr.  Wood,  and  which  is  manufactured  by 
the  firm,  is  an  automatic  shafting  lathe.  This  lathe  is  noticeable 
not  only  for  the  principle  upon  which  it  is  constructed,  but  also 
for  the  amount  of  work  it  will  do,  as  it  will  turn  thirty  feet  of 
two  inch  shafting  an  hour,  which  is  fully  four  times  as  much  as 
any  ordinary  lathe  can  do. 

The  great  difficulty  in  turning  iron  rapidly  arises  from  the  heat 
generated  by  friction  in  the  iron  worked,  and  also  in  the  cutting 
tool,  the  temper  of  which  is  destroyed  if  the  work  is  driven  fast 
enough  to  make  its  heat  excessive.  To  overcome  this  difficulty, 
turners  in  iron  have  been  accustomed  to  use  water  for  the  purpose 


WOOD,  LIGHT  AND  COMPANY'S  MANUFACTORY;  WORCESTER,  MASS. 


IMPROVED  PATENT  AXLE  LATHE. 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 


689 


of  keeping*  the  cutting. tool  cool,  allowing  it  to  drip  continually 
upon  the  iron. 

This  invention,  however,  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  this 
difficulty,  is  much  more  effective.  It  consists  in  making  the 
bed  of  the  lathe,  through  its  entire  length,  a  trough,  or  open  tank, 
which  is  kept  nearly  filled  with  water  impregnated  with  soda,  and 
which  is  constantly  distributed  over  the  shafting  by  pumps  worked 
by  the  same  power  that  works  the  cutting  tools.  Of  these  tools, 
three  are  kept  in  operation  at  the  same  time,  being  placed  in  line, 
the  first  cutting  off  the  “  scaling  chip,”  the  second  removing  the 
next  layer  of  “  chips,”  and  the  third  finishing  the  work. 

This  lathe  is  also  so  constructed  that  the  soda  water  is  never 
dashed  or  sprinkled  over  the  sides  of  the  tank,  though  it  is  pumped 
continually  upon  the  work,  so  that  the  floor  under  the  tank  is  kept 
constantly  perfectly  dry.  This  practical  consideration  for  the 
health  and  comfort  of  the  workmen  is  well  worthy  of  notice. 

Another  invention  to  use  with  this  consists  of  a  "  cutting-off  and 
centring  machine.”  This  ingenious  piece  of  mechanism  cuts  off 
and  centres  shafting  in  order  to  prepare  it  for  turning.  This  has 
heretofore  been  a  tedious  operation,  which  has  frequently  been  per¬ 
formed  unsuccessfully,  but  by  this  machine  it  is  accomplished  reg¬ 
ularly,  easily,  and  in  a  scientific  manner.  The  machine  consists 
of  a  hollow  cylinder,  or  “  spindle,”  made  to  revolve  on  its  bear¬ 
ings,  and  having  at  each  end  a  “  scroll  chuck,”  by  which  the 
shafting,  or  work  to  be  cut  and  centred,  is  confined  centrally  vuth 
perfect  precision.  The  shafting  is  then  cut  off  at  exact  right  an¬ 
gles  to  its  length,  when  by  a  most  ingenious  combination  of  gear¬ 
ing  exactly  graduated  to  the  work  to  be  done,  the  shafting  is  cen¬ 
tred  and  counter-sunk  ready  for  turning.  The  whole  of  this  work 
—  cutting,  centring,  and  counter-sinking  —  requiring  by  this  ma¬ 
chine  not  a  sixth  part  of  the  time  consumed  in  accomplishing  the 
same  results  by  the  old  methods,  while  also  by  this  machine  the 
entire  series  of  operations  are  accurately  performed  by  unskilled 
labor ;  any  one  who  can  turn  a  crank  being  able  to  put  the  shaft¬ 
ing  in  proper  position,  and  the  setting  of  the  centring  tool  requir¬ 
ing  only  a  simple  motion  of  the  hand. 

In  the  process  of  planing  iron,  which  has  come  to  be  so  gener¬ 
ally  used,  great  improvements  have  been  introduced  by  this 
firm.  The  largest  planing  machine  in  the  United  States  is  in  the 
Navy  Yard  at  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  in  which  a  piece  of 
iron  forty-two  feet  long  by  twenty-five  wide  can  be  planed. 


C90 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 


The  iron  planer  is  generally  a  machine  consisting  of  a  long 
bed-piece  supported  by  legs,  upon  which  a  movable  table  rests, 
and  which  is  worked  by  cog-wheel  machinery  underneath  the 
table.  Above  the  table,  and  fixed  to  the  bed-piece,  rises  what 
is  known  as  an  “  upright/ 1  on  which  is  arranged  a  cross-bar,  so 
adjusted  to  the  upright  as  to  be  able  to  move  up  and  down,  ac¬ 
commodating  itself  to  the  thickness  of  the  iron  to  be  planed.  The 
iron  is  placed  upon  the  table,  and  this  being  moved  as  required 
along  the  bed-plate,  brings  the  iron  under  the  knife,  or  planer, 
which  is  affixed  to  the  cross-bar. 

Planers  of  this  kind  are  known  as  rack-feed  planers,  in  contra¬ 
distinction  to  the  old  chain-feed  planers,  both  names  being  derived 
from  the  appliance  by  which  the  table  is  moved,  either  with  cogs 
or  with  a  chain. 

An  improved  planer  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Wood,  Light  & 
Co.  is  known  as  the  Warren  Patent  Shaping  Machine,  and  is 
the  invention  of  Mr.  William  II.  Warren,  in  the  employ  of  this 
firm,  and  was  patented  in  1868,  and  again  in  1871.  Its  manufac¬ 
ture  already  forms  an  important  part  of  the  production  of  this 
vast  industrial  establishment. 

In  the  old  style  of  planers  many  difficulties  remained  unsur¬ 
mounted.  They  were  unable  to  plane,  without  great  trouble, 
many  forms  of  iron  ;  or,  if  a  long  piece  of  iron  was  to  be  planed, 
and  was  laid  upon  the  table  cross-wise,  that  portion  of  it  which 
projected  over  the  table  needed  to  be  propped  up  with  care. 
Otherwise  there  was  constant  danger  lest  it  should  tip  up  the  ta¬ 
ble,  raising  it  from  the  grooves  in  which  it  slides,  and  thus  disar¬ 
range  the  planer.  It  was  also  almost  impossible  with  the  old  style 
of  planer  to  plane  the  iron  regularly.  Another  important  objec¬ 
tion  against  the  old  form  is,  that  it  did  not  sufficiently  econo¬ 
mize  time,  since  one  half  of  the  time  spent  in  the  operation  was 
lost  while  the  table  was  returning  to  its  original  position  after 
having  passed  the  iron  under  the  tool. 

This  was  particularly  the  case  when  large  pieces  were  to  be 
planed.  Besides,  too,  the  old  planers  were  adjusted  to  only  one 
rate  of  speed,  and  could  not  plane  small  pieces  of  iron  proportion¬ 
ally  faster  than  large  ones.  This  will  appear  more  forcibly  when 
it  is  considered  that  in  planing  a  short  piece  the  machine  has  to 
run  back  oftener  than  in  planing  a  long  one,  each  return  being  so 
much  loss  of  time. 

In  undertaking  to  practically  obviate  these  objections,  a 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 


691 


machine  is  produced  in  which  a  piece  of  iron  of  any  size, 
or  any  form  or  shape,  whether  circular,  angular,  or  what  not,  can 
be  planed.  His  improved  planer  consists  of  a  bed-piece  resting 
upon  legs,  upon  which  is  fixed  a  “  shoe/’  so  called,  in  which  is 
adjusted  a  “  sliding  ram/’  which  holds  at  its  head  the  cutting 
tool.  This  ram  is  made  to  move  forward  by  eccentric  machinery, 
of  the  crank-motion  kind,  carrying  the  tool  over  the  work  to  be 
planed,  instead  of  the  work  being  carried  under  the  stationary  cut¬ 
ting  tool,  as  in  the  old  form.  By  this  improved  method  the  desir¬ 
able  end  is  gained  of  causing  the  cutting  tool,  after  it  has  accom¬ 
plished  its  work,  or  gone  as  far  as  it  can  reach,  to  return  suddenly 
to  its  original  position,  thus  saving  about  forty  per  cent,  of  the 
time  heretofore  occupied  in  planing  a  given  piece  of  iron. 

The  inventor  has  also  added  a  device  by  which  the  stroke  of 
the  cutting  tool  can  be  made  long  or  short,  or  light  or  heavy,  at 
the  option  of  the  operator  who  guides  it,  and  this  while  the  ma¬ 
chine  is  in  operation,  no  time  being  thus  lost  in  adjusting  the  tool. 
By  this  improvement,  any  portion  of  a  piece  of  iron  requiring  to 
be  planed  can  be  subjected  to  the  action  of  the  tool,  while  an¬ 
other  portion  of  the  same  piece  may  be  left  untouched.  The 
machine  is  also  automatic,  and  may  be  left  to  do  any  regular  piece 
.  of  work  itself,  without  any  fear  of  its  making  a  mistake. 

To  the  side  of  the  bed-plate  is  fixed  a  sliding  table,  upon  which  the 
piece  of  iron  to  be  planed  is  placed,  and  which  gradually  moves  by 
regulated  machinery  so  as  to  push  the  piece  to  be  planed  sidewise 
under  the  cutting  tool.  By.  a  device  of  cogs  and  a  table  crank, 
invented  by  him,  this  sliding  table,  is  rapidly  put  back  to  its 
starting-point,  after  having  once  run  to  its  end  along  the  bed- 
piece,  thus  again  saving  a  large  proportion  of  time. 

The  machine  is  also  supplied  with  a  most  ingenious,  though 
seemingly  complicated  device,  by  which  what  is  called  the  “  down 
feed  ”  is  effected  automatically,  thus  saving  the  time  of  the  work¬ 
man  and  securing  greater  evenness  in  the  work.  This  “  down 
feeder,”  or  “  angular  feeder,”  as  it  is  also  called,  is  automatic  at 
any  point  or  angle.  The  side  sliding  table,  on  which  the  work  is 
placed,  is  moved  up  and  down,  to  suit  the  work  to  be  planed,  by 
a  perpendicular  screw  operating  in  a  novel  way,  by  which  much 
time  is  saved  to  the  workman. 

The  machine  is,  in  short,  one  of  the  most  noticeable  triumphs 
of  invention  in  the  department  of  constructive  machinery,  and 
being  controlled  by  Messrs.  Wood,  Light  &  Co.,  gives  them  great 

40 


G92 


IRON  WORKING  MACHINERY. 


industrial  advantages.  Mr.  Warren  has  also  patented  improve¬ 
ments  upon  the  slotting  machine  manufactured  by  this  firm,  by 
which  “  a  positive,  automatic,  total  relief  of  the  cutting  tool  when 
on  its  return  ”  is  secured,  thus  preventing  the  wearing  of  the 
tool  and  the  roughening  of  the  work,  while  at  the  same  time 
making  the  positive  cutting  of  the  tool  more  accurate  and  smooth 
than  by  any  former  process. 

These  improvements  accomplish  a  saving  in  the  operation  of 
slotting  machines  estimated  at  fully  forty  per  cent.  With  these 
improvements,  the  position  of  the  ram  and  the  length  of  the  stroke 
are  both  adjusted  while  the  machine  is  in  operation,  whereas  to 
accomplish  either  of  these  things  formerly  required  the  stopping 
of  the  machine,  and  a  consequent  loss  of  time.  This  slotting  ma¬ 
chine  is  a  most  convenient  tool  to  have  in  a  machine  shop,  it 
being  adapted  not  only  to  slotting  proper,  but  to  planing  at  any 
angle,  or  circularly,  or  in  any  other  form,  as,  for  example,  the 
strap  for  connecting  rods,  which  presents  in  its  surface  curves, 
circles,  planes,  right  angles,  inner  and  outer  planes  and  edges. 


* 


AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS. 

1HE  INTRODUCTION  OF  MACHINERY  INTO  AGRICULTURE.  —  THE  NECESSITY  OF 
HAND  IMPLEMENTS.  —  THE  APPLICATION  OF  MACHINERY  TO  THEIR  PRODUC¬ 
TION.  —  THE  IMPROVEMENTS  MADE  IN  THEM.  —  THE  AUBURN  MANUFACTUR¬ 
ING  COMPANY.  —  THE  VARIETY  OF  THEIR  WARES.  —  THEIR  BUSINESS  FACIL¬ 
ITIES.  —  PROCESS  OF  SCYTHE  MAKING.  —  SOCKET  HOES  AND  EYE  HOES. 

- HOOKS  AND  FORKS  OF  ALL  KINDS.  —  RAKES.  —  WOODEN  AGRICULTURAL 

IMPLEMENTS.  —  POTATO  DIGGERS.  —  BRANCH  ESTABLISHMENT  IN  NEW  YORK. 
—  THE  COMPANY’S  WORKS.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THEIR  BUSINESS.  —  THE 
REASON  FOR  THEIR  REPUTATION. 

The  importance  of  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  implements 
in  this  country  is  too  evident  to  be  insisted  upon  here.  Despite, 
too,  the  application  of  machinery  to  agriculture,  there  is,  and  most 
probably  always  will  be,  a  necessity  for  performing  many  of  the 
operations  by  hand,  and  the  preparation  of  the  implements  for 
doing  this  work  is  one  of  the  chief  industries  of  the  country.  In 
this  department  of  industry,  as  in  almost  every  other,  this  century 
has  been  marked  by  great  improvements  in  the  style  of  the  imple¬ 
ments  used,  by  the  application  of  machinery  to  the  process  of 
their  manufacture,  and  by  the  cheapening  of  their  price,  resulting 
from  the  industrial  organization  of  the  business,  in  accordance 
with  the  new  demands  of  the  present  phase  of  civilization. 

One  of  the  chief  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  hand 
agricultural  implements  in  the  United  States  is  the  Auburn  Manu¬ 
facturing  Company,  situated  at  Auburn,  N.  Y.  Among  the  arti¬ 
cles  they  manufacture,  the  following,  selected  from  their  price 
list,  will  give  an  idea  of  the  variety  of  tools  which  modern  inven¬ 
tion  has  designed  for  facilitating  the  operations  of  agriculture  : 
Grain  scythes,  grass  scythes,  bush  or  bramble  scythes,  hay  knives, 
straw  knives,  western  corn  knives,  manure  forts,  hay  and  straw 
forks,  spading  forks,  socket  and  shank  hoes,  rakes,  potato  hooks, 
manure  drags,  potato  diggers,  weeding  hoes,  cast  steel  garden 
rakes,  planters’  eye  hoes,  etc.,  etc. 


(693) 


C94 


AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS. 


The  location  of  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company’s  works, 
at  a  never-failing  water  power  furnished  by  Owasco  Lake,  enables 
them  to  obtain  the  power  for  carrying  on  their  operations  at  the 
cheapest  rate,  while  the  junction  of  the  New  York  Central  and 
Southern  Central  Railways,  which  lies  in  close  proximity  to  their 
establishment,  enables  them  to  enjoy  every  facility  for  receiving 
their  material  and  forwarding  their  goods  to  all  parts  of  the  coun¬ 
try  with  the  least  expense,  and  to  this  fact,  together  with  the 
advantages  of  healthful  climate,  increasing  market,  cheap  fuel,  and 
extensive  application  of  improved  machinery,  directed  by  experi¬ 
enced  and  competent  managers,  is  mainly  due  their  eminent  suc¬ 
cess  ;  and  when  it  is  considered  that  not  one  fourth  of  the  arable 
land  in  the  country  is  in  cultivation,  and  that  the  new  states  are 
so  rapidly  increasing  in  population,  it  is  easy  to  calculate  what 
will  be  the  demand  for  agricultural  hand  tools.  Two  water  wheels 
are  in  use,  the  aggregate  capacity  of  which  is  four  hundred  horse 
power. 

The  material  used  by  the  Auburn  Company  in  the  production 
of  their  wares  is  the  best  to  be  obtained ;  that  used  in  the 
scythes  is  the  best  Swedish  iron.  This  is  received  in  bars, 
which  are  welded  to  steel  under  trip  hammers,  and  cut  into 
the  proper  lengths  for  the  rolls.  The  rods  thus  prepared  are 
then  placed  under  heavy  rollers  and  lengthened  to  the  required 
size.  After  this  process  they  are  placed  under  a  plating  ham¬ 
mer  and  shaped  out.  The  plates  are  now  placed  under  a  “  back 
turning  machine,”  which  bends  them  on  the  back  edge,  forming 
the  stiff  ridge  along  the  back,  and  giving  them  the  requisite 
stiffness  and  strength.  They  are  next  placed  under  a  trip  ham¬ 
mer  to  receive  the  “  set  ”  or  inclination  of  the  back  to  the 
guard  plate,  by  which  the  scythe  is  further  stiffened.  The  heel  of 
the  scythe  is  then  turned  by  the  use  of  dies  and  a  gauge,  in  order 
to  insure  accuracy  and  uniformity.  The  scythe  is  then  pointed 
properly  by  hand,  the  blade  being  heated  to  a  red  heat,  and  ham¬ 
mered  by  hand  to  a  point.  The  next  process  is  hardening  the 
scythes.  The  blades  are  placed  in  an  oven,  over  a  blazing  fire, 
and  heated  to  a  red  heat,  and  then  taken  out  and  plunged  into  a 
tank  of  pure  water,  into  which  a  constant  supply  is  kept  running, 
so  that  the  temperature  of  the  water  is  kept  always  the  same. 
Next  the  scythes  are  tempered,  some  of  the  hardness  being 
removed.  The  temperer  also  straightens  the  scythes  at  the  same 
time.  The  scythes  are  now  ground  upon  large  Nova  Scotia 


AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS. 


695 


grindstones.  These  stones  are  one  foot  thick  and  seven  feet  in 
diameter,  weighing  about  six  thousand  pounds  each,  and  are 
driven  at  the  rate  of  about  two  hundred  or  more  revolutions  in  a 
minute.  By  means  of  these  the  edges  are  ground  and  polished, 
while  the  backs  are  ground  in  a  machine,  in  order  to  insure  uni¬ 
formity  of  work.  The  scythes  when  thus  fashioned  are  taken  to 
the  inspecting  room,  where  they  are  submitted  to  a  test  as  to  tem¬ 
per,  and  if  approved,  pass  to  the  polishing  room,  where,  upon 
emery  wheels,  they  are  polished  to  perfect  brightness. 

In  this  process  of  polishing,  a  great  variety  of  wheels  are 
employed,  differing  in  the  fineness  of  the  emery  used  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  character  of  the  work  required.  The  scythes  when 
polished  are  painted,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  various  colors  —  red, 
green,  or  blue,  or  bronzed.  The  bronzing  is  done  on  the  high¬ 
est  priced  scythes.  The  processes  of  manufacture  of  machetes, 
or  knives  for  cutting  sugar-cane,  and  of  corn  and  straw  knives, 
are  substantially  the  same  as  those  in  making  scythes ;  the 
varieties  in  the  various  forms  of  these  different  utensils,  by 
which  they  are  fitted  to  the  better  performance  of  the  work  to 
which  they  are  specially  designed,  necessitating  but  slight  dif¬ 
ferences  in  the  process. 

The  corn  knives  are  largely  used  in  the  West  —  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Kansas,  the  great  corn  producing  states 
of  the  Union,  ordering  large  quantities  of  them.  Of  these  corn 
knives  there  are  four  varieties  made  by  the  Auburn  Manufac¬ 
turing  Company,  while  of  the  hay  knives  there  are  five,  of  the  bush 
scythes  five,  and  of  the  grass  scythes  over  sixty.  The  scythes 
are  boxed,  or  strawed  —  that  is,  wound  up  in  ropes  of  straw 
—  for  market,  according  to  the  orders  for  them  :  the  hay,  straw, 
and  corn  knife  handles  being  all  made  on  the  premises. 

In  making  socket  hoes,  the  steel  is  received  in  bars  from  the 
rolling  mill,  which  are  then  heated  and  put  under  a  press,  which 
strikes  off  a  “  pattern,”  that  is,  enough  to  make  a  hoe  with  its 
shank.  To  the  shank  a  socket  is  afterwards  welded,  in  which  the 
handle  is  finally  fixed.  The  “  pattern  ”  is  then  spread,  that  is,  is 
heated  and  hammered  under  a  trip  hammer  to  the  proper  width  for 
the  hoes.  Then,  heated  again  to  a  red  heat,  it  is  placed  under  the 
rollers,  controlled  by  screw  gauges,  and  pressed  into  the  proper 
thickness  and  depth.  The  plate  thus  spread  is  of  an  irregular 
form,  and  is  then  put  under  a  die,  of  the  size  of  the  hoe  to  be  made, 
and  by  one  stroke  its  edges  are  trimmed  evenly.  It  is  then  heated 


696 


AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS. 


again,  and  put  under  a  drop  with  concave  and  convex  dies,  and 
given,  by  a  blow,  the  required  concave.  It  is  then  hardened  by 
being  immersed  while  hot  in  whale  oil,  which  gives  it  the  trowel 
temper  desirable  in  this  class  of  goods.  The  hoes  are  then  prop¬ 
erly  “  burred/7  or,  as  this  term  indicates,  the  edges  at  the  place 
where  the  blade  unites  with  the  shank  are  cut  or  ground  away  even 
and  smooth.  This  process  is  performed  upon  a  wrought  iron 
wheel,  which  revolves  at  the  rate  of  two  thousand  revolutions  a 
minute.  Then  the  hoes  are  finished  by  being  ground  and  pol¬ 
ished. 

The  advantage  of  “pressing”  the  plate  between  rollers  is 
found  to  be,  that  this  process  gives  the  hoe  a  uniform,  smooth 
surface,  which  is  not  attainable  by  hammering.  It  is  also  found 
that  there  is  a  great  saving  in  the  material  in  thus  having  them  of 
uniform  thickness,  since  the  grinding  and  polishing  processes  are 
greatly  lessened,  and  a  great  saving  in  labor  is  thus  attained.  Be¬ 
sides  this,  in  tempering,  — which  is  a  most  important  matter,  — 
plates  of  uniform  thickness  receive  a  more  even  temper  than  those 
of  unequal  thickness. 

Shank  hoes  are  made  by  the  same  process  as  socket  hoes. 
The  only  difference  being  in  the  omission  of  the  socket.  The 
hoes  are  then  handled  and  made  ready  for  market.  The  handles 
are  made  of  second  growth  white  ash.  The  Auburn  Manufacturing 
Company  makes  all  the  handles  for  its  implements,  with  the  excep¬ 
tion  of  some  three  hundred  thousand  a  year  with  which  they  are 
supplied  by  handle  makers. 

Eye  hoes  are  such  as  have  an  eye  for  the  reception  of  the  han¬ 
dle.  They  are  also  generally  called  “  Planter’s  hoes/7  from  the 
fact  that  the  chief  market  for  them  has  been  in  the  South  and 
South-west,  for  use  on  the  plantations.  The  eyes  are  made  by 
the  old  process  of  “  drawing  out/7  and  welding  by  hand.  The 
blades  are,  however,  trip-hammered,  and  rolled  by  a  process  simi¬ 
lar  to  that  used  for  the  socket  hoe.  The  blades  of  eye  hoes  are 
not  usually  made  entirely  of  steel.  The  “  pattern  77  of  iron  is 
“  laid  77  with  a  hammered  steel  blade,  thus  giving  strength  and 
sharp  edges. 

Potato  hooks,  manure,  hay,  straw,  and  sluice  forks  (these  last 
being  used  for  cleaning  out  the  sluices  and  other  work  in  gold 
mining),  spading  forks,  and  other  kinds,  are  manufactured  also 
by  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company  in  larger  variety  than  by 
any  other  establishment  in  the  country. 


AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS. 


697 


Forks  are  made  of  steel,  cut  from  the  bar  into  pieces  of  suit¬ 
able  length,  which  are  then  heated  to  red  heat,  and  “  shanked, ”  and 
“  split,”  and  “  turned  out  ”  under  a  machine  of  ingenious  construc¬ 
tion,  which  roughly  shapes  out  the  fork,  giving  it  as  many  crude 
“  tines  ”  or  prongs  as  are  required.  The  use  of  this  machine  se¬ 
cures  a  saving  of  at  least  fifty  per  cent,  of  labor  and  fuel  over  the 
old  process.  The  tines  are  then  drawn  out  by  trip  hammers,  the 
faces  of  which  are  dies  of  the  requisite  shape  and  size.  Its  out¬ 
ward  shape  is  then  given  to  the  fork,  and  it  is  heated  in  an 
oven  so  constructed  that  the  heat  is  only  imparted  to  the  steel, 
while  the  effect  of  the  vapor  of  sulphur,  which  is  injurious  to  the 
steel,  is  avoided.  This  is  a  great  improvement  over  the  old 
method  of  laying  the  tines  on  the  bed  of  coals.  The  furnace  is 
divided  from  the  oven  by  fire  brick.  Then  the  forks  are  put  through 
the  “  formers,”  which  give  them  the  required  shape,  and  while 
still  hot,  are  immersed  in  whale  oil,  and  afterwards  tempered  in 
a  composition  of  melted  lead  and  tin.  They  are  then  ready  to  be 
polished,  handled,  and  prepared  for  market. 

The  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company  makes  also  all  the  ferrules 
used,  and  also  all  the  dies  for  all  classes  and  kinds  of  its  work, 
as  well  as  all  its  smaller  machinery.  The  steel  garden  and  lawn 
rakes  are  made  by  processes  similar  to  those  by  which  the  forks 
are  made.  The  rakes  of  their  manufacture  can  be  seen  in  use 
at  the  Central  Park  in  New  York  city. 

The  wood  implements  consist  of  a  general  assortment  of  grain 
cradles,  scythe  snaths,  hand  rakes,  and  other  agricultural  uten¬ 
sils  of  this  material.  Another  ingenious  implement  which  is 
manufactured  by  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company  is  a  potato 
digger.  This  implement  is  arranged  with  a  sort  of  movable 
arm  to  serve  as  a  fulcrum,  and  the  potatoes  in  the  hill  are  at 
one  operation  raised  from  the  dirt,  and  brought  out  from  the 
ground  clean  and  together.  Though  very  efficacious  in  its 
working,  yet  the  cost  of  manufacturing  them  prevents  such  an  ex¬ 
tended  sale  as  would  justify  their  production  in  large  numbers,  so 
that  they  are  made  only  for  those  who  specially  desire  them,  and 
are  not  one  of  the  staple  articles  of  their  manufacture. 

The  branch  establishment  of  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany,  for  the  sale  of  goods  they  make,  is  at  55  Beekman  Street, 
New  York  city,  where  a  large  stock  to  supply  the  demand  is  con¬ 
stantly  on  hand,  and  which  is  well  worth  a  visit,  as  a  museum  for 
the  display  of  agricultural  implements,  by  those  interested. 


V 


C98  AGRICULTURAL  HAND  IMPLEMENTS. 

The  lands  of  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company  comprise 
thirteen  acres,  three  of  which  are  covered  with  the  buildings 
necessary  for  carrying  on  their  operations.  Their  water  power  is 
ample  and  never-failing,  their  capital  is  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  their  situation  gives  them  all  the  requisite  railroad 
facilities  for  transportation.  Their  storehouse  is  a  large  three-story 
brick  building,  in  which  at  times  are  stored  vast  quantities  of 
their  wares,  in  as  great  variety  as  can  be  found  in  any  manufac¬ 
turing  establishment  in  the  United  States.  Another  building  is 
their  house  for  the  storage  of  the  wooden  portion  of  their  wares, 
with  capacity  for  containing  three  hundred  thousand  handles  at  a 
time.  These  handles  are  kept  on  hand  for  several  months  before 
being  used,  in  order  to  thoroughly  season  them. 

The  goods  of  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company  are  distrib¬ 
uted  all  over  the  country,  going  into  all  the  states,  east,  west, 
north,  and  south,  and  also  abroad  to  South  America,  New  Zea¬ 
land,  Australia,  and  even  to  Europe.  A  portion  of  the  rough  ma¬ 
terial  comes  from  England,  and  is  returned  to  that  country  worked 
into  various  agricultural  implements.  The  reputation  of  the  wares 
made  by  the  Auburn  Manufacturing  Company,  which  has  led  to 
their  world-wide  use,  has  been  gained  by  the  conscientious  care 
exercised  in  their  manufacture,  and  the  scrupulous  exactness  with 
which  every  single  article  of  their  manufacture  is  inspected  before 
it  is  allowed  to  go  out  into  the  market. 

Their  annual  product  of  ‘‘hand  tools”  is  the  largest  in  the 
United  States,  and  probably  the  greatest  in  variety  and  quantity 
of  any  factory  in  the  world.  At  all  the  agricultural  fairs,  through¬ 
out  the  country,  where  specimens  of  their  goods  have  been  exhib¬ 
ited,  the  first  premiums  have  been  awarded  them  ;  and  a  more  sig¬ 
nificant  proof  of  their  superiority  in  every  respect  is  the  fact,  that 
intelligent  and  discriminating  farmers  and  gardeners  have,  by 
“  word  and  deed,”  invariably  given  the  goods  their  unqualified 
approval. 


LASTS. 


THE  NECESSITY  FOR  LASTS  IN  THE  MODERN  STYLE  OF  SHOE.  —  SANDALS.  — 
THE  PURPOSE  SUBSERVED  BY  THE  LAST.  — THE  DERIVATION  OF  THE  TERM. 
—  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  MACHINERY  INTO  LAST  MAKING.  —  THE  METHOD 
AND  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  LATHE  FOR  TURNING  IRREGULAR 
FORMS.  —  HEELING,  TOEING,  AND  IRONING.  —  SCOURING,  POLISHING,  AND 
FINISHING.  —  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  CORRECT  MODELS.  —  MR.  SAMUEL  MAW- 
HINNEY’S  ESTABLISHMENT  THE  LARGEST  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — A  DE¬ 
SCRIPTION  OF  IT. — THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  DEMAND  FOR  HIS  WARES. 

• 

The  modern  fashion  of  boots  and  shoes  necessitates  the  making 
of  lasts,  as  the  form  upon  which  the  boot  or  shoe  is  modelled,  and 
its  shape  given  it.  With  the  use  of  sandals  among  the  nations 
of  antiquity,  the  coverings  of  the  feet  were  much  simpler  con¬ 
structions  than  those  now  used.  The  material  of  the  sandal,  being 
of  cloth  or  soft  leather,  required  the  use  of  a  last  to  shape  it 
on  no  more  than  the  moccasins  made  by  the  Indians  of  this  coun¬ 
try  required  such  an  appliance.  With  the  introduction,  however, 
of  the  shoe,  made  of  leather,  with  soles  made  of  the  same,  the 
seams  needed  for  uniting  them  together  required  that  the  material 
should  be  supported  in  place  upon  some  substance  sufficiently 
hard  to  allow  its  being  easily  sewed.  Our  lady  readers  who  per¬ 
form  the  good  housewife’s  duty  of  darning  the  stockings  of  the 
good  man  and  the  children,  will  recognize  from  the  small  gourd, 
or  other  appliance,  which  is  so  convenient  to  place  inside  of  the 
sock,  the  necessity  of  having  a  last  to  perform  the  same  office  in 
shoe  making. 

Our  term  last  comes  to  us  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  laest,  which 
was  allied  with  the  same  word,  meaning  a  track,  or  footstep,  and 
from  the  original  of  which  is  derived  the  Icelandic  word  lyste ,  a 
shoe.  They  were  at  first,  and  have  been  until  within  quite  a  few 
years,  made  entirely  by  hand.  In  the  various  fashions  for  shoes 
which  have  arisen  since  their  introduction,  the  lasts  upon  which 

(699) 


700 


LASTS. 


*  they  were  made  have,  of  course,  varied  with  them.  The  long, 
pointed  shoes  of  the  middle  ages,  like  the  similar  but  more  moder¬ 
ate  fashion  which  prevailed  in  this  country  a  few  years  ago,  were 
probably  designed  by  some  enthusiastic  last  maker  who  had  an 
ideal  of  what  the  human  foot  should  be,  which  he  had  evolved 
from  the  depths  of  his  interior  consciousness,  without  consulting 
the  facts  in  his  own  or  his  neighbor’s  feet. 

The  style  and  fashion  of  the  shoe  depend  chiefly  upon  the  shape 
and  form  of  the  last,  and  the  designer  of  this  should  have  a  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  anatomy  of  the  foot,  of  the  play  of  its  various  parts 
in  walking,  and  of  the  necessary  conditions  to  make  a  shoe  at 
once  a  protection,  a  comfort,  and  an  aid  in  using  the  feet.  While 
lasts  were  made  by  hand  entirely,  each  last  in  itself  called  for  the 
display  of  these  qualities  in  the  maker,  and  the  careful  accuracy 
with  which  the  model  should  be  followed  in  working  by  hand, 
made  only  the  most  competent  workmen  fit  for  this  work.  When 
it  fs  remembered  by  any  one  who  has  ever  suffered  the  torture  of 
wearing  a  boot  or  shoe  which  pinched  in  some  spot,  which  did  not 
fit,  but  seemed  as  though  it  was  intended  for  some  one  else,  that 
the  fault  lay  with  the  defective  character  of  the  last  upon  which 
the  shoe  was  made,  the  importance  of  the  last  maker  will  be  fully 
recognized. 

The  application  of  machinery  to  the  manufacture  of  lasts  began 
with  the  invention  of  the  lathe  for  turning  irregular  forms.  The 
first  machine  of  this  kind  was  invented  by  Thomas  Blanchard,  a 
distinguished  American  inventor.  Early  in  this  century,  being 
engaged  in  the  Springfield  armory,  he  invented  a  machine  for  turn¬ 
ing  gun  barrels,  and  afterwards  another  for  turning  gun  stocks. 
The  idea  of  thus  turning  irregular  forms  was  soon  applied  to  the 
manufacture  of  lasts ;  and  now  they  are  all  produced  by  machinery, 
with  the  greater  advantage  of  securing  the  most  perfect  accuracy 
and  uniformity.  * 

Lasts  are  made  of  rock,  or  hard,  maple  wood.  All  other  woods, 
except  persimmon,  are  either  too  soft,  or  not  sufficiently  tough. 
Walnut  would  be  tough  enough,  but  not  soft  enough ;  black  wal¬ 
nut  too  open  in  its  grain  ;  ash  is  not  hard  enough.  The  maple 
wood  is  chiefly  furnished  from  New  Hampshire.  It  comes  into 
the  market  in  blocks,  prepared  for  this  purpose,  and  averaging 
about  twelve  inches  in  length  and  five  inches  through  both  thick¬ 
nesses.  A  cord  will  make  on  the  average  about  five  hundred  pairs 
of  lasts.  Many  hundred  cords  are  yearly  consumed  in  Massachu- 


LASTS. 


701 


setts  alone  for  making  lasts.  On  a  single  machine,  an  average 
of  four  hundred  pairs  are  made  in  a  week,  or  seventy  pairs  in  a 
day. 

The  wood  is  first  seasoned,  which  requires  at  least  two  years, 
and  is  very  important,  since  the  value  of  a  last  depends  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  correct  seasoning.  This  process  consists  in 
piling  up  the  blocks,  under  cover,  and  letting  them  dry  there  natural¬ 
ly.  Any  application  of  artificial  heat,  Such  as  kiln-drying,  would 
cause  the  wood  to  crack,  and  besides  would  destroy  its  life.  When 
properly  seasoned,  the  blocks  are  put  into  a  machine  for  turning 
irregular  forms.  This  machine  is  a  complicated  affair,  which  may 
be  thus  briefly  described :  A  wheel  about  ten  inches  in  diameter, 
and  called  a  “cutter-knife,”  is  arranged  with  four  curved  knives 
fixed  on  its  periphery.  This  is  hung  on  an  axle,  and  supported 
by  an  iron  frame,  which  also  supports  the  other  portions  of  the 
machinery.  This  cutter-knife  is  attached  by  its  axle  to  a  guide  or 
model  wheel.  A  swing  frame  is  suspended  before  the  wheels,  into 
one  portion  of  which,  held  by  dogs,  is  fixed  the  block  to  be  turned, 
in  front  of  the  cutter-wheel. 

On  another  portion  of 
this  swing  frame  is  placed 
the  “model,”  that  is,  a 
perfectly  shaped  last  of 
the  style  into  which  it  is 
intended  to  turn  the  block. 

This  model  is  placed  in 
front  of  the  model  wheel. 

(  The  better  to  elucidate 
to  the  reader’s  understand¬ 
ing  the  turning  machine  for 
lasts,  we  introduce  the  ac¬ 
companying  engraving  of  a 
machine  made  by  Gilman  & 

Townsend,  of  Springfield, 

Vt.,  whose  machines  are 
used  in  the  chief  last  manu¬ 
factory  of  this  country  — 
that  of  Mr.  Samuel  Maw- 
hiiinoy  —  alluded  to  in  the  turning  MACH|NE  F0R  LASTS 

last  pages  of  this  article.) 

The  machine  is  then  set  in  motion,  when  the  block  falls  against 


702 


LASTS. 


the  cutter-knife,  and  the  model  against  the  model  wheel.  This 
wheel,  running  along  the  model,  beginning  at  the  toe  of  the  same  and 
passing  slowly  along  to  the  heel,  holds  the  block  to  be  cut  at  just 
the  proper  relations  to  the  cutter-knife,  so  that  the  block  shall  take 
the  same  shape  as  the  model.  The  model  and  the  block  are  re¬ 
spectively  moved  over  the  model  wheel  and  cutter-knife  simulta¬ 
neously,  by  means  of  a  regularly  graduated  “  feeding”  apparatus, 
which  is  a  part  of  the  machine,  and  which  may  be  made  to  move 
as  fast  or  slow  as  the  work  requires.  On  the  machine  various 
sizes  of  lasts,  of  the  same  general  form  as  the  model,  but  accu¬ 
rately  reduced  or  increased  in  size,  can  be  turned.  A  machine  of 
this  description  costs  about  six  hundred  dollars. 

The  last  being  thus  shaped  out  is  taken  to  a  jig-saw,  where  the 
“  block  ”  of  the  last,  or  the  upper  portion  of  a  finished  last,  is 
rapidly  cut  out.  The  block  is  a  necessary  portion  of  the  last, 
since  it  enables  the  shoemaker  to  remove  the  last  from  the  boot. 
The  three  holes  in  the  last  are  then  cut,  the  two  “  hook  ”  holes 
and  the  “jack”  hole,  which  is  needed  only  when  shoes  are  made 
upon  the  last  by  machinery.  The  lasts  are  then  heeled  and  toed 
by  hand,  that  is,  the  “  stubs  ”  left  on  the  last  as  it  came  from  the 
machine  are  neatly  trimmed  off,  and  the  toe  and  heel  are  shaped, 
the  toes  being  made  more  or  less  square,  round  or  long,  according 
to  the  fashion  of  the  times.  Then  a  slight  portion  of  the  bottom 
of  the  last  is  cutout  from  the  heel  and  toe,  so  as  to  “socket” 
them  for  receiving  the  “irons,”  which  are  thin  pieces  of  flat  iron 
for  protecting  the  last  from  wearing,  and  for  turning  the  points  of 
the  nails  driven  into  the  heels  and  toes  of  boots  and  shoes.  This 
“socketing”  is  done  on  a  revolving  cutter. 

When  the  ironing  is  done,  a  strap  is  sometimes  put  over  the  last, 
in  order  to  prevent  its  splitting  when  used  in  a  “  pegging  jack.” 
The  whole  bottom  of  the  last  is  sometimes  covered  also  with  an 
iron  plate,  when  the  last  is  to  be  used  in  nailing  machines.  The 
toe,  heel,  strap,  and  full  plate  irons  are  cut  out  by  machinery  from 
the  sheets  as  they  are  brought  from  the  rolling-mill.  The  best 
quality  of  English  iron,  the  R.  G.,  is  used  for  these  irons. 

After  the  last  is  ironed,  it  is  taken  to  the  scouring  wheels,  and 
scoured  and  polished.  These  wheels  are  of  wood,  about  thirteen 
inches  in  diameter,  and  three  inches  thick,  and  are  covered  on  the 
edge  with  coarse  drilling  stuffed  with  flannel,  to  keep  them  from 
getting  on  fire  by  the  friction  caused  by  pressing  the  lasts  against 
the  wheel.  The  drilling  is  then  covered  with  a  coating  of  warm 


LASTS. 


703 


glue,  upon  which  is  then  sifted  a  flour  made  of  pulverized  quartz, 
which  is  mostly  obtained  in  the  Green  Mountains,  and  is  ground 
ud  in  mills.  A  barrel  of  this  pulverized  quartz  brings  in  market 
aoout  ten  dollars. 

When  polished,  the  lasts  are  washed  in  a  liquid  preparation,  the 
basis  of  which  is  linseed  oil,  and  which  serves  to  preserve  the 
last,  and  make  it  easier  to  pull  it  out  from  the  shoe,  besides  giving 
it  a  more  finished  appearance.  The  lasts  are  packed  for  market 
in  bags,  about  twenty  pairs  filling  a  bag. 

The  great  skill  in  last  making  lies  in  the  modelling,  which  is 
properly  the  first  process,  as  all  lasts  are  made  after  a  model.  Very 
few  artists  are  competent  to  make  a  good  model.  The  nicest 
sense  of  form,  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  the  foot, 


and  good  judgment  about  the  bearing  of  the  shoe  upon  the  parts 
of  the  foot,  when  made  upon  a  given  general  shape  of  the  last,  is 
necessary  in  the  modeller.  Perhaps,  however,  the  greatest  task 
of  the  modeller  is  to  suit  the  caprices  of  fashion,  and  the  fancies 
of  the  different  manufacturers,  while  adapting  the  last  at  the  same 
time  to  the  foot.  There  is  a  constant  tendency  to  change  in  the 
shape  of  the  shoe,  and  consequently  of  the  last.  The  variations 
in  the  shape  are  innumerable,  changes  taking  place  daily.  In  fact, 
the  last  maker  has  much  to  do  with  the  fashion  of  the  shoe.  In 
New  England  anything  which  is  extreme  is  generally  here,  as  else¬ 
where,  fashionable. 

The  leading  manufacturer  of  lasts  in  the  United  States  is  Mr. 


704 


LASTS. 


Samuel  Mawhinney,  whose  establishment  is  in  Worcester,  Mass. 
He  learned  his  trade  in  Boston,  and  has  been  engaged  in  the 
business  some  twenty-eight  years.  Mr.  Mawhinney’s  establishment 
is  the  largest  in  the  country,  and  was  built  by  him  specially 
for  carrying  on  his  business,  which  is  divided  into  different 
departments,  and  provided  with  the  best  machinery,  and  every 
appliance  for  securing  the  best  results  in  his  specialty.  The 
facilities  of  the  establishment  enable  Mr.  Mawhinney  to  re¬ 
spond  at  once  to  any  order  made  upon  him  in  this  line  of  manu¬ 
facture  without  delay,  and  with  the  certainty  of  furnishing  perfect 
work.  In  the  business  of  last  making  two  things  specially  con¬ 
spire  for  success  —  the  utmost  perseverance  and  conscientious 
dealing.  It  is  impossible  to  win  such  a  reputation  as  Mr.  Maw¬ 
hinney  has  secured  without  exercising  the  most  scrupulous  care 
that  not  a  single  last  shall  leave  his  hands  without  being  sub¬ 
jected  to  the  closest  scrutiny  of  inspection,  and  pronounced  per¬ 
fect.  The  wood  used  must  be  properly  seasoned,  and  the  work 
skilfully  done,  else  the  last  will  be  found  imperfect  in  the  custom¬ 
er’s  hands,  either  sooner  or  later. 

Mr.  Mawhinney ’s  lasts  are  in  demand  throughout  the  New  Eng¬ 
land  and  Western  States,  as  well  as  largely  in  the  South.  An 
average  of  four  hundred  models  are  made  in  his  establishment  an¬ 
nually,  at  a  large  cost,  and  for  which  there  is  no  direct  return,  but 
has  to  be  considered  as  so  much  capital  sunk. 


GUNPOWDER. 


HISTORIC  SPECULATIONS.  —  GREEK  FIRE.  —  BY  WHOM  WAS  GUNPOWDER  IN¬ 
VENTED  ?  —  SCHWARTZ.  —  BACON.  —  COMPOSITION  OF  GUNPOWDER.  —  PRO¬ 
CESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  HOW  POWDER  IS  TESTED.  —  EARLY  HISTORY  OF 
POWDER  MAKING  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  —  PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  THE  BUSI¬ 
NESS. —  dupont’s  gunpowder  works. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  Chinese  had  some  knowledge 
of  gunpowder  at  a  very  early  period,  some  say  two  hundred  years 
or  more  before  the  Christian  era.  It  is  inferred  from  statements 
in  ancient  histories  that  the  Hindoos  had  discovered  some  explo¬ 
sive  substance  which  they  used  to  defend  themselves  against  their 
enemies.  In  an  account  relating  to  the  expedition  of  Alexander 
the  Great  into  India,  it  is  thought  he  avoided  certain  places  or 
peoples  because  of  their  use  of  this  strange  fire  —  ‘‘for  they 
come  not  out  to  fight  those  who  attack  them  ;  but  those  holy  men, 
beloved  of  the  gods,  overthrow  their  enemies  with  tempests  and 
thunderbolts  shot  from  their  walls.”  Others  observe  that  the 
knowledge  of  gunpowder  appears  to  be  coeval  with  the  most  dis¬ 
tant  historic  events  relating  to  China  and  India.  In  China  it  has 
for  ages  been  applied  to  useful  purposes,  as  blasting  rocks,  etc., 
and  in  the  manufacture  of  fire-works  ;  although  it  has  not  in  ear¬ 
lier  times  been  directed  through  strong  metallic  tubes  for  the  pro¬ 
pulsion  of  solid  bodies,  as  the  Europeans  used  it  soon  after  its 
discovery.  It  is  thought  that  the  Arabs,  by  their  intercourse  with 
China  or  India,  became  acquainted  with  this  material,  and  that 
they  communicated  their  knowledge  of  it  to  the  Greeks.  It  is 
thought  by  some  that  with  this  knowledge  originated  the  cele¬ 
brated  Greek  fire,  which  enabled  those  who  possessed  the  secret  of 
•  its  composition  to  gain  so  many  victories.  Whatever  may  have 
been  its  composition,  Constantinople  was  twice  delivered  from  its 
besieging  enemies  by  the  novelty,  the  terrors,  and  the  real  efficacy 

(705) 


706 


GUNPOWDER. 


of  the  Greek  fire.  The  skill  of  a  chemist  and  engineer  was  equiva¬ 
lent  to  the  succor  of  fleets  and  armies.  It  was  employed  with 
equal  effect  on  sea  and  on  land,  in  battles  and  sieges.  It  was 
poured  from  the  ramparts,  or  launched  in  red-hot  balls  of  stone 
and  iron,  or  darted  on  arrows  and  javelins  ;  sometimes  it  was  de¬ 
posited  in  fire-ships  ;  and  was  most  commonly  blown  through  tubes 
of  copper,  which  were  planted  on  the  prow  of  a  galley,  and  fanci¬ 
fully  shaped  into  the  mouths  of  savage  monsters,  which  seemed  to 
vomit  a  stream  of  liquid  and  consuming  fire.  A  knight,  who 
despised  the  sword  and  lances  of  the  enemy,  relates  with  heartfelt 
sincerity  his  own  and  his  companions’  fear  at  the  sight  and  sound 
of  the  mischievous  engine  that  discharged  a  torrent  of  the  Greek 
fire.  It  came  flying  through  the  air  like  a  winged  long-tailed  dra¬ 
gon,  with  the  report  of  thunder  and  the  velocity  of  lightning,  and 
the  darkness  of  the  night  was  dispelled  by  this  deadly  illumina¬ 
tion.  The  use  of  Greek  fire  by  those  who  knew  the  secret  of  its 
composition  continued  till  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
when  scientific  experiments  brought  to  light  the  use  of  that  com¬ 
pound  of  nitre,  sulphur,  and  charcoal,  which  accomplished  a  new 
revolution  in  the  art  of  war,  and  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

The  precise  date  of  the  knowledge  and  use  of  gunpowder  in 
Europe  it  is  not  easy  to  determine,  though  some  time  between  the 
ninth  and  twelfth  century  is  assigned  to  its  introduction.  The 
crusaders,  in  their  conflicts  in  the  East,  were  sometimes  terrified 
by  the  fiery  weapons  and  engines  employed  to  repel  their  attacks; 
and  to  their  experience  and  knowledge  acquired  in  those  wars  for 
the  recovery  of  Jerusalem  may  be  due  the  earliest  introduction  of 
some  form  of  gunpowder  into  Europe.  The  Germans  claim  that  a 
Franciscan  friar,  Berthold  Schwartz,  who  lived  at  Mayence  in  the 
early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  was  the  inventor  of  gunpow¬ 
der.  Others  give  the  credit  of  this  invention  to  Roger  Bacon, 
who  died  in  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In  the  recipe 
given  by  Bacon,  he  conceals  one  of  the  ingredients  under  the  form 
of  an  anagram,  which  being  transformed  may  read  as  follows: 
“  But,  nevertheless,  take  of  saltpetre,  with  powdered  charcoal  and 
sulphur,  and  thus  you  will  make  thunder  and  lightning,  if  you 
know  the  mode  of  preparing  it.”  It  is  altogether  probable  that 
the  imperfect  mode  of  mixing  the  component  parts,  adopted  by 
the  Chinese,  the  Arabs,  and  the  Greeks,  gave  them  a  compound 
whose  particular  quality  was  a  sudden  and  sparkling  combus¬ 
tion,  while  later  chemical  experiments  of  Bacon  and  Schwartz 


GUNPOWDER 


707 


made  a  more  perfect  combination,  which  is  substantially  that  of 
the  present  time.  Different  nations,  apparently  without  communi¬ 
cation  with  each  other,  have  long  been  in  the  habit  of  using  very 
nearly  the  best  proportions  of  the  three  ingredients,  viz.  :  in 
the  manufacture  of  every  one  hundred  pounds  of  gunpowder  there 
are  seventy-seven  and  one  half  pounds  of  saltpetre  ;  sulphur,  ten 
and  one  half  pounds  ;  charcoal,  sixteen  pounds  ;  which  together 
equal  one  hundred  and  four  pounds,  the  extra  four  pounds  being 
allowed  for  waste.  For  blasting  purposes,  a  cheaper  and  more 
efficient  powder  is  preferred,  of  which  saltpetre  forms  sixty-five, 
sulphur  twenty,  and  charcoal  fifteen  per  cent.  Powder  of  this 
combination  is  not  so  quick  in  its  explosion  as  the  other  kinds,  but 
it  is  more  efficient  for  the  service  to  which  it  is  applied.  This 
powder  also  is  made  of  very  coarse  grain,  in  order  to  increase  the 
time  in  exploding. 

The  ingredients  in  the  composition  of  gunpowder  should  be  of 
the  greatest  attainable  purity.  Saltpetre,  as  it  is  usually  found,  is 
unfit  for  immediate  use,  being  united  with  impurities  which  prevent 
the  close  contact  and  combination  of  the  other  ingredients.  It  is 
refined  by  solution  in  an  equal  weight  of  spring  or  river  water, 
which  is  raised  to  a  boiling  heat;  the  solution  is  then  strained,  and 
crystallized  in  copper  pans.  It  is  then  refined  a  second  time,  in  a 
similar  manner,  after  which  the  water  is  expelled  by  fusion,  and  the 
nitre  assumes  a  delicate,  white  appearance.  The  sulphur  is  refined 
by  fusing  in  gun-metal  pots,  and  skimming  off  the  impurities.  The 
quality  and  value  of  gunpowder  are  very  seriously  affected  by  the 
quality  of  the  charcoal  used  in  its  manufacture.  The  kind  of 
wood  employed,  and  the  mode  of  preparing  the  charcoal,  will  vary 
the  character  of  the  powder.  Woods  which  give  a  hard,  flinty 
coal  are  objectionable  ;  the  coal  should  rather  be  soft,  free  from  any 
extraneous  particles,  so  as  not  to  scratch  polished  metal,  and  give 
out  no  smoke  when  burning.  Whatever  woods  are  employed,  they 
are  first  stripped  of  their  bark,  and  instead  of  being  burned  in 
coal  pits,  they  are  prepared  in  iron  cylinders. 

The  kinds  of  wood  generally  used  are  black  alder,  black  dog¬ 
wood,  and  willow.  In  France,  the  alder  is  exclusively  used,  the 
smaller  branches  being  preferred.  In  England,  black  dog-wood  is 
used  for  the  manufacture  of  sporting  powder,  while  the  govern¬ 
ment  establishments  use  outy  alder  and  willow.  In  the  vicinity 
of  powder  mills  in  the  United  States  the  willow  is  largely  culti¬ 
vated  ;  it  is  of  rapid  growth,  and  by  frequent  cutting,  the  shoots  are  . 

41 


708 


GUNPOWDER. 


kept  down  to  a  small  size.  These  woods  are  reduced  to  coal  in 
iron  cylinders  heated  to  redness.  It  is  said  to  be  best  when  newly 
prepared  from  seasoned  wood  ;  it  should  be  perfectly  charred,  and 
should  present  the  same  appearance  throughout  —  either  dead 
black  or  shining,  according  to  the  kind  of  wood.  The  most  in¬ 
flammable  powder  is  made  with  charcoal,  prepared  at  a  moderate 
heat,  not  exceeding  500°.  That  which  has  been  subjected  to  a 
higher  temperature  in  its  preparation,  makes  a  kind  of  powder 
which  burns  slower,  and  is  better  adapted  for  blasting  and  for  ar¬ 
tillery  than  for  the  rifle. 

When  the  several  ingredients  are  prepared,  they  are  separately 
reduced  to  an  impalpable  powder ;  they  are  then  mixed  together 
in  the  proportion  before  named,  in  a  barrel  or  cylinder  arranged 
for  the  purpose.  The  composition  is  then  sent  to  the  powder  mill 
in  charges  of  from  forty  to  fifty  pounds  each.  This  mill  is  gener¬ 
ally  in  a  small  building,  standing  by  itself  on  account  of  the  dan¬ 
ger  of  explosion.  The  mill  is  made  of  two  rollers  of  three  or 
more  tons’  weight,  which  revolve  round  a  vertical  shaft  on  beds  of 
the  same  material  as  the  rollers,  the  beds  being  surrounded  with 
wooden  sides,  like  sides  of  a  tub.  The  bed  and  rollers  are  some¬ 
times  made  of  cast  iron,  and  sometimes  of  compact  limestone  or 
marble.  The  circular  bed  in  which  the  rollers  travel  is  about  seven 
feet  in  diameter,  and  they  are  not  allowed  to  revolve  more  than 
eight  times  in  a  minute.  Each  charge  of  forty  or  fifty  pounds, 
placed  under  the  rollers,  is  moistened  with  from  two  to  three  pints 
of  water,  and  the  process  of  incorporating  or  thoroughly  mixing 
the  elements  occupies  about  three  and  a  half  hours.  The  complete 
incorporation  of  the  ingredients  is  very  essential  to  the  making  of 
good  gunpowder ;  and  much  experience  is  necessary  to  direct  the 
operation,  and  to  determine  the  fitness  of  the  mixture  for  the  next 
part  of  the  process.  It  cakes  together  in  hard  lumps,  and  is 
called  mill-cake  ;  it  is  then  subjected  to  a  heavy  pressure  between 
copper  plates,  so  that  when  taken  out  it  is  in  the  form  of  large, 
solid  cakes,  half  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  is  called  press-cake.  The 
powder  is  then  reduced  to  grains,  by  a  process  called  granulating. 
The  press-cake  is  crushed  between  toothed  rollers,  or  broken  by 
wooden  mallets  into  small  pieces  ;  it  is  then  put  into  parchment 
sieves,;  pierced  with  holes  of  the  size  required  for  the  particular 
kind  of  gunpowder  which  is  in  process  of  manufacture.  The 
sieves  are  placed  in  a  frame,  which  is  shaken  by  machinery  with  a 
backward  and. forward  motion  ;  each  sieve  contains  two  flat  circu* 


GUNPOWDER. 


709 


lar  pieces  of  lignum-vitae,  about  two  inches  thick,  and  six  inches 
in  diameter,  which,  by  the  motion  given  to  the  frame,  rub  and 
grind  the  powder  until  small  enough  to  pass  through  the  holes. 
It  is  then  received  into  hair-cloth  sieves,  by  which  the  ‘grained 
powder  is  separated  from  the  dust.  The  next  step  in  the  process 
is  called  glazing,  which  is  accomplished  by  placing  the  gunpowder 
in  a  canvas  cylinder,  or  large  cask,  which  is  made  to  revolve  forty 
times  each  minute,  and  by  the  rubbing  of  the  grains  against  each 
other,  the  angular  points  are  broken  off,  and  the  grains  acquire 
roundness,  as  well  as  smoothness  and  polish  of  surface.  This  lat¬ 
ter  quality,  or  appearance,  is  sometimes  fraudulently  imparted  by 
putting  into  the  glazing  barrel  a  small  quantity  of  powdered  black- 
lead.  Pressing  and  glazing  are  of  great  importance  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  gunpowder,  since  by  pressing  an  equal  degree  of  den¬ 
sity  is  given  to  the  grains,  and  by  glazing,  the  powder  is  less  liable 
to  absorb  moisture,  or  produce  dust  by  the  shaking  and  friction 
caused  by  transportation.  After  glazing,  the  gunpowder  is  thor¬ 
oughly  dried  at  a  temperature  of  150°  ;  this  is  done  by  raising  the 
temperature  of  the  drying-room  by  means  of  currents  of  hot  air, 
or  by  steam  pipes. 

The  quality  of  gunpowder  may  be  tested  by  its  not  being  easily 
crushed  in  the  fingers,  nor  readily  soiling  them  ;  also  by  placing 
two  small  parcels  on  clean  white  paper,  three  or  four  inches  apart  ; 
then  fire  one  of  these  parcels  ;  if  the  paper  is  free  from  white 
specks,  and  not  burned  into  holes,  and  if  no  sparks  flying  from  it 
ignite  the  other  contiguous  parcel,  the  powder  is  very  good  ;  if 
these  tests  fail,  the  ingredients  are  badly  mixed  or  impure.  The 
strength  of  gunpowder  is  tested  by  an  eprouvette,  which  is  a  small, 
strong  barrel,  in  which  a  given  amount  of  powder  is  fired,  and  its 
projectile  force  is  measured  by  the  action  exerted  on  a  spring  or  a 
great  weight.  Co»nt  Rumford  confined  twenty-eight  grains  of 
gunpowder  in  a  cylindrical  space,  which  it  just  filled,  and  upon 
being  fired  it  tore  asunder  a  piece  of  iron  which  would  have  re¬ 
sisted  a  strain  of  four  hundred  thousand  pounds.  A  mortar  was 
loaded  with  one  twentieth  of  an  ounce  of  powder,  and  upon  it  was 
placed  a  24-pound  cannon,  weighing  over  eight  thousand  pounds  ; 
when  the  charge  was  fired,  the  mortar  burst  with  a  tremendous 
explosion,  and  lifted  up  the  enormous  weight. 

The  manufacture  of  gunpowder  has  become  one  of  the  verily 
"  great  industries  ”  of  the  United  States,  the  business  amounting 
to  many  millions  of  dollars  a  year.  The  representative  or  leading 


no 


GUNPOWDER. 


manufacturing  establishment  of  gunpowder  in  this  country,  the  his¬ 
tory  and  description  of  which  we  give  below,  is 


Du  Pont’s  Gunpowder  Works. 

Eleuthere  Irene  Du  Pont  was  the  founder  of  the  immense 
works  distinguished  as  the  “  Brandywine  Powder  Works,”  near 
Wilmington,  Delaware.  He  was  a  native  of  France,  and  emigrat¬ 
ed  to  the  United  States  in  the  fall  of  1799,  landing  at  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  January  1,  1800.  Having  noticed  the  poor  quality 
of  the  gunpowder  then  made  in  America,  he  resolved  to  engage 
in  its  manufacture,  of  which  he  had  a  knowledge,  having  been  a 
pupil  of  the  celebrated  Lavoisien,  who  had  charge  of  the  “  Bureau 
de  Poudres  et  Salpetres,”  under  the  French  government.  After 
some  time  spent  in  selecting  a  location,  Mr.  Du  Pont  established 
himself  on  the  Brandywine  Creek,  about  four  miles  above  the  town 
of  Wilmington,  in  the  State  of  Delaware,  where  he  prosecuted  the 
business  with  such  success,  that  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  at  the 
United  States  Hotel,  in  Philadelphia,  in  1834,  his  establishment 
was  the  most  extensive  of  its  kind  in  this  country,  as  it  now  is  in 
the  world. 

Since  the  decease  of  its  founder,  the  business  has  been  managed 
by  his  sons  and  grandsons,  who  maintained  the  old  firm  style  of 
E.  I.  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co. 

The  works  of  the  firm  comprise  six  complete  manufactories  — 
four  of  them  on  the  Brandywine,  and  two  in  Luzerne  county, 
Pennsylvania,  where  blasting  powder,  for  colliers7  use,  is  largely 
made.  The  original  works  on  the  Brandywine  commenced  opera¬ 
tions  in  1802,  and  have  a  capacity  for  producing  five  thousand 
pounds  of  sporting  powder  per  day.  The  ^niddle,  or  Ilagley 
works,  commenced  in  1812,  comprise  two  complete  sets  of  works 
in  one  enclosure,  under  a  fall  of  twenty-two  feet,  so  arranged  that 
both  can  work  on  the  same  description  of  powder,  or,  if  required, 
one  set  can  manufacture  one  kind  of  powder,  and  the  other  set 
another  kind,  the  two  combined  having  a  capacity  of  twenty-five 
thousand  pounds  of  blasting  powder  per  day. 

The  lower  works,  commenced  in  1836,  are  under  a  fall  of  twelve 
feet,  and  have  a  capacity  of  five  thousand  pounds  of  sporting 
powder  per  day. 

The  Saltpetre  Refinery,  with  Laboratory  attached,  is  two  hun- 


GUNPOWDER. 


m 

dred  and  fifty-eight  feet  by  ninety-six  feet,  with  ample  appliances 
for  supplying  all  the  nitre  required  for  the  fabrication  of  powder, 
and  also  considerable  quantities  for  the  market,  for  such  purposes 
as  require  an  article  chemically  pure.  In  proximity  to  the  Refi¬ 
nery  are  large  warehouses  for  the  storage  of  saltpetre. 

The  Charring  Houses  for  the  preparation  of  charcoal,  three  in 
number,  are  capable  of  furnishing  all  the  coal  required  for  the 
mills,  the  wood  being  stored  and  seasoned  in  extensive  buildings 
adjacent. 

The  firm  have  two  shipping  points,  one  on  the  River  Delaware, 
with  magazines,  and  a  wharf  at  which  large  vessels  can  lie,  the 
other  on  the  Christiana  Creek,  with  ample  wharfage  for  coasters, 
and  for  landing  coal,  wood,  etc.  They  have  also  a  station  and 
siding  for  the  works  on  the  Wilmington  and  Reading  Railroad, 
which  passes  through  the  property,  intersecting  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  at  Coatesville,  and  uniting  with  the  Philadelphia  and 
Reading  Railroad  at  Birdsboro’.  A  passenger  railway  has  been 
established  between  the  city  of  Wilmington  and  the  property  of 
the  Messrs.  Du  Pont. 

Attached  to  the  powder  works  are  extensive  machine  and  mill¬ 
wright  shops,  where  all  repairs  are  made,  and  most  of  the  machi¬ 
nery  is  built ;  also  a  saw  mill,  planing  mill,  carpenter  and  black¬ 
smith  shops,  and  capacious  buildings  for  the  manufacture  of 
wooden  and  metallic  kegs  and  barrels,  and  of  powder  canisters. 
Railroad  tracks  are  laid  through  the  powder  works,  and  the  bulk 
of  the  transportation  of  powder,  in  its  various  stages  of  manufac¬ 
ture,  is  done  in  cars  drawn  by  horses  ;  and  the  transportation  to 
and  from  tide-water  and  railroad  stations  is  done  in  wagons  by 
horses  and  mules,  of  which  the  firm  have  over  one  hundred  at 
their  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania  mills. 

Besides  the  powder  mills,  the  firm  own  over  two  thousand  five 
hundred  acres  of  land,  that  stretch  for  a  distance  of  three  miles  on 
both  sides  of  the  stream,  and  on  this  property  there  are  three 
woollen  mills,  a  cotton  mill,  a  merchants’  and  grist  mill,  and  a 
population  of  nearly  four  thousand  persons. 

The  aggregate  fall  of  the  various  water  powers  of  the  firm  on 
the  Brandywine,  including  two  which  are  yet  unimproved,  is 
ninety-one  feet. 

The  farms  attached  to  the  works  are  in  a  high  state  of  cultiva¬ 
tion,  and  the  roads  are  all  macadamized  for  ease  of  transportation. 
The  buildings  on  the  estate  are  mostly  of  stone,  and  very  substan- 


712 


GUNPOWDER. 


tial,  and  the  machinery  is  of  the  best  and  most  costly  char¬ 
acter. 

The  Luzerne  County  mills  have  about  seven  hundred  acres  of 
land  on  the  Big  Wapwallopen  Creek,  with  an  aggregate  fall  of 
over  one  hundred  feet,  and  a  capacity  for  twenty-five  thousand 
pounds  of  blasting  powder  per  day.  The  Pennsylvania  Canal  and 
the  Lackawana  and  Bloomsburg  Railroad  pass  through  a  part  of 
the  property. 

The  high  reputation  so  long  maintained  for  the  Brandywine 
powder  is  due  to  the  care  bestowed  on  its  manufacture,  and  to  the 
constant  personal  supervision  of  the  owners.  The  consumption 
of  saltpetre  and  nitrate  of  soda  (including  the  Pennsylvania  mills), 
the  principal  ingredients  in  the  manufacture,  in  the  year  1871,  was 
over  eight  million  five  hundred  thousand  pounds.  The  machinery 
in  operation  for  the  manufacture  of  gunpowder  is  driven  by  nine 
steam  engines  and  eighty-six  water  wheels,  of  which  the  greater 
part  are  turbines.  The  manufacture  embraces  all  descriptions  of 
powder,  viz.,  mammoth,  cannon,  mortar,  musket,  and  rifle,  for 
army  and  navy  ordnance  service,  diamond  grains,  eagle,  and  the 
various  grades  of  canister  and  sporting  powders,  shipping,  blast¬ 
ing,  mining,  and  fuse  powders. 

The  productions  of  the  mills  are  principally  consumed  in  the 
United  States,  the  firm  having  agencies  and  magazines  at  all  the 
most  important  points,  with  a  principal  depot  for  the  Pacific 
States  at  San  Francisco,  and  agencies  in  South  America  and  in 
the  East  and  West  Indies. 

To  illustrate  the  progress  which  has  been  made  in  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  powder  in  the  United  States,  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall 
the  fact  that  during  the  Crimean  war  the  allies,  to  enable  them  to 
prosecute  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  were  obliged  to  procure  large 
supplies  of  gunpowder  in  the  United  States  (one  half  of  which 
was  furnished  by  the  Brandywine  mills),  and  that  the  American 
powder  compared  favorably  with  the  best  they  could  procure  in 
EuroDe. 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OP  THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS.  —  A  BEE-HIVE  COMPARED  TO  AN 
.OYSTER-BED.  —  WILLIAM  F.  HARNDEN  THE  FIRST  EXPRESS  MESSENGER.  —  HIS 
FIRST  TRIP  FROM  BOSTON  TO  NEW  YORK.  —  THE  ADAMS  EXPRESS.  —  OTHER 
LINES.  —  THE  WESTERN  LINES.  —  THE  ADAMS  EXPRESS  COMPANY.  —  THE  CAP¬ 
ITAL  IN  THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS.  —  THE  EXTENSION  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE  . 
“  C.  O.  D.”  PLAN.  —  MONEY  COLLECTION.  —  ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  EXCHANGE.  — 
THE  SYSTEM  PURSUED  IN  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE  EXPRESS  DURING  THE  LATE 
CIVIL  WAR. — ITS  AID  TO  THE  SANITARY  COMMISSION.  —  THE  TENDENCY  OF 
MONOPOLIES  TO  COMBINE.  —  INSTANCES  FROM  OTHER  IMPROVED  SOCIAL 
METHODS.  —  THE  POST-OFFICE  AS  A  BASIS  FOR  THE  EXPRESS.  —  CONSIDERA¬ 
TIONS  FOR  AND  AGAINST  THIS  CHANGE. 


One  of  the  most  important  advances  of  our  modern  civilization 
is  the  establishment  of  the  express  business,  while  the  rapidity 
with  which  it  has  attained  its  present  development  shows  the  in¬ 
creased  activity  of  the  social  forces  of  to-day  compared  with  those 
in  the  world  less  than  two  generations  ago.  The  activity  and  cir¬ 
culation  of  our  modern  life  compare  with  that  of  the  last  century 
somewhat  as  the  busy  movement  of  a  bee-hive,  where  each  mem¬ 
ber  is  actively  at  work  with  his  allotted  task,  coming  and  going  in 
search  of  the  material  he  needs  for  adding  to  the  stores  of  the 
community,  compares  with  an  oyster-bed,  where,  rooted  to  the  soil, 
unable  to  move  about  in  search  of  what  they  need,  the  bivalves 
wait  with  open  shells,  trusting  that  at  the  rising  tide  fortune  may 
bring  them  the  food  they  want.  In  the  one  there  are  concert  of 
action,  mutual  interdependence,  and  mutual  assistance ;  in  the 
other  a  monotony  of  sluggishness,  and  isolation  instead  of  union. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  realize  at  present  how  the  generation 
before  ours  managed  to  do  without  expresses.  The  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  promptly  and  easily  circulating  small  packages  was,  of 
course,  an  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  much  of  the  activity 

(713) 


71 4 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


of  our  present  commercial  and  social  relations  ;  and  as  a  necessary 
adjunct  to  the  railroad  and  the  steamboat  the  express  came  into 
existence.  Yet  it  is  singular  that  the  steamboat  and  the  railroad 
had  been  so  long  in  operation  before  the  idea  of  the  express  origi¬ 
nated. 

» 

In  1839  William  F.  Ilarnden,  of  Boston,  at  the  suggestion  of 
some  of  his  friends,  advertised  in  the  papers  that  he  would  make 
regular  trips,  as  a  messenger,  between  Boston  and  New  York,  by 
the  Providence  Railroad,  apd  the  steamboat  from  thence  to  New 
York,  and  would  take  personal  charge  of  such  small  packages  or 
orders  as  should  be  intrusted  to  him.  In  accordance  with  this 
announcement,  he  made  his  first  trip  on  the  4th  day  of  March, 
having  in  charge  a  few  booksellers’  parcels  of  books,  some  orders, 
and  packages  from  the  brokers  of  southern  and  western  bank 
notes,  to  exchange  or  deliver.  Mr.  Ilarnden  designed  also  to  at¬ 
tend  to  freight,  and  see  that  it  was  promptly  delivered.  For  this 
purpose  he  had  made  a  contract  with  the  railroad  and  steamboat 
companies,  and  had  intended  to  make  four  trips  a  week. 

With  a  shrewd  comprehension  of  the  elements  of  success,  Mr. 
Ilarnden  made  himself  of  great  use  to  the  press,  bringing  them 
matter  in  advance  of  the  mails,  and  thus  securing  their  cordial 
cooperation  in  the  success  of  his  enterprise.  The  convenience  and 
ad^pntage  of  the  undertaking  were,  however,  promptly  recognized 
by  the  mercantile  community  of  the  two  cities,  and  the  increase 
of  the  business  speedily  caused  its  more  thorough  organization. 
This  was,  however,  the  commencement  of  the  Ilarnden’s  Express, 
and  the  beginning  of  the  extension  of  the  business,  until  it  has 
finally  encircled  the  world,  and  has  its  representatives  in  every 
town  and  village  throughout  the  country. 

In  1848  Mr.  Ilarnden  himself  died,  without  having  acquired 
more  than  a  very  moderate  reward  from  his  connection  with  the 
business,  but  not  before  he  had  seen  it  become  one  of  the  financial 
and  commercial  giants  of  the  land.  The  year  alter  the  commence¬ 
ment  by  Mr.  Ilarnden,  in  1840,  a  competing  express  was  started, 
to  connect  Boston  and  New  York  by  the  Norwich  and  Worcester 
line.  This  enterprise  was  undertaken  by  P.  B.  Burke  and  Allin 
Adams,  though  the  sole  ownership  and  management  of  it  soon 
passed  entirely  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Adams. 

In  the  beginning,  a  carpet-bag  was  thought  sufficient  for  the  ac¬ 
commodation  of  this  business,  from  which  has  grown  the  Adams 
Express  Company,  with  its  widely  extended  business  connections, 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS, 


715 


its  immense  capital,  its  army  of  assistants,  its  troops  of  horses, 
and  its  trains  of  cars. 

In  1840  D.  Brigham,  Jr.,  Mr.  Hamden’s  New  York  agent,  be¬ 
came  a  partner  in  the  business,  and  going  soon  after  to  England, 
established  the  foreign  branch  of  the  Hamden’s  Express,  and  in¬ 
troduced  the  idea  of  the  express  business  in  Europe. 

In  1841  Mr.  Adams  associated  William  B.  Dinsmore  with  him¬ 
self  as  a  partner,  giving  him  the  management  of  the  New  York 
end  of  the  line.  On  the  return  from  England  of  Mr.  I).  Brigham, 
Jr.,  Hamden’s  Express  was  extended,  in  1841,  to  Philadelphia  and 
to  Albany.  A  year  or  two  afterwards  Adams  &  Co.  took  Mr.  E. 
S.  Sanford  into  the  concern  as  a  partner,  and  gave  him  the  charge 
of  the  agency  of  their  business  in  Philadelphia,  which  was  brought 
into  their  line  at  this  time.  Mr.  Sanford,  with  S.  M.  Shoemaker, 
of  Baltknore,  also  about  this  time  established  an  express  from 
Philadelphia  to  Washington.  About  the  same  date  a  third  express 
from  Boston  to  New  York,  by  the  Newport  and  Fall  River  line, 
was  established  by  Gay  &  Co.  From  Albany  to  Buffalo,  and 
thence  to  the  other  cities  of  the  West,  the  express  lines  were  es¬ 
tablished  by  Henry  Wells.  Under  the  name  of  Wells  &  Co.  the 
first  express  west  of  Buffalo  was  established  in  1845.  This  and 
other  western  expresses  were  finally  consolidated  in  the  American 
Express  Company. 

In  1849  Adams  &  Co.  extended  their  express  line  to  California, 
and  in  1852  Wells,  Fargo  &  Co.  established  theirs.  In  1854  Ad¬ 
ams  &  Co.,  Hamden’s  Express,  then  owned  by  Thompson  &  Liv¬ 
ingston,  Kingsley  &  Co.,  and  Iloey  &  Co.  were  consolidated  in 
the  Adams  Express  Company.  The  stock  of  this  company  is 
divided  into  twelve  thousand  shares,  having  no  regularly  stated 
par  value,  but  estimated  at  one  hundred  dollars  each,  thus  making 
a  capital  of  one  million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  esti¬ 
mated  aggregate  of  the  capitals  of  the  various  leading  express  com¬ 
panies  is  placed  as  high  as  twenty  or  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  while, 
together  with  the  various  local  expresses,  each  town  of  any  size 
having  its  representatives,  their  ramifications  extend  all  over  the 
country.  Depending  chiefly  upon  the  great  railroad  lines,  which 
transport  the  bulk  of  the  staple  productions  of  the  country,  they 
yet  branch  off  upon  every  connecting  road,  and  also  almost  every 
stage  line,  thus  placing  almost  every  hamlet  in  the  country  in  pos¬ 
sible  and  easy  connection  with  all  the  great  centres. 

The  social  activity  which  such  a  condition  of  things  generates, 


716 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


and  to  which  it  ministers,  being  at  once  a  cause  and  effect,  can 
hardly  be  overestimated.  Though  its  results  are  not  yet  wholly 
developed,  yet  it  serves  at  least  as  the  basis  for  a  physical  organ¬ 
ization  of  society,  in  which  the  circulation  shall  be  as  perfect  as 
that  of  the  blood  in  the  body. 

Besides  the  transmission  of  packages,  the  various  expresses  have 
become  most  valuable  auxiliaries  to  the  financial  organization  of 
commerce,  and  to  the  banking  interests  of  the  country.  They  not 
only  deliver  goods,  collecting  the  bills  for  them,  and  returning  the 
money  to  the  seller,  —  a  system  which  has  grown  into  most  gen¬ 
eral  use,  and  is  known  technically  as  sending  goods  “  C.  0.  D.,” 
that  is,  “  collecting  on  delivery,”  —  but  it  has  also  been  estimated 
that  the  value  of  the  bank  notes  and  other  moneys  daily  transported 
by  them  amounts  to  fifteen  or  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  With 
the  various  banks,  bankers,  and  brokers  they  have  contracts  for 
performing  this  service,  charging  for  it  at  the  rate  of  about  twenty 
cents  a  thousand  dollars,  varying  slightly  with  regard  to  the  dis¬ 
tance  ;  and  in  this  way  their  charge  has  come  to  be  in  a  great 
measure  the  regulator  of  the  rate  of  exchange  between  the  various 
money  centres  of  the  country,  and  has  very  greatly  reduced  the 
average  which  formerly  prevailed,  and  thus  been  productive  of  a 
great  saving  to  the  producers  and  consumers  of  the  country. 

The  expresses  travel  generally  on  the  fastest  trains,  and  have 
frequently  their  own  cars  devoted  entirely  to  their  business.  Each 
of  the  trains  is  accompanied  with  a  special  messenger,  who  has 
the  business  under  his  personal  supervision.  The  valuable  pack¬ 
ages  are  enclosed  in  large  iron-bound  trunks,  and  the  money  in 
safes.  The  position  of  messenger  is  a  very  responsible  one,  and 
by  no  means  devoid  of  danger,  as  has  been  recently  shown  in  sev¬ 
eral  instances,  where  daring  thieves,  knowing  that  valuable  booty 
was  in  their  care,  have  planned  to  introduce  themselves  into  the 
car  while  in  motion,  and  overpowering  the  messenger,  rob  the  safe. 
By  such  robberies  the  lives  of  several  messengers  have  recently 
been  lost,  since  the  desperate  thieves  engaged  in  these  enter¬ 
prises  stop  at  nothing  to  carry  out  their  designs. 

The  business  of  the  various  expresses,  notwithstanding  it  is  so 
large  and  so  complex,  is  so  well  organized  and  arranged  that  both 
great  simplicity  and  accuracy  are  secured  in  its  working.  Every 
package  is  entered  on  the  way  bill,  and  the  messenger  in  charge 
of  the  shipments  on  the  train  delivers  to  the  express  agents  at  the 
various  stations  the  goods  intended  for  them,  and  receives  any 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


717 


articles  left  with  him  for  further  shipment.  This  is  generally  done 
during  the  time  when  the  train  stops  for  the  accommodation  of 
passengers,  promptness  and  despatch  being  made  synonymous  with 
express.  Everything  intrusted  to  the  express  for  transportation 
is  entered,  with  the  date,  upon  the  way  bill  at  the  office  or  station 
at  which  it  was  received.  The  address  in  full  is  marked  upon  each 
package,  and  the  charge  which  is  to  be  collected  upon  its  delivery. 
If  the  charge  is  prepaid  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  package  is  so  marked, 
and  if  it  has  been  received  from  some  other  express,  or  any  source 
which  had  a  claim  upon  it  for  previous  charges,  these  are  paid,  and 
the  amount  entered  in  a  cash  column,  and  collected  with  the 
freight  upon  its  delivery.  If  the  freight  and  charges  have,  how¬ 
ever,  been  prepaid,  an  entry  of  this  kind  is  made  ;  and  also  if 
there  is  a  credit  for  forwarding  the  package  beyond  the  end  of  the 
express  route,  this  is  also  entered  in  its  appropriate  column. 

The  amounts  of  the  “prepaid”  and  “paid  through”  columns 
are  charged  to  the  agencies  at  which  the  packages  are  received, 
and  those  of  the  freight  and  express  columns  to  the  agencies  to 
which  the  way  bills  are  sent.  Thus  the  accounts  are  kept  correct, 
and  the  material  prepared  for  tracing  out  any  error  which  may  occur. 
As  the  way  bills  are  always  kept  in  duplicate  in  the  offices  from  which 
they  are  issued,  the  ability  of  tracing  all  errors  is  assured.  The 
simplicity  with  which  such  a  varied  and  extended  business  is  kept, 
and  the  promptness  with  which,  though  it  is  so  new,  and  had  no 
precedents  from  which  to  borrow,  it  has  been  organized,  speak  well 
for  the  business  ability  of  the  Americans,  and  the  ease  which  they 
display  in  adapting  themselves  to  new  conditions. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  evidences  of  this  was  afforded 
during  the  late  civil  war,  by  the  aid  rendered  the  army  by  the  ex¬ 
press.  It  was  to  be  expected  that,  when  the  army  was  raised  in  a 
year  from  an  average  of  about  twenty  thousand  men  to  nearly  a 
million,  difficulties  would  have  been  experienced  in  keeping  its 
transportation  commensurate  with  such  increasing  needs  ;  and 
though  it  was  a  cause  of  surprise  and  congratulation  that  this 
arm  of  the  service  was  so  efficiently  administered  during  the  con¬ 
test,  yet  in  many  cases  of  emergency  the  express  companies  ren¬ 
dered  an  aid  in  the  saving  of  stores  which  was  worth  millions  to 
the  nation.  In  the  distribution  of  the  mail  to  the  army,  and  trans¬ 
porting  the  pay,  which  frequently  required  cart-loads  of  green¬ 
backs,  their  business  organization  rendered  them  very  efficient, 
and  they  earned  a  debt  of  gratitude  from  every  one  who  profited 


718 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


by  their  services.  Without  their  aid,  also,  much  of  the  needed 
work  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  would  have  been  left  unper¬ 
formed,  and  the  comforts,  the  delicacies,  and  the  various  offerings 
to  those  in  the  field,  by  which  those  anxiously  interested  at  home 
sought  to  express  their  sympathy  and  love,  would  never  have 
reached  their  destination,  or  would  never  have  been  sent. 

While  the  express  business,  however,  has  shown  itself  by  its 
sudden  growth  to  be  an  absolutely  necessary  organization  for  sat¬ 
isfying  and  encouraging  the  activity  of  modern  society,  and 
though  it  has  admirably  satisfied  the  needs  which  called  it  into 
being,  yet,  as  with  almost  every  new  method  introduced  into 
our  social  organization,  the  public  needs  require  that  further 
changes  should  be  made  in  order  to  meet  the  necessities  which 
have  been  created  by  the  measures  themselves.  It  is  with  the 
express  as  with  the  post  office  and  with  the  railroads. 

AVlien  the  postal  system  was  first  established  it  was  a  great 
public  convenience,  and  while  it  satisfied  the  necessity  of  inter¬ 
communication  between  the  different  parts  of  the  country,  it  also 
stimulated  the  social  and  industrial  activity  of  the  people,  arid  the 
charge  for  carrying  letters,  which  at  first  seemed  light  compared 
with  the  advantage  of  having  the  opportunity  of  sending  a  letter 
by  a  certain,  constant,  and  trustworthy  post,  without  having  to 
depend  upon  special  messengers,  or  the  personal  kindness  of  ac¬ 
quaintances  who  happened  to  be  going  that  way,  came  to  be  oner¬ 
ous,  and  the  reform  of  cheap  postage  is  one  of  the  surest  indica¬ 
tions  of  the  advance  in  civilization. 

With  the  railroads  in  this  country,  which  have  reall}7,  become 
the  necessary  means  of  traffic  and  travel,  replacing  the  old  roads 
used  for  these  purposes,  the  system  pursued  was  to  trust  to  com¬ 
petition  for  cheapening  the  charges  ;  but  our  experience  has  shown 
how  weak  and  mistaken  was  the  confidence  felt  that  in  this  way 
the  public  would  obtain  the  best  advantages  from  this  new  method 
of  transportation. 

Not  only  has  this  country  given  evidence  of  this,  but  in  Europe 
also,  where  the  opportunity  is  offered  for  comparing  the  two  sys¬ 
tems,  the  one  in  which  the  railroads  are  considered  as  public  con¬ 
veniences,  like  the  mint  or  the  post  office,  and  controlled  by  the 
government,  and  the  other  in  which  the  public  convenience  has 
been  trusted  to  the  uncontrolled  effects  of  competition,  the  advan¬ 
tages  of  the  first  method  are  made  more  apparent. 

In  England  the  railroads  were  left  to  private  enterprise,  and  the 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


7n 


result  has  been  that,  as  a  general  thing,  they  are  all  bankrupt,  and 
Parliament  has  been  forced  to  seriously  consider  the  necessity  of 
placing  them  all  under  governmental  control.  On  the  continent, 
however,  in  France,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Belgium,  the  railroads 
were  built  under  limited  charters,  to  revert  to  the  government  in  a 
certain  time,  while  their  rates  of  charge  are  meanwhile  under  the 
inspection  and  control  of  the  government,  or  else  they  have  been 
built  and  are  operated  by  the  government.  In  no  instance  have 
they  been  left,  as  here  or  in  England,  entirely  to  private  enterprise, 
while  the  public  are  left  dependent  upon  their  liberality  or  intelli¬ 
gence  for  affording  the  necessary  transportation,  and  at  the  cheap¬ 
est  rates. 

In  Belgium  the  governmental  system  is  the  most  perfect.  The 
roads  have  been  built  and  are  operated,  with  the  telegraphs,  by 
the  government ;  and  its  constant  aim  has  been  to  increase  the 
commercial  activity  of  the  people  by  constantly  cheapening  the 
cost  of  transportation.  The  statistics  of  the  country  show  most 
conclusively  the  advantage  of  this  system,  and  Belgium  has  the 
cheapest  and  best  managed  railways  in  Europe.  Any  profit  made 
by  operating  them  helps  to  pay  the  taxes,  or  is  considered  a  proof 
that  the  rates  should  be  reduced. 

In  England,  however,  the  competitive  system  has  made  the  rail¬ 
ways  bankrupt,  and  spread  the  widest  disaster  among  the  stock¬ 
holders.  It  has  been  shown,  then,  that  the  irresponsible  financial 
control  of  such  an  important  industrial  aid  as  the  railroad  has  be¬ 
come  in  modern  society  should  not  be  trusted  in  private  hands, 
while  in  this  country  our  experience  has  gone  a  great  way  towards 
demonstrating  the  same  truth.  It  is  difficult  for  any  one  to  say 
what  is  really  the  value  of  the  stock  of  many  of  our  chief  roads, 
upon  which  the  industrial  activity  of  large  sections  of  the  country 
is  absolutely  dependent. 

In  the  United  States,  however,  the  system  of  intrusting  the  rail¬ 
road  to  private  enterprise  has  developed  a  new  feature,  whichf  |s 
shown  equally  with  the  express.  In  such  gigantic  enterprises, 
which  require  for  their  successful  operation  large  capitals,  the  pub¬ 
lic  cannot  depend  upon  the  action  of  competition  to  obtain  the 
requisite  cheapness.  It  is  impossible  that  there  can  be  any  com¬ 
petition,  since  the  community  has  neither  the  money,  the  time,  nor 
the  inclination  to  establish  one  ;  and  further,  as  was  seen  in  the 
contest  concerning  the  establishment  of  river  navigation  by  steam 
in  this  country,  and  as  is  at  present  shown  both  in  the  manage- 


720 


THE  EXPRESS  BUSINESS. 


mcnt  of  the  railroads  and  the  expresses,  the  established  lines  are 
much  more  able  and  prompt  to  combine  against  the  public  in  the 
maintenance  of  their  monopoly  than  the  public  is  to  combine  in 
the  establishment  of  a  competing  line.  The  great  expresses  of 
the  country  have  displayed  this  tendency,  and  their  action  has 
been  far  from  proving  an  advantage  to  the  general  interest  of  the 
public. 

With  the  increasing  complexity  of  civilization  we  are  beginning 
to  see  that  all  monopolies  are  unscientific  and  uneconomical,  and 
that  the  interest  of  the  entire  public  is  best  subserved  by  not  in¬ 
trusting  to  irresponsible  parties  the  performance  of  the  work  need¬ 
ed  for  the  general  welfare. 

In  the  post  office  we  have  already  the  framework  of  an  express 
system,  which  could  be  easily  enlarged  sufficiently  to  perform  the 
express  business  of  the  country  needed  by  the  increasing  activity 
of  our  social  and  industrial  life,  much  more  economically  than  it 
is  now  done.  The  extra  expense  necessary  to  so  enlarge  the  oper¬ 
ations  of  the  post  office  as  to  embrace  the  express  business  of  the 
country  would  be  a  much  smaller  charge  upon  the  industry  of  the 
country  than  that  levied  by  the  express,  as  at  present  organized. 

<  That  government  work  is  poorly  and  expensively  done  is  gene r- 
alhr  made  an  objection  to  any  suggestion  for  enlarging  its  sphere. 
But  this  is  not  so,  as  the  mint  and  the  post  office  show.  And  be¬ 
sides,  were  this  so,  the  fault  would  not  be  in  the  principle,  but  in 
the  defective  organization  by  which  such  work  was  performed  ;  and 
the  remedy  lies  clearly  in  the  hands  of  those  from  whom  the  gov¬ 
ernment  gets  its  power,  and  to  whom  it  is  responsible  as  a  servant. 

With  every  year’s  experience,  the  social  importance  of  the  ma¬ 
terial  question  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent,  and  the  neces¬ 
sity  for  improved  methods  of  organization  to  satisfy  the  changing 
conditions  introduced  by  the  new  spirit  of  the  time,  which  is  daily 
manifesting  the  necessities  for  a  closer  union  and  interdependence 
Up  the  various  peoples  of  the  earth,  must  in  the  immediate  future 
attract  the  attention  of  our  statesmen,  and  their  solution,  rather 
than  those  of  the  petty  disputes  of  party,  be  the  object  of  their 
labors.  With  the  study  of  the  course  of  social  advance,  and  a 
method  by  which  to  pursue  such  investigations,  the  solution  of 
these  questions  will  be  made  upon  the  universal  plane,  instead  of 
upon  that  of  parties  or  of  rings  ;  and  among  them  hardly  one  is 
more  important  than  that  of  the  express  business. 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING. 

THE  INVENTION  OF  THE  LOOM.  —  LOOMS  AMONG  THE  NATIONS  OF  ANTIQUITY. 

—  FANCY  LOOMS.  —  MR.  WILLIAM  CROMPTON.  —  HIS  FANCY  LOOM.  — ITS 

FIRST  PRACTICAL  APPLICATION.  —  THE  PROFITS  FROM  ITS  USE.  —  MR. 

Crompton’s  other  inventions.  —  mr.  george  crompton.  —  the  capac¬ 
ity  OF  THE  CROMPTON  LOOM  WORKS.  —  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  “  FANCY  LOOMS.” 

—  THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  A  FANCY  LOOM.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFAC¬ 
TURE.  —  THE  VARIOUS  DEPARTMENTS  IN  THE  CROMPTON  LOOM  WORKS. 

The  invention  of  a  loom,  or  an  instrument  by  which  a  continu¬ 
ous  fabric  is  woven  from  threads,  dates  back  to  the  pre-historic 
period  of  history,  and  was  probably  one  of  the  first  inventions 
made  by  mankind.  On  the  tombs  at  Thebes,  and  upon  other  re¬ 
mains  of  Egyptian  architecture,  looms  of  a  simple  construction 
are  still  to  be  seen  pictorially  represented,  and  the  cloths  which 
have  been  found  upon  the  mummies  taken  from  the  Egyptian 
tombs  show,  from  the  fineness  and  regularity  of  their  texture,  that 
the  Egyptians  had  the  art  of  doing  better  weaving  than  it  would 
be  supposed  possible  from  the  apparently  imperfect  character  of 
the  looms  there  represented. 

In  India,  also,  the  use  of  the  loK>m  has  been  known  from  the 
earliest  times,  as  it  was  also  in  Greece.  Some  of  the  fabrics  from 
the  looms  of  India  are  unrivalled  even  now  for  their  delicacy  of 
texture ;  and  Homer  speaks  of  a  figured  web,  in  which  were  the 
figures  of  a  Gorgon  and  dragons,  woven  in  the  texture.  It  is 
yond  question  that  the  diapered  and  figured  textures  made  by 
natives  of  India  and  the  Greeks  were  excellent,  notwithstanding 
that  their  looms  were  of  a  very  rude  description  ;  but  their  indus¬ 
try,  in  this  department,  as  in  others,  was  not  so  inexorably  bound 
as  that  of  the  modern  world  is,  by  considerations  of  money  and 
time.  Now,  with  the  greater  activity  of  our  industrial  occupa¬ 
tions,  the  products  of  our  fancy  looms  are  not  limited  for  their 

consumption  to  the  few,  but  the  increased  demand  has  necessitated 

(721) 


722 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING. 


such  an  increased  production,  that  improvements  in  the  looms  have 

become  a  necessity. 

The  use  of  the  loom  in  Europe  was  introduced  in  the  early  years 
of  the  Christian  era,  and  Italy  and  the  Netherlands  were,  for  a 
time,  the  countries  most  distinguished  for  their  skill  in  its  use. 
The  precise  date  of  its  introduction  into  England  is  not  known, 
but  about  the  period  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  reign  the  English  began 
to  attain  the  perfection  for  which  they  have  so  long  been  distin¬ 
guished. 

The  term  “  fancy  loom  ”  is  used  to  designate  such  looms  as 
produce  figures  in  the  weaving.  In  the  manufacture  of  fancy 
looms,  the  leading  establishment  of  this  country  is  the  Crompton 
Loom  Works,  situated  at  Worcester,  Mass.  This  house  has  an 
historic  reputation  for  the  production  of  its  specialty,  which,  under 


CROMPTON  LOOM  WORKS,  WORCESTER,,  MASS. 


the  management  of  its  present  proprietor,  Mr.  George  Crompton, 
it  is  destined  to  maintain  and  increase. 

In  1836,  William  Crompton,  a  native  of  England,  came  over  to 
this  country.  lie  was  at  this  time  about  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
was  an  accomplished  weaver  and'  mechanic.  With  his  practical 
knowledge  of  weaving  and  the  necessities  of  the  loom,  together 
with  h  is  mechanical  ability,  he  was  enabled  to  invent  a  fancy  loom, 
which  supplied  the  want  then  seriously  felt  for  this  desideratum  in 
the  business  of  weaving.  The  looms  then  in  use  in  England  were 
the  Dobby  and  Wizard  and  Witch  looms,  and  both  of  these  needed 
improvements.  The  Dobby  loom  only  lifted  the  warp  without  de¬ 
pressing  it,  and  the  result  of  this  imperfect  mechanism  was,  that 
the  threads  of  the  warp  were  badly  strained. 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING. 


723 


Mr.  Crompton’s  invention  to  remedy  this  fault  was  of  a  very 
simple  and  ingenious  character,  and  he  obtained  a  patent  for  it,  in 
the  United  States  in  1837,  and  in  England  in  1838,  under  the  name 
of  John  Rostron,  his  English  partner.  Having  carried  his  loom 
to  England  in  this  year,  it  was  there  received  with  great  favor. 
On  his  return  to  this  country,  in  1840,  his  attention  was  arrested 
by  the  fact  that  at  that  time  the  woollen  goods  made  in  the  United 
States  were  manufactured  on  twilled  looms.  Calling  upon  Mr. 
Samuel  Lawrence,  the  agent  of  the  Middlesex  Mills,  this  gentleman 
gave  him  an  order  to  change  the  looms  of  the  mill  from  plain  to 
fancy  ones.  In  six  months  the  change  was  completed,  and  the 
company  engaged  in  the  making  of  fancy  overcoatings,  which 
was  the  first  practical  application  of  the  Crompton  loom. 

From  the  profits  made  by  these  mills  by  the  use  of  these  looms, 
between  the  years  1840  and  1848,  the  company  built  another  im¬ 
mense  mill,  which  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  foundation  of  the 
present  city  of  Lawrence.  The  favor  with  which  the  Crompton 
loom  was  there  regarded  gave  it  a  great  reputation  in  other  quar¬ 
ters.  Soon  after  the  Middlesex  mills  had  got  into  operation  with 
the  Crompton  looms,  Mr.  Crompton,  being  without  ample  means, 
sold  to  Messrs.  Phelps  and  Bickford  the  exclusive  right  to  manu¬ 
facture  them,  for  a  royalty.  This  firm  engaged  in  making  these 
looms,  adding  to  them  the  occasional  improvements  made  by  Mr. 
Crompton,  while  he  himself  was  engaged  in  travelling,  setting  up 
the  machines,  and  instructing  the  operatives  in  their  use,  and 
how  to  design  patterns  for  the  cloth  to  be  woven  by  them.  Many 
influential  mill  owners  of  to-day  will  remember  the  instructions 
they  received  from  Mr.  Crompton,  the  inventor. 

Mr.  William  Crompton  was  also  the  inventor  of  various  other 
machines  than  these  looms  which  bear  his  name,  and  throughout 
his  life  has  displayed  a  very  rare  faculty  for  mechanical  combination 
and  original  invention.  While  the  making  of  these  looms  proved 
lucrative  to  their  builders,  the  royalty  paid  the  inventor  was  so 
small  that,  up  to  1851,  at  the  expiration  of  the  patent,  Mr.  Cromp-* 
ton  had  received  only  about  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  Meanwhile 
he  had  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics,  which  had 
proved  unprofitable. 

In  1849  Mr.  Crompton  became  very  ill,  and  up  to  this  time  has 
never  fully  recovered  his  health.  In  consequence  of  this  illness, 
he  retired  from  active  business.  In  1851  Mr.  George  Crompton, 
his  son,  having  become  of  age,  obtained  an  extension  of  the  pat- 

42 


724 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING. 


ent,  and  taking  a  partner,  went  into  the  business  of  manufacturing 
fancy  looms  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  including  the  improvements 
made  by  his  father,  and  improvements  of  his  own  invention.  In 
1859  the  firm  was  dissolved  by  the  retirement  of  his  partner,  and 
Mr.  Crompton,  having  erected  his  present  works  upon  the  site  of 
the  old  establishment,  has  continued  the  business  individually 
since.  During  the  continuance  of  the  partnership,  Mr.  Crompton 
found  that  his  father’s  inventions  were  pirated  by  some  leading 
loom  manufacturers.  Invoking  the  aid  of  the  law  to  protect  his 
rights,  he,  after  considerable  litigation,  which  drew  heavily  upqn 
the  funds  of  the  copartnership,  succeeded  in  maintaining  the  valid¬ 
ity  of  the  elder  Mr.  Crompton’s  patents,  as  well  as  of  his  own. 

On  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  1861,  the  loom  business  being 
limited,  Mr.  Crompton  devoted  a  part  of  his  establishment  for  a 
time  to  the  manufacture  of  gun-making  machinery  for  the  United 
States  and  various  large  private  armories.  Finally,  in  1863-4,  the 
demand  for  blankets,  etc.,  for  the  soldiers,  being  so  great,  Mr. 
Crompton  resumed  the  building  of  fancy  and  plain  looms  for 
weaving  woollens,  extended  the  capacity  of  his  works  to  the 
number  of  four  hundred  hands,  and  since  that  time  the  orders  for 
his  machinery  have  been  constantly  so  pressing  as  to  employ  the 
entire  capacity  of  his  works. 

The  Crompton  Loom  Works  are  able  to  produce  from  two  to 
four  broad  fancy  looms  a  day,  and  are,  in  fact,  the  chief  producers 
in  the  United  States  of  this  specialty.  Mr.  Crompton  also  manu¬ 
factures  fancy  cotton  and  gingham  looms,  which,  with  four  shuttle 
boxes,  run  at  the  unprecedented  speed  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  one  hundred  and  seventy  “  picks”  a  minute,  according  to  the 
size  of  the  shuttle  and  bobbin  used.  Mr.  Crompton  also  makes 
fancy  cotton  looms  with  a  large  number  of  spindle  boxes,  and  an 
extensive  number  of  harnesses  adapted  to  the  manufacture  of  fancy 
cottonades,  ginghams,  poplins,  shawls,  etc. 

In  manufacturing  the  leading  looms  for  woollens,  Mr.  Crompton 
preserved  the  configuration  of  the  machine  as  built  by  his  father, 
until  1865,  when  he  discarded  it  for  the  “  upright  lever  ar¬ 
rangement,”  for  the  harness  motion,  the  exclusive  right  to  manu¬ 
facture  which  is  under  his  control.  But  finally  he  discarded  this, 
and  has  now  adopted  a  principle  in  which  no  jack  levers  at  all  are 
used,  and  involving  many  important  advantages  over  any  loom 
hitherto  built.  These  improvements  are  of  Mr.  Crompton’s  own 
invention,  and  are  under  his  exclusive  control,  and  are  very  popu- 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING. 


725 


Iar  among  the  manufacturers  of  fabrics,  who  frequently  render 
voluntary  testimony,  by  letters,  to  Mr.  Crompton  of  its  great  value. 
Ml*.  Crompton  has  received  over  thirty  letters  patent  for  improve¬ 
ments  in  looms,  and  is  constantly  exercising  his  inventive  talents 
in  further  improving  the  loom,  and  his  other  inventions. 

The  number  of  pieces  in  a  broad  fancy  loom  for  woollens  is  two 
thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-one,  consisting  of  the  frame¬ 
work,  the  harness  motion,  the  treadles,  the  drop  box  apparatus, 
the  lathe,  warp  beam,  etc.  The  cost  of  a  large  loom  with  four 
drop  boxes  is  about  four  hundred  dollars.  The  frame,  and  all  but 
the  shafts,  are  cast. 

Portions  of  the  cast-iron  pieces  are  ground  and  polished  on 
large  grindstones  and  emery  wheels.  The  works  are  provided 
with  self-feeding  chucking  lathes,  which  were  invented  in  the  fac¬ 
tory,  and  which  not  only  guide  themselves,  but  stop  when  their 
work  is  finished.  The  “picker  spindles,”  cut  of  the  proper  length 
from  rods  of  steel,  are  made  perfectly  round  and  smooth  in  an  in¬ 
genious  machine,  called  the  “spindle  polisher,”  by  which,  at  the 
same  time,  the  spindles  are,  if  necessary,  pointed  and  polished 
with  great  accuracy.  The  power  for  the  works  is  obtained  from  a 
Corliss  engine  of  thirty-horse  power,  made  by  the  Corliss  Steam 
Engine  Company,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  which  has  been  sup¬ 
plemented  by  another  of  twenty-horse  power  for  doing  the  grind¬ 
ing  and  polishing  required  in  the  various  processes  of  manufacture. 

After  the  castings  are  cleaned,  they  are  first  passed  through  the 
self-feeding  chucking  lathes,  and  bored  with  the  requisite  holes. 
Then  they  are  subjected  to  the  operation  of  planers,  and  the  pick¬ 
er  slots  and  the  drop-shuttle  boxes  are  made  perfectly  true  and 
parallel  with  the  lathe,  in  order  that  the  shuttle  may  be  thrown 
'with  accuracy  through  the  warp.  In  the  shafting  room,  the  shafts 
and  crank  shafts,  the  driving  pulleys,  beam  heads,  and  gearing  of 
the  looms  are  turned,  polished,  and  fitted.  In  this  shafting  room 
are  various  other  mechanical  appliances  of  the  same  charac¬ 
ter.  In  the  finishing  room  are  many  machines  for  turning,  drill¬ 
ing,  screw-cutting,  etc.,  required  for  the  small  work  of  finishing 
the  looms.  In  the  punching  room  are  numerous  machines  for  making 
washers,  and  other  necessary  parts,  and  also  for  filing  the  small 
boxes  made  of  malleable  iron.  In  the  shuttle  room,  where  the 
shuttles  are  made,  these  necessary  portions  of  the  loom  undergo 
nineteen  operations  before  they  are  finished,  such  as  sawing  out, 
gabbing,  squaring,  burring  out,  pointing,  heading,  etc. 


726 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING 


The  “fancy  loom”  is  distinguished  from  the  common  “cam 
loom”  by  its  “harness”  mechanism,  by  which  the  operator  of 
the  loom  is  enabled  to  arrange  it  at  will  so  as  to  produce  any  re¬ 
quired  combination  of  the  twenty-four  harnesses,  in  order  to  weave 
the  various  patterns  of  fancy  cassimeres,  for  example,  or  any  other 
variety  of  fabric  which  is  manufactured  in  it.  The  ordinary  loom 
produces  plain  cloth  alone. 

The  movable,  or  “  drop-shuttle  ”  box,  containing  the  different 
colored  fillings  in  the  shuttles,  and  the  pattern  chain,  for  producing 
the  different  interweavings  of  the  warp  and  woof,  are  the  chief 
distinguishing  features  of  the  fancy  loom,  as  compared  with  the 


IMPROVED  FANCY  LOOM— HORIZONTAL  HARNESS  MOTION. 


plain  loom.  The  shuttle  boxes,  one  in  each  box,  are  made  in  four 
parallel  divisions,  into  each  of  which  a  given  color  of  “  filling”  is 
put.  The  “chain”  is  a  series  of  small  spindles,  united  by  links, 
or  flexible  joints,  and  set  parallel  to  each  other.  These  may  be  of 
any  required  number,  from  two  to  several  hundred,  upon  which 
are  strung  a  number  of  small  iron  “  rolls,”  or  wheels,  divided 
from  each  other  by  washers.  By  any  of  the  rolls  or  links  of  the 
twenty-four  on  a  spindle  of  the  chain,  it  is  determined  whether  a 
particular  part  of  the  warp  shall  go  in  the  upper  or  lower  portion, 
or  “  shed,”  as  the  technical  term  is,  which  is  formed  for  the  pass¬ 
age  of  the  woof,  or  filling. 

I  he  chain  is  set  on  the  end  of  the  loom,  in  such  connection  by 


FANCY  LOOM  MAKING. 


727 


the  harness  bars  with  the  several  harness  frames,  as  to  lift  a  par¬ 
ticular  one  at  a  given  time,  or  depress  it  at  the  instant  when 
the  proper  shuttle  is  ready  to  pass  through  the  woof.  The  num¬ 
ber  of  harnesses  may  be  twenty-four,  in  each  of  which  may  be  set 
from  any  number  to  two  thousand  11  treddle  ”  wires,  in  each  of 
which  is  an  eye,  or  loop,  through  which  a  thread  of  the  warp 
passes.  These  harnesses  occupy  a  space  of  nine  inches,  so  that 
within  the  space  of  an  inch  several  hundred  combinations  of  color 
are  possible. 


IDENTITY  OF  DIAMOND,  CHARCOAL,  AND  BLACK  LEAD.  —  ANCIENT  SUBSTITUTES 
FOR  LEAD  PENCILS.  — DISCOVERY  OF  THE  BORROWDALE  MINE  IN  CUMBER¬ 
LAND. —  MODE  OF  WORKING  IT.  —  MODE  OF  USING  IT. — EXPERIMENTS  FOR 
USING  INFERIOR  GRAPHITE.  —  THE  FABER  HOUSE.  — THE  AMERICAN  LEAD 
PENCIL  COMPANY  THE  ONLY  COMPLETE  WORKS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. — 
GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  MINERAL.  —  THE  AMERICAN  COMPANY’S 
WORKS.  —  STYLES  OF  PENCIL. — OPERATIONS  ON  THE  LEAD.  —  OPERATIONS 

ON  THE  WOOD. - CRAYONS.  —  CAPACITY  OF  THE  WORKS.  —  SUCCESS  OF  THE 

AMERICAN  PENCILS  PROVED  BY  PRACTICAL  USE.  —  HIGH  CLASS  OF  TESTIMO¬ 
NIALS. 


Diamond,  charcoal,  and  black  lead  (plumbago  or  graphite)  are 
different  forms  of  carbon.  Little  is  known  of  the  way  in  which  the 
diamond  crystallizes,  though  some  small  artificial  black  ones  are  be¬ 
lieved  to  have  been  made  by  a  French  experimenter.  There  is  a 
tendency  to  believe,  however,  that  both  diamond  and  black  lead  are 
ultimately  of  vegetable  origin ;  the  latter,  perhaps,  being  the  remains, 
in  the  primary  rocks,  of  some  vegetation  which  existed  when  those 
rocks  were  at  the  surface  of  the  earth,  just  as  the  anthracite  and 
bituminous  coal  deposits  are  the  remains  of  the  vegetation  of  a 
subsequent  geological  period. 

The  use  of  black  lead  for  writing  and  drawing  is  of  obscure 
origin  ;  for  the  references  to  something  which  may  or  may  not  have 
been  a  black  lead  pencil,  by  \  an  Eyck  about  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  Memmling  a  little  later,  and  by  Italian  writers 
somewhat  earlier,  are  very  uncertain.  Gesner,  writing  in  1565,  has 
*lso  been  thought  to  describe  a  kind  of  black  lead  pencil.  But  it  is 
probable  that  the  pencils  referred  to  as  above  by  the  Flemish  and 
Italian  authorities  were  plummets  or  rods  of  lead  only,  or  lead  mixed 
with  tin.  The  Italians  called  a  pencil  stilo,  from  the  Latin  stylus , 
ami  they  called  the  kind  of  pencil  — whatever  it  was  —  silver  style. 
Now,  a  leaden  or  pewter  rod  might  look  something  like  silver,  while 
a  black  lead  one  certainly  would  not.  Gesner  may  possibly  have 
referred  to  a  real  black  lead  pencil ;  for  it  was  in  1564,  one  year  be¬ 
fore  the  date  of  his  reference,  that  the  celebrated  English  mine  of 

(728) 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


729 


Borrowdale  in  Cumberland  was  discovered,  and  in  1565  that  the  first 
pencils  were  made  of  it. 

The  graphite  from  this  Borrowdale  mine  used  to  be  taken  out  with 
as  much  precaution  as  if  it  had  been  diamond.  Indeed,  it  was  worth 
more  than  any  ordinary  diamond  mine ;  for  it  used  to  produce  to 
the  owners  from  $150,000  to  $500,000  annually.  It  was  only  opened 
for  six  weeks  once  a  year ;  a  limited  quantity  was  taken  out,  which  was 
shipped  to  London,  and  sold  once  a  month  at  auction ;  and  the  mine 
was  then  shut.  Thefts  by  the  miners  of  the  neighborhood  were 
frequent.  A  sturdy  gang  of  them  once  seized  the  mine  by  force  and 
worked  it  for  some  weeks ;  and  the  monopolists  in  their  desperation 
at  last  had  to  practise  closing  the  mine  by  hauling  some  hundreds 
of  cart-loads  of  rubbish  into  it,  and  then  flooding  it  full  of  water, 
and  while  it  was  open  an  armed  guard  was  maintained  at  its  mouth. 

This  graphite,  as  long  as  the  supply  held  out,  was  the  best  in  the 
world ;  but  the  mine  has  now  been  long  exhausted,  and  only  furnishes 
small  quantities  of  inferior  mineral,  much  of  it  extracted  from  the 
refuse  of  better  days.  It  used  to  be  manufactured  thus  :  The  crude 
blocks  or  lumps  were  scraped  clean  and  sawed  into  plates  of  the  thick¬ 
ness  of  a  pencil  lead  ;  then  a  grooved  stick  was  taken,  one  edge  of  this 
plate  set  in  at  one  end  and  broken  across  even  with  the  groove ;  then 
the  plate  was  laid  into  the  groove  again,  close  to  the  end  of  the  first 
piece,  and  again  broken  across ;  and  so  on  until  the  groove  was  filled, 
when  a  piece  of  wood  was  glued  on  above  it,  and  the  pencil  rounded 
into  shape. 

A  number  of  processes  were  tried  for  working  up  the  inferior  lead, 
by  pulverizing  it  and  mixing  it  with  glue,  isinglass,  tragacanth,  and 
other  gums,  by  melting  sulphur  with  it,  and  by  mingling  it  with  an¬ 
timony,  etc.,  but  with  little  success.  Mr.  Brockedon,  an  Englishman, 
invented  a  mode  of  applying  enormous  pressure  in  a  vacuum,  which 
served  to  make  a  very  fair  article,  and  M.  Conte,  a  Frenchman, 
as  early  as  1795,  developed  a  process,  which  has  been  adopted  in 
most  or  all  of  the  modem  pencil  manufactories,  for  a  manufactured 
article  or  “  artificial  black  lead,”  whose  color  and  hardness  can  be 
graded  at  pleasure,  by  mixing  with  the  graphite,  after  grinding  it, 
different  proportions  of  pure  clay,  very  finely  pulverized. 

The  well-known  house  of  Faber,  which  dates  back  to  the  year 
1761,  was  for  a  long  time  the  foremost  in  the  lead  pencil  manufactur¬ 
ing  business,  and  it  has  for  many  years  had  a  branch  concern  in  New 
York,  which,  however,  manufactures  no  leads  here,  but  imports  some 
of  the  poorer  grades,  putting  on  the  wood  in  this  country,  while  the 
better  pencils  are  wholly  made  in  ‘Europe. 


730 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


The  business  of  manufacturing  the  pencils  complete,  however, 
upon  an  independent  basis,  on  a  large  scale,  by  scientific  methods,  and 
with  a  complete  suit  of  the  proper  machinery,  has  been  established 
in  this  country  by  the  enterprising  concern  of  the  American  Lead 
Pencil  Company,  composed  of  Edward  T\r eissenborn,  the  manufac- 
-turing  partner,  and  the  Messrs.  Hecht  Brothers,  the  selling  part¬ 
ners,  whose  office  is  at  483  and  485  Broadway,  New  York  City, 
and  this  is  the  only  concern  which  manufactures  pencils  complete 
on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 

Most  of  the  graphite  used  for  the  American  Lead  Pencils  is  ob¬ 
tained  from  Georgia.  Other  deposits  of  it  are  known  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  and  elsewhere.  Indeed,  it  is  procured  from  various  parts  of 
the  world;  in  Spain,  Ceylon,  Norway,  Scotland,  etc.,  etc.,  and  some 
noise  has  been  made  of  late  years  about  a  deposit,  supposed  to  be 
of  vast  extent,  in  a  mountain  of  the  Saian  range,  west  of  Irkutsk, 
on  the  southern  frontier  of  Siberia,  close  to  the  Chinese  boundary. 
This  was  discovered  about  1850,  by  a  Frenchman  named  Alibcrt, 
who  had  found  lumps  of  graphite  in  the  beds  of  streams  coming 
from  that  direction,  and  who  persevered  in  following  up  the  indica¬ 
tions  until  he  reached  the  mine  itself.  This  deposit  is  unquestion¬ 
ably  of  great  value,  but  in  the  present  state  of  scientific  mineralogy, 
mining  and  manufacturing  monopolies  have  become  much  less  prac¬ 
ticable  than  heretofore,  and  the  lead  pencil  manufacture  in  the 
United  States  is  little  dependent  on  any  particular  mine. 

The  processes  used  at  the  European  black  lead  pencil  manufic- 
tories  are  much  more  scientific  than  the  rude  method  which  was 
above  described  as  employed  with  the  Cumberland  lead.  Indeed, 
in  the  factory  now  running  at  the  old  Borrowdale  mine,  where  the 
poor  remains  of  the  rich  local  deposits  are  used,  as  well  as  raw 
graphite  from  other  places,  similar  improved  means  have  necessarily 
been  employed  in  order  to  utilize  the  only  attainable  material. 
These  means  have  a  general  similarity  with  those  of  the  American 
Lead  Pencil  Company,  but  the  American  ones  have  the  further  great 
advantage  of  a  connected  group  of  twenty-eight  different  patents 
for  improved  machinery  and  processes,  in  all  parts  of  the  manufac¬ 
ture  ;  all  for  inventions  by  Mr.  E.  Weissenborn,  the  actual  super¬ 
intendent,  an  accomplished  mechanician  and  able  manager. 

The  number  of  different  styles  of  pencils  called  for  by  the  public, 
from  the  commonest  school  pencil  up  to  the  very  finest  grade  for 
artists,  and  regularly  manufactured  accordingly  by  the  company,  is 
surprising.  Including  several  styles  of  colored  pencils  or  crayons. 


AMERI1AN  LEAD  PENCIL  CO'S  MANUFACTORY. 


> 


. 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


733 


it  makes  three  hundred  and  sixty  different  sorts  of  pencils.  They 
differ  in  goodness  and  price  according  to  the  excellence  of  the  ma¬ 
terials  used ;  or  in  “  grade,”  or  hardness,  according  to  the  kind  of 
lines  required ;  or  in  form,  size,  or  outer  finish  of  the  wooden  casing, 
according  to  the  taste  or  employment  of  consumers. 

Black  lead  pencils  are  made  of  fourteen  different  grades  of  soft¬ 
ness,  varying  from  HHHHH  If,  the  hardest,  to  B  B  B  B  B  B, 
the  softest.  The  hardest  are  used  by  engineers  and  artists  for 
drawing  the  very  fine,  clear  lines  required  in  mechanical  drawing,  in 
parts  of  drawings  on  wood  for  engravers,  and  similar  purposes; 
while  the  softest  are  for  the  darkest  shadings  of  artists’  designs. 

Two  distinct  trains  of  operations  are  carried  on  in  the  American 
Lead  Pencil  Company’s  Works,  besides  the  subsidiary  labor  of  mak¬ 
ing  boxes  and  printing  labels  and  besides  a  machine-shop,  where 
the  company  makes  and  repairs  its  own  machinery.  Every  machine 
used  on  the  premises  and  in  the  pencil  manufacture  proper,  indeed, 
except  the  steam-engine  itself,  was  made  in  the  Company’s  own 
machine-shop.  This  renders  the  system  remarkably  complete  and 
independent ;  so  that,  provided  raw  materials,  lodging,  and  subsis¬ 
tence  could  be  procured,  the  works  could  be  run  independently  of 
the  earth,  almost  as  well  as  the  earth  independently  of  the  works. 

In  describing  the  operations  which  result  in  a  lead  pencil,  it  will 
be  convenient  to  begin  with  the  experiences  through  which  the  black 
lead  is  carried.  The  works  are  at  present  situated  in  a  quiet  spot  in 
Hudson  City,  N.  J.,  just  on  the  brow  of  the  steep  pitch  which  sepa¬ 
rates  the  upland  from  the  low-lying  grounds  on  which  Hoboken  is 
built.  An  elevator,  or  rather  a  steeply  inclined  railway,  lies  on  the 
face  of  this  hill,  and  the  heavy  materials  required  are  hauled  up  this 
by  means  of  a  drum  with  a  wire  chain,  worked  by  the  steam-engine. 
Up  this  railway  comes  the  crude  black  lead,  in  casks  weighing  from 
eight  hundred  to  one  thousand  pounds  each  ;  a  soft  crumbly  black 
powder  with  lumps  all  through  it,  having  its  own  well-known  pecu¬ 
liar  greasy  feeling  and  gloss.  First  of  all,  this  is  refined  by  being 
mixed  with  water  in  a  series  of  tanks,  where  it  is  stirred  and  left  to 
settle,  transferred  and  stirred  and  settled  again,  over  and  over,  the 
impurities  being  gradually  thrown  out  and  the  lead  itself  assorted 
by  qualities.  When  this  is  done,  about  one  fourth  of  the  original 
quantity  has  usually  been  rejected  as  grit,  earth,  etc.  The  remain¬ 
der,  having  the  appearance  of  a  very  choice  article  of  glossy  black 
mud,  is  scooped  into  shallow  saucers  of  pottery,  like  those  used  for 
flower-pots,  but  of  a  large  size,  measuring,  say,  ten  inches  across ; 


734 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


and  in  these,  like  so  many  mud  pies,  the  precious  stuff  is  placed  in 
a  drying-room  kept  a  good  deal  hotter  than  is  comfortable, —  say  at 
120°  Fahrenheit,  —  and  kept  there  until  the  moisture  is  thoroughly 
driven  off,  leaving,  of  course,  hard  dry  pies,  or  disks  of  lead. 

The  third  process  is  to  crush  these  disks  in  a  dry  mill ;  the  fourth, 
to  grind  the  materials,  under  a  heavy  muller  in  a  circular  trough, 
into  another  but  different  and  finer  grained  mud,  which  now  be¬ 
comes  possessed  of  a  surprising  degree  of  tenacity. 

The  mass  is  next  subjected  to  the  action  of  a  screw  press  of  three 
hundred  tons’  power,  under  which  it  finds  no  escape  from  its  agony 
except  by  spirting  out  through  one  small  hole  provided  for  it  in  a 
little  solid  brass  die  about  as  large  as  a  small  thimble.  The  hole 
through  the  middle  of  this  die  is  of  the  shape  and  size  of  the  lead, — 
square,  hexagonal,  or  oval,  large  or  small,  as  the  case  may  be.  There 
are  almost  sixty  different  dies  in  all ;  and  it  is  in  passing  through  these 
dies  that  the  first  appearance  takes  place  of  anything  like  a  pencil 
lead.  It  is  no  single  completed  straight  dry  lead,  however,  but  an 
endless,  damp,  soft,  tough,  black  string  or  strap,  which  is  quietly  coiled 
on  a  board  as  it  runs  down  through  the  die,  the  board  being  moved 
back  and  forth  and  across  and  across,  so  as  to  bring  the  coil  to  a 
long  oval. 

Next,  this  string  is  lifted  from  its  board,  a  length  at  a  time,  and 
laid  across  another  board  about  three  times  as  long  as  a  pencil,  in 
straight  lengths,  each  piece  being  nipped  off  from  the  coil  as  it  is 
laid  against  its  predecessor.  These  pieces  are  carefully  kept  smooth 
and  straight;  and  on  this  board  they  are  subjected  to  a  long,  slow, 
delicate,  baking  process,  from  which  they  emerge  with  all  the  quali¬ 
fications  of  a  pencil  lead. 

Being  next  cut  into  the  proper  lengths,  they  are  ready  to  be 
cased  with  wood,  and  are  stored,  sometimes  in  immense  numbers, 


waiting  for  the  cedar  cases,  in  which  they  are  to  be  consumed. 

Now  for  the  wood.  A  small  quantity  of  whitewood  is  used  far 
some  inferior  pencils,  but  nearly  all  the  pencils  made  are  cased  in  red 
cedar.  This  is  cut  in  Florida,  and  shipped  direct  by  the  whole  cargo 
to  the  works.  Some  logs  are  brought  measuring  as  much  as  three 
feet  in  diameter;  so  that  the  tree  grows  to  an  incomparably  greater 
size  in  that  warm  climate  and  calcareous  soil  than  in  the  North. 

Having  been  hoisted  up  to  the  works,  and  stacked  fora  time,  the 
log  is  hauled  into  the  saw-mill,  where  it  is  speedily  cut  into  planks 
whose  thickness  is  equal  to  the  width  of  four  pencils.  These  are 
sawed  again  into  laths,  whose  width  is  the  thickness  of  the  plank ; 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


735 


and  in  this  condition  they  are  seasoned.  They  are  first  placed  in 
long  criss-cross  rows  in  the  open  air,  giving  the  place  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  a  greatly  expanded  and  fancifully  arranged  lath-yard. 
When  sufficiently  treated  by  the  open  air,  rain,  and  sunshine,  ihey 
are  placed  in  a  drying-room,  and  brought  to  the  proper  condition 
for  being  worked  further. 

Next  the  laths  are  cut  to  pencil  lengths,  that  is,  of  course,  into 
strips  as  long  as  one  pencil  and  as  wide  as  four.  At  this  point  most 
of  the  imperfections  of  *the  cedar  are  rejected ;  and  it  is  found  that 
almost  half  the  bulk  of  the  wood  imported  is  wasted,  from  sap,  shakes, 
knots,  decay,  etc.  No  scorpions,  centipedes,  or  other  troublesome 
insects,  have  ever  been  brought  north  in  the  logs,  but  a  few  snakes 
have  been  found  coiled  up  in  the  hollows  of  the  wood.  No  accidents 
have,  however,  happened  in  consequence,  except  to  the  snakes. 

These  seasoning  processes  usually  occupy  about  two  weeks.  The 
next  thing  is  to  grooA7e  these  blocks  on  one  side  for  the  leads  of  the 
four  pencils,  and  on  the  other  for  the  divisions  between  them.  This 
is  swiftly  and  noisily  done  by  a  clean-working  little  grooving  ma¬ 
chine.  Then,  after  some  trimming  and  smoothing,  the  lead  and 
the  wood  for  the  first  time  come  together,  like  those  Oriental  brides 
and  bridegrooms  who  see  each  other  for  the  first  time  at  the  mar¬ 
riage  which  unites  the  rest  of  their  lives.  In  order  to  do  this,  the 
lead  is  dipped  in  glue,  laid  into  its  grooves,  and  a  thinner  slip,  just 
half  the  thickness  of  the  grooved  one,  is  glued  upon  it. 

The  pencils  now  exist,  but  in  groups  of  fours.  After  a  little  more 
trimming,  they  are  piled  into  a  pipe  that  lets  them  down  flat-ways 
upon  a  table  of  another  noisy  hurrying  little  machine.  As  each 
touches  the  table,  a  finger  comes  up  behind  it  and  quietly  pushes  it 
out  to  a  set  of  saws  that  divide  it  into  four  pencils,  which  are  in¬ 
stantly  driven  forward  again  into  a  shaping  machine,  from  which 
they  fall  —  round  and  practical  cedar  pencils  at  last  —  into  a  box. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Next  they  are  polished,  being  laid  on  an  end¬ 
less  belt  that  carries  them  rolling  along  under  a  set  of  furiously  vi¬ 
brating  emery  surfaces,  from  which  they  come  out  all  warm  and  shiny, 
like  a  little  boy  rubbed  very  hard  with  a  crash  towel  after  being 
bathed.  Then  comes  the  coloring,  first  with  a  dead  color,  which  is 
then  brightened  and  afterwards  varnished.  A  very  ingenious  mode 
of  painting  with  rapidity  and  effect  is  used  at  this  stage  of  the  manu¬ 
facture.  A  considerable  number  of  pencils  are  stuck  into  a  box, 
along  with  a  supply  of  coloring  matter  in  very  fine  powder,  and  this 
box  is  then  closed  and  placed  in  a  shaft  so  geared  as  at  once  to 


73G 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


whirl  the  box  round  and  round  and  to  shake  it  back  and  forth  in  the 
direction  of  the  length  of  the  pencils.  This  swift  rubbing  and  jolt¬ 
ing  brings  it  to  pass  that  the  pencils  color  themselves  with  great 
rapidity,  and  very  thoroughly  too. 

Last  comes  the  lettering,  and  for  once  we  come  to  a  process 
through  which  the  pencils  have  to  pass  one  at  a  time.  It  has  no 
doubt  been  noticed  thus  far  how  continuous  has  been  the  method 
of  dealing  with  groups;  a  method  which  is  remarkably  well  carried 
out  in  all  parts  of  the  company’s  processes*as  far  as  possible,  and 
which  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the  ancient  Borrowdale  plan  of 
cracking  off  one  piece  of  lead  after  another,  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
times,  into  one  pencil  at  a  time.  After  the  lettering,  the  pencils  are 
ready  to  be  assembled,  papered,  and  packed  for  sale,  and  the  work 
is  done.  All  the  labels  are  printed  on  the  premises,  on  a  neat  hand- 
press,  all  the  paper  and  paper  boxes  used  in  packing  are  cut  and 
manufactured  there,  and  all  the  paints,  dyes,  etc.,  are  prepared  there. 
Provided  the  wood  were  sufficiently  dry,  and  the  leads  were  ready, 
it  would  require  but  four  days  to  fill  an  order,  from  log  to  pencil. 

In  tracing  the  course  of  these  operations,  the  history  has  been 
closely  limited  to  an  ordinary  style  of  pencil,  say  the  black  round 
No.  2,  which  is  that  most  extensively  used.  For  every  thousand 
No.  2  pencils  are  used,  it  is  found,  about  three  hundred  of  No.  1 
and  No.  3,  and  seventy-five  of  No.  4,  these  four  numbers  being  the 
ordinary  range.  Of  No.  5,  for  instance,  only  about  twenty  are  called 
for  to  one  thousand  of  No.  2.  Of  the  colored  crayons,  or  red,  blue, 
yellow,  and  green  pencils,  about  one  twentieth  as  many  are  used  as 
of  lead  pencils.  The  process  of  manufacturing  these  closely  resem¬ 
bles  that  for  the  lead,  being  done  with  the  same  machinery',  and  the 
clay  used  —  a  fine  pure  porcelain  clay  —  being  the  same  that  is 
mixed  with  the  lead  to  adjust  the  grades  of  the  pencils.  The  ex¬ 
tent  of  the  operations  of  the  concern  may  be  judged  of  by  one  total. 
The  method  pursued  is  to  run  the  mill  on  one  class  of  pencils  until 


there  is  a  sufficient  stock  for  a  reasonable  extent  of  future  orders, 
then  to  take  up  another,  and  so  on.  If  noyv  the  company  were  out 
of  No.  2,  they  would  make  up  under  ordinary  circumstances  ten 
thousand  gross  of  that  style,  —  that  is  one  million  four  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  No.  2  pencils,  —  and  then  proceed  to  another.  The 
works  as  at  present  organized,  with  a  few  additional  hands  at  some 
points  of  the  process,  could  turn  out  about  six  hundred  gross,  that  is 
eighty-six  thousand  four  hundred  pencils  a  day. 

There  are  a  feyv  variations  in  these  pencils,  which  have  not  been 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS." 


737 


mentioned.  Such  are  the  bone  tips  sometimes  used,  also  made 
on  the  premises;  and  the  india-rubber  tips,  these  being  purchased 
ready  made. 

The  machinery,  which  is  carried  by  a  sixty-horse-power  steam-en¬ 
gine,  and  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  hands  employed  (about  eighty  of 
them  being  women),  do  an  amount  of  work  that  would  require  at 
least  six  hundred  persons,  all  working  by  hand.  The  premises  are 
airy  and  pleasant,  and  many  of  the  rooms  are  agreeably  perfumed 
with  the  cleanly  aromatic  scent  of  the  cedar. 

In  the  operations  of  such  a  concern  as  this  is  illustrated  the  im¬ 
measurable  progress  of  the  modern  arts.  The  object  that  was  a 
hundred  years  ago  reached  by  many  a  country  school-boy  all  alone, 
with  a  lump  of  lead,  a  skillet  to  melt  it,  a  mould  to  shape,  it  and  a 
jackknife  to  whittle  it,  is  to-day  sought  with  an  elaborate  train  of 
heavy  machinery,  the  united  operations  of  mechanics,  natural  phi¬ 
losophy,  and  chemistry,  materials  imported  from  the  very  ends  of  the 
earth  (such  as  those  used  in  colors,  india-rubber,  chemicals,  etc.)  by 
a  force  equal  to  almost  a  regiment  of  human  beings,  and  an  invest¬ 
ment  of  capital  that  would  buy  a  dozen  farms.  And  yet,  most  won¬ 
derful  of  all,  the  thing  made  by  such  vast  expense  and  labor  is  both 
beyond  comparison  better  than  the  plummet,  and  actually  cheaper ! 

As  a  handsome  tribute  to  the  high  excellence  of  a  strictly  Ameri¬ 
can  manufacture,  it  is  proper  to  state  that  the  peculiar  claims  of  the 
American  Lead  Pencil  Company  to  manufacture  pencils  at  least 
equal  to  the  very  best  in  evenness  of  quality,  freedom  from  grit, 
smoothness  of  texture,  ease  in  marking,  and  tenacity  of  point,  —  not 
to  mention  the  advantages  which  their  very  complete  machinery  and 
organization  give  them  in  fixing  a  cheaj)  price  on  their  goods,  —  are 
fully  upheld  by  the  reports  of  their  patrons  and  by  public  testimo¬ 
nials.  A  long  list  of  public  officials,  civil  engineers,  artists,  and  in¬ 
structors  in  drawing,  are  on  record  in  high  commendations  of  these 
pencils ;  among  whom,  for  instance,  are  Professor  Ilertzberg,  of  the 
Art  Department  at  the  Brooklyn  Polytechnic  Institute  and  at  Coo¬ 
per  Union;  Professor  Louis  Bail  of  Yale  College;  Ex-President 
Thomas  Hill  of  Harvard  College,  etc.,  etc.  In  the  praises  bestowed 
by  these  gentlemen,  few  of  them  omit  to  advert  to  their  gratification 
at  being  relieved  from  a  dependence  on  foreign  manufactories  for  a 
superior  quality  of  pencils.  Premiums  were  awarded  to  the  Com¬ 
pany,  moreover,  by  the  St.  Louis  and  Maryland  Institute  fairs  of 
1866,  the  medal  of  the  Paris  Universal  Exposition  of  1867,  the 
Cincinnati  Industrial  Exposition,  and  a  certificate  of  award  at  the 


733 


AMERICAN  LEAD  PENCILS. 


t 


American  Institute  Fair  of  1871.  In  consequence  of  the  increas¬ 
ing  demand  for  these  pencils,  and  their  growing  popularity,  the 
company  are  compelled  to  build  a  larger  and  more  convenient  fac¬ 
tory  at  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  which  is  now  in  course  of  erection,  the 
dimensions  of  the  main  building  being  125  by  113  feet,  and  three 
stories  in  height.  Such  an  evidence  of  the  reward  which  attends 
a  scientific  and  accurate  attention  to  supplying  the  needs  of  society, 
even  in  the  seemingly  modest  department  of  pencils,  is  a  fit  sub¬ 
ject  for  congratulation,  as  a  proof  of  how  surely  the  organization 
of  our  society  is  normally  tending  towards  a  complete  integration 
of  its  various  parts. 


RULES. 


THE  DIFFERENCE  BETwSiN  SCIENTIFIC  AND  ORDINARY  KNOWLEDGE.  —  MAN  AS  A 

MEASURER. - THE  NEED  FOR  RULES.  —  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  HOW  THEY  ARE  MADE. 

—  BOXWOOD.  —  ITS  PRODUCTION. - THE  FACTORY  OF  STEPHENS  AND  COM¬ 
PANY.  - THE  PROCESSES  OF  RULE-MAKING.  —  THE  MACHINERY  USED  IN  THE 

BUSINESS.  —  MR.  D.  H.  STEPHENS  AS  AN  INVENTOR. - THE  STEPHENS  PATENT 

COMBINATION  RULE. - THE  VARIOUS  USES  TO  WHICH  IT  MAY  BE  APPLIED. 

The  ability  to  measure  accurately,  and  thus  obtain  a  definite  and 
positive  knowledge,  instead  of  a  general  and  indefinite  knowledge  of 
form,  relation,  distance,  and  the  other  phenomena  of  the  existing 
condition  of  things  in  which  we  are  placed,  constitutes  the  difference 
between  scientific  knowledge  and  ordinary  knowledge.  By  some 
philologists  our  term  man  is  traced  to  a  derivation  from  the  Aryan 
root-word  ma,  to  measure.  Whether  this  derivation  is  true  or  not, 
certain  it  is  that  the  most  accurate  and  comprehensive  definition  of 
man,  as  classified  at  the  head  of  the  organic  evolution  of  intelligence 
upon  this  planet,  is  that  of  a  measurer,  and,  as  symbols  of  his  true 
domination  of  the  world,  a  rule  and  a  pair  of  scales  would  be  much 
fitter  and  more  expressive  of  his  glory  than  a  crown  and  a  sceptre. 

The  use  of  the  rule  is  so  absolutely  necessary  in  almost  every 
mechanical  or  artistic  pursuit,  that  the  consumption  is,  of  course, 
very  great,  and  the  manufacture  is  consequently  a  very  impor¬ 
tant  one.  Rules  are  generally  made  of  boxwood  or  of  ivory,  and 
are  mounted  and  tipped  with  brass  or  silver.  Boxwood  is  most  ex¬ 
tensively  used,  both  on  account  of  its  being  more  plentiful  than 
ivory,  and  also  because  it  is  less  liable  to  expand  and  contract  by 
variations  of  the  temperature.  This  last  consideration  is  the  most 
important,  since  the  accuracy  of  the  rule  depends  upon  the  con¬ 
stancy  with  which  it  marks  the  fixed  standard  for  lineal  measure¬ 
ment. 

The  boxwood  used  by  the  chief  manufacturers  of  rules  grows  in 
Turkey  and  Southern  Russia.  The  forests  in  which  it  is  produced 
are  under  the  control  of  the  respective  governments,  and  are  farmed 
out,  or  leased  to  special  contractors,  who  pay  for  the  privilege  by  a 

(739) 


740 


RULES. 


certain  percentage  of  the  income  from  the  sale  of  their  produce. 
The  forests  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Russia  are  leased  by  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  that  country  to  two  persons,  who  have  full  control  of 
the  cutting  and  disposition  of  the  boxwood.  These  forests  occupy 
mountain  ranges  for  the  most  part.  The  boxwood  is  cut,  and  after 
a  suitable  time  brought  down  from  the  mountains  to  the  market  or 
depot  for  sale,  on  the  backs  of  mules. 

The  tree  producing  boxwood,  known  botanically  as  the  buxus , 
whence  our  name  for  it,  is  small  in  size,  the  average  diameter  of  the 
logs  which  reach  this  country  being  from  six  to  seven  inches,  and 
never  more  than  fifteen.  The  boxwood  imported  by  our  manufac¬ 
turers  is  now  brought  directly  from  the  depots  in  Russia  and  Turkey 
t  o  New  York  and  Boston,  by  the  way  of  Smyrna.  Formerly  it  was 
taken  to  Liverpool,  and  there  transshipped  to  this  country.  Boxwood 
is  sold  by  weight,  the  prices  varying  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  a  ton,  the  value  depending  upon  the  texture,  color,  and 
straightness  of  the  grain ;  the  color  being  an  important  consideration. 
The  deeper  the  golden  tint  of  the  wood,  the  more  valuable  it  is  for 
rules. 

The  manufacture  of  rules  is  extensively  carried  on  in  the  United 
States,  and  from  its  extent,  and  the  multiplicity  of  interests  which 
depend  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  upon  its  accuracy,  by  which  their 
own  is  regulated,  it  may  be  justly  classed  as  one  of  the  great  indus¬ 
tries  of  the  land.  The  leading  manufactory  of  the  United  States  is 
that  of  Stephens  and  Company,  at  Riverton,  Litchfield  County, 
Connecticut.  Their  factory  is  situated  on  the  Tunxis,  a  small  river, 
which  is  one  of  the  chief  branches  of  the  Farmington  River,  and 
which  at  this  spot  supplies  a  good  water-power.  The  establishment 
of  Stephens  and  Company  has  mainly  grown  up  under  the  fostering 
care  of  Mr.  DeLoss  II.  Stephens,  who  unites  with  the  character  of  an 
able  and  indefatigable  business  man  the  genius  of  a  first-class  practical 
inventor,  and  who,  by  machinery  of  his  own  invention,  has  greatly 
promoted  the  manufacture  of  rules  in  this  country.  The  most  im¬ 
portant  inventions  which  Mr.  Stephens  has  made  have  been  wisely 
kept  within  the  knowledge  of  Stephens  and  Company,  and  secured  to 
their  special  control,  not  by  letters  patent,  but  by  private  use.  By 
the  aid  of  these  machines,  and  improvements  in  others,  which  have 
been  secured  in  the  same  way,  Messrs.  Stephens  and  Company  have 
been  enabled  to  manufacture  the  best  quality  of  rules  in  the  market, 
at  less  cost  than  many  of  their  competitors  have  been  able  to. 
Some  of  Mr.  Stephens’s  inventions  have,  however,  been  patented. 


RULES. 


741 


By  the  lessening  of  the  cost  of  production  brought  about  by  the 
use  of  their  machinery,  Messrs.  Stephens  and  Company  are  enabled 
to  give  the  purchasers  of  their  rules  more  perfect  and  more  conscien¬ 
tiously  made  wares  at  lower  prices  than  their  competitors  can  well 
afford,  and  thus  they  have  risen  to  their  eminence  in  this  branch  of 
manufacture. 

The  making  of  rules  is  a  nice  art,  and  quite  interesting  in  its 
details.  The  boxwood  logs,  on  their  arrival  at  the  factory,  are  first 
“blocked  up,”  or  sawed  into  proper  lengths  or  sections,  which  are 
then  quartered,  or  split  into  four  minor  sections,  which  are  then 
slabbed  or  cut  into  pieces  about  the  width  of  a  rule.  These  slabs 
are  then  slit  into  pieces  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  thickness. 
The  next  process  is  to  “dress  off,”  or  gauge,  each  piece  as  to  its 
broader  surfaces,  or  sides,  and  its  edges,  into  the  required  shape 
and  siae.  This  is  done  rapidly  and  perfectly  by  an  automatic  ma¬ 
chine  of  ingenious  contrivance. 

The  “  stuff,”  as  the  pieces  of  boxwood  are  called,  is  next  fitted  or 
adjusted  to  the  kind  of  joints  to  which  the  pieces  are  finally  to  be 
united.  These  joints  are  respectively  called  “head  joints”  and 
“middle  joints.”  The  next  step  is  to  “tip”  the  boxwood  pieces, 
that  is,  to  fit  the  brass  or  silver  caps  upon  their  ends ;  brass  being 
chiefly  used  for  mounting  the  boxwood  rules,  and  German  silver,  or 
real  silver,  for  the  ivory  rules.  Pure  silver  mountings  are  too  ex¬ 
pensive  for  the  general  demand ;  though  on  the  occasion  of  our 
visit  to  the  factory  of  Stephens  and  Company  we  saw  several  splen¬ 
did  ivory  combination  rules  made  to  the  order  of  Governor  Claflin 
of  Massachusetts,  and  other  “republican  sovereigns,”  which  were 
mounted  with  pure  silver. 

The  brass  used  in  the  manufacture  of  rules  is  brought  to  the  fac¬ 
tory  from  the  rolling-mills,  in  sheets  prepared  for  the  purpose,  and 
is  slit  by  circular  shears  and  saws  into  proper  sizes,  and  then  cut 
with  dies  into  the  forms  needed  for  the  construction  of  the  joints, 
Caps,  bindings,  etc.,  which  are  used  in  the  rules.  The  joints  of  the 
rules  made  by  Messrs.  Stephens  and  Company  are,  by  peculiar 
machinery,  “  scraped,”  or  trimmed ;  this  process  doing  away  with  the 
slower  one  of  filing,  milling,  etc.,  and  leaving  the  work  more  perfect. 
The  machine  which  does  this  is  the  invention  of  Mr.  DeLoss  H. 
Stephens,  and  is  patented. 

Uniting  the  several  pieces  which  form  the  common  joint  is  done 
in  this  factory  by  a  “  driving  machine,”  which  performs  tills  work  at 
least  one  hundred  per  cent,  more  expeditiously  than  the  hand  method 

43 


742 


KULES. 


of  driving  which  formerly  prevailed.  The  “rolls,”  or  collets,  or  the 
cylindrical  parts  of  the  rule  joints,  or  shoulders  over  which  the 
jointed  parts  of  the  rule  turn,  are  made  here  by  an  ingenious 
automatic  machine,  with  a  great  saving  of  labor  and  material. 
E^  'erything  in  the  establishment,  even  to  the  cutting  of  the  pins, 
of  which  about  twenty  enter  into  the  construction  of  a  plain  rule 
and  forty  into  that  of  a  bound  rule,  is  done  by  machinery  instead 
of  by  hand,  as  was  formerly  the  practice.  The  heading  of  the  rivets 
and  the  marking  out  of  the  “  arches  ”  to  receive  the  joint-caps  are 
also  done  by  machinery. 

After  the  work  is  put  together  and  made  ready  for  undergoing 
the  process  of  “  graduating,”  it  is  taken  to  the  graduating  room, 
where  the  lineal  gauging  is  performed.  The  machines  by  which 
the  surface  of  the  rules  is  marked  into  inches  and  parts  of  inches 
are  automatic  in  their  operation,  and  quite  complicated  iij  their 
construction,  and  perform  their  work  with  more  than  human  accu¬ 
racy,  and  with  almost  living  intelligence.  These  machines  are  the 
inventions  of  Mr.  DeLoss  II.  Stephens,  and  alone  would  be  enough 
to  secure  for  him  a  place  among  the  first  scientific  mechanical  in¬ 
ventors  of  his  time.  Their  work  is  neat,  delicate,  perfect,  and  rap¬ 
idly  performed.  While  these  machines  are  necessarily  so  compli¬ 
cated  in  their  construction,  yet  they  are  so  simple  in  their  action 
that  they  can  be  safely  left  to  be  operated  by  a  boy. 

After  the  rules  are  completed,  they  are  then  thoroughly  in¬ 
spected,  any  blemish  or  fault,  however  slight  or  trivial,  condemn¬ 
ing  them.  Stephens  and  Company  manufacture  over  one  hun¬ 
dred  different  varieties  of  rules,  which  are  in  demand  all  over  the 
United  States,  in  Australia,  South  America,  and  in  Europe  also. 
Some  varieties  of  their  rules  are  manufactured  solely  by  Stephens  and 
Company,  among  which  is  the  celebrated  “  Stephens’  Patent  Com¬ 
bination  Rule,”  a  cut  of  which  is  here  given.  This  rule,  an  inven¬ 
tion  of  Mr.  L.  C.  Stephens,  the  founder  of  the  business  and  the 
father  of  the  present  owner,  is  made  of  boxwood  or  ivory,  and  com¬ 
bines  in  itself  a  carpenter’s  rule,  spirit-level,  square,  plumb,  bevel, 
indicator,  brace-scale,  draughting-scale,  T  square,  protractor,  right- 
angled  triangle,  and  with  a  straight  edge  can  be  used  as -a  parallel 
ruler.  It  has  but  one  joint,  and  is  bound  with  brass.  When  folded 
it  is  six  inches  long,  one  and  three  eighths  inches  wide,  and  three 
eighths  of  an  inch  thick.  The  cuts,  which  are  just  half-size,  rep¬ 
resent  the  rule  in  three  positions :  first,  as  a  spirit-level ;  second, 
as  a  try-square  level  and  plumb ;  when  partially  opened  it  serves 
also  as  a  slope-level. 


RULES. 


743 


Stephens’  Patent  Combination  Rule. 

The  slotted  screw  which  passes  through  the  end  of  the  leg  is 
used  in  adjusting  the  square,  should  it  require  it.  By  this  simple 
arrangement  for  measuring  angles,  this  rule  becomes  invaluable  to  . 
practical  mechanics  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  to  surveyors,  draughtsmen, 
architects,  and  every  one  who  knows  the  value  of  an  instrument  by 
which  he  can  readily  and  reliably  measure  whatever  he  may  wish ; 
and  its  universal  use,  as  tending  to  diffuse  a  habit  of  acquiring  an 
accurate  and  scientific  knowledge  of  form  and  distance,  would  prove 
a  most  valuable  educational  assistance,  and  one  which  is  thoroughly 
in  the  spirit  of  the  times,  which  tends  to  replace  vague  and  general 
conceptions  of  things  by  the  accuracy  of  positive  knowledge. 


The  angles  formed  by  the  blade  and  leg  decrease  just  one  half  as 
fast  as  the  angles  formed  by  opening  the  legs  of  the  rule  increase . 
The  upper  edge  of  the  other  side  of  the  blade  is  graduated  into 
inches  and  eighths,  and  thus  shows  the  pitch  to  the  foot.  The  inner 
edge  of  the  leg  which  holds  the  glass  is  also  graduated  to  measure 
the  angles  which  are  formed  by  turning  the  blade  in  the  leg  which 
holds  it.  These  degrees  show  how  much  the  right  angle  is  reduced 
as  the  blade  falls  from  that  position.  As  a  T  square  it  is  also  a  right- 
angled  triangle.  One  side  of  the  blade  is  divided  into  twelfths,  also 
the  inside  edge  of  the  leg  which  holds  it,  thus  constituting  a  brace- 
scale. 


RULES 


The  above  cut  represents  a  caliper  rule,  also  manufactured  by 
Stephens  and  Company.  The  value  of  this  convenient  device  for 
measuring  accurately  the  diameters  of  round  and  cylindrical  bodies 
is  too  well  known  to  persons  who  have  practically  become  ac¬ 
quainted  with  it  to  need  more  than  the  simplest  mention  here. 
In  the  other  cut,  the  combination  rule  is  shown  as  a  slope-level,  or 
Inclinometer. 


Combination  Rule  as  an  Inclinometer. 


THE  DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD  "BROOM.”  — THE  MATERIALS  FROM  WHICH  BROOMS 
ARE  MADE. — THE  PROVERBS  SUGGESTED  BY  BROOMS.  —  THE  CULTIVATION  OF 
BROOM-CORN.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  MAKING  BROOMS.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE 
MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMEN  FROM  THE  USE  OF  BROOMS. 

The  broom  is  a  well-known  implement  of  the  house,  used  to 
sweep  away  dirt  and  dust,  and  is  therefore  most  essential  to  order 
and  neatness.  There  are  brooms  in  England  called  heath  brooms, 
because  they  are  made  of  a  small  shrub  growing  on  the  sandy 
heaths  of  Great  Britain ;  a  similar  shrub  is  found  in  great  abun¬ 
dance  in  Spain,  and  is  doubtless  the  same  of  which  Pliny  speaks  as 
covering  the  mountains  near  Carthagena.  This  shrub  is  called  in 
England  broom ,  and  is  supposed  to  have  given  the  name  to  all  im¬ 
plements  for  sweeping,  though  made  of  different  materials.  There 
are  also  birch  brooms,  which  are  bundles  of  twigs,  used  for  sweep¬ 
ing  stables  and  streets.  Brooms  are  sometimes  made  of  hair, 
formed  by  the  insertion  of  a  number  of  tufts  or  knots  of  bristles 
into  holes  bored  obliquely  in  a  stock  of  wood. 

The  word  besom ,  meaning  broom,  is  used  by  the  Hebrew  Isaiah 
in  speaking  of  the  destruction  of  Babylon :  —  I  will  sweep  it  with 
the  besom  of  destruction  ;  concerning  which  it  has  been  quaintly 
said,  —  “  When  a  people  will  not  be  made  clean  with  the  besom  of 
reformation,  what  can  they  expect  but  to  be  swept  off  the  earth 
with  the  besom  of  destruction?”  There  is  an. old  English  proverb 
which  says:  — 

**  A  new  besom  sweeps  clean.” 

This  is  generally  applied  to  new  servants  who  are  very  diligent, 
or  of  newly  appointed  officers  who  are  very  strict  and  scrupulous, 
or  of  new  pretenders  to  friendship  who  are  very  officious.  When 
those  long  in  office  become  dishonest  and  corrupt,  the  broom  of 
reform  or  removal  is  necessary,  and  is  a  proper  figure  for  the  ex¬ 
pression  of  public  indignation.  Another  old  proverb  suggested  by 
this  useful  article  of  the  house  is :  — 

**  Sweep  before  your  own  door.” 


(745) 


74G 


BROOMS. 


This  proverb  is  designed  as  a  reproof  to  those  persons  who  are  con¬ 
tinually  interfering  with  the  affairs  of  others,  and  at  the  same  time 
neglecting  their  own.  It  is  thus  that  persons 

'*  Scald  their  own  lips  with  other  folks’  broth,” 

or  meddle  with  what  they  have  nothing  to  do. 

The  material  of  which  brooms  are  generally  made  is  a  kind  of 
sorghum  called  broom-corn.  It  is  supposed  to  be  a  natural  pro¬ 
duct  of  China  or. India,  but  is  now  widely  cultivated  in  Europe 
and  America.  It  has  a  jointed  stem  like  a  reed,  and  grows  from 
six  to  twelve  feet  high,  having  a  bushy  top  of  which  the  brooms 
are  made.  The  stock  is  hard  and  dry  without  nutriment,  and  is 
regarded  as  of  no  value  except  for  manure.  The  sorghum,  of 
which,  in  Europe,  only  brooms  are  made,  is  cultivated  on  a  large 
scale  and  with  great  care  in  China.  It  attains  an  astonishing  size  ; 
its  stalks  are  strong  and  solid  enough  to  be  used  with  advantage  in 
the  construction  of  farm-houses  and  palings.  It  furnishes  a  con¬ 
siderable  quantity  of  large  seeds,  which  the  poor  eat  instead  of 
rice,  and  from  which,  by  distillation,  a  liquor  may  be  obtained  con¬ 
taining  a  large  proportion  of  alcohol. 

The  cultivation  of  broom-corn  is  a  branch  of  industry  in  most  of 
the  States,  and  considerable  profits  are  derived  from  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  brooms,  and  the  exportation  of  unmanufactured  brush  and 
broom  handles.  The  seed,  planted  in  rows  or  hills,  germinates  very 
rapidly ;  the  plants  require  no  more  care  than  is  usually  bestowed 
on  the  cultivation  of  Indian  corn.  The  average  product  of  brush 
to  the  acre  is  about  500  pounds.  The  seed  is  separated  from  the 
brush  by  scraping  machines,  some  of  which,  in  large  establishments, 
are  moved  by  horse-power.  The  seed  is  used  for  fattening  sheep, 
for  feeding  poultry,  and,  when  ground  with  Indian  corn  or  other 
grains,  may  be  profitably  fed  to  cows,  cattle,  and  horses.  The  value 
of  the  seed  is  often  greater  than  the  entire  cost  of  cultivating  and 
harvesting  the  broom  crop. 

In  the  manufacture  of  brooms,  very  simple  machinery  is  used, 
consisting  of  a  wood  roller,  turned  by  a  crank  for  the  purpose  of 
winding  on  the  cord.  One  hand  holds  the  broom-handle,  and,  while 
winding  on  the  twine,  the  brush  is  supplied  witli  the  other.  The 
machine  has  also  a  bench  and  a  rag-wheel  to  hold  the  cord  when 
wound  on  the  roller.  With  this  simple  machinery  one  man  may 
make  from  five  to  eight  dozen  brooms  in  a  day,  when  all  the  mate¬ 
rials  are  prepared  to  his  hand. 


BROOMS. 


747 


The  Societies  of  Shakers  in  the  State  of  New  York  are  engaged 
largely  in  the  cultivation  of  broom-corn  and  in  the  making  of 
brooms,  though  in  many  other  States  this  branch  of  industry  re¬ 
ceives  attention.  In  the  year  1860,  nineteen  States  were  reported 
as  producing  a  greater  or  less  number  of  brooms.  In  the  State  of 
New  York  they  were  made  during  that  year  to  the  value  of 
$  409,193  ;  in  Massachusetts,  $  328,694 ;  and  the  total  value  in  all 
the  States  was  reported  at  $  1,364,286.  The  brush  of  brooms  and 
broom-handles  are  exported  to  England  with  more  profit  than  if 
exported  already  made. 

The  chief  consumption  of  brooms  is  made  by  women,  on  whom 
the  dirty  and  disagreeable  duty  of  sweeping  appears  to  have  de¬ 
volved,  as  an  evidence  of  their  inferior  condition,  in  a  state  of  bar¬ 
barism.  With  the  new  era,  however,  which  they  are  claiming  for 
themselves,  a  more  intelligent  method  of  constructing  and  furnish¬ 
ing  our  houses  will  unquestionably  lead  to  a  state  of  things  in 
which  the  necessity  for  the  dirty  work  of  sweeping  will  be  in  a 
great  measure  abrogated,  and  women  be  freed  from  this  servile 
duty,  and  the  men  be  relieved  from  the  annoyance  of  the  process, 
the  results  of  which  are  desirable,  but  which  can  be  better  attained 
by  prevention,  and  by  habits  of  greater  cleanliness. 


GOLD  MINING. 

p  r  •  f  •  * 

THE  YIELD  OF  GOLD  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  CALI¬ 
FORNIA. —  THE  ROMANCE  OF  GOLD  MINING.  —  THE  REALITY  OF  SCIENCE. — 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  GOLD.  — THE  PROCESSES  OF  GOLD  MINING. — WASH  MIN¬ 
ING.  —  QUARTZ  MINING.  —  THE  STAMP  MILL.  —  CHEMICAL  PROCESSES.  - 

THE  YIELD  OF  GOLD  AT  PRESENT. - THE  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  INDUSTRY 

AT  PRESENT  IN  CALIFORNIA.  —  THE  GREATER  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  STATE. 
—  THE  USES  OF  GOLD. 

Gold,  the  most  valuable  of  the  precious  metals,  and  for  its  duc- 
tilit3r,  its  beauty,  and  durability,  the  most  serviceable  of  them  all, 
occurs  in  many  parts  of  our  country,  and  gives  occupation  to  a 
large  army  of  workers.  The  hills  composed  of  granite  slates,  which 
flank  the  peaks  of  the  Alleghany  range  on  the  east  and  south,  have 
since  the  settlement  of  the  country  furnished  many  million  dollars’ 
worth  of  this  metal.  .  Up  to  the  year  1867,  Virginia  had  yielded 
a  million  and  a  half  of  gold,  North  Carolina  nearly  ten  millions, 
South  Carolina  a  little  more  than  Virginia,  and  Georgia  about 
seven  millions,  making  in  the  aggregate  twenty  millions.  This  is 
only  about  one  third  the  annual  gold  product  of  California  during 
the  years  52,  55,  ’54,  and  ’55.  These  figures  show  how  great  the 
development  of  the  mining  interest  in  the  country  has  been 
since  the  startling  discovery  of  1848  at  Sutter’s  Ranch. 

In  that  year,  a  laborer  at  work  on  the  foundations  of  a  saw-mill 
saw  the  yellow  particles,  the  fame  of  which  was  to  stir  the  world. 
The  excitement  which  blazed  out  and  lasted  for  three  years  follow¬ 
ing  the  discovery  has  seldom  been  equalled.  The  years  ’49,  ’50, . 
and  ’51  saw  such  vast  additions  made  to  the  bullion  of  the  world 
that  a  serious  alarm  filled  some  minds  that  the  commercial  value 
of  gold  would  be  upset,  and  that  the  coinage  of  Christendom 
would  be  permanently  deranged. 

Three  years  after  California  was  added  to  the  gold-producing 

(748) 


GOLD  MINING. 


749 


areas  of  the  world,  the  magic  mineral  was  discovered  in  the  south¬ 
ern  part  of  Australia,  and  the  California  scenes  of  1848  and  1849 
were  re-enacted  in  that  remote  part  of  the  world  in  1852  and  1853. 

The  whole  amount  of  gold  dug  from  the  discovery  of  this  coun¬ 
try  to  the  California  discovery  was  twenty-eight  hundred  million 
dollars  ;  the  quantity  added  in  the  ten  years  from  1843  to  1853 
was  six  hundred  million  dollars  ;  and  the  whole  of  the  addition 
since  1848  to  the  present  time  is  three  thousand  three  hundred 
millions,  —  nearly  as  much  as  was  added  during  the  fifteen  hun¬ 
dred  years  from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  to  the  discovery 
of  America. 

An  Indian,  soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  chasing  a 
deer  up  the  slope  of  a  mountain  in  Peru,  laid  hold  of  a  bush  to  aid 
his  climbing;  the  bush  started  from  the  earth,  and  disclosed  a  mass 
of  shining  and  precious  metal  beneath  the  root,  enough  to  enrich 
him  and  all  his  tribe,  and  to  fire  the  cupidity  of  nations  parted 
from  them  by  great  oceans.  A  few  other  fortunate  accidents,  sim¬ 
ilar  to  this,  has  made  it  the  waking  dream  of  millions  that,  some 
time,  in  some  ravine,  on  on  a  hill-side,  or  in  the  recesses  of  a  cave, 
or  among  the  sands  of  a  mountain  stream,  chance  would  fling  be¬ 
fore  them  a  nugget,  or  a  pile  of  glittering  sand,  that  would  lift 
them  at  a  giddy  bound  from  the  narrowness  of  a  cottage  to  the 
splendors  of  a  palace.  While  the  principles  of  metallurgy  were 
unknown,  the  boor  and  the  sage  were  alike  uncertain  whether  the 
earth  beneath  their  house,  or  the  soil  of  their  garden,  might  not 
contain  an  abundance  of  this  much-coveted,  glowing  sand.  It  is 
now  known  that  the  quantity  of  gold  in  the  heart  of  certain  moun¬ 
tains,  and  in  the  sands  of  certain  streams,  is  enormous  —  as  great 
as  was  ever  pictured  in  the  dreams  of  distempered  fancy  ;  but  it  is 
also  known  that  the  rocks  hold  it  in  so  firm  a  grip,  the  sands  con¬ 
tain  it  in  such  hopeless  combination  with  worthless  matter,  that,  as 
a  rule,  it  will  require  more  than  a  dollar’s  worth  of  labor  to  realize 
and  refine  a  dollar’s  worth  of  metal. 

The  business  of  obtaining  gold  has  been  stripped  of  most  of  its 
delusions,  the  glamour  of  romance  has  been  dispelled  from  the 
magic  word,  and  the  science  of  it,  instead  of  being  occult  and  mar¬ 
vellous,  has  its  difficulties  and  its  stubborn  problems ;  but  our  age 
is  advancing  in  the  mastery  of  them  by  the  same  steps  and  by  the 
activity  of  the  same  faculties  that  are  pushing  us  along  a  steadily 
ascending  grade  in  our  manufactures  of  iron,  and  wood,  and  cop- 


750 


GOLD  MINING. 


per,  and  tin,  in  the  giant  industries  of  cotton,  of  coal,  and  of 
wool. 

In  many  parts  of  the  country  it  is  possible  to  find  great  masses 
of  rock  that  hold  a  little  gold,  and  millions  of  cubic  yards  of  earth 
from  which  a  few  cents’  worth  of  gold  can  be  washed.  If  a  silver 
dime  is  laid  on  the  common  school  atlas  of  the  United  States,  over 
the  town  of  Charlotteville,  in  North  Carolina,  it  will  be  found  to 
cover  the  region  from  which  the  greater  part  of  American  gold 
was  obtained  previous  to  the  wonderful  disclosures  in  California 
in  1848.  The  Carolina  mines  are  similar  to  those  of  California,  the 
only  difference  being  in  richness. 

For  some  years  the  average  earnings  of  the  California  gold 
washer  were  twenty  dollars  a  day ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  all 
the  gold  washers  of  Carolina  would  not  be  richer  than  they  are 
to-day  if  some  solid  industry  had  returned  them  fifty  cents  as  a 
certainty  for  every  twelve  hours  of  hard  work  over  those  delusive 
banks  of  reddish  earth. 

No  savant  can  explain  the  origin  and  nature  of  gold.  It  is  a 
simple  substance,  which,  from  unknown  sources  in  the  bowels  of 
this  planet,  has  been  injected  in  layers  or  veins  into  a  certain  class 
of  ancient  and  igneous  rocks.  Wide  geological  observation  has 
proved  that  it  would  be  utterly  futile  to  look  for  gold  in  red  sand¬ 
stone,  or  in  lime  rock,  or  in  the  alluvial  of  great  rivers,  as  the 

Mississippi  and  the  Nile.  A  gold  region  is  generally,  and  in  this 

country  always,  a  country  where  there  is  a  lofty  range  of  moun¬ 
tains,  consisting  of  a  central  core  of  granite  flanked  by  metamor- 
phic  slates.  The  gold  has  been  injected,  generally  in  close  con¬ 
nection  with  quartz,  into  these  beds  of  micaceous  and  hornblende 
slate.  As  these  beds  have  been  cut  by  streams,  and  as  the  tor¬ 
rents  of  a  steep  and  rocky  country  are  violent,  and  roll  along 

masses  of  rock  and  gravel,  the  sands  which  are  found  in  the  beds 
of  such  streams  are  golden  sands.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
gold  of  commerce  has  been  gathered,  grain  by  grain,  in  the  beds 
of  streams,  and  this  mode  of  obtaining  it  is  called  placer,  or  wash¬ 
mining.  When  the  operator  or  prospecter  follows  up  the  bed  of 
the  stream,  and  finds  the  veins  that  have  been  cut  by  the  moun¬ 
tain  torrent,  and  attacks  them  with  gunpowder  and  pick,  crushing 
the  auriferous  rock  and  separating  the  precious  metal,  —  this  is 
called  quartz  mining. 

The  history  of  gold  mining  in  California  is  a  record  of  processes 
growing  continually  more  and  more  elaborate  and  expensive.  Since 


GOLD  MINING. 


751 


1848,  from  1848  to  1868,  eight  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars1 
worth  of  gold  was  taken  from  the  auriferous  sand  of  the  Califor¬ 
nia  streams,  or  by  crushing  the  quartz  in  her  mountain  veins. 
Nine  tenths  of  this  amount  were  obtained  by  the  various  processes 
of  placer,  or  wash-mining,  which  we  propose  quite  minutely  to 
describe. 

The  rudest  implement,  and  the  one  quite  generally  used  for  pro¬ 
specting  purposes,  is  the  horn  spoon.  It  is  made  by  sawing  a  large 
horn  in  halves  lengthwise,  and  scraping  the  section  so  as  to  form 
a  sort  of  curved  spoon,  which  is  about  two  inches  deep,  from  two 
to  three  inches  broad,  and  about  eight  inches  long.  It  holds  but 
two  or  three  pounds  of  earth,  but  long  practice  renders  the  miner 
so  skilful  in  the  use  of  it,  that  he  can  extract  the  gold  from  a 
spoonful  of  auriferous  earth  with  a  facility  that  is  quite  wonderful. 

Another  simple  process  is  panning.  The  pan  used  by  a  gold 
digger  is  of  about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  milk-pan,  and  is  pressed 
into  shape  from  sheet  iron.  It  is  half  filled  with  the  sand  or  earth, 
water  is  added,  the  contents  are  stirred  and  poured  off,  until  most 
of  the  clay  and  fine  dirt  is  thrown  out.  When  the  contents  are 
reduced  to  a  mass  of  comparatively  clear  sand,  the  miner  holds  the 
pan  in  a  slanting  direction  and  gives  it  a  peculiar  twirl,  by  which 
the  top,  and  only  the  top,  of  the  sand  is  flirted  out.  This  process 
is  continued  until  only  a  pinch  of  the  shining  sand  is  left  in  the 
lower  angle  of  the  pan. 

In  many  diggings  there  will  be  nuggets  of  considerable  size, 
many  as  large  as  a  pin-head,  and  some  as  big  as  a  squirrel  shot, 
to  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  a  panful  of  earth.  But  generally  the 
result  of  the  first  washing,  as  much  perhaps  as  would  fill  a  lady’s 
thimble,  is  placed  by  itself,  and  afterwards  a  quantity  of  these 
pannings  is  washed  again  with  great  care. 

When  the  California  gold  was  first  discovered,  some  of  the  earth 
would  pan  out  fifty  cents’  worth  at  each  handling.  This  process  is 
kept  up  day  after  day,  and  week  after  week,  the  results  varying 
immensely,  according  to  the  richness  of  the  sand.  The  hopes  of 
the  miner  are  sometimes  stimulated  by  taking  out  a  dollar’s  worth 
at  a  washing  ;  yet  he  often  keeps  on  with  hopeful  but  wearisome 
industry,  washing  dirt  that  does  not  give  a  cent  to  the  panful. 

But  a  miner  with  any  enterprise  will  soon  contrive  some  more 
effectual  way  of  handling  pay  dirt,  and  a  very  natural  and  useful 
device  is  the  cradle.  This  consists  of  a  half  cylinder,  usually 
made  by  splitting  a  large  tree  and  carefully  digging  out  the  middle 


752 


GOLD  MINING. 


wood  till  only  the  surface  shell  remains.  Several  ribs  or  notches 
are  left  on  the  inside,  like  the  hollows  in  a  wash-board,  the  use  of 
which  is  to  catch  the  particles  of  gold  as  they  are  washed  down 
from  the  gravel.  The  cradle  is  mounted  on  rockers,  or  supports, 
with  a  facing  of  iron  strapped  on  the  upper  edge,  and  is  then  set 
at  a  gentle  incline  of  about  six  inches  in  ten  feet.  A  part  of  the 
stream  is  conducted  by  spouts,  so  as  to  pour  into  the  upper  end 
of  the  cradle,  and  the  quantity  of  water  used  is  adjusted  to  the 
character  of  the  dirt  and  the  length  and  inclination  of  the  cradle. 
A  shovelful  of  the  earth  is  thrown  under  the  fall  of  water,  and  the 
rocking  begins.  The  clay  is  first  dissolved,  and  the  first  running  off 
of  water  is  muddy.  The  sand  lodges  in  the  ridges,  and  the  water 
running  over  it  washes  the  top  away  and  carries  it  down  to  the 
mud  at  the  lower  end  of  the  cradle,  forming  what  is  called 
“  tailings.” 

In  some  diggings  the  washing  has  been  so  careless  that  these 
tailings  are  still  rich,  and  will  pay  for  several  successive  washings. 
Two  miners  generally  work  as  partners,  one  rocking  the  cradle  and 
throwing  out  the  gravel  stones,  and  the  other  throwing  in  the 
dirt.  If  the  gold  is  coarse,  most  of  it  can  be  picked  up  from  the 
crevices.  But  usually  quicksilver  is  used  as  an  amalgamator.  A 
little  is  poured  into  each  depression,  and  as  the  rocking  motion  is 
continued,  the  gold  is  gathered  up,  grain  by  grain,  till  the  quick¬ 
silver  becomes  somewhat  stiff  and  pasty,  which  is  an  indication 
that  it  cannot  take  up  much  more.  These  little  pellets  of  amalgam,  or 
quicksilver  and  gold  in  combination,  are  then  taken  up  with  a  spoon 
and  stored  in  a  buckskin  bag ;  fresh  quicksilver  is  poured  into  the 
cradle,  and  the  work  goes  on.  At  night  the  collection  of  amalgam 
is  squeezed  through  chamois  skin.  This  strains  the  quicksilver 
out  as  lively  as  ever  for  further  use,  and  the  dust  is  divided  be¬ 
tween  the  two  miners.  This  dust  they  can  exchange  for  food  or 
for  coined  gold  pieces,  a  certain  regular  discount  being  made  for 
impurities. 

When  a  stream  or  section  of  country  is  found  to  be  rich  in  pay 
dirt,  several  miners  put  their  earnings  together  and  put  up  a  sluice, 
which  is  a  far  more  effectual  way  of  washing  out  gold  than  any 
that  have  been  described.  A  sluice  consists  of  a  series  of  square 
wooden  troughs  that  taper  a  little  towards  the  lower  end,  so  that 
one  will  fit  into  the  other.  They  are  made  about  twelve  feet  long, 
a  foot  and  a  half  wide,  and  a  foot  high,  and  the  bottom  is  paved 
with  wooden  blocks,  set  next  each  other  like  wooden  street  pave- 


GOLD  WASHING  IN  THE  CALIFORNIA  MINES. 


AUSTIN,  NEVADA,  A  WESTERN  MINING  TOWN 


GOLD  MINING. 


7  oo 

merits,  with  a  little  quicksilver  at  the  bottom  of  the  interstices. 
The  sluice  has  a  downward  pitch  of  from  ten  inches  to  a  loot  and 
a  half  for  each  box  of  twelve  feet  in  length,  according  to  the  .qual¬ 
ity  of  the  dirt  thrown  into  it.  The  spaces  between  the  blocks,  or 
“  riffles,”  as  they  are  called*,  are  soon  filled  with  sand  as  the  wash¬ 
ing  begins,  but  the  fine  particles  of  gold  are  caught  in  the  sand, 
and  slowly  work  their  way  to  the  bottom,  wiiere  they  are  retained 
and  taken  up  by  the  mercury,  while  the  pebbles  are  swept  along 
by  the  current,  and  carried  out  at  the  tailings.  The  sluice  is,  in  fact, 
an  artificial  stream,  with  various  irregularities  in  its  bottom,  so 
contrived  as  to  arrest  the  gold,  the  nuggets  being  detained  by  the 
larger  cracks,  and  the  fine  dust  being  caught  in  the  mercury. 

The  quantity  of  water  required  varies  with  the  coarseness  of 
the  dirt  from  as  much  as  pours  through  a  square  orifice  three  by  four 
inches,  to  the  discharge  through  a  square  four  by  five  inches.  The 
quantity  of  water  to  be  used  by  each  sluice  company  is  regulated 
by  district  mining  laws.  Sluices  vary  greatly  in  length,  some 
consisting  of  only  three  or  four  boxes,  and  others  extending  many 
thousand  feet. 

The  washing,  once  begun,  goes  on  for  many  days,  and  sometimes, 
where  the  dirt  is  rich,  there  are  double  gangs  of  men,  and  the 
work  is  not  interrupted  at  nightfall.  It  is  found  that  most  of  the 
free  gold  and  the  nuggets  are  lodged  in  some  part  of  the  sluice  ; 
but  many  of  the  finer  particles  go  out  with  the  tailings,  and  the 
art  of  managing  these  fine  particles  so  as  to  save  them  without 
great  loss  of  time  and  labor  requires  careful  study  by  our  metal¬ 
lurgists.  After  a  large  quantity  of  dirt  has  been  washed  in  the 
sluice,  the  miner  shuts  off  his  water,  and  takes  a  day  for  cleaning 
up.  The  first  blocks  or  riffles  at  the  head  of  the  sluice  are  taken 
up,  and  the  rich  sand  carefully  brushed  down  from  their  sides. 
When  a  number  of  boxes  have  been  cleared  in  this  way,  a  little 
water  is  let  in,  and  the  washing  is  conducted  very  carefully.  The 
amalgam  is  taken  up  in  little  scoops  made  for  the  purpose,  while 
the  nuggets  may  be  picked  up  in  the  fingers.  In  a  rich  mining 
district,  where  the  sluice  work  has  been  carefully  conducted,  the 
cleaning-up  day  is  one  of  considerable  excitement,  as  many  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  are  frequently  found  nestled  between  the  wet  blocks 
and  absorbed  in  the  little  puddles  of  quicksilver.  After  straining 
the  amalgam  through  the  chamois,  it  is  sometimes  retorted  on  the 
spot,  but  more  frequently  sold  to  skilled  operators,  it  being  under¬ 
stood  that  about  forty  per  cent,  of  the  amalgam  is  gold.  The 


756 


GOLD  MINING. 


quicksilver  is  expelled  by  roasting  in  a  close  retort,  so  contrived 
that  the  evaporated  quicksilver  may  be  condensed  and  used  over 
again.  At  present  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  wash  mining  of 
California  is  conducted  by  the  sluice  process. 

With  it  is  connected  hydraulic  mining,  by  which  immense  masses 
of  earth  are  torn  down  and  thrown  into  sluices  by  the  action  of 
water  alone.  All  the  region  above  the  mining  lands  of  California 
abounds  in  lakes  and  mountain  streams,  so  that  a  ditch  or  sluice  will 
bring  the  water  to  a  reservoir  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  feet  above 
the  bank  of  earth  to  be  washed.  It  comes  down  from  the  reser¬ 
voir  in  very  strong  iron  pipes,  to  the  bottom  of  which  a  hose, 
made  of  the  strongest  canvas*  and  bound  about  with  cords,  is  at- 
taclied.  A  stream  of  water  is  made  to  play  against  the  bank  with 
a  force  like  that  seen  in  the  action  of  the  strongest  steam  fire  en¬ 
gines.  The  water,  the  mud,  and  the  boulders  thus  torn  from  the 
side  of  the  hill  are  conveyed  down  a  long  sluice,  the  height  and 
width  of  which  correspond  to  the  quantity  of  water  used.  Some¬ 
times  fifty  thousand  cubic  feet  of  water  per  hour  are  hurled  against 
a  bank  or  hill-side,  and  made  to  wash  the  most  of  it  down  the 
sluice.  Under  the  steady  action  of  this  immense  power  the  earth 
is  softened,  broken  down,  and  washed  away,  at  a  rate  that  is 
amazing.  There  is  generally  arranged  a  precipitous  fall  in  some 
part  of  the  sluice,  so  that  the  gravel  which  has  been  cemented  to¬ 
gether  by  the  action  of  iron  in  the  water  is  crushed  and  disinte¬ 
grated,  thus  releasing  quantities  of  gold  which  it  would  be  very 
expensive  and  difficult  to  reach  by  any  other  process. 

Quartz  Mining. 

t  There  is  a  large  amount  of  capital  invested  and  industry  en¬ 
gaged  in  washing  gold  from  sand  and  concrete  ;  but  this  branch 
of  mining  is  coarse  and  primitive  compared  with  operations  the 
object  of  which  is  to  crush  the  rock  in  which  gold  occurs,  and 
extract  the  precious  metal  from  the  pulverized  rock.  As  much  the 
greater  part  of  the  gold  thus  extracted  is  separated  from  close 
connection  with  quartz  rock,  this  branch  of  the  industry  is  called 
quartz  mining. 

The  prospecting  miner  becomes  an  expert  in  the  appearance  and 
nature  of  quartz  rock  in  California.  The  presumption  is  always 
in  favor  of  a  vein  of  quartz  that  it  has  more  or  less  of  gold  in  it. 
He  detaches  portions  of  the  rock,  explores  the  side  of  the  hill  or 


GOLD  MINING. 


757 


mountain,  so  as  to  learn  its  dip,  or  direction,  and  its  width.  It 
seldom  occurs  that  the  poor,  prospecting  miner  is  made  rich  by 
his  discovery.  He  records  his  lode  or  claim,  and,  if  his  wants  are 
pressing,  will  sell  it  for  a  small  sum  in  hard  money.  If  he  dis¬ 
covers  a  thrifty  disposition  at  the  same  time  that  he  finds  the 
shining  ore  in  the  rock,  he  will  not  part  with  his  claim,  but  seek 
to  unite  capital  with  it,  so  as  to  erect  a  stamping  mill.  If  the 
rock  is  found  to  pay  well  after  a  few  tons  have  been  crushed,  and 
the  lode  appears  to  be  quite  wide,  and  other  indications  are  flat¬ 
tering,  but  little  hesitation  will  appear  on  the  part  of  capitalists. 
No  great  outlay  is  required  at  first  in  the  extraction  of  gold-bear¬ 
ing  quartz.  * 

When  the  vein  is  strong,  and  great  confidence  is  felt,  a  tunnel 
is  carried  into  the  side  of  the  hill,  a  few  hundred  feet  below  the 
outcrop,  and  as  soon  as  the  vein  is  reached  and  found  to  be  valu¬ 
able,  a  rude  railway  is  laid  in  the  bottom  of  the  tunnel,  and  the 
auriferous  rock  is  taken  out  to  the  dump,  and  the  mill  is  erected 
as  near  to  this  as  the  nature  of  the  country  will  admit. 

A  stamping  mill  consists  of  an  engine  of  sufficient  power  to 
work  a  number  of  strong  iron  pestles,  or  upright  bars,  lifting  them 
about  a  foot  high,  and  letting  their  great  weight  come  down  with 
a  crushing  power  upon  the  fragments  of  rock  laid  beneath.  The 
chief  parts  of  it  are  the  boiler  and  engine,  the  stamps,  and  some 
apparatus  for  gleaning  out  the  gold  from  the  quantities  of  fine  rock 
made  by  the  action  of  the  stamps.  At  first,  until  the  value  of  the 
mine  is  well  known,  an  eight  or  ten  stamp  mill  is  considered  all 
that  prudence  dictates.  The  power  of  the  engine  is  applied  to  a 
series  of  cams,  which  lift  these  stamps  to  the  desired  height.  The 
stamp  consists  of  four  parts  —  the  stem,  or  long  cylindrical  shaft, 
held  in  position  by  grooves  ;  the  tappet,  or  arrangement  for  lifting 
it  by  a  cam  ;  the  head,  and  the  shoe.  The  head  is  considerably 
larger  than  the  stem,  and  at  the  lower  end  has  a  hole  into  which 
the  shoe  is  slipped.  This  shoe  is  liable  to  be  broken  or  worn  out 
by  the  work  it  has  to  do,  and  must  be  renewed.  The  mortar, 
where  the  crushing  is  done,  is  a  very  strong  iron  box,  with  cavities 
in  the  bottom  for  the  dies  or  anvils  where  the  weight  of  the  blow 
falls.  This  mortar,  as  well  as  the  dies,  rests  upon  solid  timbers, 
well  bedded  in  the  earth. 

Each  stamp  can  pulverize  from  one  to  three  tons  of  rock  in 
twenty-four  hours,  the  speed  being  about  sixty  blows  in  a  minute, 
or  a  stroke  every  second.  A  stream  of  water  pours  into  the  mor- 


753 


GOLD  MINING. 


tar,  and  as  the  work  advances,  and  the  rock  becomes  dust,  it  is 
taken  up  by  the  water  and  carried  out  through  a  fine  iron  screen. 
This  crushed  ore  and  water,  or  pulp,  as  it  is  called,  is  allowed  to 
flow  away  in  a  shallow  sluice,  and  there  are  several  methods  by 
which  the  gold  in  it  is  extracted. 

The  blanket  method  is  much  used  in  those  parts  of  California 
which  produce  the  most  gold.  A  coarse,  woollen  blanket  is  spread 
in  the  bottom  of  the  sluice,  and  the  fine  particles  of  gold  are 
caught  in  the  meshes.  These  are  soon  filled  with  the  gold  and 
the  pulp,  and  are  then  taken  up  and  rinsed  in  a  large  tub,  the  gold 
settling  in  the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  the  tub.  Below  the  blankets 
are  riffles  (such  as  are  used  in  common  sand  washing),  with  mer¬ 
cury  in  them  to  arrest  the  free  gold  that  has  escaped  the  meshes 
of  the  blankets  ;  but  a  great  deal  of  gold  passes  on  in  the  form  of 
sulphurets,  which  can  be  reduced  by  roasting,  or  the  chlorine  pro¬ 
cess.  Mercury  is  also  placed  in  the  battery  or  mortar. 

Thus,  in  stamp  mining  as  now  carried  on  at  Grass  Valley  and 
other  mining  districts  of  California,  the  gold  is  saved  in  three 
parts  of  the  process  :  — 

1.  The  quicksilver  in  the  battery  arrests  much  of  it,  and  in 
some  quartz  there  are  lumps  or  nuggets  of  considerable  size,  which 
can  be  picked  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  battery  when  the  stamps 
are  stopped  for  cleaning  up. 

2.  The  blanket  washings  are  treated  with  mercury,  and  much 
gold  collected. 

3.  The  sulphurets,  or  dark,  shining  sands  that  collect  at  the 
tailings,  may  show  little  free  gold,  but  by  roasting,  or  other  treat¬ 
ment  that  will  expel  the  sulphur,  the  gold  blended  with  it  may  be 

set  free. 

By  far  the  best  method  of  treating  the  black  sulphuret  is  by  the 
chlorine  process,  or  the  Plattner  process,  and  it  may  be  understood 
in  its  outline  by  the  following  description  :  The  dark,  shining 
sands  are  placed  in  an  oven  where  a  roasting  heat  is  kept  up  for 
twenty-four  hours.  For  about  ten  hours  the  effect  of  this  roasting 
is  to  expel  the  sulphur.  During  the  last  half  of  the  process  the 
heat  is  increased,  and  the  metal  becomes  an  oxide,  and  is  blended 
with  sulphate  of  lead.  Salt  is  sometimes  added  in  the  last  stage 
of  the  roasting  with  excellent  effect,  especially  when  there  is  some 
lime  or  magnesia  in  the  ore.  When  the  ore  cools  it  is  made  damp 
and  thrown  into  a  vat  that  has  two  bottoms,  the  upper  one  being 
pierced  with  many  holes.  The  inside  of  this  vat  is  made  gas-tight 


GOLD  MINING. 


750 


by  a  thick  coating  of  bitumen.  Chlorine  gas  is  introduced  both 
above  and  below  the  ore,  and  the  effect  of  it  is  to  take  up  the  gold 
and  convert  it  to  chloride  of  gold.  After  holding  the  gas  in  close 
contact  with  the  roasted  ore  for  twelve  or  eighteen  hours,  water 
is  introduced  in  a  small  stream,  and  as  it  trickles  through  the 
mass,  it  is  carefully  saved,  for  this  water  is  a  solution  of  chloride 
of  gold,  and  realizes  the  dream  of  the  old  alchemists,  who  hoped 
for  wondrous  effects  if  they  could  but  make  liquid  gold.  If  a 
combination  of  sulphur  and  iron  is  thrown  into  this  liquid,  the 
gold  is  thrown  to  the  bottom  in  the  form  of  a  very  fine  powder. 
After  the  vat  has  settled,  the  water  above  the  powder  is  slowly 
drawn  off,  and  the  powdered  gold  is  carefully  dried  on  broad  sheets 
of  paper.  It  is  believed  that  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  gold  is  saved 
by  this  process,  and  at  a  cost  of  about  twenty  dollars  per  ton 
of  ore. 

There  are  about  five  hundred  quartz  mills  in  California,  and  the 
average  number  of  stamps  in  each  is  ten.  In  the  Grass  Valley 
mining  district,  the  best  in  the  state  for  quartz  mining  in  a  radius 
of  four  miles,  Ross  Browne  says  three  and  a  half  millions  of  gold 
are  produced  annually.  This  is  an  average  yield  of  seventeen 
hundred  dollars  to  each  person  at  work.  One  mine,  the  North 
Star,  one  of  the  best  gold  mines  in  the  world,  has  yielded  six  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  dollars  in  net  profits,  and  the  profits  are  now  going 
on  at  the  rate  of  from  ten  thousand  dollars  to  twelve  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  per  month.  During  the  twelve  years  from  1849  to  1861  Cali¬ 
fornia  gave  us  a  little  over  fifty  millions  in  gold  annually.  Since 
1862  the  product  has  slowly  declined,  and  is  now  between 
twenty-five  and  thirty  millions  a  year,  and  one  third  of  this  is  the 
product  of  stamp  mills  and  quartz  mining  ;  the  other  fifteen  or 
twenty  millions  is  washed  from  sand  and  gravel  by  the  different 
contrivances  we  have  described. 

The  California  of  to-day,  compared  with  the  community  of  ex¬ 
cited  gold  hunters  that  washed  out  sixty-five  millions  of  this 
metal  in  1853,  illustrates  the  contrast  between  a  mining  population 
and  a  community  devoted  to  general  industry.  The  wheat  crop 
of  this  year  is  about  equal  in  value  to  the  gold  product.  Washing 
sand  and  crushing  ore  is  but  one,  and  that  comparatively  a  second¬ 
ary  industry.  Yet  the  average  prosperity  of  the  state  is  far  high¬ 
er  than  in  those  wild  and  romantic  days  when  every  rill  in  the  state 
was  believed  to  "flow  down  over  golden  sands.” 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  whole  of  the  twenty-five  or  thirty 
44 


760 


GOLD  MINING 


millions  which  the  state  may  yield  this  year,  if  divided  equally 
among  all  who  work  in  gold  mines  and  washings,  would  give  each 
worker  a  dollar  a  day. 

The  extreme  malleability  of  gold  has  made  it  a  prominent  metal 
in  the  fine,  and  also  in  the  useful,  arts.  But  the  quantity  consumed 
or  lost  is  not  large  compared  with  the  amount  produced.  It  is 
calculated  that  from  one  to  three  millions  annually  are  used  in  or¬ 
naments,  in  gilding,  in  lettering  and  edging,  in  dentistry,  and  in 
plate.  There  appears  to  be  a  greater  quantity  consumed  in  these 
industries  ;  but  a  little  of  this  remarkable  metal  produges  wonder¬ 
ful  effects.  A  cubic  inch  of  it  can  be  hammered  so  as  to  cover  a 
space  thirty-five  feet  wide  and  one  hundred  feet  long.  And  twenty 
of  our  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces  can  be  drawn  into  a  wire  that 
would  surround  the  globe. 

Modern  developments  in  chemistry  have  given  the  arts  several 
substances  of  remarkable  value  and  beauty,  as,  for  instance,  plat- 
ina  and  vulcanized  gutta  percha  ;  but  for  beauty  of  appearance, 
as  an  unscientific  standard  of  monetary  value,  for  weight,  ductility, 
and  power  of  resisting  acids  and  decay,  gold  is  still  the  king  m*<al. 


WASHING  FOR  GOLD. 


MERCURY,  OR  QUICKSILVER. 

THE  DERIVATION  OF  THE  NAME  QUICKSILVER.  —  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  QUICK¬ 
SILVER  IN  ANTIQUITY.  —  THE  MANNER  IN  WHICH  MERCURY  IS  FOUND  IN 
NATURE.  —  THE  CHIEF  SUPPLIES  OF  IT.  —  THE  PROBABLE  MANNER  IN 
.WHICH  IT  WAS  DEPOSITED.  —  THE  MINES  OF  MERCURY  IN  EUROPE.  —  THOSE 
IN  AMERICA. — THE  PROCESS  OF  OBTAINING  IT.  —  THE  USES  TO  WHICH  IT 
IS  APPLIED. 

Mercury,  or  quicksilver,  is  a  metal,  which  is  fluid  at  the  tem¬ 
perature  generally  prevailing  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  From 
hence  its  name  quicksilver,  which  is  a  translation  of  the  name  ar¬ 
gentum  vivum,  live  silver,  given  it  by  the  Latins.  The  word  quick, 
in  its  old  signification,  means  alive,  as  we  see  in  the  text  “  the 
quick  and  the  dead,”  meaning  those  who  are  alive  and  those  who 
are  dead.  At  a  temperature  of  40°  below  zero  mercury  assumes 
a  solid  form,  crystallizing  into  regular  octahedrons,  and  becoming 
malleable,  contracting  in  bulk,  and  obtaining  a  greater  specific 
gravity.  It  boils  at  662°,  passing  off  then  in  the  form  of  a  trans¬ 
parent  and  invisible  vapor,  the  density  of  which  is  more  than  six 
times  greater  than  that  of  air. 

To  the  oldest  nations  of  antiquity  the  use  of  mercury  was  un¬ 
known,  nor  had  they  arrived  at  a  knowledge  of  the  process  for 
obtaining  it  from  the  compounds  with  which  it  is  usually  found  in  * 
a  state  of  nature.  The  chief  source  from  which  the  modern  world 
obtains  its  supply  of  mercury  is  from  the  deposits  of  cinnabar, 
which  is  a  native  sulphuret  of  mercury,  consisting  of  one  atom  of 
mercury  and  one  of  sulphur,  or  by  proportion,  86.2  of  the  first  to 
13.8  of  the  second.  It  also  occurs  in  several  other  natural  combi¬ 
nations  with  other  substances,  but  not  in  sufficient  quantities  to 
justify  its  preparation  as  an  industry. 

In  most  of  the  natural  deposits  of  mercurial  combinations,  pure 
mercury  is  found  deposited  in  small  globules,  as  might  be  expected 
from  the  volatile  character  of  the  metal.  From  a  scientific  exam- 

(761) 


7G2 


QUICKSILVER. 


ination  of  the  deposits  of  mercury,  it  is  evident  that  it  has  been 
absorbed  into  their  mass  while  in  a  state  of  vapor,  impregnating 
•them  with  metallic  matter  in  every  direction.  There  are  instances 
which  show  that  the  metal  must  have  been  sublimed  from  below, 
during  the  most  recent  geological  epochs,  since  it  is  found  in  con¬ 
siderable  quantities,  in  the  metallic  state,  associated  with  the  su¬ 
perficial  deposits,  even  with  the  alluvium  itself.  The  geological 
formation  in  which  the  ores  of  mercury  are  found  range  from  the 

4 

lowest  to  the  highest  in  the  scale  ;  but  the  principal  mines  are 
worked  in  the  silurian  and  carboniferous  strata.  When  the  mer¬ 
curial  ores  are  found  in  the  older  metamorphic  rocks,  they  seem  to 
exist  either  in  true  veins,  or  in  connection  with  them  ;  but  the 
greater  proportion  of  the  ore  belongs  to  the  class  of  contact 
deposits. 

In  Europe,  the  chief  mines  of  mercurial  ores  are  found  in  Spain 
and  in  Austria,  those  of  Spain  being  the  most  important.  These 
mines,  known  as  the  mines  of.  Almaden,  are  situated  in  the  prov¬ 
ince  of  La  Mancha,  near  the  frontier  of  Estremadura.  The  chief 
workings  are  near  Almaden,  but  the  ores  are  found  in  a  wide  belt 
running  in  an  easterly  and  westerly  direction,  extending  from  the 
town  of  Chillon  to  Almadenejos.  These  mines  have  been  worked 
longer  and  more  uninterruptedly,  probably,  than  any  others  in  the 
world.  They  were  worked  by  the  Greeks,  according  to  Pliny,  at 
least  seven  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  the  cinnabar,  which  was  made  into  vermilion  ;  and 
the  same  author  estimates  the  annual  product  of  these  mines  to 
the  Romans  at  one  hundred  thousand  pounds.  Since  that  time 
these  mines  have  been  worked  almost  continually,  and  yet  it  is 
stated  by  competent  authority  that  they  will  be  able  to  furnish  their 
present  supply  for  an  indefinite  time.  They  are  now  excavated 
only  about  one  thousand  feetr*  The  ore  in  the  principal  working 
lies  in  the  main  vein,  about  forty  to  fifty  feet  thick,  all  of  which  is 
rich  enough  to  pay  for  working,  it  yielding  no  purely  barren  rock. 
The  average  yield  of  the  ore  is  ten  per  cent.,  but  much  of  the 
metal  is  lost  from  the  imperfect  methods  of  extracting  it.  The 
present  yield  is  about  two  and  a  half  millions  of  pounds  a  year. 
Formerly  these  mines  were  worked  by  the  condemned  criminals  of 
the  state,  but  now  the  workmen  are  hired. 

The  imperfect  process  in  use  for  the  extraction  of  the  metal  from 
the  ore,  leading  as  it  does  to  the  escape  of  the  mercurial  vapors, 
causes  a  variety  of  diseases  in  the  workmen,  and  limits  their  lives 


QUICKSILVER. 


763 


to  only  a  few  years.  These  mines,  being  the  property  of  the  gov¬ 
ernment,  are  leased  to  contractors  at  a  rent,  or  royalty,  on  the 
product.  Of  late  years,  they  have  been  leased  by  the  Rothschilds 
of  Europe ;  and  as  the  government  has  at  every  renewal  of 
the  contract  raised  their  price,  the  price  of  mercury  since  1839 
has  been  almost  doubled.  It  was  only  by  the  discovery. of  the 
mines  in  California  that  the  indefinite  extortion  of  the  Spanish 
government  has  been  checked. 

The  next  important  mines  of  mercury  in  Europe  are  those  of 
Austria.  These  are  situated  at  Idria,  in  Carinthia,  and  have  been 
worked  for  several  hundred  years.  The  ore  is  chiefly,  the  sulphu- 
ret,  with  some  native  mercury.  It  is  contained  in  a  black  com¬ 
pact  limestone,  associated  with  shales,  in  which  are  found  the 
fossils  of  the  Jura  limestone  age.  The  metal,  from  its  intimate 
combination  with  the  shales,  has  evidently  been  deposited  in  the 
form  of  a  metallic  vapor. 

In  America,  both  Peru  and  Mexico  contain  mines  of  mercurial 
ore.  The  native  Indians  of  Peru  worked  the  mines  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  It  is,  however,  most  probable  that  they 
worked  them  only  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  material  of 
their  paints.  The  most  important  deposits  in  Peru  are  those  in 
the  province  of  Huancavelica ;  the  presence  of  mercury  has  been 
proved  in  forty-one  different  localities  in  this  province.  The  chief 
mine  is,  however,  that  of  Santa  Barbara,  which  is  still  called  by 
the  people  ‘-the  Great  Mine/7  It  has  been  worked  since  1566, 
but  so  negligently  has  the  work  been  done,  that  much  of  it  has 
fallen  in.  On  one  occasion  two  hundred  workmen  were  killed  by 
such  an  occurrence. 

In  Mexico  there  are  deposits  of  mercurial  ore  in  several  places. 
Humboldt  mentions  the  following  as  the  most  important :  Gigante, 
near  Guanaxuato  ;  Rincon  de  Centeno,  near  Queretaro  ;  Durasno  ; 
Sierra  de  Pinos,  and  other  places  in  the  department  of  San  Luis 
Potosi ;  Melilla,  in  that  of  Zacatecas ;  and  El  Doctor,  in  that  of 
Queretaro.  The  ores  are  found  either  in  beds  in  the  secondary 
strata,  or  as  veins  which  traverse  the  porphyritic  trappean  rocks. 

At  Durasno,  cinnabar,  mixed  with  many  globules  of  native 
metal,  forms  a  horizontal  bed  resting  on  the  porphyry,  and  covered 
by  beds  of  shaly  clay,  containing  fossil  wood  and  coal.  The  ex¬ 
cavations  are  only  pits  a  few  feet  in  depth.  Though  several  hun¬ 
dred  quintals,  weighing  one  hundred  pounds  each,  were  at  one 
time  taken  from  it,  yet  this  appears  to  have  been  only  a  limited 


764 


QUICKSILVER. 


deposit.  At  San  Juan  de  la  Chica  the  cinnabar  vein  is  from  seven 
to  twenty  feet  in  thickness,  yielding  an  ore  which  is  rich,  but  not 
abundant. 

In  the  United  States  no  deposits  of  mercurial  ore  have  as  yet 
been  discovered  east  of  the  Mississippi  River.  In  California, 
however,  the  existence  of  mineral  deposits  of  mercurial  ore  was 
known  before  the  discovery  of  gold,  and  in  1845  a  company  was 
formed  to  work  an  important  deposit  of  cinnabar,  at  New  Alma- 
den,  in  one  of  the  side  valleys  of  the  San  Jos6.  The  ore  here  is 
found  in  connection  with  sedimentary  strata,  composed  of  beds 
of  argillaceous  shales  alternating  with  layers  of  flint,  tilted  up  at 
nearly  a  right  angle,  and  much  bent.  They  were  considered  by 
W.  P.  Blake,  who  visited  them,  to  belong  to  the  silurian  age. 

The  Indians  had  used  the  ore  as  a  material  for  their  paint,  and 
had  made,  in  search  of  it,  an  excavation  about  sixty  feet  into  the 
mountain.  The  war  put  a  stop  to  the  prosecution  of  the  work, 
but  in  1850  a  new  company  re-commenced  operations,  and  contin¬ 
ued  them  until  enjoined  by  the  United  States,  as  a  preparatory 
step  towards  the  settlement  of  the  question  of  title  to  the  property. 
The  average  yield  of  the  ore  is  about  thirty  per  cent.  The  mines 
are  now  worked,  and  the  yield  is  large.  From  this  and  the  other 
mines  now  worked  in  California,  the  yearly  yield  is  estimated  at 
about  two  millions  of  pounds,  being  over  one  third  of  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  the  world.  The  uses  of  mercury  in  the  arts  are  various, 
the  chief  one  being  its  use  in  extracting  gold  in  gold  mining.  The 
one  next  in  importance  is,  probably,  its  use  as  an  amalgam  with 
tin,  in  silvering  the  backs  of  mirrors.  It  is  also  used  considerably 
in  the  manufacture  of  philosophical  instruments,  in  barometers  and 
thermometers,  the  quality  by  which  it  expands  and  contracts  regu¬ 
larly  through  a  great  range  of  difference  in  temperature  making 
it  most  valuable  for  this  purpose.  For  making  vermilion  paint, 
and  as  a  medicine,  in  the  mixture  called  calomel,  considerable 
quantities  are  also  used.  Besides  these  uses,  mercury  enters  into 
many  of  the  chemical  compounds  which  have  come  into  demand 
in  the  varied  industry  of  modern  times. 


MIRRORS. 


THE  FIRST  SUGGESTION  FOR  MIRRORS.  —  MISTRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  BIBLE.  — 
THE  LOVE  OF  EASTERN  WOMEN  FOR  MIRRORS.  —  MIRRORS  IN  ANTIQUITY.  — 
MIRRORS  OF  STONE  IN  USE  BY  THE  NATIVE  PERUVIANS. — MIRRORS  OF  SIL¬ 
VER.  —  MIRRORS  AMONG  THE  ROMANS.  —  MASCULINE  SATIRES  UPON  WOMEN’S 
LOVE  OF  MIRRORS.  —  THE  FIRST  USE  OF  MIRRORS  OF  GLASS.  —  THE  METHOD 
OF  SILVERING  THEM.  —  MIRRORS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Mirrors  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  glassy  surface  of  still 
water ;  but  there  are  reasons  to  believe  that  mirrors  were  made  as 
soon  as  men  began  to  exert  their  skill  in  metals  and  stones.  Any 
solid  body,  capable  of  receiving  a  polished  surface,  could  be  used 
for  such  a  purpose.  In  the  Book  of  Job  occurs  the  following  pas¬ 
sage  :  “  Hast  thou  with  him  spread  out  the  sky,  which  is  strong, 
and  as  a  molten  looking-glass  ?  ”  The  word  rendered  “  looking- 
glass  ”  should  have  been  rendered  mirror.  It  is  said  also  in  the 
Book  of  Exodus  that  Moses  “made  the  laver  of  brass  of  the  look' 
ing-glasses  ”  (mirrors)  “  of  the  women  assembled  at  the  door  of  the 
tabernacle  of  the  congregation.”  As  these  mirrors  were  formed 
into  a  brazen  laver,  the  mirrors  were  of  that  material.  In  Ecclesi - 
asticus  it  is  said,  “  Thou  shalt  be  unto  him  as  if  thou  hadst  wiped 
a  looking-glass  ”  (mirror),  “  and  thou  shalt  know  that  his  rust 
hath  not  been  altogether  wiped  away.”  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  metallic  mirrors  are  referred  to  in  all  these  places.  The  wo¬ 
men  assembled  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  for  worship  are  sup¬ 
posed  to  have  been  in  full  dress,  so  that  it  was  necessary  for  them 
to  have  their  looking-glasses  (mirrors),  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  Egyptians.  They  were  voluntarily  presented  to  Moses,  or 
delivered  up  on  a  requisition,  for  the  purpose  of  making  out 
of  them  one  of  the  utensils  of  the  tabernacle.  It  may  have  been 
a  blow  struck  by  the  Hebrew  leader  at  the  vanity  of  the  women. 
In  later  times,  the  prophet  Isaiah,  speaking  of  the  extravagance 
of  female  dress,  enumerates,  among  other  things,  rings,  nose- 
jewels,  wimples,  crisping-pins,  and  glasses.  It  is  probable  that 
their  excessive  vanity  was  evinced  by  carrying  small  mirrors,  that 

(7G5> 


7G6 


MIRRORS. 


they  might  at  any  time  examine  and  adjust  their  dresses.  This 
appears  to  have  been  a  peculiarity  of  women  in  Eastern  countries 
from  time  immemorial.  The  Moorish  women  in  Barbary  are  said 
to  be  so  fond  of  their  ornaments,  and  particularly  of  their  looking- 
glasses,  which  they  hang  about  their  breasts,  that  they  will  not 
lay  them  aside  even  when,  after  the  drudgery  of  the  day,  they  are 
obliged  to  go  two  or  three  miles  with  a  pitcher  or  a  goat-skin  to 
fetch  water. 

As  articles  of  the  toilet,  mirrors  were  held  in  high  esteem,  since, 
with  other  precious  things,  they  were  deposited  with  the  dead  in 
the  tombs  and  places  of  burial  of  the  ancient  nations.  In  what 
are  called  the  Christian  catacombs  of  ancient  Rome  mirrors  have 
been  found  similar  to  those  found  in  the  tombs  of  Greeks,  Etrus¬ 
cans,  and  Romans.  Boldetti  speaks  of  some  found  in  the  tombs 
of  children  in  the  catacomb  of  St.  Calistus,  which  appeared  to  be 
made  of  a  mixture  of  bronze  and  lead,  or  tin,  similar  to  those  made 
in  Brundusium,  which  Pliny  speaks  of  as  the  most  celebrated  and 
the  most  valued.  They  were  sometimes  made  of  a  particular 
stone,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  kind  of  vitrified  lava. 
The  houses  of  the  rich  were  sometimes  ornamented  with  polished 
slabs  inserted  in  the  walls  of  wainscoted  apartments.  Domitian, 
when  he  suspected  that  plots  were  formed  against  him,  caused  a 
gallery,  in  which  he  used  to  walk,  to  be  lined  with  a  kind  of  pol¬ 
ished  stone,  which  by  its  reflection  showed  everything  that  was 
done  behind  his  back.  The  Spaniards,  when  they  came  to  Ameri¬ 
ca,  found  mirrors  made  of  a  substance  called  the  Inca’s  stone,  be¬ 
cause  the  same  material  was  used  for  ornaments  by  the  Incas,  or 
princes  of  Peru.  It  appears  to  have  been  a  compact  pyrites,  sus¬ 
ceptible  of  a  fine  polish,  and  calculated  to  form  mirrors  apparently 
superior  to  any  of  stone  which  the  ancient  nations  of  Europe  or 
Asia  seem  to  have  possessed.  The  Americans  had  also  at  the 
same  time  mirrors  of  silver,  copper,  and  brass.  In  Egypt  mirrors 
were  made  of  mixed  metal,  chiefly  of  copper,  highly  polished. 
Some  have  been  discovered  at  Thebes,  the  lustre  of  which  has  been 
partially  restored,  though  they  had  been  buried  in  the  earth  for 
many  centuries.  The  greater  part  of  the  ancient  mirrors  were 
made  of  silver,  not  on  account  of  costliness  and  magnificence,  but 
because  silver  was  the  best  adapted  and  most  durable  of  all  the 
then  known  unmixed  metals  for  such  uses. 

In  the  Roman  law,  when  silver  plate  is  mentioned  under  the 
head  of  heirship  and  succession,  silver  mirrors  are  rarely  omitted. 


MIRRORS. 


767 


Seneca  and  other  writers  of  his  time,  speaking*  against  luxury, 
ridicule  the  extravagance  of  the  age,  in  which  every  young  wo¬ 
man  must  have  a  silver  mirror.  These  mirrors  were  round  or 
oval,  with  handles  of  wood,  stone,  or  metal,  according  to  the  taste 
of  the  owner,  not  differing  much  in  form  from  the  hand-mirrors 
now  in  use. 

At  a  later  period  the  extravagance  of  the  times  was  censured 
by  Jean  des  Caures,  an  old  French  moralist,  who,  declaiming 
against  the  fashions  of  his  day,  notices  one,  of  the  ladies  carrying 
mirrors  fixed  to  their  waists,  which  seemed  to  employ  their  eyes  in 
perpetual  activity.  From  this  mode  will  result,  according  to  hon¬ 
est  Des  Caures,  their  eternal  damnation.  “  Alas  !  "  he  says,  “in 
what  an  age  do  we  live,  to  see  such  depravity  as  we  see,  that  in¬ 
duces  them  even  to  bring  into  Church  these  scandalous  mirrors 
hanging  about  tlxeir  waist !  Let  all  histories  —  divine,  human,  and 
profane  —  be  consulted,  never  will  it  be  found  that  these  objects 
of  vanity  were  ever  thus  brought  into  public  by  the  most  meretri¬ 
cious  of  the  sex.  It  is  true,  at  present  none  but  the  ladies  of  the 

* 

court  venture  to  wear  them  ;  but  long  it  will  not  be  before  every 
citizen’s  daughter  and  every  female  servant  will  wear  them.’7 

A  satire  on  the  same  subject  appeared  in  a  book  entitled  11  Life 
and  Adventures  of  Miss  Robinson  Crusoe.”  Wrecked,  as  the 
famous  Mr.  R.  Crusoe  was,  she  plundered  the  ship,  and  trans¬ 
ported  all  things  valued  by  a  woman  to  her  lonely  island.  About 
to  leave  the  ship  with  a  loaded  raft,  she  says,  u  The  thought 
flashed  upon  me,  and,  as  I  may  say,  with  its  brightness  illuminated 
the  very  depths  of  my  being,  when  I  remembered  that  I  had  no 
looking-glass.  A  woman,  nursed  in  the  lap  and  dandled  on  the 
knees  of  luxury  without  a  looking-glass  !  Imagine  it,  dwell  upon 
it !  Is  it  possible  for  Fate,  in  its  worst  malignity,  more  cruelly 
to  punish  her  ?  When  at  home,  with  every  blessing  about  me,  I 
thought  nothing  of  the  chief  delight,  the  happiness,  of  sitting  two 
or  three  hours  before  my  mirror,  trying  here  a  patch,  and  there  a 
patch  ;  now  making  pretty  experiments  with  my  hair  for  more  cer¬ 
tain  killing. "  She  secured  a  looking-glass.  “Very  thick  and 
very  violent  were  the  beatings  of  my  woman's  heart  as  I  brought 
the  mirror  over  the  ship's  side.  No  words,  though  bright  as  rain¬ 
bows,  can  paint  my  feelings  when  I  saw  the  glass  safely  lowered 
among  my  other  goods.  I  sank  upon  the  deck,  and  grateful  tears 
ran  like  rain-drops  on  cottage  casements,  down  my  cheeks." 

Chrysostom,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  speaking 


7G8 


MIRRORS. 


in  a  sermon  of  the  extravagance  of  the  women,  says,  “  The  maid¬ 
servants  must  be  continually  importuning  the  silversmith  to  know 
whether  their  lady’s  mirror  be  yet  ready. ” 

It  is  supposed  that  the  largest  mirrors  in  use  by  the  ancients 
were  often  made  of  polished  plates  of  silver  ;  and  some  were  so 
large  as  to  reflect  the  whole  person.  Such,  doubtless,  was  the 
one  used  by  Demosthenes.  Plutarch  says  he  had  a  looking-glass 
(mirror)  in  his  house,  before  which  he  used  to  declaim,  and  adjust 
all  his  motions. 

But  the  point  of  most  masculine  satires  against  the  inordinate 
feminine  love  of  mirrors  would  be  destroyed,  should  we  quote  in¬ 
stances  enough  to  show  that  the  use  of  mirrors  is  as  common 
among  men  as  among  women.  Let  us  therefore  pass  over  with 
judicious  silence  this  branch  of  the  subject. 

Metallic  mirrors  were  generally  used  until  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  first  mention  of  glass  mirrors,  covered  on  the  back  with  tin  or 
lead,  is  made  by  Johannes  Peckham,  an  English  Franciscan  monk. 
In  the  year  1219  he  wrote  a  treatise  on  optics,  in  which  he  speaks 
of  mirrors  made  of  iron,  steel,  and  polished  marble  ;  also  of  glass 
mirrors,  which  were  covered  on  the  back  with  lead,  and  that  no 
image  was  reflected  when  the  lead  was  scraped  off.  “  That  this 
invention  cannot  be  much  older  we  have  reason  to  conclude,  be¬ 
cause  glass  mirrors  were  extremely  scarce  in  France  even  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  while  mirrors  of  metal  were  in  common  use  ; 
and  we  are  told  that  the  mirror  of  Anne  de  Bretagne,  consort  of 
Louis  XII.,  was  of  the  latter  kind.  Metal  mirrors  were  also  made 
and  used  in  Persia  and  the  East,  where,  indeed,  ancient  usages  con¬ 
tinued  longest,  and  glass  mirrors  were  not  known  there  till  the 
commencement  of  the  European  trade  with  these  remote  regions. 
Metallic  mirrors  are  still  preferred  in  those  countries,  because  they 
are  not  so  liable  to  break,  and  can  be  preserved  better  in  a  dry, 
hot  climate  than  the  amalgam  of  glass  mirrors.” 

Respecting  the  progress  of  this  art,  it  appears  that  at  first  melted 
lead,  or  perhaps  tin,  was  poured  over  the  glass  plate  while  yet  hot, 
as  it  came  from  the  furnace.  This  process  agrees  with  that  which, 
at  an  early  period,  was  employed  in  Nuremberg  for  making  convex 
mirrors.  By  means  of  a  pipe,  a  metallic  mixture  was  blown  into 
a  hollow  ball  of  glass  while  hot,  completely  coating  the  inner  sur¬ 
face.  When  the  glass  became  cool,  it  was  cut  up  into  small, 
round  mirrors.  Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  Venetians 
made  glass  mirrors  by  coating  the  surface  with  an  amalgam  of  tin 


MIRRORS. 


7G9 


and  quicksilver.  This  is  claimed  as  an  Italian  invention  and  till 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  their  mirrors  were  sold  all 
over  Europe  and  in  the  East  and  West  Indies.  The  discovery  in 
France  that  glass,  like  metal,  could  be  cast  into  larger  plates  than 
had  been  prepared  before  by  blowing  and  rolling,  marked  a  de¬ 
cided  improvement  in  the  manufacture  of  mirrors.  All  but  the 
commonest  mirrors  are  now  made  of  plate-glass  ;  and  the  process 
of  coating  them  does  not  differ  very  essentially  from  the  method 
adopted  by  the  Venetians  three  hundred  years  ago.  This  process, 
as  described  by  an  eye-witness,  consisted  in  spreading  tin  foil 
smoothly  on  a  plane  surface  ;  quicksilver  was  then  poured  over  it, 
and  rubbed  into  it  with  the  hand,  or  a  hare’s  foot  ;  and  when  the 
tin  was  saturated,  it  was  covered  with  paper.  The  glass,  wiped 
very  clean,  was  then  laid  upon  it,  and  the  paper  withdrawn. 
Weights  were  then  placed  on  the  glass,  which  remained  till  the 
excess  of  quicksilver  drained  off.  A  new  method  of  silvering 
glass  was  invented  by  a  Mr.  Drayton  in  1843.  It  consisted  in  de¬ 
positing  silver  from  a  solution,  so  that  the  precipitate  will  adhere 
to  the  glass,  without  the  latter  having  been  coated  with  metallic 
or  other  substances. 

Large  mirrors  are  made  in  the  United  States.  The  glass  plates 
are  generally  imported,  and  the  coating  only  is  done  here.  The 
old  method  of  coating  with  tin  foil  and  quicksilver  is  usually 
adopted  in  preference  to  other  more  modern  modes,  as  the  former 
is  more  durable  and  secures  greater  whiteness  and  brilliancy  of 
reflection. 


SILK  DRESS-GOODS. 


TTIE  DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD  “  SILK.”  —  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  SILK  CULTURE.  — 
THE  REFERENCES  IN  THE  BIBLE  TO  SILK.  —  USE  OF  SILK  AMONG  THE  ROMANS. 

—  THEIR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  ITS  CULTURE. — THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  SILK-CUL¬ 
TURE  INTO  GREECE.  —  INTO  ITALY. - INTO  FRANCE. - INTO  THIS  COUNTRY. - 

SPECIMENS  OF  SILK  RAISED  HERE  DURING  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. — FLUCTUA¬ 
TIONS  IN  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE  MORUS  MULTICAULIS  SPECULATION.  —  CON¬ 
GRESSIONAL  REPORTS  CONCERNING  THE  CULTURE  OF  SILK.  —  THE  SUCCESSFUL 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THIS  INDUSTRY. - THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  SILK  DRESS- 

GOODS. —  THE  INCREASED  CONSUMPTION  OF  SILK. — THE  INCREASED  SUPPLY. 

—  NEW  MEANS  OF  PRODUCTION  SUGGESTED.  — THE  PROBABLE  FUTURE  OF  THE 
BUSINESS. 

The  manufacture  of  silk  as  an  article  of  apparel  dates  from  a 
very  early  period  of  the  world’s  history.  Our  very  word  “  silk  ”  is 
derived  from  the  Greek  seres,  the  name  given  to  the  people  of  the 
East,  the  Chinese,  who  manufactured  all  the  silk  used  at  this  early 
period.  From  the  Greek  the  Latins  obtained  their  term  serious , 
“  silken,”  and  from  them  the  term  spread  to  the  different  nations  of 
modern  Europe,  appearing  in  Anglo-Saxon  as  scolc ,  in  Icelandic  as 
silJd,  in  Danish  as  silke,  in  French  as  soie,  and  so  on. 

The  various  references  in  the  Bible  to  silk  are,  with  the  exception 
of  that  in  Revelation,  believed  by  the  best  authorities  not  to  refer  to 
silk,  but  to  be  mistranslations,  since  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  He¬ 
brews  in  early  times  were  not  acquainted  with  this  texture.  In  their 
literature  the  Chinese  have  treatises  describing  the  processes  of  silk 
culture  and  its  manufacture,  for  which  they  claim  an  antiquity  of  four 
thousand  years,  and  which  were  unquestionably  written  many  ages 
ago. 

Among  the  Romans,  dresses  of  silk  came  to  be  considered  articles 
of  disreputable  luxury ;  and  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius, 
an  edict  was  passed  by  the  Senate  forbidding  men  from  wearing  them, 
since  the  effeminacy  introduced  by  the  increased  use  of  this  material 
was  thought  to  threaten  the  most  disastrous  results  for  the  state. 
Aurelian  also  used  his  influence  against  its  use,  refusing  to  give  his  wife 
a  silk  robe.  During  the  reigns  of  the  luxurious  emperors,  such  as 

(770) 


SILK  DRESS-GOODS. 


771 

Caligula  and  Elagabalus,  its  use  was,  however,  encouraged  by  the 
example  of  the  rulers  themselves,  who  adopted  its  wear.  The  prices 
of  silk  textures  in  these  times  was  so  large  at  Rome,  that,  in  the  sec¬ 
ond  century  after  Christ,  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  replenished 
his  treasury  by  the  sale  of  the  shawls  and  scarfs  which  had  accumu¬ 
lated  in  the  royal  wardrobe  during  the  reigns  of  his  predecessors. 

Marcus  Aurelius  also  sent  an  embassy  to  China  with  the  view  of 
opening  a  direct  trade  between  Rome  and  that  country  for  the  sup¬ 
plies  of  silk  consumed  by  the  Roman  Empire.  TTp  to  this  time  the 
supply  of  silk  had  been  furnished  to  Rome  through  the  agency  of 
the  Persian  caravans,  and  the  expense  of  this  intermediate  trade 
was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  excessive  price  of  silks  to  the  Ro¬ 
mans.  This  attempt  was,  however,  not  successful,  and  the  Persians 
retained  their  monopoly  of  the  silk-trade  in  Europe  for  nearly  five 
centuries  longer,  until  the  culture  of  silk  was  imported  into  Europe. 

That  silk  was  the  product  of  a  worm  was  known  to  Aristotle 
and  to  Pliny,  but  many  Roman  writers,  in  speaking  of  it,  describe 
it  as  a  sort  of  down  produced  by  trees.  In  the  reign  of  Justinian, 
two  Persian  monks,  who  had  spent  years  in  China  acquiring  a  prac¬ 
tical  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  silk-culture,  brought  to  Byzan¬ 
tium  silkworm  eggs  concealed  in  a  hollow  reed  of  bamboo,  and 
commenced  the  culture  of  silk  in  Europe.  The  business  increased 
rapidly,  and  was  soon  understood  in  Greece,  which  for  a  long  time 
held  the  leading  position  in  Europe  in  this  industry.  In  the  twelfth 
century  it  was  established  in  Sicily,  on  the  overthrow  of  the  Byzan- 
tian  Empire,  and  up  to  the  sixteenth  century  Italy  remained  the 
chief  country  in  Europe  for  the  production  of  dress-silks. 

By  the  agency  of  Francis  I.,  while  the  French  occupied  Milan 
in  1521,  workmen  were  sent  from  Italy  into  France,  and  in  the 
southern  part  of  that  country  silk-culture  soon  obtained  a  perma¬ 
nent  footing.  Frequent  attempts  were  made  by  James  I.  of  Eng¬ 
land  to  inaugurate  the  culture  and  manufacture  of  silk  into  Eng¬ 
land,  but  without  success.  On  the  settlement  of  Virginia,  James 
strongly  recommended  the  introduction  of  silk-culture  in  the  Col¬ 
ony,  and  sent  supplies  of  silkworm  eggs  from  his  private  stores. 
Nor  were  attempts  to  inaugurate  the  culture  of  silk  confined  only 
to  Virginia,  but  every  one  of  the  Colonies  became  interested  in 
the  matter,  and  more  or  less  silk  was  raised  in  almost  every  one 
of  them,  from  Massachusetts  to  Georgia.  Most  of  the  colonial 
governments  stimulated  the  industry  by  bounties  and  other  en¬ 
couragements,  and  in  some  of  the  Colonies  the  business  appeared 


772 


SILK  DRESS-GOODS. 


to  have  been  raised  to  a  permanent  footing.  President  Stiles,  of 
Yale  College,  was  most  earnest  and  persistent  in  attempting  to  estab¬ 
lish  the  culture  in  Connecticut ;  and  in  the  library  of  the  college  there 
are  preserved  the  records  he  kept  for  a  period  of  forty  years  of  his 
various  experiments  and  experiences  in  prosecuting  this  industry. 
In  1788,  President  Stiles,  at  the  Commencement  of  the  college,  wore 
a  silk  gown  made  from  material  raised  and  woven  in  the  State. 

Various  specimens  of  the  silk  made  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  are  still  in  existence  in  the  possession  of  the  descendants  of 
those  who  were  interested  in  its  culture.  One  of  these  is  an  entire 
dress,  which  was  recently  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Horry  of  Charles¬ 
ton,  S.  C.,  a  descendant  of  Mrs.  Pinckney,  the  mother  of  the  Revo¬ 
lutionary  generals  of  that  name,  which  was  made  from  a  piece  of 
silk  manufactured  from  silk  raised  near  Charleston  in  1755,  and 
from  which  three  dresses  were  made  in  England,  one  of  which  was 
presented  to  the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales,  another  to  Lord  Ches¬ 
terfield,  and  the  third  of  which  is  the  one  above  mentioned.  This 
dress  is  said  to  be  remarkable  for  the  beauty,  firmness,  and  strength 
of  its  material. 

From  various  causes,  but  chiefly  because  the  country  w\as  not  as 
yet  sufficiently  settled  to  devote  itself  to  silk-culture,  to  the  neglect 
of  other  and  more  pressing  industrial  occupations,  the  culture  of 
silk  continued  to  decrease,  until  about  1830  the  interest  in  silk- 
culture  in* the  United  States  began  to  be  revived,  and  culminated 
in  the  excitement  of  speculation  concerning  the  Morus  multicaulis , 
a  variety  of  mulberry-tree,  imported  from  the  Philippine  Islands,  and 
the  culture  of  which  had  been  extending  for  a  year  or  two  pre¬ 
viously. 

Early  in  this  year  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  at  Lyons,  France, 
published  a  report  concerning  American  silk,  in  which  it  was  stated 
that  a  sample,  reeled  in  Philadelphia  by  Mr.  D’Homergue,  was  assayed 
by  a  sworn  and  licensed  assayer,  and  was  declared  to  be  of  an  ex¬ 
traordinary  quality,  and  admirably  adapted  to  the  uses  of  fabrication ; 
that  it  was  fine,  nervous,  good,  regular,  clean,  of  a  fine  color,  and,  in 
short,  united  all  the  qualities  that  could  be  desired.  Its  value  was 
estimated  at  twenty-six  francs  (a  little  over  five  dollars)  a  pound. 
The  Committee  upon  Agriculture  also  reported  to  Congress  concern¬ 
ing  the  culture  of  silk,  and  accompanied  their  report  with  a  bill  to 
promote  the  growth  and  manufacture  of  silk  in  the  United  States. 
The  bill  was  brought  up  in  the  next  session,  but  failed  to  pass. 

In  1837,  Mr.  Adams  reported  from  the  Congressional  Committee 


SILK  DRESS-GOODS. 


773 


on  Manufactures,  to  whom  a  resolution  from  the  House,  passed  dur¬ 
ing  the  previous  session,  had  been  referred,  inquiring  concerning  the 
expediency  of  promoting  the  culture  and  manufacture  of  silk.  In 
this  report  the  whole  subject  was  discussed,  and  it  was  stated  that  it 
had  been  found  perfectly  practicable  to  raise  mulberry-trees  and  silk¬ 
worms  throughout  the  whole  of  the  United  States.  One  acre  of  the 
Morus  multicaulis  would  sustain  sufficient  silkworms  to  raise  one 
hundred  and  twenty  pounds  of  silk,  worth  six  hundred  and  forty  dol¬ 
lars.  The  process  of  reeling  had  been  found  easy.  The  manufacture 
was  as  simple  as  that  of  cotton  or  wool,  and  the  necessary  machinery 
was  much  less  expensive.  The  manufacture  of  silk  fabrics  on  power- 
looms  had  been  successfully  established,  and  it  was  certain  that  this 
country  could  compete  successfully  with  others  in  this  industry. 
The  New  England  States  were  all  of  them  engaged  in  the  culture 
and  manufacture,  and  four  of  them  were  encouraging  the  business 
by  bounties.  Silk-companies  existed  in  all  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
States,  and  in  the  Southern  States  much  interest  was  felt  in  the 
subject.  The  Western  States  were  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  busi¬ 
ness,  and  a  number  of  companies  with  large  capitals  were  incorpo¬ 
rated  in  Ohio,  under  skilful  managers.  The  business  had  been  com¬ 
menced  in  Kentucky,  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Tennessee. 

In  1838  the  speculation  in  mulberry-trees  culminated,  and  single 
trees  were  sold  as  high  as  ten  dollars  each.  The  revulsion  followed, 
and  most  of  the  nurseries  were  abandoned  or  destroyed.  In  this 
year,  however,  a  convention  of  silk-growers' was  held  at  Baltimore, 
at  which  two  hundred  delegates  attended.  A  National  Silk  Society 
was  formed,  and  a  journal  devoted  to  the  silk  interest  established. 
In  1839  Morus  multicaulis  trees  were  offered  at  three  cents  each, 
“  healthy  and  well  branched,”  and  it  was  predicted  that  the  next 
year  they  would  be  sold  at  three  dollars  a  cart-load.  From  the  dis¬ 
astrous  results  of  this  spirit  of  speculation,  the  culture  of  silk  suf¬ 
fered  severely  for  some  years.  Gradually,  however,  both  the  culture 
and  the  manufacture  of  silk  have  attracted  more  attention,  and  it  is 
perhaps  not  among  the  impossible  results  in  store  for  us  in  the  future, 
that  this  country  may  eventually  come  to  be  among  the  chief  silk- 
producing  countries  of  the  world. 

It  is  within  even  the  short  period  of  our  national  existence,  that 
indigo,  which  had  become  a  leading  crop  of  the  South,  has  given 
place  to  cotton,  the  supremacy  of  which,  with  the  increasing  diver¬ 
sity  of  industry  and  specialization  of  labor  introduced  by  the  abolh 
tion  of  slavery,  seems  seriously  threatened  in  its  turn,  and  which  will 


774 


SILK  DRESS-GOODS. 


certainly  not  remain  the  only,  though  it  may  remain  the  chief,  indus¬ 
try  of  that  section  of  the  country. 

The  notice  elsewhere  in  this  volume  of  the  present  successful  con¬ 
dition  of  the  manufacture  of  silk  machine-twist  shows  the  results 
attained  by  American  industry  in  this  branch  of  silk-manufacture. 
In  the  production  of  silk  dress-goods  a  similar  advance  has  been 
made,  and  the  quality  and  texture  of  the  silk  fabrics  made  by 
Cheney  Brothers  at  Manchester,  Connecticut,  have  justly  obtained 
a  reputation  which  is  gratifying. 

The  democratic  industrial  movement  of  the  present  era  of  civili¬ 
zation  tends  towards  increasing  the  circle  of  the  consumers  of  lux¬ 
uries,  and,  depending  upon  the  people,  instead  of  only  upon  the  small 
class  of  the  rulers,  for  the  purchasers  of  its  products,  seeks  to  make 
universal  the  moral  influences  of  the  gratification  of  our  desires,  in¬ 
stead  of  depending  upon  their  suppression  or  denial  for  this  end. 

In  the  attainment  of  this  needed  reform,  the  silk-manufacture  has 
played  an  important  part,  and  the  almost  universal  distribution  of 
its  products  shows  how  much  more  general  the  industrial  activity  of 
the  present  has  made  the  ability  for  the  enjoyment  of  luxuries  than 
even  less  than  a  century  ago  was  possible.  To  our  grandmothers 
the  possession  of  a  silk  dress  marked  an  era  in  their  lives ;  while  now 
to  persons  whose  lives  of  daily  toil  formerly  forbade  the  expectation 
of  ever  enjoying  such  a  luxury,  a  silk  dress  is  by  no  means  such  an 
impossible  possession. 

To  keep  pace  with  this  increased  demand,  the  cultivation  of  silk  has 
greatly  increased ;  and  though  it  suffered  a  few  years  from  a  malady 
which  attacked  the  worms  in  many  countries  of  Europe,  yet  the 
scientific  use  of  the  microscope  has  robbed  this  disease  of  its  terrors, 
by  showing  its  causes,  and  suggesting  the  sure  means  for  avoiding 
it.  There  is  no  more  striking  evidence  in  modern  times  of  the  inti¬ 
mate  connection  and  interdependence  of  the  scientific  and  commer¬ 
cial  interests  of  mankind,  than  the  good  service  which  a  purely 
scientific  investigation  of  the  causes  of  the  disease,  guided  by  a 
scientific  method,  derived  only  from  the  philosophic  theories  of  the 
students  of  biology,  has  done  to  the  cultivators  of  silk,  by  giving 
them  a  simple  and  practical  means  of  effectually  combating  the 
ravages  of  this  singular  parasitic  disease,  which  seemed  at  first  des¬ 
tined  to  utterly  destroy  their  industry. 

Not  only  has  the  increased  demand  for  silk  led  to  the  extended 
introduction  of  this  industry,  but  it  has  also  called  attention  to  other 
sources  of  the  supply  than  the  silkworm.  Various  other  insects 


SILK  DRESS-GOODS. 


775 


have  been  found  which  also  yield  a  textile  material ;  and  varieties  of 
silkworms  which  feed  upon  varieties  of  the  oak  and  other  trees  have 
been  suggested  as  valuable  for  supplementing  the  supply.  Even 
spiders  have  been  cultivated  for  their  ability  to  spin  silk ;  and  a  few 
years  ago  a  writer  in  the  Galaxy  devoted  several  papers  to  an 
enthusiastic  description  of  his  labors  with  individuals  of  a  peculiarly 
hideous  species  of  spider  which  flourished  on  the  low  lands  of  the 
Southern  Sea  Islands.  The  description  of  the  ingenious  kind  of 
harness  which  he  invented  for  the  purpose  of  reeling  out  the  web 
from  the  living  spider,  together  with  his  accounts  of  their  habits,  and 
calculations  of  the  probably  profitable  character  of  this  new  industry, 
were  quite  interesting.  Up  to  the  present  time,  though,  these  new 
sources  for  the  silk  supply  of  the  world  have  not  come  to  be  com¬ 
mercially  of  value;  yet  there  is  but  little  doubt  that  the  culture 
of  silk  has  a  great  future  before  it,  and  that  in  this  country  the  prac¬ 
tical  knowledge  gained  by  experience  will  offer  an  opportunity  for 
taking  advantage  of  the  admirable  combination  of  favorable  condi¬ 
tions  which  this  country  offers  both  for  the  culture  and  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  silk* 


I 


45 


A* 

HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

THE  NATURAL  NECESSITY  FOR  A  HEAD-COVERING.  —  NATURE’S  SUGGESTION.  — 
THE  VARIETY  OF  HEAD-COVERINGS  USED. — THE  MODERN  HAT.  —  THE  COLO¬ 
NIAL  MANUFACTURE  OF  HATS.  —  PROTECTION  THEN.  —  ENGLISH  LEGISLATION. 

- THE  TRADE  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  FELTING  BY  HAND. 

—  SILK  HATS.  —  STRAW  HATS. — BONNETS.  —  WOMEN  INVENTORS  AND  PA¬ 
TENTEES. —  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  MACHINERY  INTO  HAT-MAKING.  —  THE 
RESULTS.  —  THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  TARIFF. — AN  INSTANCE  OF  ITS  INJUDICIOUS 
PROVISIONS  FURNISHED  BY  HATS. 

The  wearing  of  some  covering  for  the  head,  in  order  to  protect  it 
from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  or  to  guard  the  eyesr^from  its  too  great 
brilliancy,  was  probably  one  of  the  very  first  steps  made  by  mankind 
in  their  progress  from  the  nakedness  of  savagism  to  the  wearing  of 
clothes.  Besides,  too,  the  head,  as  it  is  the  seat  of  the  chief  organs  of 
the  senses  by  which  our  perceptions  and  knowledge  of  the  outside 
world  are  received,  is  naturally  the  most  important  part  of  our  organi¬ 
zation,  and  instinctively  we  protect  and  adorn  it.  Nature  herself,  in 
covering  it  with  hair,  has  suggested  the  treatment  which  the  savage 
but  follows  out  when  he  feels  himself  fully  clothed  with  a  head-dress 
of  brilliant  feathers. 

The  shape,  the  color,  the  decoration  of  the  various  head-dresses 
worn  by  different  races  of  men  at  different  periods  have  been  as  diverse 
as  the  materials  from  which  they  have  been  made.  The  skins  of 
beasts  and  birds,  mats  of  leaves,  twigs,  or  straw,  cloth,  metal,  fabrics 
of  wool,  have  each  in  turn  been  impressed  into  this  service.  The 
shape  and  the  decoration  of  the  hat  has  also  been  always  an  impor¬ 
tant  matter.  During  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  social  distinctions 
of  the  people  were  more  sharply  drawn  and  defined,  the  hat,  by  its 
form,  its  material,  and  its  decoration,  was  the  chief  indication  of 
the  social  position  of  its  wearer.  Jewels  and  plumes  marked  the 
rank  of  the  noble ;  a  sober  hue,  a  simpler  form,  and  a  plainer  method 
of  adornment,  showed  that  their  wearers  belonged  to  a  lower  social 
grade ;  while  the  worker,  the  peasant,  those  who  earned  on  the  indus¬ 
trial  labors  which  supported  the  extravagance  of  the  upper  classes, 
had  to  content  themselves  with  the  simplest  of  all. 

(776) 


HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


777 


Though  in  our  modern  times  we  are  so  prone  to  congratulate 
ourselves  on  having  freed  ourselves  from  many  of  the  superstitious 
customs  and  ideas  of  our  ancestors,  yet  unconsciously  the  hat  assumes 
an  almost  undue  importance  in  our  costumes.  With  our  city  youths, 
mounting  their  first  hat  marks  the  attainment  of  virility  almost  as 
certainly  as  in  Rome  the  assumption  of  the  toga  virilis  marked  the 
attainment  of  manhood.  Nor  is  there  any  single  article  of  costume 
concerning  which  the  modem  fop  is  more  curiously  careful  than  he  is 
of  his  hat.  Should  he  lose  it,  some  gusty  day,  by  a  sudden  blast,  he 
stands  almost  as  bewildered  and  ashamed  as  though  he  was  involun¬ 
tarily  making  some  indecent  display  of  himself  in  the  public  street. 

Leigh  Hunt,  in  one  of  his  sketches  of  London  life,  gives  an  amus¬ 
ing  picture  of  the  almost  reverential  respect  which  the  modern 
dandy  has  for  his  hat.  He  represents  himself  as  looking  at  the  wild 
animals  in  their  cages  in  one  of  the  public  gardens.  Standing  be¬ 
fore  the  cage  of  tigers,  and  observing  these  ferocious  beasts,  together 
with  the  crowds  of  men,  women,  and  children  who  were  standing 
before  them,  it  suddenly  occurs  to  him  how  shocking  it  would  be 
should  one  of  the  tigers  snap  the  bars  which  confined  him,  and 
spring  infuriated  into  the  midst  of  the  group  of  women  and  children. 
Musingly  he  concludes  that  it  would  be  really  a  sad  accident,  when, 
looking  at  the  clouds,  he  observes  a  thunder-storm  approaching. 
He  sees  that  it  threatens  to  rain,  and  instantly  the  immediate  danger 
of  damage  to  his  hat  flashes  into  his  mind.  “  It  would  be  awful,”  he 
ejaculates,  “should  that  get  wet!”  and  rapidly  flees  to  a  place  of 
shelter.  The  thought  of  a  tiger  loose  among  a  crowd  of  women  and 
children  does  not  excite  him  nearly  so  much  as  the  thought  of  a 
shower  which  should  injure  his  hat. 

Among  the  industries  of  America  the  manufacture  of  hats  has 
always  held  a  prominent  position.  As  early  as  1662  the  colonial 
government  of  Virginia  offered  a  premium  of  ten  pounds  of  tobacco, 
the  currency  of  that  time,  for  every  good  hat  made  in  the  Province, 
of  wool  or  fur.  Nor  even  in  those  early  times  was  the  personal 
advantage  of  a  monopoly  in  any  important  branch  of  manufacture 
overlooked.  In  1672,  John  Clough,  John  Tapping,  and  other  hatters 
in  Massachusetts,  attemjffed  to  obtain  from  the  General  Court  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  manufacturing  the  hats  used  in  that  Colony. 
The  answer  of  the  General  Court  was  one  which  might  be  given  with 
profit  by  the  Legislatures  of  later  times  to  some  of  the  more  recent 
demands  for  similar  exclusive  rights.  They  promised  these  enter¬ 
prising  gentlemen  that  they  should  have  this  privilege  granted  them, 


773  • 


HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  * 


“when  they  should  make  as  good  hats3  and  sell  them  as  cheap,  as 
those  from  other  parts.” 

Protection,  too,  was  early  applied  to  the  raw  material  of  this  man¬ 
ufacture.  In  1675  the  exportation  from  the  Province  of  wool  and 
raccoon  furs  was  prohibited ;  and  in  1704  the  hat-makers  of  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  were  given  leave  to  introduce  a  bill  for  the  prohibition  of  the 
export  ox  beaver  raccoon,  or  any  other  furs  fit  for  being  worked  up 
into  felt.  U nder  these  circumstances  the  trade  increased  so  rapidly 
that,  in  1731,  the  felt-makers  of  London  complained  to  Parliament 
that  the  foreign  markets  were  almost  entirely  supplied  with  hats  from 
America,  and  that  hats  were  even  sent  into  England  from  America,  to 
the  great  detriment  of  their  own  trade ;  and  that  therefore  they  peti¬ 
tioned  to  have  the  export  of  hats  from  America  into  foreign  markets 
prohibited.  In  consequence  of  this  petition  a  special  committee  was 
appointed  to  examine  the  subject,  who  reported  that  in  New  England 
and  New  York  ten  thousand  hats  were  yearly  manufactured;  that 
the  product  of  Boston  was  forty  hats  a  week,  which  were  exported  to 
Spain,  Portugal,  Ireland,  and  the  West  Indies.  Parliament  there¬ 
fore  enacted,  in  1732,  that  “  no  hats  or  felts,  dyed  or  undyed,  finished 
or  unfinished,  shall  be  put  on  board  any  vessel  in  any  place  within 
any  of  the  British  plantations,  nor  be  laden  upon  any  horse  or  other 
carriage,  to  the  intent  to  be  exported  from  thence  to  any  other  plan¬ 
tation  or  to  any  other  place  whatever,  upon  forfeiture  thereof  and 
the  offender  shall  likewise  pay  £  500  for  every  such  offence,”  with 
a  like  penalty  for  every  officer,  and  £40  for  every  other  person,  know¬ 
ingly  aiding  in  it.  This  enactment  remained  in  force  until  abro¬ 
gated  by  the  Revolution. 

It  seems  singular  that  so  recently  such  short-sighted  policy  should 
have  guided  the  action  of  a  government  claiming  to  be  even  ordi¬ 
narily  enlightened;  and  equally  strange  that  when  the  laws  of  trade 
were  thus  foolishly  tampered  with,  and  such  absurd  obstructions 
placed  in  the  way  of  the  legitimate  growth  of  industry,  that  the 
enterprise,  the  energy,  and  the  wealth  of  any  nation  should  have 
grown  as  those  of  England  and  the  United  States  have  done.  And 
yet  to-day  among  the  majority  of  the  governments  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  our  own  is  not  excluded  in  this  enumeration,  much  of 
the  legislative  interference  with  industry  and  trade  is  based  upon 
considerations  as  foolishly  suicidal  and  as  ignorantly  contrary  to  the 
best  interests  of  those  whose  rights  the  legislators  pretend  to  regulate 
and  protect  as  this  was.  Fortunately  the  inherent  force  of  national 
industry  is  too  strong  to  be  repressed  by  even  legislative  interfer- 


HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


779 


ence ;  and  if  not  in  one  way,  then  in  another,  such  restrictions  are 
done  away  with,  even  though  it  may  be  at  the  cost  of  conventional 
obedience  to  the  law. 

While  this  enactment  was  in  force,  though  its  effect  was  in¬ 
tended  to  be  the  destruction  of  the  manufacture  of  hats  in  the 
Colonies,  large  quantities  of  them  were  still  made  and  still 
exported.  After  the  successful  termination  of  the  Revolution,  the 
business  increased  steadily,  and  before  1800  was  carried  on,  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  in  almost  every  State  of  the  Union.  By  the 
census  of  1810,  returns  were  made  from  eighteen  States  and  Terri¬ 
tories  of  the  manufacture  of  hats  to  the  value  of  $  4,823,744,  while 
fourteen  manufactories  in  Louisiana  were  not  included  in  the  report. 
In  1831  a  convention  of  hat-manufacturers  estimated  the  total  hat 
production  in  the  United  States,  for  home  consumption  and  for  ex¬ 
port,  at  $15,000,000  yearly.  In  the  census  of  1840,  however,  the 
value  of  the  hats  made  in  the  United  States  was  placed  at  $  8,704,342. 
This  estimate  is  evidently  too  low.  In  1842  a  convention  of  hat- 
manufacturers,  held  in  New  York,  appointed  a  committee  to  examine 
and  report  upon  the  introduction  of  machines  for  expediting  the 
operations  of  manufacture  in  the  business.  This  committee  reported 
that  hats  were  then  sold  at  an  average  of  twenty-five  to  fifty  per 
cent,  cheaper  than  they  were  ten  years  before.  Up  to  this  time  the 
manufacture  of  hats  had  been  carried  on  chiefly  by  purely  manual 
labor.  This  process  was  tedious  and  slow. 

The  fur  of  hares,  rabbits,  with  wool,  and  the  fur  of  beavers,  is  the 
material  chiefly  used  for  the  production  of  felt  hats  of  all  kinds. 
The  hair  being  removed  from  the  skins,  the  first  operation  was  to 
clean  and  then  felt  it.  Felting  is  a  process  by  which  the  fibres  of 
wool  or  other  materials  are  so  interlaced,  without  weaving,  as  to 
make  a  texture.  This  result  is  attained  by  a  process  called  bowing. 
The  proper  quantity  of  the  material  being  mixed  in  the  right  pro¬ 
portions,  according  to  the  variety  of  felt  it  is  intended  to  produce, 
it  is  violently  agitated,  tossed  in  the  air,  and  caused  to  mix  thoroughly, 
the  fibres  falling  with  the  greatest  possible  irregularity  upon  a  table, 
and  thus  becoming  spread  out  evenly  in  a  thin  sheet,  the  fibres  of 
which  are  interlaced  in  every  conceivable  direction.  This  thin 
layer  is  then  covered  with  a  cloth,  and  the  combination  of  the  fibres 
increased  by  pressure.  Upon  this  layer  another  is  laid,  by  the  same 
process,  and  so  on  until  the  fabric  of  felt  has  been  brought  to  the 
required  thickness.  The  operation  was  one  which  required  skill, 
judgment,  and  experience  in  the  operator,  and  a  competent  bower 
was  always  in  demand. 


] 


780 


HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


By  the  old  process  of  manual  labor,  a  man  could  make  in  a  day 
about  four  or  five  hat  bodies,  as  they  are  called,  that  is,  the  hat  in  its 
first  state  of  preparation  ;  so  that  the  cost  of  each  of  them  was  from 
fifty  to  sixty  cents.  As  early  as  1799  inventions,  intended  to  cheapen 
the  cost  of  the  manufacture  of  hats,  began  •  to  be  patented  in  the 
United  States,  and  many  improvements  were  thus  made  in  the  va¬ 
rious  processes. 

The  silk  hat,  or  beaver  hat,  as  it  is  still  called  from  the  time 
when  the  fur  of  the  beaver  was  chiefly  used  in  its  manufacture,  is 
made  from  silk  plush.  The  best  quality  of  this  is  still  imported 
from  Paris.  This  branch  of  the  manufacture  is  even  now  conducted 
chiefly  by  hand  processes.  The  silk  is  fitted  upon  a  frame,  and  the 
entire  structure  is  moulded  into  shape  by  hot  irons.  The  delicacy 
and  accuracy  of  its  lines  and  curves  is  a  matter  of  great  impor¬ 
tance,  and  requires  great  skill  in  the  workman.  The  silk  hats  of 
American  manufacture  are  generally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best 
made,  since  they  combine  strength  and  solidity  with  lightness.  This 
last  quality  is  one  of  prime  importance,  since  the  hat  is  so  stiff,  and 
the  head  is  sensitive  to  weight.  The  best  hats  made  often  weigh 
less  than  five  ounces  each,  though  it  is  difficult  to  combine  with  such 
lightness  the  strength  which  will  enable  them  to  last  very  long. 

Beside  felt  or  silk,  straw  is  largely  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
hats.  These  are  specially  worn  during  summer,  and  constantly  in 
tropical  climates.  Straw  hats  were  made  and  used  largely  in  South¬ 
ern  Europe  three  centuries  ago,  and  the  Leghorn  hats  are  still 
valued  and  sold  at  high  prices.  The  material  for  these  hats  is  a 
species  of  wheat  straw,  which  is  raised  for  this  purpose  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Arno.  This  branch  of  manufacture  was  introduced 
into  England  during  the  last  century,  and  the  wheat  grown  upon 
the  chalky  soil  near  Dunstable  was  found  to  furnish  a  straw  so 
suitable  for  the  purpose,  that  the  manufacture  has  grown  until,  by 
recent  statistics,  it  was  stated  that  seventy  thousand  persons  were 
employed  in  it,  and  the  production  amounted  to  near  four  millions 
of  dollars  a  year. 

In  South  America  certain  grasses  are  found  which  are  most  ad¬ 
mirably  adapted  for  making  hats.  Not  only  are  hats  made  of  it,  but 
from  this  straw,  by  tight  plaiting,  the  natives  make  vessels  which 
will  contain  milk  and  other  liquids.  Under  the  general  name  of 
Panama  hats,  the  straw  hats  imported  from  South  America  are  well 
known  and  deservedly  valued.  In  the  United  States  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  hats  from  straw,  for  both  men  and  women,  has  long  been 


HATS  AND  THEIH  MANUFACTURE. 


781 


established,  and  in  many  localities  is  largely  carried  on.  Not  only 

have  the  straws  from  grain  been  used  for  this  purpose,  but  many  of 

the  wild  grasses  have  been  impressed  into  the  service. 

* 

In  Massachusetts,  ladies’  hats  of  fine  quality  have  been  made 
from  the  field  and  meadow  grasses,  known  botanically  as  Poa  and 
Agrostis,  of  which  the  red-top,  A.  vulgaris ,  has  been  found  to  be 
specially  well  adapted  to  this  use.  In  1798,  Miss  Betsy  Metcalf, 
who  afterwards  by  marriage  became  Mrs.  Baker,  though  only  twelve 
years  old  at  this  date,  and  without  any  previous  knowledge  of  the 
art,  made  in  Dedham,  Mass.,  from  oat  straw,  which  she  smoothed 
with  her  scissors,  and  split  with  her  thumb-nail,  a  bonnet  of  seven 
braids,  with  bobbin  insertion  like  openwork,  and  lined  with  pink, 
in  imitation  of  a  then  very  fashionable  style  of  English  bonnets. 
The  straw  was  bleached  by  holding  it  in  the  vapor  of  burning  sul¬ 
phur.  Her  bonnet  was  very  much  admired  by  the  ladies  of  the 
vicinity,  who  came  from  the  neighboring  towns  to  see  it.  Operatives 
were  instructed  in  the  method  of  their  construction  by  the  young 
inventor,  and  thus  the  foundation  was  laid  of  an  extensive  business 
which  was  followed  in  Dedham,  Wrentham,  Providence,  and  other 
New  England  towns,  and  elsewhere. 

In  the  Transactions  of  the  Rhode  Island  Society  for  the  Encour¬ 
agement  of  Domestic  Manufactures,  for  1858,  is  an  account  of  .Mrs. 
Baker’s  labors  in  this  direction,  and  in  the  society’s  collections  is  a 
fac-simile,  from  her  own  hands,  of  the  first  bonnet  she  made. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  instance  of  the  kind.  In  1821,  Miss 
Sophia  Woodhouse,  who  by  marriage  became  subsequently  Mrs. 
Wells,  and  who  resided  at  Wethersfield,  Conn.,  sent  to  the  Society 
of  Arts,  in  London,  England,  samples,  in  their  raw,  bleached,  and 
manufactured  states,  of  a  new  material  for  making  straw  hats  in 
imitation  of  those  of  Leghorn.  The  material  used  was  the  grass 
known  as  the  ticklemoth ,  a  species  of  spear,  or  smooth-stalked 
meadow  grass,  growing  abundantly  in  that  section  of  country,  and 
named  botanically  as  Poa  pretensis.  The  dealers  in  London  pro¬ 
nounced  the  bonnet  sent  for  inspection  superior  in  fineness  and 
color  to  the  best  Leghorn,  and  advised  the  cultivation  or  importa¬ 
tion  of  the  straw  as  a  means  for  obtaining  a  desirable  supply  of 
material  for  the  manufacture. 

At  the  next  session  of  the  society  a  large  silver  medal  and 
twenty  guineas  were  voted  to  Miss  Woodhouse,  on  condition  of  her 
furnishing  the  society  with  some  of  the  seed,  the  description  of  the 
bleaching  process,  and  the  treatment  of  the  grass,  and  also  evidence 


782 


HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


that  she  was  the  original  discoverer  of  the  process.  This  same 
year  a  patent  was  granted  to  Garden  Wells  and  Sophia  Wells  of 
Wethersfield,  for  the  above  process  of  making  bonnets  and  hats  of 
grass. 

The  Misses  Bumap,  of  Merrimac,  N.  H.,  also  at  about  this  same 
time  claimed  the  discovery  of  a  proper  material  in  that  region  for 
the  manufacture  of  bonnets,  and  one  made  by  them  sold  for  fifty 
dollars,  in  Boston,  at  auction.  Premiums  were  offered  in  New 
York  for  the  best  bonnet  of  domestic  material  and  manufacture, 
and  in  many  parts  of  the  country  the  business  was  established  on 
a  permanent  footing. 

In  1826  the  manufacture  of  palm-leaf  hats,  from  the  material 
imported  from  the  W est  Indies,  was  begun  in  Massachusetts,  and  in 
1831  two  millions  were  made  and  sold,  and  this  branch  of  manufac¬ 
ture  is  still  an  important  one.  In  1830  the  value  of  the  hats  manu¬ 
factured  in  the  country  was  estimated  at  ten  millions  of  dollars, 
and  the  exports  reached  half  a  million  in  value. 

With  the  growth  of  this  business  various  improvements  have  been 
made  in  the  processes,  and  the  use  of  machinery  has  been  introduced 
to  simplify  the  manufacture  and  cheapen  the  cost.  In  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  straw  hats  the  results  attained  have  been  considerable,  and 
though  hand  labor  is  still  chiefly  relied  upon  in  this  branch  of  the 
business,  yet  many  of  the  other  processes  have  been  greatly  facili¬ 
tated  by  machinery.  In  the  manufacture  of  felt  hats,  however,  in¬ 
genious  machines  have  bocfn  invented  and  improved,  until  the  whole 
process  of  production  is  performed  by  them  with  a  rapidity  and 
accuracy  unattainable  by  other  means,  and  with  a  proportionate 
benefit  to  the  consumers. 

In  1846  a  patent  was  taken  out  by  II.  A.  Wells  for  an  improve¬ 
ment  in  a  machine  for  felting,  by  which  the  process  was  applied  to 
4he  making  of  hat  bodies,  the  term  applied  to  the  rough  form 
of  the  hat.  By  the  use  of  this  machine,  which  has  been  modified 
and  improved,  all  the  felt  hats  made  in  this  country  during  the  past 
few  years  have  been  manufactured.  A  perforated  metallic  form, 
shaped  like  a  cone,  is  made  to  revolve,  and,  by  a  current  of  air 
forced  through  it,  gathers  and  felts  the  fibres  of  hair  and  wool  which 
are  kept  in  a  constant  state  of  agitation  about  it. 

By  the  introduction  of  this  process,  the  cost  was  so  reduced  that 
not  only  was  the  demand  at  home  fully  supplied,  but  about  one 
seventh  of  the  entire  production  was  exported,  and  a  large  and  prof¬ 
itable  trade  in  American  hats  was  established  with  the  rest  of  the 


HATS  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


783 


world.  By  the  census  of  1860,  the  total  value  of  the  hats  made  in  the 
United  States  was  given  as  nearly  seventeen  millions  of  dollars. 
At  present,  however,  by  the  operation  of  the  injudicious  provisions 
of  the  tariff,  the  export  trade  in  hats  is  entirely  destroyed,  while 
the  home  trade  finds  difficulty  in  holding  its  own.  The  duties  laid 
upon  every  imported  article  which  enters  into  the  composition  of  a 
hat,  and  they  are  almost  every  one,  —  the  fur,  the  plush,  the  bands, 
and  other  articles,  made  by  other  countries,  and  either  are  not  or 
from  natural  causes  cannot  be  made  in  this  country,  —  causes  them  to 
be  so  dear  to  the  manufacturer,  that,  notwithstanding  the  superior 
advantages  which  his  machinery  gives  him,  he  can  be  undersold  by 
the  importer  of  hats  made  abroad.  Of  the  whole  range  of  our  in¬ 
dustries  which  have  been  injured  or  destroyed  by  the  working  of 
the  present  tariff,  there  is  none  which  gives  a  more  convincing  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  ignorant  injudiciousness  with  which  it  has  been  con¬ 
structed,  than  this  of  hats. 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


THE  RECENT  DATE  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GASEOUS  BODIES.  — THE  FIRST  USE 
OF  GAS  FOR  ILLUMINATING.  —  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  GAS  INTO  THE  UNITED 
STATES.  —  TI1E  HYGIENIC  EFFECT  OF  A  LEAKY  GAS  PIPE.  — NATURAL  SUPPLIES 
OF  GAS.  — THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  IMPROVEMENTS  MADE  IN 
THE  METHODS.  —  THE  STANDARD  FOR  THE  ILLUMINATING  POWER  OF  GAS. 
—  GAS  MADE  FROM  ROSIN.  — 1  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  GAS  BUSINESS.  — THE 
MONOPOLY  OF  THE  GAS  COMPANIES.  —  THE  ADVANTAGES  THEY  TAKE  OVER 
THE  CONSUMERS.  —  IIOW  SUCH  MATTERS  MUST  BE  REFORMED. 

A  scientific  knowledge  of  the  gaseous  or  aerifonr.  condition  of 
matter  has  been  in  the  world  only  about  two  hundred  years,  while 
the  knowledge  of  its  properties,  and  the  experimental  skill  with 
which  this  was  gained,  form  one  of  the  brightest  trophies  of  the 
modern  scientific  era.  In  this,  as  in  other  departments  of  knowl¬ 
edge,  we  passed  through  the  purely  scientific  period  of  theory  be¬ 
fore  arriving  at  the  period  of  practical  application  to  our  comfort. 

In  1792  Mr.  Murdock,  who  then  resided  at  Redruth,  Cornwall, 
England,  commenced  experimenting  upon  the  practical  application 
of  coal  gas  for  illumination,  and  in  1798,  having  become  associated 
with  Bolton  &  Watts's  workshop  at  Soho,  in  1802,  at  the  illumina¬ 
tion  for  the  peace  of  that  year,  this  building  was  illuminated  with 
gas,  made  by  an  apparatus  of  his  construction,  and  this  was  the 
first  public  application  to  practical  use  of  gas  for  illumination.  It 
grew  rapidly  in  public  favor,  until,  in  1813,  the  streets  of  London 
were  lighted  with  the  new  agent. 

The  original  idea  of  gas  had  been  derived  from  experiments  in 
coking  coal,  when  it  was  noticed  that  the  vapor  passing  off  would 
burn  ;  but  experimenting  chemists  soon  discovered  that  other  ma¬ 
terials,  as  oil,  waste  grease,  etc.,  would  also  produce  the  new  illu¬ 
minating  agent,  and  with  much  greater  brilliancy.  In  the  first 
lighting  of  the  cities  of  London  and  Paris,  these  materials  were 
used,  but  soon  after  abandoned,  and  coal  substituted,  because  of 
its  greater  cheapness. 

(784) 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


785 


The  first  attempts  to  introduce  gas  into  the  United  States  were 
made  in  Baltimore,  from  1816  to  1821,  and  were  not  then  success¬ 
ful.  In  1822  it  was  introduced  into  Boston,  and  in  the  following 
year  the  first  gas  company  was  formed  in  New  York  city.  This 
was  called  the  New  York  Gas  Company,  and  commenced  opera- 
tions  with  a  capital  of  one  million  dollars.  So  limited,  however, 
were  the  demands,  or  so  slow  were  the  people  to  take  the  new 
material,  that  this  company  was  not  in  active,  successful  working 
order  until  1827.  Three  years  afterwards  its  success  was  as¬ 
sured,  and  the  Manhattan  Gas  Company  was  originated.  Both 
these  companies,  however,  used  rosin  and  oil  for  the  manufacture 
of  their  g-as  until  the  year  1849. 

From  this  beginning  have  arisen  the  immense  establishments 
which  now  furnish  light  to  our  cities,  and  the  hundreds  of  smaller 
ones  which  light  up  our  villages  and  factories  throughout  the  land, 
there  being  hardly  a  town  of  any  pretensions  which  has  not  its 
gas  works,  and  uses  this  mode  of  illumination. 

Chemically  considered,  our  illuminating  gas,  derived  from  coal, 
is  composed  chiefly  of  carburetted  hydrogen,  carbonic  oxide,  and 
olefiant  gas.  The  last  is  the  principal  agent  in  producing  light. 
Carburetted  hydrogen  is  the  fire-damp  of  our  coal  mines,  while 
carbonic  oxide  is  the  bad  air,  or  choke-damp,  produced  by  the  ex¬ 
plosion  of  the  light  carburetted  hydrogen.  The  carbonic  oxide  is 
heavy,  and  seeks  the  lowest  strata,  while  the  other  floats  to  the 
top,  and,  on  opening  a  door,  immediately  seeks  access  at  the  shaft. 
Thus  we  introduce  for  our  comfort  into  our  households  two  natural- 
substances,  which  have  produced  the  most  terrible  disasters  in  the 
history  of  our  mining  industry.  Yet  they  are  so  combined,  as  we 
use  them,  that  they  are  comparatively  harmless.  The  very  oxy¬ 
gen,  which  is  an  absolute  necessity  to  our  existence,  would  soon 
kill  us  if  we  breathed  it  alone  ;  so  would  an  atmosphere  composed 
of  illuminating  gas.  Yet  a  small  portion  of  it  might  be  dissemi¬ 
nated  through  our  air  without  any  other  injurious  effect  than  to 
produce  a  disagreeable  smell.  At  the  same  time  its  excess  ren¬ 
ders  the  air  inflammable,  and  while  of  itself  it  is  not  explosive,  the 
point  remains  yet  undecided  whether,  in  close  apartments  where 
there  is  only  a  limited  supply  of  atmospheric  air,  it  may  not  be 
saturated  to  the  explosive  point  with  the  gas  we  burn.  But  in 
the  open  air  there  could  not  possibly  be  anything  more  than  a  great 
puff  and  an  immense  burst  of  flame. 

Any  one,  however,  can  understand  that  it  is  neither  pleasant  nor 


786 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


safe  to  have  a  leaky  gas-pipe.  With  many  persons  of  delicate, 
nervous  systems  the  smell  produces  headache  and  dizziness.  This 
is  frequently  caused  by  the  preponderance  in  the  gas  of  an  undue 
proportion  of  carbonic  oxide.  In  fact,  it  is  the  endeavor  of  gas 
manufacturers  to  extract  all  this  noxious  ingredient ;  but  that  ob¬ 
ject  is  very  seldom  fully  attained. 

As  it  is  an  utter  impossibility  for  us  to  have  flame  of  any  kind 
without  oxygen,  hence  burning  gas  in  our  close  rooms  in  winter 
necessarily  decreases  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  our  atmospheric  air, 
and  thereby  renders  the  air  we  breathe  less  invigorating  and  less 
capable  of  performing  its  function  of  oxygenating  the  blood  in  the 
lungs.  To  our  habits  in  this  respect,  and  our  thoughtlessness  of 
the  injurious  result,  is  due,  in  great  measure,  the  prevalence  of 
consumption.  Europeans  burn  gas  in  their  streets  and  public 
places,  but  by  no  means  as  commonly  in  their  homes  as  we  do. 

As  has  been  stated,  all  kinds  of  illuminating  gases  are  derived 
from  hydro-carbons,  or  combinations  of  hydrogen  and  carbon. 

Within  a  few  years  past  a  new  species  of  g’as  has  been  intro¬ 
duced,  new  and  yet  old,  for  from  all  time  the  earth  has  yielded  the 
natural  gas  of  Asia,  of  Trinidad,  of  Western  New  York,  and  Vir¬ 
ginia  ;  but  only  within  a  few  years  past  has  the  same  substance 
been  derived  from  petroleum.  This  gas  is  strictly  a  hydro-carbon, 
and  is  frequently  found  almost  in  perfect  purity,  having  none  of 
the  nauseous  odor  of  our  city  gas  from  coal,  and  in  general  not  its 
poisonous  tendencies. 

The  process  of  manufacturing  gas  is  not  merely  a  mechanical 
operation,  but  also  requires  the  aid  of  chemical  science.  In  fact, 
chemical  science  directs  the  mechanical  work.  First,  the  coal  is 
selected  and  properly  mixed.  Experience  has  shown  that  no  one 
variety  of  coal  serves  all  the  requirements  of  the  gas  manufacturer, 
lie  desires  a  coking  coal,  that  he  may  burn  the  coke  under  his  re¬ 
torts.  Cannel  coal  yields  much  gas,  but  makes  a  poor  coke  ;  rich, 
bituminous  coal  gives  a  good  coke  and  a  fair  quantity  of  gas,  but  it 
is  liable  to  cling  to  the  sides  of  the  retort,  and  its  coke,  when  put 
in  the  furnace,  is  apt  to  “  eat  ”  the  brickwork,  and  cause  rapid 
wear.  Hence  he  mixes  these  two  ;  but  on  testing  his  gas,  he 
finds  that  it  has  not  sufficient  “  candle  power;”  hence  he  must 
have  more  olefiant  gas  to  enrich  it.  To  obtain  this,  he  adds  some 
Trinidad  asphalt,  or  Breckenridge,  or  Ritchie  mineral,  or  Albertite. 
lienee,  to  make  good  gas,  experiment  has  shown  that  four  or  five 
different  coals  arc  best — a  poor  bituminous,  a  rich  bituminous,  a 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


787 


little  cannel,  and  an  asphalt  mineral.  Some  add  more,  geologically 
of  the  same  class  of  coals,  but  coming  from  different  localities,  and 
acting  differently  in  the  retort  and  the  furnace.  Thus  the  block 
coal  of  Indiana  does  not  coke  of  itself;  but  mixed  with  a  strong 
coking  coal,  it  unites  with  that,  forming  a  coke  of  dryer  nature, 
more  like  an  anthracite,  though,  of  course,  not  so  hard. 

Rosin  was  formerly  used  to  enrich  gas ;  but  at  present  the 
prices,  even  of  the  commonest  grades,  are  too  high  to  admit  its 
profitable  use.  In  many  of  the  smaller  towns  it  is  yet  used  alone 
as  a  material  for  producing  gas.  Some  establishments  enrich  their 
gas  by  passing  it  through  petroleum,  or  by  mixing  with  it  air 
which  has  been  passed  through  petroleum.  This  is  a  patented 
process. 

The  materials  for  making  gas,  then,  are,  bituminous  coals  and 
asphalts,  rosins,  rosin  oil,  and  petroleum.  It  will  be  best  to  com¬ 
mence  with  the  process  by  which  the  first  is  treated.  The  coals, 
being  selected  and  mixed,  are  placed  in  retorts.  These  retorts 
are  now  usually  made  of  fire-clay,  but  were  formerly  iron.  They 
are  made  with  one  end  entirely  closed,  while  to  the  other  are  fitted 
an  iron  frame  and  door.  They  are  set  in  brickwork,  usually  five 
over  one  fire,  and  these  are  called  a  “  bench.’ ’  From  the  iron 
framework  at  the  door  goes  up  a  pipe,  connecting  with  pipes  from 
the  other  retorts,  and  then  to  the  main  pipe,  by  which  the  gas  is 
carried  to  the  condensing-receiver.  The  retorts  are  about  nine  feet 
long,  and  shaped  like  a  letter  D  turned  on  its  flat  side.  The  fire 
is  applied,  and  the  gas  soon  begins  to  pass  over. 

In  the  condensers  it  is  cooled,  and  a  great  part  of  the  tar  and 
ammoniacal  water  settle  ;  but  it  must  be  further  condensed,  and 
for  this  purpose  is  passed  through  a  series  of  vessels,  called 
“  scrubbers.”  Here  it  is  made  to  pass  up  through  a  mass  of 
stones,  or  coke,  meeting  a  stream  of  water  coming  down.  This  is 
termed  “  washing,”  and  was  at  first  done  with  common  water; 
but  as  it  was  found  that  the  water  absorbed  certain  portions  of  the 
gas,  thus  making  it  poorer  in  illuminating  power,  and  necessitating 
more  expense  for  enriching  material,  Mr.  Havens,  of  the  Brooklyn 
City  Gas  Works,  introduced  the  system  of  washing  with  ammonia¬ 
cal  water,  and  also  substituted  twigs  and  billets  of  wood  for  the 
stones  or  coke. 

From  the  scrubbers  the  gas  passes  to  the  lime-purifiers,  where 
it  is  deprived  of  the  remainder  of  its  ammonia,  of  any  superabun¬ 
dance  of  carbonic  oxide,  and  of  the  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 


788 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


While  the  lime  purifies  the  gas,  the  use  of  this  material  is  objec¬ 
tionable  on  account  of  its  giving  oft'  the  sulphuretted  hydrogen 
when  it  is  taken  out  of  the  purifiers  and  exposed  to  the  air. 
Hence  many  substitutes  have  been  tried,  and  while  it  has  been 
found  impossible  to  dispense  with  the  lime  entirely,  as  it  alone  will 
extract  the  carbonic  oxide,  yet  a  great  improvement  on  the  old 
system  is  the  use  of  hydrated  peroxide  of  iron.  This  substance 
extracts  the  sulphuretted  hydrogen  perfectly,  and  afterwards  the 
sulphur  is  taken  from  the  iron,  and  that  article  revivified  and  used 
again.  It  is  as  yet  a  patented  process  in  this  country,  and  entire¬ 
ly  obviates  the  intensely  nauseous  smell  usual  from  gas  wojgjvs. 

During  the  process  of  passing  through  the  purifiers,  every  few 
minutes  the  gas  is  tested  by  letting  a  small  stream  touch  a  paper 
which  has  been  dipped  in  a  solution  of  sugar  of  lead.  If  this  pa- 

0 

per  becomes  in  the  slightest  degree  discolored,  the  gas  is  immedi¬ 
ately  stopped  from  passing  out  to  the  gas-holder,  and  made  to  run 
into  and  through  another  purifier  spread  with  fresh  lime. 

The  lime  used  is  generally  derived  from  oyster-shells,  and  costs 
but  little.  After  use  and  exposure  to  the  air  to  evaporate  the 
sulphuretted  hydrogen,  it  becomes  a  valuable  manure,  especially 
for  grass  lands.  It  is  somewhat  singular  that  in  such  a  vast  in¬ 
dustry  there  have  been  so  few  material  improvements,  and  the 
process  of  manufacturing  and  purifying  gas  has  remained  substan¬ 
tially  the  same  for  many  years. 

To  effect  the  passage  of  the  gas  through  the  lime,  that  substance 
is  spread  on  a  series  of  wire  trays  in  a  tight  iron  box.  The  gas  is 
usually  passing  through  three  of  these  at  once,  and  the  fourth  is 
kept  ready  in  reserve  to  run  the  gas  into  it  as  soon  as  the  test 
shows  that  it  is  coming  from  the  others  with  the  slightest  im¬ 
purity. 

In  most  works  the  trays  have  to  be  emptied  one  by  one  with 
shovels  and  barrows,  which  is  a  tedious,  disagreeable,  and  un¬ 
healthy  job  ;  but  Mr.  S.  C.  Havens  has  patented  an  arrangement 
of  purifiers  on  railways,  by  which,  when  ready  to  clean  out,  they 
will  be  run  on  a  track  to  the  dumping-ground.  This  is  vastly  to 
the  benefit  of  the  health  of  the  workmen,  and  also  a  saving  of 
time  and  labor.  This  and  a  few  slight  mechanical  operations  are 
all  the  improvements  which  have  been  made  in  the  manufacture 
of  gas. 

From  the  purifiers  the  gas  goes  to  the  receiving  and  distribut¬ 
ing  tank.  At  this  point  in  the  manufacture  it  is  asserted  that  a 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


789 


certain  quantity  of  atmospheric  air  is  mixed  with  the  gas.  Good 
gas  will  absorb  a  certain  amount  of  air  without  great  detriment, 
yet  such  mixture  is  a  cheat  and  an  adulteration  ;  and  while  there 
is  but  little  doubt  that  all  of  the  companies  do  thus  mix  air  with 
their  gas,  yet  but  few,  if  any,  of  them  will  acknowledge  the  fact. 

The  receivers  or  gas-holders  are  large  tanks,  made  of  wrought 
iron,  and  swing  from  tall  cast-iron  columns.  They  are  thus  swung 
and  balanced,  so  that,  when  empty  of  gas,  they  sink  into  pits  lined 
with  cement,  and  prepared  for  their  reception.  As  they  fill  with 
gas,  which  is  let  into  them  from-  the  bottom  of  the  pit,  they  rise  up, 
guided  by  the  pillars,  and  accurately  balanced  by  weights.  Some 
of  these  tanks  are  of  enormous  size.  The  largest  in  the  United 
States  is  at  the  Manhattan  Gas  Works,  the  next  is  at  the  Brooklyn 
City  Works,  and  the  third  in  Philadelphia. 

From  the  holders  the  gas  is  distributed,  by  main  and  branch 
pipes,  through  streets  and  into  dwellings.  In  the  city  of  New 
York  there  are  four  hundred  and  ninety-three  miles  of  street  mains 
and  eighteen  thousand  and  seventeen  street  lamps.  Some  idea  of 
the  enormous  amount  of  gas  consumed  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  these  street  lamps  alone  consume  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  million  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  four  hundred  and 
eighty-three  cubic  feet  per  annum.  In  European  countries,  while 
gas  is  not  used  so  generally  in  the  houses,  their  streets  are  ten 
times  as  well  lighted  as  ours  ;  and  while  they  have  not  that  greater 
proportion  of  lamps,  yet  their  gas  is  far  better. 

Gas  is  measured  for  its  illuminating  strength  by  a  standard, 
called  “candle  power;”  that  is,  twelve-candle  power  is  assumed 
to  be  twelve  times  the  light  given  by  the  adamantine  candle,  or 
the  same  as  twelve  such  candles.  The  United  States  standard  is 
generally  sixteen-candle  power ;  but,  with  the  gas  usually  fur¬ 
nished,  a  large  burner  must  be  used  to  get  that  much  light. 

The  best  gas  coal  known,  and  that  generally  considered  a  stan¬ 
dard,  is  the  best  English  Newcastle.  It  yields  about  eight  thou¬ 
sand  cubic  feet  of  gas,  and  a  very  superior  coke.  Cannel  coal 
usually  yields  about  eleven  thousand  feet,  but  no  coke  of  value. 
Our  gas  companies  use  the  Albertite,  from  Nova  Scotia  ;  Ritchie 
mineral,  from  Virginia  ;  Westmoreland  bituminous,  from  Virginia  ; 
various  bitun^nous  coals,  from  Pennsylvania ;  the  Breckenridge 
cannel,  from  Kentucky;  a  Nova  Scotia  bituminous  ;  the  Trinidad 
and  Cuba  asphaltums ;  and  the  Torbane  or  Boghead  cannel,  from 
Scotland.  These  cost  from  seven  dollars  fifty  cents  to  twenty  dol- 


790 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


lars  per  ton,  and  large  stocks  of  them  have  to  be  kept  constantly 
on  hand.  Some  coals  contain  large  quantities  of  sulphur.  These, 
when  packed  in  great  masses,  will  generate  heat  and  take  fire 
spontaneously.  This  is  prevented  by  having  pipes  passing  down 
through  the  mass,  and  also  by  constant  care.  These  pipes  are 
often  found  so  hot  as  to  be  decidedly  unpleasant  to  the  hand. 

For  small  towns  the  expense  of  the  works  necessary  for  the 
manufacture  of  gas  from  coal  renders  the  production  of  this  gas 
impossible  ;  and  hence,  in  such  cases,  rosin  and  rosin  oil  are  gene¬ 
rally  substituted  as  a  gas-making  material.  The  gas  made  from 
these  substances  has,  further,  the  property  of  remaining  unchanged 
for  many  days  —  an  advantage  not  possessed  by  coal  gas.  It  is 
also  much  more  brilliant,  being  more  strictly  an  olefiant  gas.  The 
process  of  manufacture  is  similar  to  that  of  coal  gas.  The  rosin 
is  melted,  and  run  in  a  small  stream  into  a  red-hot  retort  filled 
with  anthracite  coal.  It  there  vaporizes,  and  passes  through  con¬ 
densers  into  the  receiver.  No  purification  is  necessary. 

For  factories,  hotels,  private  houses,  and  small  towns  petroleum 
has  of  late  been  much  used  as  a  gas  material,  and  many  patents 
have  been  granted  for  machinery  and  processes  whereby  this  fluid 
can  be  used.  The  prevailing  principle  of  all  of  them  is  pumping 
air  through  the  petroleum  by  one  or  another  means.  The  air  ab¬ 
sorbs  a  large  quantity  of  the  olefiant  gas,  and  gives  a  brilliant 
flame.  Some  of  these  patented  machines  are  utterly  worthless  ; 
others  are  very  valuable  for  the  use  intended. 

The  capital  invested  in  the  manufacture  of  gas  in  the  United 
States  is  estimated  at  over  sixty-five  million  dollars,  and  there  are 
a  few  over  seven  hundred  companies.  The  coal  gas  ranges  in 
price  from  two  dollars  to  three  dollars  fifty  cents  per  thousand  feet, 
and  that  from  rosin  seven  to  eight  dollars.  The  amount  consumed 
reaches  to  thousands  of  millions  of  cubic  feet ;  and  in  the  direct 
manufacture,  the  supplying  of  fire-brick  and  retorts,  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  gas-fixtures,  —  pipes,  burners,  shades,  etc.,  —  an  immense 
army  of  laborers,  and  some  of  the  best  talent  of  the  country,  are 
constantly  employed. 

Chemical^  considered,  there  are  none  of  the  illuminating  sub¬ 
stances  so  cheap  and  at  the  same  time  so  powerful  as  gas.  The 
objection  to  the  use  of  it  is  the  unprincipled  sy^em  by  which 
many  companies  take  record  of  the  consumption  of  their  custom¬ 
ers.  Hitherto  it  has  been  held  that  legislation  should  not  busy 
itself  in  interests  of  this  character,  but  leave  all  to  the  levelling 


ILLUMINATING  GAS. 


791 


principle  of  competition.  The  history,  however,  of  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  gas  for  public  use  by  joint-stock  companies  has  given  an¬ 
other  instance  of  how  rapidly  they  combine  to  maintain  their 
monopoly  against  the  public.  As  a  rule,  the  gas  furnished  by  the 
companies  of  our  cities  is  very  much  below  the  standard  in  illu¬ 
minating  power,  and  much  higher  in  price  than  it  should  be.  Be¬ 
sides  this,  the  gas  companies,  by  their  system  of  demanding  de¬ 
posits  from  their  consumers,  —  in  fact,  without  a  particle  of  right 
or  justice,  —  collect  enormous  sums  of  money,  which  they  have  the 
use  of  without  interest.  By  this  system,  combined  with  their  ex¬ 
cessive  charges  for  poor  material,  and  the  unreliable  system  of 
metres  which  they  generally  use,  and  which  over-measure  the  sup¬ 
ply  consumed,  the  business  of  gas-making  has  become  a  most 
profitable  ring  in  every  city  where  it  is  in  use,  and  the  stock  of  the 
various  companies  is  very  seldom  found  offered  for  sale. 

With  the  new  commercial  era  of  the  present  time,  the  reform 
of  this,  with  other  monopolies,  is  to  be  brought  about  as  the  politi¬ 
cal  evils  of  the  same  character,  caused  by  the  monopoly  of  gov¬ 
ernment  by  a  class,  were  redressed  by  the  political  movements  of 
the  last  century.  The  necessity  for  a  better  social  organization, 
by  which  the  material  interests  of  society  shall  be  intrusted  to  the 
people  themselves,  to  be  carried  on  by  their  delegated  authority  in 
their  own  interest,  as  the  political  expression  of  their  will  is 
secured  in  this  country  by  the  reform  in  the  suffrage,  is  daily  be¬ 
coming  more  apparent  and  more  pressing,  and  among  such  mate¬ 
rial  interests  there  is  not  one  of  more  importance  than  the  good 
and  cheap  supply  of  gas,  for  it  means  the  supply  of  good  and 
cheap  light,  and  light  is  an  important  factor  in  the  activity  and 
life  of  society. 


46 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


EXTENT  AND  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  TERM.  —  PORTRAIT  OF  MR.  WILLIAM  H. 
HORSTMANN. —  HIS  LIFE  AND  BUSINESS  CAREER.  — INTRODUCES  THE  JAC¬ 
QUARD  LOOM  INTO  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — CONTRAST  Oh  HIS  EARLY  WORK 
AND  THE  PRESENT  CONCERN.  —  THE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  W.  H.  HORSTMANN  AND 
SONS*  ESTABLISHMENT.  —  MATERIAL  ROOM. —  SPOOLING  ROOM.  — ENGINE, 
MACHINE  SHOP,  AND  CARPENTER  SHOP.  —  SWORD  DEPARTMENT.  —  TASSEL 
ROOM.  —  POWER  LOOM,  COACH  LACE,  AND  OTHER  WEAVING  ROOMS.  —  SILK 
ROOM.  —  SALES  DEPARTMENTS.  —  LADIES’  DRESS  TRIMMINGS.  —  NOTIONS  AND 

SMALL  WARES.  -  HOSIERY  AND  GLOVES.  —  ZEPHYR  WOOLS  AND  EMBROIDERY. 

—  UPHOLSTERY  AND  CARRIAGE  TRIMMINGS.  —  FLAG  ROOM.  —  MILITARY, 
REGALIA,  AND  THEATRICAL  GOODS.  —  GENERAL  IMPRESSIONS  FROM  VIEWING 
THE  ESTABLISHMENT, 

The  title  of  this  chapter  is  far  more  comprehensive  than  might 
at  first  be  imagined.  It  includes  goods  woven  from  all  the  vari¬ 
ous  textile  fibres,  —  cotton,  wool,  silk,  etc.,  —  in  an  infinite  variety 
of  styles,  colors,  and  patterns,  and  used  for  an  astonishing  variety 
of  purposes.  These  extend,  indeed,  literally  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave  ;  for  the  single  firm  of  William  II.  Ilorstmann  &  Sons,  of 
Philadelphia,  from  whom  much  of  the  information  here  given  has 
been  obtained,  furnish  narrow  woven  goods,  alike  for  decorating 
the  toilet  and  the  cradle  of  the  infant,  the  dresses  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  young  and  old,  the  upholstering  of  houses  and  of  car¬ 
riages,  the  uniforms  and  equipments  of  officers  and  soldiers,  the 
regalia  of  all  manner  of  societies,  the  costumes  of  the  stage,  and, 
last  of  all,  for  the  melancholy  ornaments  of  the  coffin  and  the 
funeral. 

The  history  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  this  one  firm,  indeed, 
of  itself  shows  very  strikingly  how  immense  is  the  demand  for 
their  staple  articles,  besides  affording  an  interesting  example  of 

business  energy,  judgment,  and  success,  and  an  excellent  instance 

(792) 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


793 


of  a  business  establishment  at  once  of  immense  extent,  extraordi¬ 
nary  variety  in  production,  skilful  organization,  and  sound  and  safe 
management. 

In  the  counting-room  of  their  great  manufacturing  and  whole¬ 
sale  establishment,  at  the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Cherry  Streets,  in 
Philadelphia,  hang  two  interesting  memorials,  carefully  framed 
and  glazed.  The  oldest  of  these  is  a  small  hand-bill,  printed  in 
English  and  German,  dated  at  Philadelphia  in  1793,  signed  by  Mr. 
Hoeckly,  and  setting  forth  that  he  makes  fringe,  coach  lace,  and 
tassels.  The  other,  which  dates  to  a  period  about  a  quarter  of  a 
century  later,  is  a  well-executed  life-size  crayon  portrait  of  a 
young  man,  with  an  open,  sensible  face,  a  kindly  and  genial  ex¬ 
pression,  and  wearing  the  high-collared  coat  of  those  days.  This 
is  a  picture  of  William  H.  Horstmann,  the  founder  of  the  present 
firm  of  W.  H.  Horstmann  &  Sons,  and  whose  name,  though  he  is 
now  deceased,  is  retained  in  the  firm  name  from  a  feeling  of  filial 
pride,  which  is  very  graceful. 

Mr.  Horstmann  was  a  native  of  Cassel,  in  Germany,  and  learned 
the  trade  of  silk-weaving  in  France.  He  came  to  this  country  in 
1815,  and  established  himself  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  began  to 
manufacture  trimmings  of  various  kinds.  He  married  the  daugh¬ 
ter  of  Mr.  Hoeckly,  and  she  became  a  faithful  and  efficient  assist¬ 
ant  to  her  husband  in  his  business.  Mr.  Ilorstmann's  natural  tal¬ 
ent  for  invention  very  soon  began  to  find  a  field,  his  first  improve¬ 
ment  being  additional  varieties  in  styles  of  coach  lace,  there  being 
only  two  patterns  at  that  time  used  in  the  trade,  called  the  Jeffer¬ 
son  pattern  and  the  Monroe  pattern.  In  1824  he  introduced  into 
the  United  States,  from  Germany,  the  use  of  plaiting  or  braiding 
machines,  and  about  the  same  time  he  was  the  first  to  introduce 
into  this  country  the  use  of  the  Jacquard  loom,  for  weaving  pat¬ 
terns  in  textile  fabrics. 

Mr.  Horstmann’s  business,  under  his  constant  and  judicious  at¬ 
tention,  steadily  increased,  and  in  process  of  time,  instead  of 
working  in  his  own  little  home,  with  his  wife  as  his  only  assistant, 
he  was  obliged  to  occupy  larger  premises,  and  to  employ  subordi¬ 
nates.  The  house  where  he  first  established  himself  in  business 
stood  within  a  few  rods  of  the  immense  building  now  occupied  by 
his  sons.  He  did  not,  however,  live  to  see  the  erection  of  this 
extensive  and  complete  combination  of  manufactory,  ware-room, 
and  sales-room. 

During  the  half  century  and  more  which  has  passed  since  the 


794 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


landing  of  the  solitary  young  German  upon  our  shores,  the  busi¬ 
ness  which  he  established,  from  being  simply  one  workman’s  sup¬ 
ply  of  one  single  article  of  goods,  has  expanded  and  developed 
into  a  great  industrial  establishment,  employing  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  hands,  wielding  a  vast  capital,  and  having  the  high¬ 
est  business  reputation  and  extensive  business  connections  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Instead  of  “  coach  lace,”  an  article 
named  in  two  monosyllables,  and  furnished  in  two  styles,  the  firm 
now  manufactures  or  supplies  so  many  articles  that  the  list  of  file¬ 
names  of  goods  in  a  single  department  fills,  in  more  than  one 
instance,  a  neat  little  pamphlet,  and  in  place  of  one  little  room 
stands  a  massive  and  imposing  structure,  six  stories  high,  and 
stretching  for  a  hundred  feet  along  Cherry  Street,  and  a  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty  on  Fifth  Street.  The  separate  departments  into 
which  the  manufactory  and  sales-rooms  are  organized  are  thirty 
or  more  in  number.  In  place  of  one  single  hand-loom,  more  than 
a  thousand  separate  looms  and  machines  of  all  kinds,  many  of 
them  very  costly,  a  number  of  them  invented,  and  used  expressly 
and  exclusively  for  the  firm,  and  mainly  driven  by  a  powerful  steam 
engine,  crowd  floor  after  floor  ;  and  the  list  of  materials  used  in 
the  business  includes  the  chief  metallic  and  textile  raw  materials 
of  the  world,  besides  numerous  subsidiary  ones. 

A  brief  enumeration  of  these  departments,  and  their  appearance 
and  contents,  will  give  the  best  attainable  idea  of  the  extent  and 
character  of  the  business  of  the  firm. 

We  may  begin  with  the  “material  room”  —  a  basement  room, 
an  airy,  well-lighted,  and  excellently  ventilated  place,  as  indeed  is 
every  part  of  the  premises  ;  it  is  not  a  very  large  room,  but  fre¬ 
quently,  we  are  told,  contains  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  dollars’  worth  of  the  costly  raw  materials  used  by  the  firm. 
One  side  is  filled  with  a  range  of  shelves,  holding  an  endless  as¬ 
sortment  of  silk,  of  various  tints,  spooled  and  ready  for  use.  In 
other  places  are  great  packs  of  the  delicate  grayish-white  raw  silk, 
in  large  twisted  hanks,  as  it  is  imported  ;  and  other  masses  of  other 
material  crowd  the  rest  of  the  room. 

The  “  spooling  room  ”  is  next  —  a  long,  wide,  and  roomy  place, 
at  one  side  of  which  stands  a  row  of  frames,  placed  parallel  to 
each  other,  like  the  benches  in  a  country  lecture-room.  Each  of 
these  carries  a  number  of  the  “  spools,”  and  all  together  they  give 
room  to  wind  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  spools  at  once.  The 
other  half  of  the  length  of  the  room  is  occupied  by  what  looks 


manufactory  of  wm.  h.  horstmann  &  sons,  Philadelphia. 


' 


. 

■  * 51 : i  fj^sH 

■ 


■ 


* 

>  ,  i  ,!>.  .  *  ‘b»<l  ; ;  s  t.  V  »*3  *  ’■ 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


707 


like  a  miniature  ropewalk,  —  and  so  it  is,  we  are  told,  —  a  “  cord- 
walk,  ”  where  silk  cord  is  made. 

We  glance  at  the  steam  engine,  —  of  fifty  horse-power,  —  and 
chat  a  moment  with  the  engineer,  a  powerfully-built  and  sensible 
man,  to  whom  we  speak  of  the  last  steamboat  explosion,  and  of  a 
theory  published  a  day  or  two  after  it  that  it  was  caused  by  oil  in 
the  boiler.  The  engineer  laughs,  and  in  half  a  dozen  words  shows 
how  the  ordinary  working  of  the  engine  must  constantly  be  carry¬ 
ing  more  or  less  oil  directly  into  the  boiler  all  the  time  ;  and,  he 
says,  it  is  a  very  common  practice  to  put  oil  in  on  purpose,  to  help 
clean  out  the  inside  of  the  boiler.  He  remembers,  when  he  was 
younger,  that  he  has  seen  his  chief  pick  up  a  dead  hog  in  the 
street,  and  fling  the  body  whole  into  the  boiler,  that  the  fat  might 
operate  in  this  way. 

Then  we  go  into  the  machine  shop,  where  a  thoughtful,  slender 
man  is  setting  up  a  machine  newly  invented  by  him  for  the  use  of 
the  firm.  We  chat  a  little  with  him,  and  find  him  a  thorough 
lover  of  mechanics  and  inventions.  He  says  it  is  better  not  to 
take  out  patents  for  improved  machines,  because  the  model  shows 
some  smart,  piratical  fellow  how  to  evade  3rour  patent,  or  how  to 
surpass  your  invention  ;  but  if  you  simply  hold  your  tongue,  keep 
your  machine  to  yourself,  run  it  for  your  own  purposes,  and  avoid 
showing  it,  you  may  have  the  good  of  it,  and  you  are  sure  to 
avoid  the  hateful  and  almost  inevitable  warfare  of  infringement 
suits. 

Next, — for  we  are  not  following  the  course  of  the  manufactured 
material,  but  taking  the  departments  as  they  come  conveniently, 
one  after  another,  —  after  a  glance  at  the  carpenter’s  and  turner’s 
shop,  we  enter  the  sword  department,  which  furnishes  regulation 
swords  of  all  kinds,  for  army  or  navy,  cutlasses,  rapiers,  foils,  the 
showy  weapons  used  b}^  secret  and  other  societies,  etc.,  etc.,  com¬ 
pletely  finished,  with  hilt,  scabbard,  belt,  and  all  the  trappings. 
This  seems  a  business  rather  aside  from  the  peaceful  purposes  of 
the  loom.  But  the  sword  business  grew  naturally  and  immediate¬ 
ly  out  of  the  established  army  and  navy  goods  department  of  the 
firm,  the  sword-belt  and  other  trappings  requiring  to  be  furnished 
all  complete  along  with  the  weapon.  The  blades  are  not  forged 
on  the  premises,  of  course  ;  but  are  all,  or  most  of  them,  of  all 
kinds,  imported  from  the  ancient  German  sword-blade  emporium 
of  Solingen,  where,  it  is  said,  swords  have  been  made  ever  since 
the  year  1147,  when  Count  Adolphus  of  Berg  brought  home  from 


708 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


the  East,  and  established  there  the  business  of  forging  Damascus 
blades.  We  examine  a  magazine  of  some  thousands  of  blades,  of 
forty  or  fifty  different  patterns  and  sizes,  waiting  to  be  set  and 
finished  ;  the  rooms  where  the  hilts  are  made,  and  the  engraving, 
gilding,  chasing,  etc.,  executed  ;  we  wonder  at  the  infinity  of 
small  fixtures  used  ;  we  begin  to  count  up  the  different  pieces  of 
a  completed  sword,  and  find  that  there  are  between  thirty  and  for¬ 
ty  in  the  sword  and  scabbard  alone,  without  belt  or  accoutrements 
of  any  kind.  ITow  costly  a  sword  would  the  firm  furnish?  “  0,” 
says  our  guide,  with  a  smile,  “we  will  furnish  one  as  costly  as  re¬ 
quired.  A  presentation  sword  could  easily  enough  be  made  to 
cost  thousands  of  dollars,  by  setting  the  hilt,  for  instance,  with 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  diamonds.  But  four  or  five  hundred 
dollars,  as  things  go,  would  be  a  price  for  the  finest  kind  of 
presentation  sword.” 

We  cross  from  this  abode  of  Mars  to  the  more  peaceful  pre¬ 
cincts  of  the  weaving  rooms.  We  examine  the  tassel  room,  where 
a  whole  regiment  of  bright-looking  girls,  comfortably  seated  at 
low  tables,  with  little  machines  of  various  kinds  before  them,  are 
turning  out  a  most  variegated  lot  of  tassels,  buttons,  and  orna¬ 
ments  of  all  sorts.  Watch  this  young  person.  She  picks  up  a 
“button-mould,”  —  a  flattish  wooden  disk,  about  as  large  as  a 
nickel  cent,  —  puts  it  on  a  little  prong,  leads  the  end  of  a  silk 
thread  to  it,  and  whirls  a  little  crank.  The  button-mould  turns 
deliberately  round  once,  the  bright,  glossy  silk  flies  round  and 
round  it  as  it  turns,  and  in  far  less  time  than  we  have  used  in  the 
description,  the  wood  is  completely  covered  with  the  shining 
thread  ;  the  girl  snips  the  silk  off,  dips  out  a  tiny  particle  of  muci¬ 
lage  from  a  little  cup,  dexterously  gums  down  the  end,  picks  off 
the  button  from  the  prong,  puts  it  in  a  basket,  and  puts  on  another 
mould.  Of  all  the  hundred  or  more  hands  at  work  in  the  room, 
hardly  any  two  are  at  work  on  the  same  kind  of  goods.  Some¬ 
times  they  are  all  making  the  same.  If  we  come  in  to-morrow,  a 
totally  different  set  of  articles  may  be  in  hand.  Here  at  one  end 
of  the  room  some  epaulets  and  pompons  are  being  made  ;  and 
our  guide  informs  us  that  of  the  two  or  three  elderly  people  sitting 
at  this  work,  one  has  been  twenty  years  employed  by  the  firm,  and 
another  forty  years.  Perhaps  this  long  endurance  of  such  rela¬ 
tions  is  not  less  creditable  to  the  powerful  firm  than  its  power 
itself,  or  its  own  long  duration. 

We  pass  to  the  power-loom  rooms,  one  for  coach  lace  and  one 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


799 


for  other  styles  of  weaving.  In  these  two  great  rooms  nearly 
two  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  costly  machines  are  set  up,  of 
which  a  goodly  proportion  are  banging  away  in  the  exercise  of 
their  vocation,  and  doing  good?'  work  too,  though  greatly  to  the 
interruption  of  mere  talk.  We  watch  for  a  long  time  the  growth 
of  the  patterns  in  various  fabrics  that  are  coming  through  the 
Jacquard  looms,  whose  long  festoons  of  perforated  cards,  hung  up 
above,  are  quietly  pouring  over  and  over,  in  an  endless  chain, 
each  strip  of  pasteboard,  as  it  lifts  one  selection  of  wires  and 
leaves  another,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  design  below, 
repeating  and  perpetuating  the  singularly  ingenious  conception  of 
the  dead  Joseph  Jacquard,  and  of  his  predecessor,  Vaucanson, — 
thoughts  of  seventy-five  and  one  hundred  years  ago,  but  here  set 
forth  over  again,  millions  and  millions  of  times  every  year,  some¬ 
what  as  the  Asiatic  idolater  believes  that  every  whirl  of  his  “pray¬ 
ing  machine  ”  is  credited  to  his  account,  as  one  repetition  of  the 
prayer  printed  on  its  circumference. 

The  coach-lace  room  is  to  the  same  general  effect,  though  the 
looms  are  smaller,  and  the  process  of  weaving  less  elaborate. 
The  braiding  machines  detain  us  long,  with  the  magical  dance  of 
their  whirling  bobbins,  a  wonderfully  intelligent-looking  combina¬ 
tion.  The  cord  to  be  covered  with  braid  is  drawn  deliberately 
through  an  opening  in  the  middle  of  a  flat,  circular,  metallic  plate, 
perhaps  fifteen  inches  across.  Up  to  a  point  on  this  cord,  about  a 
foot  above  the  plate,  the  threads  of  the  braided  material  converge 
to  it,  like  the  ribs  of  a  tent-roof,  and  there  they  weave  in  and  out, 
and  out  and  in,  as  the  coating  of  glossy  braid  steadily  grows,  and 
the  completely  covered  cord  rises  and  rises,  and  is  wound  away 
above.  The  weaving  is  accomplished  by  the  motion  of  the  spools 
below,  that  carry  the  different  threads  of  the  braid.  These  spools 
stand  in  uprights,  which  are  carried  round  and  amongst  each  other 
in  curved  slots,  in  the  broad  metallic  plate  aforesaid.  All  but  two 
of  these  spools  dance  in  and  out  among  each  other,  with  a  swift, 
easy,  intricate  motion,  like  the  “ladies’  chain  ”  of  a  cotillon,  but 
so  rapid  that  the  eye  can  hardly  follow  it ;  while  one  or  two  spe¬ 
cial  spools  dart  steadily  round  and  round  among  their  twisting 
brethren,  so  swiftly  that  you  cannot  conceive  why  they  never  in¬ 
terfere.  It  really  looks  as  . if  each  braid  were  executed  by  a  popu¬ 
lation  of  little  spirits,  with  such  a  close  resemblance  to  perception 
and  life  do  they  jump  about.  Our  guide  evidently  enjoys  our  ad¬ 
miration,  but  carries  us  off  to  see,  what  he  says  is  even,  a  more  in- 


800 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


telligent-looking  mechanism  than  this.  It  is  a  coach-lace  loom, 
with  a  provision  for  leaving  a  layer  of  close-shorn  loops  on  the 
right  side  of  the  fabric,  as  is  done  in  Brussels  carpeting.  These 
loops  are  shaped  upon  a  bright  steel  pin  or  needle,  like  a  short 
knitting-needle  ;  and  the  intelligence  in  question  is  applied  to  the 
handling  of  these  needles.  There  are  not  many  of  them  ;  and  as 
the  fabric  passes  through  the  loom,  a  deliberate,  quiet  little  steel 
finger  and  thumb  takes  needle  after  needle  from  a  place  under¬ 
neath,  glides  silently  up,  and  calmly  lays  them  across  the  threads 
of  the  warp  just  in  time  to  have  the  loops  laid  over  by  them. 
Perhaps  a  dozen  at  once  are  thus  lying  together,  each  in  its  own 
range  of  loops,  but  never  more  ;  for  just  below,  another  steel 
finger  and  thumb,  with  the.  same  funny,  deliberate  certainty  of 
motion,  glides  up  at  the  other  side,  nips  one  needle  at  a  time,  pulls 
it  backward  out  of  the  web,  and  deposits  it  underneath  on  the 
band  that  is  to  carry  it  back,  to  be  picked  up  and  put  in  again. 
The  contrast  between  the  quiet  gravity  of  this  proceeding  and  the 
abandoned  jollity  of  those  furiously-dancing  braid-bobbins,  has 
something  extremely  grotesque  in  it,  over  and  above  the  interest 
of  the  ingenious  mechanism  itself. 

Well,  we  examine  also  the  silk  room,  where  the  silk  is  washed, 
wound,  and  made  ready  for  use  in  the  looms  ;  the  warping  room, 
another  room  full  of  narrow-fabric  looms  ;  another  “  cord-walk,” 
clear  up  at  the  top  of  the  house,  —  and  everywhere  we  find  the  ex- 
tremest  order,  perfect  cleanliness,  abundant  light  and  air,  rank 
after  rank  of  every  needful  variety  of  machinery,  some  clacking 
and  rattling  in  full  headway,  others  just  in  preparation  ;  for  it 
may  take  two  or  three  hands  a  number  of  hard  days'  work  to  get 
a  single  loom  ready  for  weaving  some  of  the  more  complicated 
sorts  of  work ;  others  still  waiting  quietly  for  some  order  suited 
to  their  particular  capacity  ;  and  then  we  cross  over  from  the 
manufacturing  department  to  the  sales  departments. 

Extensive  as  are  the  manufacturing  facilities  of  the  firm,  and 
great  as  is  the  range  of  goods  actually  made  by  them,  they  do,  in 
fact,  import  and  sell  —  at  wholesale  always  —  a  very  great  quan¬ 
tity  and  variety  of  articles  besides.  In  fact  it  is  here  that  the 
goods  offered  by  the  house  are  to  be  seen.  What  has  thus  far 
been  spoken  of  is  not  the  goods,  but  the  raw  material,  the  ma¬ 
chinery,  the  processes.  So  we  are  taken  through  another  entirely 
distinct,  but  almost  equally  extensive,  series  of  separate  depart¬ 
ments,  crowded  from  one  end  to  the  other  with  a  bewildering  va- 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


801 


riety  and  quantity  of  things,  varying  from  the  cheapest  to  the 
most  costly,  from  the  most  common  matter-of-fact  and  even  solemn 
to  the  most  unusual,  bizarre,  and  ludicrous.  There  is  the  ladies’ 
dress-trimming  department,  showy  with  all  manner  of  laces,  and 
fringes,  and  nets,  chignons  and  switches,  and  other  mysterious 
adornments  ;  the  notions  and  small  wares  department,  whereof  we 
despair  even  more  to  enumerate  the  contents  ;  the  hosiery  and 
glove  department ;  the  zephyr  wools  and  embroidery  department, 
where  six  thousand  four  hundred  different  shades  of  color  are 
shown,  including  Berlin  wool  and  the  greatly  admired  Germantown 
wool,  both  for  embroidery  ;  coarser  domestic  yarns,  embroidering 
silk  and  chenille,  beads  of  all  kinds,  and  every  description  of  em¬ 
broidering  apparatus,  needles,  patterns,  etc.  Here  we  inquire 
where  the  fashions  come  from.  “  From  Paris  and  Berlin,”  is  the 
answer.  "  ‘ 

Then  we  see  the  upholstery  and  carriage  trimming  department, 
with  no  end  of  curtains,  tassels,  cords,  laces,  gimps,  fringes,  and 
trimmings  of  innumerable  kinds.  Then  comes  the  flag  room, 
where  all  sorts  of  bunting,  flags,  banners,  staffs,  and  fixtures  are 
on  hand,  or  else  promptly  executed  to  order.  We  suggest  that 
the  Fourth  of  July  is  likely  to  make  a  vacuum  in  the  department, 
and  are  told,  Yes  ;  and  that,  moreover,  any  great  public  ceremo¬ 
nial  of  the  processional  kind  is  likely  to  do  so,  as,  for  instance,  the 
procession  of  the  Germans  in  honor  of  the  Prussian  victories  over 
the  French,  which  utterly  drained  the  stock  of  flags,  German  and 
other.  Of  course  when  such  an  occasion  is  appointed,  it  is  a 
matter  of  ordinary  business  forethought  to  have  a  quantity  of 
goods  made  up  in  readiness: 

Lastly,  we  examine  the  military,  regalia,  and  theatrical  goods 
department,  altogether  the  queerest  and  most  entertaining  of  all. 
In  contemplating  this  extraordinary  array  of  ornaments  and  dis¬ 
guises,  we  cannot  help  considering  the  interesting  and  intimate 
relation  between  the  bloody’ trade  of  the  soldier  and  his  exceptional 
supply  of  outward  decorations.  Perhaps  there  is  a  still  more  curi¬ 
ous  parallel  to  be  drawn  between  the  modest  splendors  of  the  real 
military  goods  and  the  incomparably  greater  effulgence  of  the 
weapons,  trappings,  and  ornaments  which  constitute  the  regalia 
of  the  various  societies,  or  the  still  more  glorious  display  of  the 
theatrical  department.  The  crowns,  jewelry,  weapons,  gold  and 
silver  tissues,  plumes,  and  decorations  of  every  kind  here  dis¬ 
played  would  overwhelm  the  very  soul  of  the  spectator  were  he 


802 


NARROW  TEXTILE  FABRICS. 


ignorant  of  the  true  nature  of  the  pecks  of  glass,  and  copper,  and 
tin  trash  that  glitter  so  tremendously  at  him.  The  masks,  monkey 
dresses,  devil  dresses,  and  other  costumes,  tights,  beards,  and 
theatrical  and  costumers’  materials  of  every  kind,  open  a  whole 
new  world  of  trade  to  one  not  familiar  with  the  exigencies  of  the 
stage. 

In  addition  to  the  departments  already  described,  the  firm  is 
represented  by  two  stores  in  New  York,  —  at  540  Broadway,  for 
the  sale  of  military  goods,  regalia,  etc.,  and  at  412  Broadway  for 
other  articles  enumerated  above.  The  agency  in  Paris  is  at  No. 
38  Rue  Meslay. 

Probably  there  is  no  other  single  concern  in  the  United  States 
whose  business  and  business  premises,  inspected  after  the  manner 
of  the  preceding  account,  would  so  powerfully  impress  the  spec¬ 
tator  with  the  immense  extent  and  variety  existing  within  even 
single  branches  of  commercial  industry  at  the  present  day,  and  of 
the  wonderfully  great  number  of  apparently  different  sorts  of 
work  and  of  trade  which  can  be  carried  on  in  entire  harmony,  and 
with  large  success,  within  one  and  the  same  concern  by  attention, 
foresight,  energy,  and  order. 


CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


WHEELS,  NUMEROUS  AND  FEW.  —  ANCIENT  TWO-WHEELED  CHARIOTS.  —  THE 

GREAT  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  CARRIAGES  ARE  MODERN.  - CARRIAGES  USELESS 

IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. — GRADUAL  INTRODUCTION  OF  COACHES  IN  THE  FIF¬ 
TEENTH  CENTURY.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  AN  EMPEROR’S  AND  AN  AMBASSADOR’S 
COACHES. — THE  FIRST  SPRINGS.  —  SUPERIORITY  OF  AMERICAN  WHEELED 
VEHICLES.  —  START  IN  BUSINESS  OF  MR.  WILLIAM  D.  ROGERS.  —  GROWTH 

OF  HIS  BUSINESS.  —  EXTENT  OF  PRESENT  PREMISES.  - DESCRIPTION  OF  THE 

DEPARTMENTS  OF  THE  ESTABLISHMENT.  —  LUMBER  DEPARTMENT.  —  SMITH 
SHOP.  — BODY  ROOM. —  PAINTING  AND  VARNISHING  ROOM. — DUST,  HOW 
EXCLUDED.  —  WHEEL  ROOM.  —  TRIMMING.  —  MR.  ROGERS’S  OWN  CHARACTER 
IMPRESSED  ON  THE  CONCERN. — HIS  PERSONAL  APPEARANCE. — HIS  CON¬ 
TINUED  SUPERVISION.  —  CHEAP  WORK  NOT  SOUGHT.  —  EXTENT  OF  HOME 
AND  FOREIGN  ORDERS. 

The  “  palace  cars  ”  of  these  days  of  railroad  history  have 
twelve  wheels.  Mr.  Edgeworth,  the  father  of  Maria  Edgeworth, 
the  novelist,  and  a  man  of  many  fancies,  invented  a  gig  with  only 
one  wheel,  —  a  horse-wheelbarrow,  so  to  speak,  —  which  was  kept 
upright  by  girthing  the  shafts  fast  at  the  horse’s  sides,  at  the  sad¬ 
dle.  These,  however,  as  well  as  three-wheeled  vehicles,  are  ex¬ 
ceptional  cases,  not  to  mention  the  proverbial  case  of  the  “fifth 
wheel  ”  of  a  coach.  A  carriage,  properly  so  called,  has  four 
wheels. 

Two-wheeled  vehicles  —  seemingly  used  at  first  exclusively  for 
war — were,  however,  undoubtedly  the  most  ancient,  and  their 
first  use  was  at  a  period  before  either  printed,  carved,  or  painted 
records.  These  chariots  are  named  in  the  Book  of  Exodus,  paint¬ 
ed  on  the  Egyptian  tombs,  and  carved  on  the  ruins  of  the  Assyrian 
palaces  ;  so  that  they  were  in  ordinary  use  from  1500  to  2500  years 
before  Christ.  Thus  the  wheel,  which  is  the  chief  invention  in 
everything  of  the  carriage  kind,  was  one  of  the  primeval  human 
devices. 

As  is  the  case  with  many  other  things,  the  modern  carriage  has 

(803) 


804 


CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


been  brought  to  its  present  perfection  within  a  comparatively  very 
short  period,  after  wheeled  vehicles  generally  had  remained  be¬ 
tween  thirty  and  forty  centuries  without  any  very  great  changes. 
In  the  age  of  chivalry,  and  afterwards,  it  was  reckoned  discredit¬ 
able  for  men  to  ride  in  covered  carriages,  which  began  to  be  known 
a  little  after  A.  D.  1500.  Something  of  the  kind  had  been  used 
among  the  Romans,  but  had  apparently  gone  out  of  remembrance. 
This  opinion  of  the  shamefulness  of  using  a  carriage  was  remark¬ 
ably  suitable  for  an  age  when  war  and  hunting  were  the  chief 
employments  of  men,  and  the  wretched  condition  of  the  few  ex¬ 
isting  roads  made  it  necessary  to  go  about  on  horseback. 

Coaches,  however,  gradually  crept  into  use,  though  not  without 
a  good  deal  of  opposition.  A  German  writer  gives  the  following 
description  of  the  coaches  used  by  the  Emperor  Leopold  at  his 
wedding,  about  1657,  or  a  little  later.  It  will  be  seen  that  they 
were  in  some  points  like  our  coaches  of  the  present  day,  and  were 
decorated  in  the  same  general  style  :  — 

"  In  the  imperial  coaches  no  great  magnificence  was  to  be  seen. 
They  were  covered  over  with  red  cloth  and  black  nails.  The  har¬ 
ness  was  black,  and  in  the  whole  work  there  was  no  gold.  The 
panels  were  of  glass,  and  on  this  account  they  were  called  the 
imperial  glass  coaches.  On  festivals  the  harness  was  ornamented 
with  red  silk  fringes.  The  imperial  coaches  were  distinguished 
only  by  their  having  leather  traces  ;  but  the  ladies  in  the  imperial 
suite  were  obliged  to  be  contented  with  carriages  the  traces  of 
which  were  made  of  ropes. ”  A  decidedly  inferior  style  was  that 
of  the  ambassador  of  Brandenburg,  at  the  election  of  the  Emperor 
Matthias,  in  1612,  who,  it  is  reported,  had  three  coaches;  but 
“  they  were  coarse  coaches,  composed  of  four  boards  put  together 
in  a  clumsy  manner.”  Coarse  indeed  ! 

These  early  coaches  had  no  springs  at  all,  as  nearly  as  can  be 
learned  from  such  representations  of  them  as  survive.  The  leath¬ 
ern  straps,  which  are  still  used  under  stage-coach  bodies,  were  the 
first  contrivance  of  the  kind.  They  are  known  to  have  been  in 
use  in  the  time  of  Louis  X1Y. 

From  these  lumbering  old  machines  to  the  assortment  of  elegant 
forms  and  astonishing  combinations  of  strength  and  lightness, 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  show-rooms  of  a  first-class  carriage 
maker  of  the  present  day,  is  a  very  long  step.  The  good  qualities 
of  the  present  style  of  wheeled  carriages  are  better  shown  in  those 
of  American  makers  than  anywhere  else,  and  the  American  vehi- 


CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


805 


cles  are  greatly  admired  abroad.  Few  of  European  make  reach 
this  country  ;  but  when  they  do,  their  massive  weight  and  clumsy, 
blocky  structure  present  a  striking  contrast  to  the  elastic  strength 
and  slender,  though  enduring,  fabric  of  good  American  carriage 
makers’  work. 

Some  of  the  best  examples  of  American  carriage-building  are 
afforded  by  men  who  have  risen  from  obscurity  and  poverty  to 
wealth,  success,  and  reputation  by  their  own  energy,  industry,  and 
intelligence.  Such  an  instance  is  that  of  the  extensive  carriage 
warehouse  and  factory  of  the  firm  of  William  D.  Rogers  &  Co., 
of  Philadelphia,  whose  history  and  present  condition  well  illustrate 
the  present  attainments  of  American  carriage-making,  and  the 
power  of  the  personal  qualities  just  mentioned,  in  the  American 
business  world. 

In  the  year  1816,  in  a  small  building  belonging  to  the  Girard 
estate,  on  the  corner  of  Sixth  and  Brown  Streets,  Philadelphia, 
Mr.  Rogers,  then  a  very  young  man,  began  the  manufacture  of 
coaches  and  carriages,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  name  which 
now  stands  high  throughout  the  United  States  and  a  great  part  of 
Europe.  He  employed  only  seven  men  at  the  outset,  but  being 
himself  a  practical  coach-builder,  as  well  as  an  energetic  and  judi¬ 
cious  foreman  and  manager,  it  would  be  hardly  an  exaggeration  to 
estimate  the  force  employed  at  several  more  than  seven. 

Mr.  Rogers  remained  in  this  location  until  1853,  when  he  erected 
new  shops  at  the  corner  of  Sixth  and  Master  Streets,  and  for  the 
first  time  possessed  an  establishment  in  some  measure  adequate  to 
the  rapid  increase  of  his  business,  and  to  his  own  ideas  of  arrange¬ 
ment  and  equipment.  It  is  four  stories  high,  covered  a  space 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  by  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
feet,  and  was  so  completely  finished  and  fitted  that  it  might  really 
have  been  reckoned,  at  the  time,  the  model  coach  shop  of  America. 

In  1857  Mr.  Rogers,  having  found  the  office  and  sales-rooms  at 
the  factory  insufficient  and  inconveniently  placed,  fitted  up  and 
opened  his  present  extensive  and  commodious  Bazaar  at  Nos.  1009 
and  1011  Chestnut  Street.  This  enlargement  sufficed  for  a  few 
years,  but  a  large  custom  trade  had  by  this  time  grown  up,  the 
natural  consequence  of  the  durable  and  tasteful  character  of  the 
work  turned  out  by  the  house.  As  this  class  of  business  requires 
especially  close  supervision,  Mr.  Rogers  rebuilt  the  rear  portion 
of  the  Chestnut  Street  buildings  in  1860,  and  fitted  them  up  as 
workshops,  in  order  the  more  conveniently  to  oversee  them  him- 


806 


CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


self.  More  room  being  still  required,  a  large,  four-story  building 
on  Filbert  Street,  directly  in  rear  of  the  main  building,  was  added 
in  1865. 

The  last  step  in  this  series  of  enlargements  took  place  in  Decem¬ 
ber,  1870.  Mr.  Rogers  had  a  little  before  this  time  associated  in 
partnership  with  him  Mr.  Joseph  Moore,  Jr.,  a  son  of  the  presi¬ 
dent  of  the  Bank  of  Northern  Liberties,  a  young  man  of  financial 
abilities,  executive  talent,  valuable  business  connections,  and  ex¬ 
cellent  address.  Thus  re-enforced,  and  after  some  months  of  con¬ 
sideration,  the  new  firm,  now  William  D.  Rogers  &  Co.,  trans¬ 
ferred  their  principal  manufacturing  operations  to  the  extensive 
and  commodious  premises  formerly  occupied  by  George  W.  Wat¬ 
son  &  Co.,  at  Thirteenth  and  Parrish  Streets,  this  firm  retiring  from 
business.  The  new  factory  was  thoroughly  remodelled  and  re¬ 
fitted  from  office  to  roof,  and  is  now  in  full  operation,  filling  the 
whole  of  a  four-story  building  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  by 
ninety-five,  and  there  is  some  expectation  that  the  demands  of  the 
business  for  “  more  room  ”  will  be  quiet  for  a  little  while  at  least. 
The  factory  and  repository  are  connected  by  telegraph,  —  a  fact 
which  shows  the  completeness  with  which  the  business  is  organized. 

No  single  item  will  give  a  better  idea  of  the  patience  and  scru¬ 
pulous  care,  as  well  as  the  important  investment  of  time  and  mon¬ 
ey  required  for  such  a  business  as  this,  than  that  of  the  lumber 
and  stock  department.  The  woods  used  in  carriage-making  are 
principally,  for  bodies,  ash,  cherry,  and  poplar  ;  for  wheels  and 
running-gear,  hickory.  All  this  must  be  seasoned  during  from 
two  to  five  years  before  it  is  fit  to  be  put  into  first-class  work  ; 
and  accordingly  there  must  always  be  stored  in  the  lumber  depart¬ 
ment  from  two  to  five  years’  stock  of  wood.  The  quantity  thus 
kept  on  hand  is  at  least  seventy  thousand  or  eighty  thousand  feet. 
Nor  is  this  tedious  preparatory  process  confined  to  rough  lumber 
merely.  From  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  sets 
of  wheels  are  always  kept  in  stock,  in  order  that  the  additional 
shrinkage,  which  always  comes  after  finishing  and  fitting,  shall 
take  place  in  the  shop,  thus  preventing  its  appearance  during 
actual  service,  and  rendering  the  work  more  durable,  besides  sav¬ 
ing  dissatisfaction  and  bills  for  repairs. 

The  chief  other  departments,  of  course,  are  the  smith  shop, 
wheel  shop,  body  room,  and  painting  and  trimming  rooms.  These 
are  duplicated  in  Messrs.  Rogers  &  Co.’s  business,  each  being 
equally  indispeesable  in  the  factory  and  at  the  Chestnut  Street 


WM.  D.  ROGE-S  &  CO'S  CARRIAGE  REPOSITORY,  CHESTNUT  ST.,  PHILADELPHIA. 


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CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


•  809 


house.  At  the  former,  however,  where  the  main  stock  of  lumber 
is  kept,  there  is  also  a  saw-mill,  run  by  a  steam  engine,  which  fur¬ 
nishes  whatever  power  is  needed  for  any  purpose  throughout  the 
works.  The  smith  shop  consists  of  a  room  for  jobbing,  a  room 
for  what  is  called  the  “  four-spring  work/’  and  another  for  “  light 
work.”  These  contain  about  twelve  forges,  and  along  with  them 
there  goes  a  good  deal  of  room  occupied  by  finished  work  waiting 
to  be  united  with  carriage  bodies,  racks  for  selected  iron  of  all 
kinds,  etc.,  etc.  All  the  iron-work  is  made  in  the  shop,  except 
the  bolts.  The  iron  used  is  Norway,  Ulster,  and  Lowmoor  iron, 
the  experience  of  the  firm  having  shown  that  these  are  best  suited 
for  its  work. 

The  “  body  room  ”  is  really,  however,  the  place  where  the  car¬ 
riage  begins,  for  here  it  is  that  the  body  of  the  carriage  is  made, 
and  from  here  it  goes  to  the  smith  shop  to  be  ironed.  All  the 
work  here  is  done  by  hand,  from  the  full-sized  drawings  furnished 
by  the  designer.  It  then  receives  one  coat  of  paint,  when  it  goes 
to  be  ironed. 

A  second  period  of  patience  and  delay  comes  while  the  carriage 
is  receiving  its  glossy  coat  of  color.  The  care  and  labor  of  the 
process  of  painting  carriages  are  extraordinary,  as  it  requires 
eighteen  separate  coats  of  paint  and  varnish  before  a  carriage 
body  is  thoroughly  finished,  each  having  to  be  carefully  laid  on, 
slowly  dried,  and  laboriously  rubbed  down  —  a  process  which  can¬ 
not  be  hurried,  and  must  occupy  many  days.  The  work  from 
Rogers  &  Co.  has  a  reputation  for  beautiful  finish,  which  may  pos¬ 
sibly  have  led  to  the  supposition  that  some  chemical  secret  is  em¬ 
ployed.  There  is  nothing  of  the  kind,  however,  the  effect  being 
produced  only  by  the  extraordinary  care  used  to  piaintain  an  even 
temperature  in  the  rooms,  and  to  exclude  dust.  The  former  ob¬ 
ject  is  attained  by  constant  reference  to  a  thermometer,  and  adjust¬ 
ments  accordingly,  the  latter  by  having  the  walls  of  the  finishing 
room  hard  finished,  painted,  and  varnished,  by  having  the  floor 
.  double,  and  interlined  with  two  separate  layers  of  roof  felting,  and 
by  having  the  windows  and  doors  so  closely  fitted  as  to  be  dust-prpof. 
So  far  does  this  anxious  solicitude  extend,  that,  in  order  to  avoid 
any  unnecessary  opening  of  doors,  a  small  glazed  opening  is  ar¬ 
ranged,  through  which  the  room  can  be  looked  into  from  without 
when  requisite,  without  moving  the  door  itself. 

The  special  advance  supply  of  wheels,  kept  on  hand  in  the 
wheel  department,  has  been  mentioned.  This  is  by  no  means  the 


810  . 


CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


only  precaution  used,  however.  The  wood  itself  used  in  the 
wheels  is  selected  with  the  greatest  care,  and  to  insure  the  great¬ 
est  degree  of  uniformity  and  thoroughness  in  this  most  important 
part  of  the  structure,  one  and  the  same  steady,  skilful,  and  expe¬ 
rienced  workmen  has,  for  the  last  nineteen  years,  driven  every 
spoke  used  in  the  factory.  The  rigid  scrupulousness  used  in  the 
choice  of  stock  for  wheels  makes  their  first  cost  greater  than  that 
of  a  power  wheel  ;  but  there  is  no  wastage  in  buying  on  this 
principle,  and  the  repairing  on  the  finished  work  is  a  minimum,  so 
that  the  wheels  are  the  cheapest  in  the  end. 

The  same  thoroughness  and  care  are  bestowed  on  the  choice 
and  use  of  materials  in  the  trimming  room,  as  in  all  the  rest  of  the 
work.  The  leather  used,  for  which  the  establishment  has  a  spe¬ 
cial  reputation,  is  made  to  Messrs.  W.  D.  Rogers  &  Co.’s  own 
order.  The  carpets,  silks,  etc.,  are  mostly  imported. 

In  inspecting  the  whole  of  the  two  portions  of  this  great  estab¬ 
lishment,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  being  greatly  impressed  by  the 
extreme  thoroughness  and  completeness  with  which  its  depart¬ 
ments  have  been  organized,  systematized,  and  arranged  with  refer¬ 
ence  to  each  other,  and  their  remarkable  economy  of  room  and 
fullness  of  equipment.  This  secures  to  every  workman  the  power 
of  accomplishing  the  greatest  quantity  of  work  with  the  least  pos¬ 
sible  expenditure  and  waste  of  time.  However,  the  establishment 
itself,  the  obvious  excellence  of  the  finished  work  it  turns  out,  the 
efficiency,  regularity,  and  ease  of  all  its  daily  operations,  and  its 
great  and  increasing  reputation  are  all  the  result  of  one  and  the 
same  original  motive  power — the  vivid,  wide-awake,  inexhaustible, 
incessant,  and  close  personal  supervision  and  stimulus  of  its  found¬ 
er.  How  much  such  a  force  amounts  to  in  twenty  years  may  be 
gathered  from  a  patient  examination  of  this  concern.  Nor  can 
any  intelligent  observer  pass  even  a  short  time  in  the  company  of 
Mr.  Rogers  himself  without  being  convinced  that  the  force  is  at 
*  least  adequate  to  the  result.  Mr.  Rogers  is  a  compactly  and 
strongly-built  man,  with  abundance  of  brain,  unusually  quick  mo¬ 
tions,  keen,  bright  eyes,  a  very  ready  and  at  the  same  time  a  very 
thoughtful  expression,  an  open,  intelligent  face,  a  prompt  and 
pleasant  smile  —  altogether  a  fine  personification  of  intelligent 
strength  and  activity.  As  might  be  expected,  the  conduct  of  his 
business  is  marked  at  once  by  liberality,  foresight,  and  kindness, 
as  well  as  by  the  strictness  and  regularity  of  a  mere  business  man. 
This  is  well  shown  by  the  fact  — one  of  the  highest  of  all  testimonies 


CARRIAGE-BUILDING. 


811 


X 


—  that  his  workmen  remain  with  him  so  long  ;  many  of  them,  indeed, 
began  their  apprenticeship  in  the  concern,  and  show  no  signs  of 
leaving  it  yet.  Nor,  after  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  labor,  does 
this  remarkable  “  prime  mover”  relax  his  oversight.  The  vigilant 
supervision  of  the  experienced  department  foremen,  able  and  con¬ 
stant  as  it  is,  is  not  enough.  Mr.  Rogers  visits  the  factory  daily, 
and  carefully  inspects  all  that  is  going  on  in  each  branch,  and  dur¬ 
ing  the  rest  of  the  day  he  is  on  duty  at  the  office  and  warerooms 
in  Chestnut  Street. 

No  effort  has  been  made  by  William  D.  Rogers  &  Co.  to  turn 
out  “  cheap  work.”  Such  work  could  not  pay  for  the  sort  of 
labor  and  care  exercised  in  their  establishment,  nor  could  the  mind 
that  habitually  exercises  such  labor  and  care  be  satisfied  with  cheap 
work.  The  point  aimed  at,  and  reached,  has  been,  by  thorough 
attention  to  excellence  in  detail,  to  secure  the  utmost  excellence  in 
whatever  work  should  be  turned  out,  whether  little  or  much.  A 
proper  price  has  been  charged.  And  the  result  shows  that  there 
are  abundance  of  customers  who  are  better  satisfied  to  pay  what 
is  necessary  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  a  strong  and  enduring  fab¬ 
ric  than  to  buy  at  a  cheap  rate  some  “  rattle-trap  ”  that  will  cost 
its  original  price  for  repairs  within  a  little  while.  . 

Messrs.  Rogers  &  Co.  ship  their  carriages  to  all  parts  of  Ameri¬ 
ca  ;  they  have  regular  patrons  in  England,  France,  and  Italy,  and 
orders  from  other  foreign  countries  are  from  time  to  time  reaching 
them.  What  the  future  of  the  firm  is  to  be  it  is  useless  to  con¬ 
jecture  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  it  has  by  no  means  approached  the 
limits  of  practical  and  prosperous  development. 


47 


GENERAL  REFLECTIONS.  —  GREAT  AMOUNT  OF  FIRE-ARMS  MANUFACTURED  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  BUSINESS  DEVELOPED  BY  OUR  LATE  CIVIL  WAR  :  THE 
“  GATLING  GUN  ”  AND  THE  REMINGTON  BREECH-LOADING  RIFLE  THE  CHIEF 
WEAPONS  RESULTING  THEREFROM.  —  “  THE  REMINGTON  SYSTEM,”  SO  CALLED. 

—  GREAT  NUMBER  OF  DESIGNS  IN  THE  BREECH-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS  SYSTEMS. 

—  TRIALS  OF  THE  SAME  BY  ARMY  AND  NAVY  COMMISSIONS.  — THE  SUPERIORI¬ 
TY  OF  THE  REMINGTON  SYSTEM  :  IN  WHAT  IT  CONSISTS.  —  CONCISE  ANALYSIS 
THEREOF.  —  BRIEF  NOTICE  OF  THE  RISE,  GROWTH,  AND  PRESENT  STATUS  OF 
THE  REMINGTON  ESTABLISHMENT  AT  ILION,  N.  Y.  — E.  REMINGTON  AND  SONS, 
A  BODY  CORPORATE. 

The  ignorance  and  stupidity  of  the  masses  of  men,  played  upon 
by  the  crafty  few  in  every  age,  render  it  possible  if  not  probable 
that  eventual  “  peace  throughout  all  the  earth  ”  will  come  to  the 
race  only  when  the  genius  of  invention  shall  have  so  thoroughly 
armed  nations  and  individuals  with  most  destructive  weapons  as 
to  equalize  their  power,  or  render  death  a  sure  result  to  all  com¬ 
batants  in  the  field  of  war.  It  would  be  a  mercy  to  the  race  if 
some  gigantic  means  of  slaughter,  cheap  as  well  as  effective,  and 
thus  within  the  power  of  every  nation  and  tribe  to  possess  it, 
could  be  invented,  whereby  a  whole  army  at  a  time  could  be 
swept  out  of  existence  as  surely  as  Pharaoh’s  forces  were  in¬ 
gulfed  in  the  Red  Sea.  As  a  step  towards  the  achievement  of  so 
desirable  a  result,  the  vast  progress  in  the  improvement  and 
speedy  means  of  manufacture  of  fire-arms  in  the  United  States, 
within  the  last  few  years,  should  be  a  matter  of  pleasure  and 
pride  to  every  humanitary  American.  In  whatever  else  the  "old 
world  ’*  may  exceed  us,  it  is  certain  that  we  are  able  to  keep  pace 
with  its  inventions,  and  to  sometimes  surpass  them,  in  the  line  of 
life-destroying  weapons,  as  well  as  in  the  fierceness  and  gran¬ 
deur  of  civil  strifes. 

To  trace  the  various  steps  in  the  improvement  of  fire-arms  in 
this  country,  from  the  days  of  the  old  flint-lock,  muzzle-loading 
guns,  to  these  days  of  breech-loaders  of  various  patterns,  would  be 
(812) 


BREECH-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


813 


an  interesting  labor,  and  fill  a  volume,  rather  than  the  meagre  space 
allotted  to  this  article,  in  which  we  can  speak  of  but  little  more 
than  the  most  important  results  yet  reached  in  this  country.  Our 
late  civil  war  developed  much  inventive  genius  in  the  matter  of  fire¬ 
arms,  and  engaged  a  great  amount  of  capital,  as  well  as  armies  of 
mechanics,  in  the  manufacture  of  weapons  of  war,  eventuating  in 
the  “  Gatling  gun,”  as  the  most  destructive  weapon  of  field  ord¬ 
nance  ever  invented,  and  the  Remington  breech-loading  rifle,  as  the 
most  efficient  minor  weapon  which  has  been  given  to  the  world. 
Of  the  latter  weapon  especially,  as  the  leading  one  among  breech¬ 
loaders,  we  purpose  to  speak  in  this  article.  The  reports  of  the 
naval  commission  ordered  by  the  late  Admiral  Dahlgren,  at  Wash¬ 
ington,  1 869-70,  and  that  of  the  army  officers  convened  under  the 
Ordnance  Bureau,  at  St.  Louis,  in  the  spring  of  1870,  so  thorough¬ 
ly  settled  the  question  of  superiority  in  favor  of  the  “Remington 
system,”  so  called,  of  breech-loading  weapons,  as  to  render  argu- 
nfBnt  in  the  question  supererogatory,  and  out  of  place  in  an  article 
like  this.  About  fifty  different  systems  were  tested  by  the  re¬ 
spective  Naval  and  Military  Boards  of  Examiners,  in  protracted 
and  severe  trials,  and  the  Remington  system  was,  as  the  result, 
recommended  by  them  for  sole  adoption  by  the  United  States 
army. 

The  number  of  designs  in  the  breech-loading  systems,  which 
have  been  patented  in  this  country  as  comprising  original  concep¬ 
tions  and  improvements,  is  said  to  be  over  one  thousand,  each  of 
which  is  supposed  to  possess  some  merit.  The  importance  of  the 
invention  which  embraces  whatever  is  most  valuable  in  each  of 
these,  and  is  still  so  “  useful  and  novel  ”  as  to  command  from  the 
United  States  letters  patent  for  itself,  cannot  well  be  overrated. 

The  superiority  of  the  Remington  system  consists  in  the  sim¬ 
plicity  of  its  design,  —  its  working  parts  being  large  and  few  in 
number,  —  and  in  its  extraordinary  strength,  demonstrated  by  the 
severest  tests  before  official  commissioners  and  in  actual  service  ; 
as  well  as  in  its  almost  absolute  reliability  against  accidents  or 
injury  by  exposure.  The  value  of  these  considerations  is  obvious 
to  the  most  casual  observer  ;  but  the  defaults  of  other  systems,  such 
as  the  English  and  American  types  of  the  bolt  system,  are  not  so 
obvious  at  first  sight,  but  become  painfully  so  in  experience,  when, 
for  example,  a  sensitive  cartridge  prematurely  explodes  in  the 
mere  act  of  closing  the  breech,  the  head  of  the  bolt  striking  the 
shell.  Another  serious  fault  in  the  design  of  the  bolt  system,  and 


814 


BREECII-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


which  is  obviated  in  the  Remington,  is  the  fact  that  the  recoil 
shock,  if  it  be  exaggerated  by  the  explosion  of  a  defective  car¬ 
tridge,  cannot  act  in  a  plane  parallel  with  the  line  of  the  bolt,  on 
account  of  the  diagonal  resistance  of  the  shoulder,  which  secures 
the  bolt  in  one  side  of  the  housing  or  frame.  This  fault  was  very 
emphatically  illustrated  in  the  guns  of  the  bolt  type,  in  the  late 
Franco-Prussian  war,  hundreds  of  chassepots  and  needle-guns 
being  burst  out  on  one  side  of  their  breech-frames. 

But  without  going  into  extended  details  regarding  other  sys¬ 
tems,  it  will  suffice  that  we  allude  briefly,  by  way  of  further  com¬ 
parative  illustration  of  the  superiority  of  the  Remington  system, 
to  defects  in  the  Allin,  Martini-Henry,  and  Peabody  systems. 

The  general  default  of  breech-blocks  fitting  on  to  the  top  of  the 
barrel,  is  an  insecurity  against  recoil  or  gas  escape.  In  the  Allin 
system,  in  which  the  block  is  hinged  towards  the  muzzle,  and 
closed  by  its  own  mechanism  at  the  rear,  it  was  found  necessary 
to  add  an  automatic  spring  to  confine  it  in  its  place  at  the  ti»e 
of  discharge,  and  even  this  device  has  been  found  insufficient  for 
exceptional  incidents.  If  a  ramrod  be  driven  with  ordinary  force 
upon  a  dummy  cartridge  placed  in  the  closed  chamber,  it  will 
often  raise  the  end  of  the  breech-block  in  the  Springfield  arm. 
This  general  defect  of  the  system  is  traceable  to  a  diversion  of 
the  recoil  shock  at  the  time  of  reaching  the  base  of  resistance. 

In  arms  of  the  swinging-breech  order,  like  the  Martini-Henry, 
and  its  American  prototype,  the  Peabody,  experience  has  shown 
the  generic  trouble  to  consist  in  the  fact,  that  whatever .  gas  es¬ 
capes  —  and  more  or  less  gas  will  issue  breech-wise  at  every  dis¬ 
charge  —  is  admitted  naturally  to  the  interior  mechanism  of  the 
gun.  The  awkward  manipulation  indispensable  to  a  lever  handle, 
set  beneath  the  gun,  often  cutting  the  soldier’s  hand,  is  a  defect 
generally  charged  to  the  S3rstem,  but  a  far  more  serious  evil  in 
the  service  is  the  danger  of  fouling  or  permanent  disability  in  an 
exigency.  In  this  system  the  recoil  of  an  exceptional  explosion 
is,  though  better  provided  for  than  in  the  snuff-box  constructions 
in  the  degree  that  the  action  is  itself  heavier  and  stronger,  still  a 
very  dangerous  incident.  The  test  of  excessive  charges  and  de¬ 
fective  cartridges  is  to  be  dreaded  by  guns  of  this  class,  the  result 
having  been  at  St.  Louis,  before  the  United  States  Board,  in  1870, 
to  disable  the  larger  proportion  of  the  Peabodies  entered  for  com¬ 
petition,  the  shock  bending  the  firing-pin  or  the  lever  so  that  the 
breech  could  not  be  again  closed, 


BREECH-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


815 


Analysis  of  the  Remington  System. 


The  accompanying  engravings  (Fig.  1  and  Fig.  2)  illustrate  the 
breech  action  of  the  Remington  system.  Fig.  1  represents  a  sec¬ 
tional  view  of  the  Remington  Breech-loader  at  the  moment  of  dis¬ 
charge,  and  Fig.  2  (on  the  next  page)  a  sectional  view  of  the 
same  when  open  to  receive  a  cartridge. 


The  reader  will  reflect,  doubtless,  that  mere  mechanical  design 
and  execution  are  not  the  only  requisites  to  the  endurance  and 
reliability  of  a  system.  While  the  mechanism  must  be  of  the  very 
best  to  insure  efficiency,  the  constructive  design  must  be  based 


816 


BREECII-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


upon  correct  science  to  make  safety  certain.  It  is  the  unique 
claim  of  the  patentees  of  the  Remington  arm  that  no  accident  has 
ever  occurred  with  one  of  their  productions.  The  reason  of  this 
alleged  security  is  to  be  found  in  the  perfectly  scientific  design  of 


P 


the  system.  The  relation  of  the  parts  to  each  other  and  to  the 
whole  organization,  the  relative  strength  of  each  part,  the  directly 
parallel  planes  of  recoil  and  resistance  axes,  are  the  characteristic 
merits  of  this  system,  without  which  no  system,  however  excel- 


BREECH-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


817 


lent  its  mechanical  execution,  can  be  depended  upon  against  ex¬ 
traordinary  incidents.  Mechanically  regarded  alone,  the  Reming¬ 
ton  system  deserves  the  highest  commendation.  There  are  really  no 
slight  or  delicate  pieces  in  its  construction,  and  notably  no  spiral 
spring,  the  presence  of  which  in  the  Martini-Henry,  and  in  bolt- 
guns  generally,  has  elicited  so  severe  censure  from  experts.  The 
very  least  *  frictional  or  bearing  surface  is  attained  ;  strength,  as 
we  have  suggested,  being  secured,  not  by  the  extent,  but  by  the 
relation  of  contiguous  surfaces.  The  sides  of  the  breech  and  ham¬ 
mer  blocks  are  not  made  to  wear  against  the  corresponding  sides 
of  the  housing,  consequently  there  is  hardly  a  possibility  of  rust 
from  humidity,  a  fact  singularly  demonstrated  by  the  favorable 
experience  of  both  Spanish  and  patriot  officers  in  the  damp  atmos¬ 
phere  of  Cuba.  So  far  as  the  escape  of  gas  is  concerned,  there  is 
no  chance  for  it  to  find  its  way  into  the  action,  the  breech-block, 
at  the  moment  of  discharge,  not  only  excluding  its  passage  into 
the  action,  but  having  on  its  lateral  faces  delicate  grooves,  which 
conduct  the  fouling  element  into  the  open  air.  The  action  is, 
moreover,  so  open  and  free,  internally,  that  both  clogging  attri¬ 
tion  after  the  severest  sand  trials,  and  the  corrosion  of  salt-water 
tests,  have  been  found  inefficient  to  stop  its  working.  The  essen¬ 
tial  strength  of  the  action,  secured  in  the  frame  by  solid  steel  pins 
nearly  half  an  inch  in  diameter,  is  obvious  enough  ;  so  securely 
protected,  indeed,  are  its  working  parts,  that  not  even  the  entire 
destruction  of  the  stock  will  prevent  the  efficient  use  of  the  gun. 
This  feature,  singular  to  the  Remington  arm,  was  proven  before 
the  United  States  Naval  Board  of  1869,  and  is  thus  recorded  in  its 
official  report : 

“  The  butt-stock  (wood)  was  then  removed  from  the  piece,  and 
the  exhibitor  fired  eighteen  shots  at  a  distant  mark  on  the  river, 
with  a  fair  aim  and  with  tolerable  accuracy,  showing  the  indepen¬ 
dence  of  the  lock  and  barrel  parts  from  the  butt-stock.” 

It  will  be  observed  that  at  the  moment  of  discharge  the  breech- 
piece  is  immediately  supported  by  the  front  portion  of  the  hammer, 
which  forms  a  superlatively  powerful  recoil  tumbler.  Both  of 
these  pieces  are  of  considerable  weight  and  thickness,  and  of  the 
choicest  metal  —  as  substantially  designed  and  constructed,  in  a 
word,  as  the  largest  capacity  of  frame  will  permit.  The  metal  in 
these  parts,  and  in  the  pins  upon  which  they  move,  is  so  located 
as  to  equalize  their  power  to  absorb  the  recoil  shock.  The  result, 
indeed,  is,  that  the  recoil  shock  is  practically  co-operative  in  the 


818 


BREECII-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


stability  of  the  system  ;  a  fact  due  to  the  scientific  relation  of  the 
two  sectors  of  circles,  the  hammer  and  breech-piece,  between 
which  there  is  a  constant  interlocking  and  bracing  connection. 
Thus  the  greater  the  recoil,  the  more  securely  the  hammer  i3 
locked,  and  the  shoulder  of  the  hammer  becomes  of  necessity  a 
fulcrum,  acting  upon  the  bearing  of  the  breech-piece  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  entire  strain  upon  its  axis  is  taken  up  £>y  the^part 
in  the  rear  of  the  forward  pin.  This  theory  of  correlation  of  forces 
in  a  breech  system  was  admirably  illustrated  at  Washington,  where, 
says  the  official  report  of  the  Naval  Commission,  — 

“  The  exhibitor  fired  four  shots  with  a  wooden  pin  (hickory) 
substituted  for  the  front  recoil  pin.  No  derangement  of  the  piece  ; 
no  marks  on  the  pin  ;  and  then  fired  four  shots  with  two  wooden 
pins  in  place  of  both  steel  recoil  pins.  No  derangement  of  the 
piece  or  impressions  on  the  wood  pins. 

“  A  breecli-piece  filed  away  to  nothing,  in  front  of  forward  pin, 
was  then  substituted  in  place  of  the  ordinary  breech-piece,  and 
the  gun  fired  seven  times  without  jar  or  injury  to  any  of  the 
parts.  ” 

No  more  pertinent  demonstration  of  the  valuable  relationship  of 
science  to  mechanism  could  be  furnished  than  the  foregoing ;  yet 
as  a  further  proof  of  the  extraordinary  strength  of  the  system  we 
are  describing,  the  fact  may  be  adduced  that  on  several  occasions 
it  has  been  subjected  to  charges  which  filled  the  entire  barrel  of 
the  piece,  from  breech-chamber  to  muzzle,  without  effect  upon  its 
action  or  efficiency  ;  a  statement  which  we  believe  can  be  made 
of  no  other  breech-loading  arm.  The  Remington  gun  is  singularly 
easy  of  manipulation,  and  can  be  fired  with  great  rapidity,  experts 
accomplishing  twenty-five  to  thirty  discharges  of  it  a  minute,  while 
the  Danish  soldiers,  with  no  practice  at  all,  loaded  and  fired  these 
arms  seventeen  times  a  minute.  The  shooting  qualities  of  this  arm, 
which  are  as  nearly  perfect  as  those  of  any  gun  can  be,  are  greatly 
due  to  the  character  of  the  barrel,  the  superiority  of  which  secured 
for  the  elder  Remington,  the  founder  of  the  Remington  establish¬ 
ment  at  Ilion,  N.  Y.,  his  great  fame.  The  operation  of  straight¬ 
ening  a  barrel  is  yet  a  mystery  which  no  mechanism  has  been  able 
to  achieve,  and  which  can  only  be  done  by  the  most  skilful  arti¬ 
sans,  some  of  whom  have  been  in  the  employ  of  the  Remingtons 
for  a  generation.  In  short,  no  art  requires  greater  accuracy  in 
details,  and  skilful  combination  thereof,  than  the  manufacture  of 
a  perfect  fire-arm. 


REMINGTON’S  ARMORY,  ILION, 


.  '  ’ 


* 


.  ■ 


,  * 


i' 


i 


■ 


: 


*  \ 


■i 


BREECH-LOADING  FIRE-ARMS. 


819 


The  Remington  arms  need  no  praise  ;  but  it  is  not  out  of  place 
to  say  here,  that  they  are  not  only  approved  and  adopted  by  the 
United  States  army  and  navy  as  the  best,  but  that  Sweden,  Den¬ 
mark,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Egypt,  Japan,  South  America,  and 
other  nations  and  peoples,  through  their  military  executives,  have 
declared 'in  favor  of  them  as  the  most  efficient  and  durable,  and 
made  extensive  purchases  of  the  same. 

The  Establishment  at  Ilion. 

This  extensive  establishment  is  the  upgrowth  of  over  fifty  years’ 
struggle  in  the  manufacture  and  improvement  of  fire-arms.  In  1816, 
Mr.  Eliphalet  Remington,  then  a  well-grown  boy,  residing  in  Her¬ 
kimer  County,  about  eighty  miles  west  of  Albany,  commenced  the 
manufacture  of  gun-barrels,  and,  endowed  with  superior  skill,  soon 
succeeded  so  well  that  the  demand  for  his  barrels  soon  so  exceeded 
his  capacity  to  supply  it,  that  customers,  in  order  to  make  sure  of 
being  duly  served,  resorted  to  his  shops,  and  tarried  there  till  their 
wares  ’were  ready  for  them.  In  1825  he  removed  to  Ilion,  and 
established  a  gun  factory  there,  which  increased  in  capacity  from 
time  to  time  ;  but  it  was  not  till  about  1835  that  extensive  enlarge¬ 
ments  of  it  were  made.  At  this  time  a  large  government  contract 
necessitated  an  increase  of  manufacturing  capacity,  and  added  to 
Mr.  Remington’s  zeal.  In  1840  two  of  his  sons  united  with  their, 
father,  and  gave  an  increased  vigor  to  the  business.  Gradually 
the  establishment  grew,  till  it  became,  as  now,  one  of  the  most 
extensive  armories  in  existence,  standing  signally  at  the  head  in 
the  practical  value  of  its  productions,  not  only  of  the  small  arms 
factories  of  this  country,  but  of  the  world. 

E.  Remington  &  Sons  are  now  an  incorporation  under  the 
statutes  of  New  York,  with  a  nominal  capital  of  $1,000,000,  but 
with  an  actual  capital,  unpublished  to  the  world,  but  as  comprised 
in  buildings,  machinery,  and  nominal  stock,  considered  by  those 
believed  to  be  wise  in  such  matters,  as  no  less  than  three  millions 
of  dollars.  At  any  rate  “The  Remington  Establishment”  is  the 
leading  breech-loading  fire-arms  factory,  of  both  guns  and  pistols, 
in  the  United  States,  and  as  such  worthily  has  place  in  the  “  Great 
Industries.” 


AH 

LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING. 

TIIE  USE  OF  THE  TERMS.  —  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  A  LUM¬ 
BERING  PARTY  IN  MAINE.  —  THE  SIZE  OF  TIIE  TREES.  —  THE  WINTER’S 
CAMP.  —  GETTING  THE  LOGS  TO  TIIE  STREAMS.  -  FLOATING  THEM  TO  MAR¬ 

KET.  —  THE  DIFFICULTIES  AND  DANGERS  OF  TIIE  WORK.  —  THE  SAW-MILL. 
—  CLAPBOARDS.  —  SHINGLES.  — THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE  MA¬ 
CHINERY  USED  IN  IT.  —  THE  FUTURE  SUPPLY. 

In  America,  lumber  is  the  general  term  for  what  in  England  is 
called  limber,  including  beams,  joists,  boards,  plank,  shingles,  etc. 
Lumbering  (also  an  Americanism)  is  the  employment  of  procuring 
lumber  in  the  forest  and  preparing  it  for  the  market.  It  is  the 
business  of  the  lumberer  to  penetrate  the  virgin  forests,  occupying 
himself  during  a  certain  portion  of  the  year  cutting  trees  and 
transporting  them  to  the  borders  of  lakes  and  rivers,  and  in  the 
spring  floating  them  to  saw-mills  or  places  where  the  logs  are  pre¬ 
pared,  as  square  timber,  boards,  clapboards,  and  shingles,  fora  mar¬ 
ket  and  the  builder. 

The  lumberer’s  life  in  the  forest,  through  the  long,  cold  winters, 
in  the  northern  parts  of  the  United  States  and  of  Canada,  is  one 
of  great  hardship  and  peril.  Generally,  before  a  party  of  loggers 
establish  their  camp  for  the  winter,  they  send  out  some  of  the 
company  to  ascertain  where  the  timber  is  abundant,  and  nearest 
the  water-courses.  Years  ago,  such  a  preliminary  step  was  not 
necessary,  as  then  the  giant  pines  of  the  North  abounded  on  every 
side  ;  and  in  less  than  half  a  century  it  is  said  that  the  vast  pine 
forests,  through  which  flow  the  Penobscot  and  its  tributaries,  will 
no  more  exist. 

When  the  exploring  party,  or  the  timber  hunters,  have  discov¬ 
ered  a  promising  tract  of  pines,  they  examine  the  quality  of  the 
trees,  ascertain  the  distance  which  the  timber  must  be  hauled,  and 
the  ground  over  which  the  logging  roads  must  be  made  ;  these 
things  being  satisfactory,  they  return  and  make  their  preparations 
for  a  winter’s  work  in  the  forest.  Permits  for  cutting  timber  are 

(820) 


LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING. 


821 


obtained  from  the  state  or  owners  of  the  great  forests,  at  a  stipu¬ 
lated  price  of  so  much  a  thousand  feet  for  lumber  taken  within 
certain  limits.  The  winter’s  stores  are  taken  in  boats,  as  near  the 
place  selected  for  procuring  lumber  as  possible,  and  then  trans¬ 
ported  by  oxen,  which  are  to  be  used  in  hauling  the  logs  to  the 
water  side.  Fat  pork,  the  fattest  of  the  fat,  is  the  lumberer’s  lux¬ 
ury,  which,  with  ship  bread  and  molasses,  constitutes  the  staple  of 
their  consumption.  “  The  drippings  from  a  slice  of  pork,  roasted 
before  the  fire,  are  allowed  to  fall  on  the  hard  tack,  which  is  then 
dignified  by  the  name  of  buttered  toast ;  sometimes  the  pork  is 
eaten  raw,  dipped  in  molasses  ”  (a  mixture  which  has  no  equal 
except  raw  oysters  and  brown  sugar).  On  these  alone  the  hungry 
woodsman  makes  many  a  delicious  meal,  which  is  proof  of  the 
good  appetite  and  digestion  of  the  hardy  loggers.  But  as  the 
lumberers  carry  their  rifles  with  them,  to  their  usual  supplies  are 
occasionally  added  a  partridge,  a  bear,  or  a  deer.  When  they 
have  reached  their  destination  with  their  winter  supplies,  they  se¬ 
lect  a  suitable  place  for  a  camp,  where  they  build  two  log  houses, 
one  for  themselves  and  one  for  their  cattle.  This  work  accom¬ 
plished,  they  look  out  and  cut  open  the  roads  which  lead  to  the 
principal  clumps  and  groves  of  pines  included  in  the  bounds  of  the 
permit.  They  then  commence  their  regular  work  of  the  winter. 
The  largest  and  fairest  pines  are  cut ;  the  white  pine  is  superior 
in  value  and  dimensions  to  all  others,  though  the  red  pine  some¬ 
times  rises  eighty  feet  before  putting  forth  a  limb.  Those  who 
have  been  on  the  Penobscot  many  years  ago  may  doubtless  remem¬ 
ber  having  seen  trees  of  extraordinary  grandeur  and  diameter. 
Specimens  cut  many  years  since  were  reported  as  more  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  long.  Said  a  lumberer,  “  I  have  worked  in 
the  forests  several  years,  have  cut  many  hundred  trees,  and  seen 
many  thousands,  but  never  found  one  larg'er  than  one  I  felled *on  a 
little  stream  which  empties  into  Jackson  Lake,  in  Eastern  Maine.  ‘ 
Its  trunk  was  as  straight  and  handsomely  grown  as  a  moulded  can¬ 
dle,  and  measured  six  feet  in  diameter  four  feet  from  the  ground. 
It  was  about  nine  rods  in  length,  or  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
feet,  about  sixty-five  feet  of  which  was  free  from  limbs,  and  re¬ 
tained  its  diameter  remarkably  well.  After  chopping  an  hour  or 
so,  the  mighty  giant,  the  growth  of  centuries,  which  had  with¬ 
stood  the  hurricane,  and  raised  itself  in  peerless  majesty  above  all 
around,  began  to  tremble  under  the  strokes  of  the  axe.  My 
heart  palpitated  as  I  occasionally  raised  my  eye  to  its  pinnacle  to 


822 


LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING. 


catch  the  first  indication  of  its  fall.  It  came  down  at  length  witli 
a  crash,  which  seemed  to  shake  a  hundred  acres,  whilst  the  loud 
echo  rang  through  the  forest,  dying  away  amongst  the  distant 
hills.  It  made  five  logs,  and  loaded  a  six  ox  team  three  times. 
The  butt  log  was  so  large  that  the  stream  did  not  float  it  in  the 
spring,  and  when  the  drive  was  taken  down  we  were  obliged  to 
leave  it  behind,  much  to  our  regret  and  loss.  At  the  boom  that 
log  would  have  been  worth  fifty  dollars.” 

Thus  the  long  winter  is  occupied  in  cutting  the  best  timber 
trees,  and  as  soon  as  the  snows  permit,  the  logs  are  taken  down 
on  to  the  ice,  where  they  remain  till  it  is  broken  by  the  warm 
spring  rains.  When  the  snows  melt,  and  the  streams  are  full,  the 
lumberers  break  up  their  camp,  and  enter  on  the  difficult  and  dan¬ 
gerous  service  of  driving  the  logs  down  the  rivers  to  the  abodes  of 
civilization.  Many  lives  are  iost  in  the  hazardous  occupation  of 
running  the  logs  down  the  streams.  When  the  rivers  are  swollen, 
logs,  ice,  and  boats  are-  borne  swiftly  down  over  rocky  rapids, 
sometimes  driven  on  ledges,  or  made  fast  on  sand  banks,  and  some¬ 
times  entangled  with  fallen  trees.  When  the  logs  become  wedged 
together  in  a  narrow  part  of  the  stream,  or  among  the  rocks,  they 
form  what  are  called  jams,  and  all  motion  is  suspended.  Then  the 
drivers,  in  applying  the  axe  or  the  lever  to  loosen  again  the  huge 
floating  field  of  tree  trunks,  are  often  exposed  to  great  peril.  The 
removal  of  one  log,  and  sometimes  one  blow  of  the  axe,  sets  free 
acres  of  timber  from  their  dead  lock,  and  the  whole  mass  moves 
in  tumultuous  force  down  the  rapid  current.  At  such  times  the 
men  are  exposed  to  injury,  and  not  unfrequently  lose  their  lives. 
When  a  single  log  is  seen  to  detain  the  whole  mass,  a  man  is 
sometimes  let  down  on  to  the  jam  by  a  rope  from  an  adjoining 
cliff.  When  a  few  blows  only  are  given  with  the  axe,  the  log 
snaps  with  a  loud  report,  followed  by  the  violent  motion  of  the 
jam,  and  before  the  bold  driver  can  be  drawn  to  the  top  of  the 
cliff,  hundreds  of  logs  pass  in  wild  confusion  beneath  him.  Other 
drivers  follow  the  floating  mass  in  boats  to  set  adrift  single  logs 

u  o  o 

caught  by  some  obstruction  in  the  stream  or  near  the  shore,  or 
push  them  forward  when  the  current  has  insufficient  force  to  carry 
them  onward.  Where  streams  are  large,  the  logs  are  formed  into 
rafts,  joined  together  with  the  limbs  of  the  blue  beech,  or  withes 
of  other  tough  trees.  Sometimes  these  rafts  are  nearly  an  eighth 
of  a  mile  long,  having  a  number  of  little  huts  with  masts  and  sails 
and  ragged  streamers,  a  caboose  for  cooking,  and  means  for  catch- 


LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING. 


823 


frig  the  wind,  for  steering  and  anchoring.  The  raft,  in  detached 
portions,  is  sent  over  the  rapids,  and  along  the  timber  slides, 
always  with  more  or  less  loss  or  damage  to  both  men  and  logs. 

The  loggers  in  their  winter  home  are  often  diverted,  and  some¬ 
times  alarmed,  by  encounters  with  moose  and  bears  and  wolves. 
In  cold  weather  the  bears  and  wolves  become  very  bold,  sometimes 
accompanying  the  teams  in  their  journeys  between  the  forest  and 
the  rivers  to  which  the  logs  are  taken.  The  teamsters,  though 
generally  brave  fellows,  are  not  pleased  with  such  company,  and 
find  relief  only  in  making  fire-arms  a  part  of  their  equipage. 
The  lumberer  has  stories  to  tell  of  encounters  with  catamounts, 
or  11  Indian  devils/’  of  amusing  experiences  with  bears  and  their 
cubs,  of  the  dangerous  proximity  of  the  gray  wolf,  a  brute,  fierce, 
strong,  and  swift,  which  pursues  his  prey  with  pitiless  persever¬ 
ance,  following  the  trail 

“  With  their  long  gallop,  which  can  tire 
The  hound’s  deep  hate,  the  hunter’s  fire.” 

But  attacks  of  wild  beasts  in  these  great  forests  are  not  the 
only  trials  of  these  hardy  loggers.  No  time  of  their  stay  in  the 
^roods  is  exempt  from  peril.  Wounds  are  accidentally  received 
from  the  axe  ;  limbs  torn  from  falling  trees,  and  branches  broken 
by  them  from  other  trees,  made  brittle  by  intense  frost,  dying  in 
all  directions,  threaten  injury  and  endanger  life.  Their  career  is 
all  hardship  and  danger,  while  their  occupation  is  of  immense  im¬ 
portance  in  the  lumber  trade. 

At  the  saw-mills  the  logs  are  transformed  into  all  kinds  of  lum¬ 
ber  for  building  purposes.  Since  the  introduction  of  the  steam 
engine,  the  business  of  sawing  has  become  independent  in  some 
degree  of  water  power,  and  mills  are  established  in  the  most  con¬ 
venient  places  for  receiving  supplies  of  timber.  Railways  are. 
now  made  to  penetrate  the  forest,  carrying  the  heavy  machinery 
of  the  steam  saw-mill,  and  returning  with  car  loads  of  lumber 
ready  for  the  market. 

Among  the  kinds  of  lumber  are  clapboards,  also  called  weather 
boards,  about  one  half  an  inch  thick  at  one  edge,  and  nearly  sharp 
at  the  other.  They  are  cut  from  the  log  by  very  ingenious  ma¬ 
chinery.  A  white  pine  log,  cut  at  the  proper  length,  is  turned  in 
a  lathe  to  a  diameter  a  little  more  than  twice  the  width  of  the 
clapboard.  This  log  is  then  placed  on  a  frame,  and  carried  by 
machinery  against  a  circular  saw,  which  cuts  it  from  end  to  end 


824 


LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING. 


nearly  to  the  centre.  The  frame  then  returns  over  the  saw,  which 
continues  to  revolve  in  the  kerf  it  had  made  ;  the  log-  then  turns 
on  its  axis  just  the  distance  of  the  thick  edge  of  the  clapboard, 
when  it  again  moves  forward,  the  saw  cutting  another  kerf;  the 
same  movements  are  repeated  till  the  log  is  cut  entirely  into 
clapboards,  the  thick  edges  being  on  the  outer  circle,  and  the 
sharp  edges  meeting  in  the  centre  of  the  log.  The  manufacture 
of  shingles  is  also  an  important  branch  of  the  lumber  business. 
The  work  is  sometimes  carried  on  in  the  forests.  The  logs  are  cut 
into  the  length  of  a  shingle,  and  then  split  into  several  pieces 
called  bolts.  These  again  are  split  by  means  of  a  long  blade  struck 
with  a  mallet,  and  then  shaved  down  to  the  form  and  thinness  re¬ 
quired.  Another  kind,  called  sawed  shingles,  are  made  by  ma¬ 
chinery  constructed  for  the  purpose.  The  bolt  is  fastened  in  a 
frame,  and  is  set  against  the  saw  for  either  the  thick  or  thin  end 
of  the  shingle.  The  saw  runs  through  the  bolt,  cutting  off  a 
shingle,  and  by  the  self-acting  movement  of  the  frame,  the  saw 
commences  again  with  the  thickness  belonging  to  the  opposite  end 
of  the  next  shingle.  They  are  thus  made  with  great  rapidity,  the 
thick  or  thin  end  of  successive  shingles  being  taken  alternately 
from  opposite  ends  of  the  bolt.  The  attendant  straightens  the 
edges  immediately,  by  passing  them  over  a  plane  iron  llxed  in  the 
machine. 

The  immense  extent  of  the  lumber  business  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact,  that  more  than  ten  thousand  men  have  been  engaged 
year  after  year  in  logging  and  sawing  on  the  Penobscot  River 
alone.  There  are  vast  pine  forests  about  the  head  waters  of  the 
Hudson,  the  Susquehanna,  Delaware,  and  Alleghany  Rivers,  in 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  also  have 
very  extensive  pine  forests.  The  annual  value  of  lumber  and 

.  shingles  in  Wisconsin  is  now  more  than  ten  million  dollars.  Immense 

/ 

forests  of  good  timber  clothe  the  Cascade  and  Coast  ranges  of 
mountains  in  Oregon.  Lumbering  establishments  are  located  on 
the  Columbia  River,  and  at  points  on  the  coast,  where  inlets,  bays, 
and  arms  of  the  sea  provide  safe  anchorage  for  small  craft,  and 
where  the  forests  are  easy  of  access  from  navigable  waters. '  The 
timber  adapted  to  general  lumbering  purposes  are  the  red,  white, 
and  yellow  fir,  cedar,  spruce,  and  hemlock,  also  pine  and  larch. 
The  cities  and  coast  valleys  of  California,  being  destitute  of  tim¬ 
ber,  rely  on  the  saw-mills  of  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory  for 
building,  fencing,  bridge,  wharf,  and  ship  timber.  Besides  home 


LUMBER  AND  LUMBERING. 


825 


markets  for  Oregon  lumber,  it  is  sent  to  the  seaports  of  Mexico, 
South  America,  Sandwich  Islands,  China,  Japan,  and  Australia. 
Cargoes  of  lumber  have  been  shipped  from  the  Columbia  River  to 
New  York  and  Liverpool  with  profit. 

Extensive  lumbering  establishments  are  now  in  operation  on  the 
southern  boundary  of  Oregon.  Three  large  mills  there  have  a 
joint  capacity  of  seventy-five  thousand  feet  of  miscellaneous  lum¬ 
ber  every  ten  hours  when  in  running  order.  They  are  all  driven 
by  steam.  They  produce  about  twenty  million  feet  annually.  At 
Portland  there  are  three  mills  having  a  joint  capacity  of  forty-five 
thousand  feet  in  ten  hours.  The  machinery  consists  of  the  ordinary 
double  circular,  edgers,  trimmers,  lath  saws,  slab  saws,  and  the 
necessary  planing  and  dressing  machines  to  meet  the  wants  of 
the  market  for  dressed  lumber.  All  are  driven  by  steam  power. 

By  the  Congressional  Report  for  1869,  it  appears  that  the  saw¬ 
mills  of  the  Columbia,  like  those  of  other  places  in  Oregon  and 
Washington  Territory,  using  both  water  and  steam  power,  manu¬ 
facture  and  send  to  market  every  year  a  large  quantity  of  lumber 
of  every  kind.  The  sloping  hill-sides  for  a  distance  of  a  hundred 
miles  are  clothed  with  a  dense  growth,  to  the  water’s  edge,  of  all 
kinds  of  timber  common  to  the  North-west  coast.  Experienced 
lumbermen  estimate  that  the  timber  within  one  mile  of  the  navi¬ 
gable  waters  of  the  Columbia  River,  suitable  for  saw-logs,  cannot 
be  exhausted  by  the  saw-mill  force  now  in  operation  during  the 
present  generation.  A  hundred  thousand  feet  of  lumber  have  been 
taken  from  an  acre  of  ground,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  six  to 
eight  thousand  feet  to  be  taken  from  a  single  tree. 

In  view  of  the  approaching  scarcity  of  lumber  in  what  have  been 
hitherto  regarded  as  good  timber  countries,  the  great  resources 
in  the  vast  forests  of  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory  give 
promise  of  an  abundant  supply  for  many  years,  probably  for  many 
generations. 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


THE  EARLY  DISCOVERY  OF  TIIE  ART.  —  THE  EGYPTIAN  TRADITION  THAT  IT  WAS 

DIVINELY  TAUGHT.  - THE  ART  AMONG  OTHER  NATIONS  OF  ANTIQUITY. - THE 

CHINESE  AND  JAPANESE. — THE  DISTINCTION  BETWEEN  POTTERY  AND  PORCE¬ 
LAIN. —  ETRUSCAN  AND  GRECIAN  VASES.  —  THE  PORTLAND  VASE.  — JOSIAII 
WEDGEWOOD.  —  THE  NATIVES  OF  PERU  AS  POTTERS.  —  THE  RENAISSANCE  OF 
THE  ART  OF  POTTERY  IN  EUROPE. — THE  DELFT  WARE  OF  THE  DUTCH.  —  THE 
ESTABLISHMENT  OF  SOME  OF  THE  FAMOUS  MANUFACTORIES  OF  EUROPE.  —  THE 

INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  POTTERS*  ART  AMONG  THE  AMERICAN  COLONIES. - 

THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  PORCELAIN. 

Oxe  of  the  earliest  arts  attained  by  mankind  was  that  of  making 
pottery.  The  Egyptians  themselves  had,  in  the  time  of  Herodotus, 
who  lived  and  wrote  nearly  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  so  lost 
the  knowledge  of  when  they  first  became  acquainted  with  this  art, 
that  they,  as  is  usual  with  a  semi-civilized  peo]jle,  ascribed  its  origin 
to  the  teaching*of  some  divinity. 

In  Egypt,  the  Hebrews  were  kept  at  making  brick,  and  in  their 
escape  from  the  land  ol  bondage  They  unquestionably  carried  with 
them  the  knowledge  ol  this  art  and  its  allied  manufacture  of  pot¬ 
tery.  The  frequent  use  in  the  Old  Testament  of  the  terms  taken 
fiom  this  indust l),  and  the  numerous  cases  in  which  figures  are 
draw  n  from  articles  of  pottery,  show,  if  such  a  proof  were  needed, 
that  the  manufacture  was  "well  established  among  the  Jew's,  and 
that  domestic  articles  of  pottery  were  in  very  common  use. 

In  the  East,  utensils  are  often  made#of  pottery,  of  a  size  so  large 
that  we  w'ould  hardly  think  of  making  them  from  any  material  less 
strong  than  wood  or  metal.  In  the  story,  of  the  Forty  Thieves,  in 
the  Arabian  Alights ,  the  robbers  conceal  themselves  in  jars. 
Reading  this,  as  a  child,  the  writer  wns  struck  w  ith  the  evident 
absmdity  ot  a  mans  concealing  himself  in  such  a  sized  jar  as  are 
usually  seen  in  this  country.  I  he  consistency  ot  the  story  becomes 
plainly  evident,  however,  when  first  the  jars  in  use  in  the  East  for 

storing  oil  or  wine  are  seen.  These  are  frequently  almost  as  hiirh 
(826)  *  6 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


827 


as  a  man,  and,  being  proportionately  broad,  would  afford  most 
handy  and  convenient  places  for  concealment. 

While  the  knowledge  of  pottery  was  so  widely  diffused  among 
the  nations  of  antiquity,  yet  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  are  the  only 
nations  who  seem  to  have  had  any  knowledge,  long  ago,  of  the  art 
of  making  porcelain ;  and  by  both  of  these  nations  this  art  was  car¬ 
ried,  at  an  early  period,  to  the  high  pitch  of  perfection  which  their 
products  of  this  kind  still  hold.  The  distinction  between  the  pro¬ 
ducts  of  these  two  processes  is  evident  to  every  person  with  the 
least  habit  of  observation.  Pottery  is  made  from  baked  clay ;  and 
though  sometimes  glazed,  yet  it  is  always  opaque,  —  while  porcelain, 
though  its  chief  ingredient  is  the  same  substance,  yet  it  is  mixed 
with  some  fusible  material  which,  combining  with  the  infusible  clay, 
results  in  making  a  semi-translucent  substance,  which  is  afterwards 
glazed,  and  otherwise  decorated. 

Of  each  of  these  substances,  of  either  pottery  or  porcelain,  there 
are  several  varieties,  which  differ  from  each  other  by  small,  often¬ 
times  by  almost  imperceptible,  distinctions  or  grades,  but  all  of 
which  can  still  be  classed  under  one  or  the  other  of  these  heads. 
These  distinctions  arise  from  the  various  proportions  in  which  the 
ingredients  are  mixed,  or  from  the  various  processes  they  undergo 
in  the  manufacture,  the  degree  of  heat  to  which  they  are  subjected, 
its  continuance,  or  to  some  other  cause. 

Among  the  ancients,  the  most  celebrated  manufactories  of  pot¬ 
tery  were  those  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Etruscans,  who  were  settled 
in  Italy  before  the  Romans  dominated  that  country,  and  who  de¬ 
rived  their  methods  and  style  of  decoration  of  their  vases  from 
the  Greeks,  either  by  way  of  commercial  intercourse  with  Greece, 
or  directly  by  the  settlement  of  Grecian  artists  among  *  them¬ 
selves. 

When  we  reflect  how  very  fragile  this  pottery  ware  is,  it  seems 
surprising  that  the  immense  quantities  of  it  now  gathered  in 
the  various  museums  of  Europe  should  have  been  preserved  so 
Ion  or,  and  through  the  various  accidents  of  war  which  have  charac- 
terized  the  history  of  the  rise  and  destruction  of  the  various  nations 
of  Europe  during  the  period  of  modern  history.  But  its  preserva¬ 
tion  is  accounted  for  when  we  reflect  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the 
nations  of  antiquity  to  bury,  frequently,  numbers  of  these  vases  and 
other  vessels  in  the  tombs  of  their  dead  ;  and  that  even  to-day,  in 
the  recent  excavations,  numerous  specimens  are  still  found.  These 
vases  and  other  vessels  are  frequently  decorated  with  figures,  and 

48 


828 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


form  the  most  valuable  data  for  the  study  of  the  customs,  the  cos¬ 
tume,  and  the  manners  of  the  extinct  races  who  made  them. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  and  celebrated  of  these  vases  is  that 
known  as  the  Barberini  or  Portland  vase ;  the  original  of  which 
now'  forms  one  of  the  chief  treasures  of  the  British  Museum.  It  is 
a  vase  about  fifteen  inches  high.  It  is  covered  with  a  thin  covering 
of  a  beautiful  dark  blue,  upon  which  the  figures  are  raised  in  white. 
Fifty  copies  of  it  were  made  by  Wedge  wood,  the  famous  manufac¬ 
turer  of  ornamental  pottery  and  porcelain,  which  were  sold  to  sub¬ 
scribers  at  ten  guineas  each.  Though  this  did  not  reimburse 
Wedge  wood  for  the  expense  of  making  these  copies,  ygt  it  was  in 
doing  this  that  he  discovered  a  method  for  imitating  the  charming 
color  and  the  perfect  surface  of  this  kind  of  ware,  for  which  his 
factory  afterwards  became  so  famous,  and  the  secret  for  the  com¬ 
position  of  which  is  still  preserved  by  his  descendants. 

To  give  anything  like  a  description  of  the  remains  of  ancient 
pottery  which  have  come  down  to  us,  or  of  the  knowledge  gained 
from  their  study  of  the  manners  of  the  people,  is  impossible,  —  since 
to  do  so  would  be  to  condense  an  entire  literature  into  the  compass 
of  a  few  lines.  Among  the  number  of  w'orks  upon  the  subject  we 
W'ill  mention,  however,  only  Birch’s  History  of  Ancient  Pottery 
as  most  readily  within  the  reach  of  those  desirous  of  pursuing  the 
subject  further. 

In  China,  the  manufacture  of  porcelain  first  supplied  the  demands 
of  Europe,  so  that  the  name  “  china  ”  lias  become  the  term  in  ordi¬ 
nary  use  for  our  cups  and  plates.  The  Chinese  themselves  ascribe 
the  invention  of  pottery  to  the  Emperor  Iloang-ti  in  2700  B.  C.,  and 
that  of  porcelain  to  the  year  185  B.  C.  Porcelain  in  China  is  used 
not  only  for  domestic  but  also  for  architectural  purposes.  M.  Stan¬ 
islas  Julien,  a  distinguished  French  scholar  of  the  Chinese  language, 
has  translated  into  French  a  Chinese  history  of  the  manufacture  of 
porcelain,  from  which  much  information  can  be  gained,  not  only  by 
the  general  reader,  but  also  by  those  practically  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  themselves. 

Among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Peru  and  some  other  countries 
of  South  America,  pottery  had,  at  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards,  at¬ 
tained  quite  a  development.  In  their  almost  total  destruction  of  the 
civilization  which  they  found  flourishing  in  these  countries  the 
Spaniards  did  not  spare  the  evidences  of  this  art.  But  with  the  in¬ 
quiring  spirit  of  modern  times,  and  the  new  desire  to  study  and 
preserve  the  remaining  records  of  the  past  history  of  man’s  actions 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


820 


tipon  this  planet,  the  subject  of  the  proficiency  of  the  South 
American  nations  in  the  arts  has  excited  its  share  of  attention,  and 
exceedingly  interesting  collections  of  their  pottery  have  been  made. 
One  of  the  best  of  these  is  in  possession  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  and  is  there  open  to  the  inspection  of  the  public. 

The  pottery  made  in  Peru  to-day  is  far  inferior  in  finish  and 
decoration  to  that  made  before  the  Spaniards  brought  their  degen¬ 
erating  civilization  there.  Ewbank,  in  his  Life  in  Brazil ,  gives 
illustrations  of  some  of  the  ancient  pottery  vessels  which  have  been 
preserved,  and  calls  attention  to  some  of  the  forms  now  in  traditional 
use  there,  as  worthy  of  imitation  by  other  more  advanced  nations. 
He  speaks  especially  of  the  jug  made  for  keeping  water,  which  is 
called  a  “  monkey.”  This  is  made  as  a  closed  vessel,  with  two 
spouts ;  a  larger  one  for  pouring  out  the  water,  and  a  smaller  one 
for  admitting  the  necessary  supply  of  air.  The  texture  of  this  ves¬ 
sel  is  made  porous,  so  that  the  outside  surface  is  kept  constantly 
moist  by  the  exudation  of  the  water,  while  the  rest  of  the  contents 
are  thus  cooled  by  the  evaporation  of  this  moisture  from  the  outside 
of  the  vessel. 

With  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Empire  the  art  of  making' 
decorative  pottery  disappeared  from  Europe,  but  was  first  brought 
back  into  Spain  by  the  Arabs  when  they  obtained  a  foothold  in  that 
country,  in  the  eighth  century,  and  into  Sicily  in  the  next  century. 
From  this  last  point  the  art  spread  into  Italy,  and  during  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  reached  a  high  state  of  develop¬ 
ment.  During  this  time  flourished  the  manufactories  of  majolica 
ware,  so  called,  it  is  supposed,  from  the  fact  that  the  Moors  had 
made  a  ware  somewhat  similar,  in  the  island  of  Majorca.  To  the 
decoration  of  this  ware  distinguished  artists  devoted  themselves, 
and  Raphael  is  supposed  to  have  prepared  the  designs  for  some  of 
the  pieces,  such  as  large  platters  and  other  vessels.  So  artistically 
was  this  ware  decorated,  and  such  a  wealth  of  ornament  was  lavished 
upon  it,  that  its  original  intention  for  domestic  use  was  lost  sight  of 
entirely,  and  the  plates,  the  cups,  the  vases,  and  other  vessels,  came 
to  be  valued  and  used'  only  as  luxuries  of  decoration. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  Dutch,  who,  from  their  commercial 
relations  with  Japan,  had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  introducing 
Japanese  ware  into  Europe,  commenced  the  manufacture  of  glazed 
pottery  ware,  which  was  extensively  used  in  Europe.  It  was  known 
as  Delft  ware,  from  the  fact  of  its  being  manufactured  in  and  near 
this  place. 


830 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


The  manufactory  of  porcelain  was  introduced  into  Saxony  in 
1709,  by  Bottcher,  who  had  by  experiment  succeeded  in  inventing  a 
genuine  white  porcelain.  The  elector,  Frederic  Augustus,  was  so 
pleased  with  it  that  he  established  at  W eissen  a  factory  for  its  pro¬ 
duction,  placing  Bottcher  at  the  head  of  it.  This  was  the  origin  of 
the  manufacture  of  Dresden  china,  which  is  still  successfully  carried 
on,  and  is  still  so  highly  valued. 

In  1720  and  1751  the  works  were  established  at  Vienna  and  at 
Dresden,  which  are  still  in  operation.  In  1735  similar  establish¬ 
ments  were  put  in  operation  in  Chantilly,  France ;  in  1745  at  Vin¬ 
cennes,  and  in  1754  at  Sevres,  at  which  the  famous  Sevres  china  is 
made.  These  royal  manufactories,  inaugurated  under  royal  patron¬ 
age,  were  of  course  for  the  production  chiefly  of  wmres  for  royal 
consumption.  While  it  is  of  course  desirable  and  advantageous  to 
improve  any  branch  of  industry,  and  to  experiment  in  ifnproved 
methods  and  processes  of  manufacture,  without  being  restrained  by 
the  practical  question  “will  it  pay?”  yet  still  industrial  enterprises 
founded  and 'conducted  upon  these  principles  can  hardly  be  counted 
among  a  nation’s  industries.  They  are  in  the  practical  struggle  for 
life  which  characterizes  the  intense  action  of  the  social  forces  of 
to-day,  what  greenhouse  culture  is  to  the  practical  agriculture  of 
to-day. 

There  is  no  objection,  in  fact  there  may  be  a  positive  advantage, 
in  having  some  rich  men  raise  strawberries  in  January  by  a  system 
of  forcing-houses,  or  cultivate  pineapples  under  glass,  at  an  expense 
of  a  dollar  for  each  berry,  or  ten  dollars  for  each  pineapple.  The 
successful  results  of  such  experiments  show  at  least  what  human 
energy  and  science  can  attain,  and  when  carefully  and  judiciously 
done,  they  may  add  valuable  material  to  our  stock  of  knowledge, 
but,  as  agricultural  experiments,  they  certainly  have  but  small  effect 
in  cheapening  the  food  of  nations.  The  rich  man  may  congratulate 
himself  upon  the  cheapness  of  his  strawberries  at  fifty  dollars  a 
plate,  and  find  that  he  gets  more  satisfaction  from  squandering  a 
portion  of  his  superfluity  in  this  way  than*in  some  other  display  of 
extravagant  luxury,  and  perhaps  he  may  be  right ;  but  certainly  he 
cannot  lay  any  claim  to  have  provided  fruit  for  the  million,  or  to 
have  raised  the  standard  of  the  supply  of  food  for  the  poor. 

The  enterprises  undertaken  to  attain  this  object  must  be  con¬ 
ceived  in  a  different  spirit  and  carried  on  by  a  different  method.  A 
workman  in  the  manufactory  at  Sevres  has  done  a  good  day’s  work 
when  tie  has  made  from  fifteen  to  twenty  plates  in  a  day;  but  in  the 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


831 


same  time  an  English  potter,  with  the  aid  of  two  hoys,  makes 
from  one  thousand  to  twelve  hundred  plates,  while  an  American,  by 
the  aid  of  improved  appliances,  increases  even  this  production,  and 
of  necessity  cheapens  their  cost  in  the  same  ratio,  and  thus  enlarges 
the  field  for  their  consumption.  A  national  industry  must  look 
to  the  people  for  the  purchasers  of  its  products,  and  with  the 
people  the  question  of  cost  is  of  the  first  importance. 

The  manufacturer  who  has  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  England 
in  so  cheapening  earthenware  and  porcelain  as  to  have  inaugurated 
the  present  almost  universal  use  of  this  ware  was  Josiah  Wedge- 
wood,  wdio  has  already  been  mentioned.  Those  of  us  who  have  not 
yet  reached  the  Psalmist’s  term  of  life  can  remember  the  time  when 
a  china  or  earthenware  plate  was  a  luxury.  In  the  kitchens  and 
dining-rooms  of  New  England,  some  fifty  years  ago,  the  housewife 
was  proud  of  her  store  of  pewter,  and  the  well-polished  platters  of 
this  material  occupied  then  the  shelves  now  filled  with  earthenware. 

The  chief  pottery  manufactories  of  England  are  in  Staffordshire, 
and  occupy  the  same  spots  in  which  pottery  was  made  during  the 
Roman  occupation  of  England.  Here  at  Burslem,  a  little  town, 
Josiah  Wedgewood  was  born  in  1730.  When  he  was  about  thirty 
he  commenced  the  manufacture  of  a  peculiar  cream-colored  ware, 
which  became  very  popular  under  the  name  of  “  Queen’s  ware.” 
This  title  was  given  to  it  by  the  fact  that  Queen  Charlotte  was 
gracious  enough  to  accept  a  present  from  him  of  some  sets  of  it,  and 
conferred  on  their  maker  the  title  of  “  Queen’s  Potter.”  The  business 
so  increased  that  in  1859  the  exportations  of  pottery  from  Stafford¬ 
shire  amounted  in  value  to  nearly  thirteen  millions  of  dollars,  while 
this  industry  supports  over  sixty  thousand  operatives  in  a  territory 
of  about  ten  square  miles. 

Among  the  first  settlers  of  this  country  in  Virginia,  potters  are 
mentioned,  and  in  A  Perfect  Description  of  Virginia,  published  in 
1649,  they  are  enumerated  among  the  tradesmen  who  lived  well 
there  and  gained  much  by  their  labor  and  art.  The  Indians  found 
here  by  the  colonists  had  themselves  a  rude  knowledge  of  pottery, 
and  used  the  clay  common  in  the  country  for  making  their  pipes, 
although  they  do  not  appear  to  have  carried  the  art  much  fur¬ 
ther. 

The  Dutch  in  their  settlement  of  New  York  and  the  adjacent 
country  very  soon  introduced  the  making  of  pottery,  and  some  of 
the  ware  made  during  their  possession  of  the  territory,  in  Long 
Island,  was  said  by  contemporary  authorities,  quoted  in  O’Calligan’s 


832 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


New  Netherlands ,  to  have  been  not  inferior  to  that  made  in  Delft. 
Other  manufactories  of  pottery  ware  were  established  in  the  various 
colonies,  and  the  art  was  so  well  understood,  that,  if  the  natural 
location  of  the  materials  required  offered  the  opportunity,  every  new 
settlement  made  for  itself  the  pottery  needed  for  its  own  consump¬ 
tion;  so  that  in  1790,  Hamilton,  in  his  report  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  mentions  pottery  ware  as  one  of  the  most  considerable 
branches  of  industry  throughout  the  country,  and  as  having  come 
the  nearest  towards  supplying  the  demand. 

Within  this  century  the  manufacture  of  porcelain  has  been  intro¬ 
duced  into  this  country,  and  has  become  an  important  industry.  An 
extensive  bed  of  kaolin e  or  decomposed  felspar  Avas  discovered  in 
1810,  at  Monkton,  in  Addison  County,  Vt.,  and  a  company  was 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  making  porcelain  from  it.  Other  beds 
of  the  same  material  were  also  discovered  at  other  localities  in  the 
State,  and  elsewhere,  and  the  business  began  to  attract  more  atten¬ 
tion.  In  1819  the  manufacture  of  fine  porcelain  was  commenced  in 
New  York,  from  domestic  materials,  by  Dr.  II.  Mead.  In  18*27 
William  Ellis  Tucker,  whose  warehouse  was  situated  at  40  North 
Fifth  Street,  in  Philadelphia,  had  brought  the  manufacture  of  china 
or  porcelain  to  an  extensive  and  successful  point  of  development; 
and  in  this  year  the  business  was  commenced  near  Pittsburg,  where 
clay  of  a  suitable  character  was  discovered  by  a  company  of  Eng¬ 
lish  potters,  who  had  come  over  for  the  purpose.  A  porcelain- 
factory  was  also  in  successful  operation  at  this  time  in  Jersey  City, 
near  New  York,  employing  about  one  hundred  operatives,  and 
working  with  a  capital  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

In  Chester  County,  Penn.,  a  fine  bed  of  kaolin  was  worked  up 
by  Mr.  Tucker,  who  has  already  been  mentioned,  who,  in  1825, 
began  the  first  factory  in  this  country  of  American  queen’s  ware, 
and  who,  by  successive  steps  of  improvement,  had  succeeded  in 
producing  wares  wliiclT,  for  coloring,  gilding,  and  other  decorations, 
were  claimed  to  be  second  only  to  those  of  France.  With  others, 
he  formed  the  American  Porcelain  Company,  and  after  his  death 
the  undertaking  was  carried  on  by  Thomas  Hemphill. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  business  has  steadily  increased  until 
the  value  of  the  pottery  and  stoneware,  by  the  census  of  1860, 
reached  a  total  of  nearly  three  millions  of  dollars,  and,  by  the  last 
census,  of  over  five  millions  of  dollars,  while  the  porcelain  ware  pro¬ 
duced  was  valued  at  over  a  million  and  a  half.  Nor  lias  the  advance 
been  characterized  only  by  the  increasing  quantity  produced  to 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


833 


satisfy  the  increased  demand,  but  also  by  increasing  artistic  skill  in 
the  decoration  and  in  the  forms  used. 

The  necessity  in  the  modern  world  for  a  scientific  and  artistic 
education  of  those  practically  engaged  in  such  industrial  pursuits  as 
call  for  the  display  of  knowledge  and  art  is  shown  as  much  in  the 
production  of  porcelain  as  in  any  industrial  employment,  and  has 
been  more  fully  recognized  in  England  than  in  this  country.  The 
various  industrial  exhibitions  of  Europe  showed  the  manufacturers 
of  England  so  conclusively  the  commercial  value  of  scientific  knowl¬ 
edge  and  artistic  training  in  the  competition  for  supplying  the  de¬ 
mand  for  wares  displaying  these  qualities,  in  the  increasing  culture 
of  modern  times,  that  they  interested  themselves  in  affording  the 
opportunity  for  obtaining  these ;  and  the  result  has  been  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  the  Kensington  Art  Museum,  with  its  series  of  practical 
schools,  the  effect  of  whose  teachings  has  been  already  most  marked 
by  raising  the  artistic  standard  of  various  departments  of  English 
manufactures. 

In  this  country,  as  yet,  the  necessity  for  the  general  diffusion  of 
artistic  and  scientific  education  has  not  been  so  fully  realized  as  to 
have  given  rise  to  any  practical  steps  for  its  organization ;  but  the 
subject  is  exciting  attention,  and  the  contemporaneous  propositions 
in  New  York,  Boston,  Baltimore,  and  other  cities,  for  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  art  museums,  in  combination  with  practical  scientific  and 
artistic  schools,  is  full  of  promise  for  the  future  that  our  artistic  cul¬ 
ture  will  keep  pace  with  our  industrial  progress. 


CARPETS. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  CARPETS  IN  THE  EAST.  —  THE  NATURAL  REASONS  FOR  THEIR 
USE  IN  WARM  COUNTRIES.  — THE  MAGICAL  PROPERTIES  ASCRIBED  TO  CAR¬ 
PETS  IN  THE  EAST.  —  CARPETS  AMONG  THE  EGYPTIANS.  —  THE  PERSIAN 
CARPETS.  —  CARPETS  AMONG  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS.  —  THE  INTRODUC¬ 
TION  OF  CARPETS  IN  EUROPE.  —  HOUSES  AT  THE  TIME  OF  QUEEN  ELIZA¬ 
BETH. —  CARPETS  IN  FRANCE.  —  THE  FIRST  CARPET  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

—  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  —  ERASTUS  B.  BIGELOW. 

—  THE  PROBABLE  FUTURE  OF  CARPETS. 

According  to  the  best  authorities,  the  manufacture  and  use  of 
carpets  originated  in  the  East.  It  was  but  natural  that  this  should 
be  so.  The  domestic  customs  of  the  people,  their  mode  of  sitting 
or  reclining  upon  the  floor,  instead,  as  we  do,  upon  chairs  or 
couches  raised  above  it,  made  the  necessity  for  some  covering  for 
the  floor  more  apparent ;  and  as  necessity  is  the  mother  of  inven¬ 
tion,  carpets,  or,  as  we  should  rather  call  them,  rugs,  were  always, 
and  are  still,  one  of  the  chief  articles  of  domestic  wealth  in  the 
East. 

The  open-air  life  so  common  to  the  nations  of  the  East  was  also 
another  cause  for  their  use  of  carpets.  Reclining  as  they  do 
under  the  shade  of  trees,  lying  sheltered  from  the  sun  in  the  cool 
shadow  of  their  gardens,  and  at  the  close  of  the  day  seeking  the 
fresh  evening  air  upon  the  house  tops,  the  necessity  for  some  tex¬ 
ture  upon  which  to  recline  must  early  have  been  met  by  carpets. 
The  importance  attached  to  the  carpet  in  the  East  is  shown  by  the 
stories  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  ascribing  magical  powers  to  it.  To 
the  wonders  of  fairy-land  it  is  what  the  railroad  and  telegraph  are 
to  modern  science.  By  it  time  and  space  were  annihilated,  and 
t  ie  fortunate  possessor  of  one  of  these  wonderful  fabrics  had  only 
to  seat  himself  upon  it  and  wish  to  be  transported  to  any  distant 
spot,  to  find  himself  there.  In  fact,  the  carpet  plays  a  role  in  every 
phase  of  Eastern  life,  and  it  is  as  impossible  to  separate  the  idea 
(834) 


CARPETS. 


835 


of  a  Persian,  a  Turk,  or  a  Hindoo  from  his  carpet,  as  it  is  to  sepa¬ 
rate  a  Frenchman  from  his  cafe,  or  an  Englishman  from  his  umbrella. 

Among  the  Egyptians,  the  Babylonians,  and  the  Assyrians,  the 
use  of  embroidered  carpets  and  of  woven  hangings  was  equally 
common,  and  they  carried  the  art  of  their  decoration  to  a  high 
point  of  perfection,  while  each  of  these  nations,  as  in  their  archi¬ 
tecture,  and  all  their  decorative  industry,  displayed  in  the  patterns 
of  their  carpets  peculiarities  which  make  the  style  of  each  of  them 
distinct  and  easily  recognized  from  every  other.  In  Persia,  from 
the  earliest  times,  their  carpets  have  been  distinguished  for  their 
patterns,  made  by  a  combination  of  simple,  .bright  colors,  put  to¬ 
gether  apparently  without  any  definite  method,  and  in  irregular 
forms,  but  which  are  really  arranged  with  an  instinctive  eye  to 
harmony  of  effect,  and  so  successfully  managed  that  they  have  all 
over  the  East,  and  in  Europe  also,  a  high  value. 

Among  the  Hebrews,  carpets  and  hangings  were  in  frequent 
use.  In  Exodus,  the  directions  given  for  the  hangings  of  the 
tabernacle  and  the  court  “  of  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and 
fine  twilled  linen  wrought  with  needle-work,”  show  conclusively 
that  the  art  of  decorating  and  adorning  fabrics  of  this  kind  had 
even  then  reached  a  point  of  high  development. 

In  Greece,  the  use  of  carpets  as  coverings  for  the  floor  is  men¬ 
tioned  by  Homer,  and  the  web  of  embroidery  which  Penelope  was 
engaged  on  every  day,  and  ravelled  every  night,  so  as  to  keep  the 
suitors  for  her  hand  at  bay  until  the  return  of  her  faithful  Ulysses, 
was  intended  to  serve  either  as  a  hanging  for  the  walls  or  as  a 
covering  for  the  couch  or  for  the  floor.  At  the  banquets  of  the 
Greeks,  and  of  the  Romans,  who  obtained  most  of  their  luxuries 
from  imitation  of  the  Greeks,  the  use  of  splendidly  embroidered 
coverings  for  the  couches  upon  which  the  guests  reclined  was 
carried  to  a  pitch  of  wasteful  extravagance.  No  material  was 
considered  too  precious  or  costly  for  this  use.  Gold,  silver,  and 
precious  stones  were  used  in  profusion  to  decorate  fabrics  made 
of  silk,  of  velvet,  of  the  finest  cashmere  wools,  or  of  camePs  hair. 

In  Europe,  the  use  of  carpets  is  of  comparatively  quite  recent 
date,  and  though  their  manufacture  by  the  improved  machinery  of 
modern  times  has  so  cheapened  their  cost  as  to  put  them  within 
the  reach  of  many,  yet  they  are  by  no  means  considered  as  indis¬ 
pensable  an  article  of  household  necessity  as  they  are  here  in  the 
United  States.  In  this  respect,  as  with  the  ballot,  and  the  per¬ 
sonal  responsibility  of  the  people  in  the  government,  the  United 


836 


CARPETS. 


States  have  made  rights  and  luxuries  universal,  which  in  the  old 
world  are  confined  to  the  privileged  classes. 

The  use  of  costly  and  elaborate  tapestries  for  the  decoration  of 
the  walls  was  common  in  the  palaces  of  Europe,  while  the  floors 
were  either  bare  or  covered  with  rushes  —  a  kind  of  grass  much  re¬ 
sembling  our  rank  meadow  hay.  Even  as  late  as  the  time  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  the  floors  of  the  royal  presence  chamber  were 
covered  with  rushqs,  and  luxury  in  this  respect  was  a  daily  renew¬ 
al  of  this  covering.  This  daily  change  of  fresh  straw  was  brought 
as  a  clfarge  of  inordinate  luxury  of  living  against  Thomas  a  Beck- 
ct.  The  filth  which  was  allowed  in  these  “good  old  times  ”  to 
accumulate  upon  the  floors,  even  in  the  palaces  and  houses  of  the 
rich,  we  can  hardly  conceive  to-day.  Erasmus,  in  his  letters, 
speaks  of  the  dampness  and  moisture  thus  kept  in  the  houses, 
and  how  prevalent  fevers,  colds,  and  diseases  of  all  kinds  are  made 
by  living  in  such  an  atmosphere.  The  rushes,  or  hay,  thus  strewed 
over  the  floor,  were  often  allowed  to  remain  until  they  rotted, 
while  the  straps  of  meat  and  food  from  the  tables,  the  mud  from 
the  shoes,  and  the  dust  which  the  careful  house  wife,  of  to-day  re¬ 
moves  so  carefully  once  or  twice  a  day,  were  allowed  to  remain 
until  they  became  the  actual  hot-beds  for  disease. 

It  is  by  no  means  a  pleasant  picture  which  Erasmus  gives  of 
such  a  floor,  over  which  the  dogs  fought  for  the  scraps  .and  bones 
they  found,  while  the  fleas  and  other  insects,  thus  disturbed,  a1> 
tacked  in  their  turn  the  legs  of  the  guests.  In  fact,  there  is  but 
little  doubt  that  the  comparative  freedom  of  modern  times  from 
the  plagues  and  pestilences  which  periodically  visited  the  society 
of  those  days,  is  caused  by  our  habits  of  greater  personal  clean¬ 
liness,  and  the  attention  given  to  public  and  private  sanitary  con¬ 
ditions. 

It  seems  the  more  singular  that  the  use  of  carpets  should  have 
been  delayed  so  long  in  England,  when  we  reflect  that  the  manu¬ 
facture  and  use  of  tapestry  were  quite  general  at  a  very  early  pe¬ 
riod.  One  of  the  most  interesting  and  historically  valuable  pieces 
of  the  tapestry  work  of  this  early  period  is  that  known  as  the 
Bayeux  tapestry,  which  was  made  in  the  time  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  under  the  direction  of  Queen  Matilda,  by  herself  and 
the  ladies  of  her  court.  The  design  of  this  most  elaborate  piece 
of  work  is  to  represent,  in  various  pictures,  the  conquest  of  Eng* 
land.  This  piece  of  work  is  in  seventy-two  divisions,  is  twenty 
inches  in  height,  and  two  hundred  and  fourteen  feet  long.  Each 


CARPETS. 


837 


of  the  divisions  contains  pictures  of  scenes  illustrative  of  the  con¬ 
quest  of  England  by  the  Normans,  and  they  are  singularly  valuable 
as  correct  representations  of  the  costumes  and  maimers  of  the  times. 
This  tapestry  is  now  the  property  of  the  town  of  Bayeax,  in 
France. 

As  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  an  attempt  was  made  to 
introduce  into  England  the  manufacture  of  tapestry  upon  a  large 
scale.  Before  this  date  England  depended  chiefly  for  its  supplies 
upon  the  Low  Countries.  Bruges,  Antwerp,  and  Arras,  —  from 
which  last  the  term  arras,  for  tapestry,  as  used  by  Shakespeare,  was 
derived, — together  with  Brussels,  and  other  cities  furnished  the 
chief  supplies.  This  first  attempt  was  unsuccessful ;  but  in  1609  a 
manufactory  was  established  at  Mortlake,  in  Surrey,  to  which 
James  I.  contributed  a  subscription  of  nearly  three  thousand 
pounds.  The  business,  however,  increased  slowly,  but  attention 
began  to  be  directed  to  it,  and  in  1757  the  Society  of  Arts  award¬ 
ed  a  prize  for  the  best  imitation  of  Turkey  carpets  to  their  sec¬ 
retary,  Mr.  Moore,  who  had  induced  some  Huguenot  refugees 
from  France  to  devote  themselves  to  this  branch  of  manufacture. 
Now  England  manufactures  carpets  which  are  used  all  over  the 
world. 

In  France  the  manufacture  of  carpets  was  begun  as  early  as  the 
reign  of  Henry  IV.,  but,  as  in  England,  the  first  attempt  was  not 
entirely  successful.  In  1664,  Colbert,  the  great  minister  of  Louis 
XIV.,  to  whose  personal  interest  France  was  indebted  for  the  in¬ 
troduction  of  so  many  new  branches  of  industry,  established  at 
Beauvais,  an  ancient  town  situated  about  forty  miles  north-west  of 
Paris,  a  manufactory  of  carpets  and  tapestry,  which  is  still  in  op¬ 
eration,  and  is  still  classed  as  second  only  to  that  of  Gobelins. 
This  manufactory,  which  was  also  established  by  Colbert  as  one 
of  the  “  royal  manufactories  of  the  furniture  of  the  crown/7  is 
still  acknowledged  universally  to  be  the  leader  of  the  world  in  the 
production  of  carpets  as  objects  of  luxury.  None  of  them  are 
sold,  but  they  are  all  used  either  for  the  decoration  of  royal  pal¬ 
aces,  or  as  presents  to  other  royal  houses.  The  weaving  is  all 
done  by  hand,  and,  as  the  designs  are  chiefly  copies  of  famous 
masterpieces  of  painting,  the  work  necessarily  requires  more  artis¬ 
tic  than  simply  mechanical  ability  for  its  execution,  and  is  both 
costly  and  slow.  A  square  yard  is  considered  a  fair  result  of  a 
year’s  work,  and  the  value  of  such  a  piece  is  about  seven  hundred 
dollars.  The  largest  single  piece  of  work  ever  made  here  was  a 


838 


CARPETS. 


carpet  for  the  Louvre,  which  measured  about  thirteen  hundred  feet 
in  length,  and  was  composed  of  seventy-two  separate  pieces. 

In  the  United  States,  it  is  traditionally  reported  that  the  first 
carpet  ever  used  in  a  private  house  was  one  found  in  that  of  Cap¬ 
tain  William  Kidd,  the  famous  pirate,  who  was  executed  in  1701. 
This  was  probably  some  small  Eastern  rug,  which  he  had  taken 
from  some  one  of  his  prizes.  From  the  files  of  New  York  papers 
of  the  year  1760  advertisements  have  been  culled,  showing  that 
Scotch  and  other  carpets  had  been  offered  for  sale  there  by  mer¬ 
chants  engaged  in  importing  from  the  mother  country.  Yet  until 
after  the  revolution  their  use  was  very  limited.  The  rag  carpet, 
of  strictly  domestic  make,  and  the  sanded  floor,  satisfied  the  de¬ 
mands  for  comfort  or  fashion  made  by  the  mothers  of  the  republic. 
The  production,  however,  of  rag  carpets  had  become  considerable, 
in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  establishment,  in  1791,  of  a 
carpet  factory  in  Philadelphia  by  William  Peter  Sprague.  Mr. 
Sprague  called  the  products  of  his  factory  Turkey  and  Axminster 
carpets,  and  wove  one  of  them,  in  which  the  design  was  the  arms 
of  the  United  States,  with  figures  emblematical  of  its  achieve¬ 
ments. 

In  his  report  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Alexander  Hamilton, 
in  1791,  recommended  that  the  duty  of  five  per  cent,  upon  import¬ 
ed  carpets  should  be  increased  by  two  and  a  half  per  cent.,  as  a 
further  protection  to  this  branch  of  home  industry.  The  census 
of  1810  returned  nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighty-four  yards 
of  carpetings  and  coverlets  as  the  amount  of  tliai  year’s  produc¬ 
tion  in  the  United  States.  Of  this,  seven  thousand  five  hundred 
and  one  yards  were  made  in  Philadelphia,  at  a  valuation  of  about 
a  dollar  a  yard,  and  seven  hundred  and  fifty  yards  in  Harford 
County,  Maryland,  at  some  little  over  three  dollars  a  yard. 

Up  to  this  time,  however,  the  weaving  of  carpets,  both  in  this 
country  and  in  England,  had  been  done  entirely  by  hand.  American 
invention  had  been  turned  in  the  direction  of  improving  the  looms 
in  ordinary  use,  and  before  1840  several  patents  had  been  granted 
for  looms  to  weave  carpets,  but  even  then  only  carpets  of  the 
simplest  kinds.  The  problem  of  making  a  power  loom  which 
should  automatically  perform  so  apparently  difficult  a  task  as  to 
weave  a  two-ply  web,  so  as  to  produce  any  required  pattern,  had 
in  England  been  abandoned  as  insolvable.  It  was,  however,  solved 
by  Mr.  Erastus  B.  Bigelow,  of  Massachusetts,  who  also  invented 
a  loom  for  the  manufacture  of  Brussels  carpets.  Ilis  improved 


CARPETS. 


839 


loom,  by  which  figures  were  produced  which  would  match,  was 
patented  in  1845. 

By  the  introduction  of  these  looms  in  manufactories  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  and  Connecticut,  carpets  were  so  greatly  cheapened  as  to 
be  brought  within  the  reach  of  almost  every  one,  and  would  be  so 
now  were  it  not  for  the  working  of  our  tariff,  which  so  enhances 
the  cost  of  all  the  materials  used  in  their  production,  that  the 
business  of  carpet  manufacture  is,  of  necessity,  nearly  abam 
doned. 

Besides  carpets  of  wool,  straw  carpets,  imported  generally  from 
the  East,  are  largely  used,  on  account  of  the  fresh  and  cool  air 
they  give  to  a  room  in  summer.  Carpets  of  hemp  were  also  intro¬ 
duced  a  few  years  ago,  but  the  rapidity  with  which  they  wore  out 
has  caused  their  almost  total  abandonment.  Carpets  are  also 
made  of  canvas  painted,  known  as  oil  cloth,  and  an  imitation  of 
this,  made  of  painted  paper,  is  also  largely  used.  The  so  general 
use  of  carpets  was  a  necessity  some  few  years  ago  from  the  fact 
that  the  floors  of  our  houses  were  generally  built  of  such  poor  ma¬ 
terial,  and  in  such  a  shiftless  manner,  that  the  floor  was  too  un¬ 
sightly  to  be  left  exposed.  Within  a  short  time,  however,  with 
greater  attention  paid  to  the  construction  of  our  floors,  having 
them  properly  laid  in  narrow  boards,  which  are  accurately  fitted, 
and  then  stained  and  oiled,  the  carpet  has  become  again  reduced 
to  its  proper  position  —  as  a  covering  to  the  floor,  instead  of  being 
a  concealer  of  its  defects.  A  room  thus  furnished,  with  a  well- 
made  floor,  upon  which  a  carpet  with  a  border  is  laid,  is  kept  clean 
so  much  easier,  and  looks  so  much  better  than  one  of  the  old 
style,  where  necessity  required  that  the  carpet  should  fill  every 
corner,  that  there  is  no  doubt  of  its  general  acceptance.  The 
fashion  of  our  carpets  will  then  change,  and  no  carpet  will  appear 
well  unless  it  has  a  suitable  border,  and  a  pattern  which  is  not  a 
fragment,  but  complete  in  itself. 

\ 

r 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. 


THE  USE  OF  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES  AN  INSTANCE  OF  PROGRESS.  —  THE  FIRST 
STEAM  FIRE-ENGINE.  —  THE  FIRST  ENGINE  IN  NEW  YORK.  —  THE  INTRODUC¬ 
TION  OF  STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES  IN  CINCINNATI.  —  COMPETITIVE  TRIAL  IN 
BOSTON,  MASS.  —  THE  BUTTON  ENGINE  WORKS.  —  THE  MERITS  OF  THE  STEAM 
FIRE  ENGINES  MADS  BY  THEM. — A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THEIR  SIZES  AND 
STYLES. — THE  METHOD  OF  THEIR  CONSTRUCTION.  —  THEIR  ADVANTAGES. — 
THE  DEMAND  FOR  THEM. 

There  is  hardly  any  better  instance  of  the  progress  which  civi¬ 
lization,  during  this  century,  has  made  in  using  the  forces  of  na¬ 
ture,  for  purposes  of  its  own  benefit,  than  the  introduction  of  the 
steam  fire  engine.  To  thus  make  fire  the  means  for  subduing 
itself  is  a  very  striking  evidence  of  how  the  increasing  knowledge 
of  mankind  has  slowly  prepared  the  materials  for  our  domination 
of  Nature,  and  led  us  to  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  Nature’s 
forces  are  not  our  enemies,  but  our  friends,  if  we  only  know  how 
to  use  them  properly. 

Elsewhere  in  this  volume,  under  the  head  of  Fire  Department 
Supplies,  a  sketch  has  been  given  of  the  growth  of  our  appliances 
for  subduing  fires,  and  the  improvements  in  our  methods  for  mas¬ 
tering  a  conflagration.  Of  these  the  chief  is  the  steam  fire  en¬ 
gine.  Though  the  first  attempt  to  introduce  the  use  of  steam  as 
the  motive  force  for  throwing  a  stream  of  water  from  a  fire  engine 
was  made  in  England,  yet  the  perfection  of  steam  fire  engines  and 
their  general  adoption  have  been  more  thoroughly  reached  in  the 
United  States  than  in  any  other  country. 

The  first  steam  fire  engine  was  built  in  London,  in  1830,  by  Mr. 
Braithwaite.  It  weighed  over  five  thousand  pounds,  was  of  about 
six  horse  power,  generated  steam  in  about  twenty  minutes,  and 
could  send  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  gallons  of  water  a  minute 
•  from  eighty  to  ninety  feet  high.  The  boiler  was  upright.  The 
6team  and  water  pistons  were  placed  at  opposite  ends  of  the  same 

(840) 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. 


841 


piston-rod,  the  stroke  of  each  being*  sixteen  inches,  and  their 
diameters  seven  and  a  half  and  six  inches  respectively.  The 
clumsiness  of  the  apparatus,  and  the  length  of  the  time  necessary 
to  get  up  steam,  were  the  chief  objections  made  to  this  first  steam 
fire  engine.  The  entire  feasibility,  however,  of  the  idea  of  making 
steam  fire  engines  was  settled  by  it  beyond  question,  and  the  at¬ 
tention  of  inventors,  as  well  as  that  of  the  public,  was  turned  into 
the  direction  of  so  improving  them  as  to  remove  the  objectionable 
features  of  this  first  attempt,  and  to  replace  the  cumbersome  and 
inadequate  use  of  hand  engines  for  the  extinguishing  of  fires  by 
the  more  efficacious  and  handy  use  of  steam  engines. 

In  1841  an  engine  was  built  in  New  York,  at  the  expense  of  the 
combined  fire  insurance  companies  of  that  city,  by  Mr.  Hodges, 
which  performed  good  service  upon  several  occasions  at  fires  in 
that  metropolis.  It  was  a  very  powerful  steam  fire  engine,  but  its 
extreme  weight  made  it  so  difficult  to  handle  readily  that  it  was 
finally  sold  to  be  applied  to  other  purposes. 

In  1852  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  having  resolved  to  organize  its 
fire  department  upon  the  basis  of  steam  fire  engines,  and  thus  ob¬ 
tain  at  once  the  greater  efficiency  from  their  use,  and  also,  to  do 
away  with  the  evils  incident  to  a  volunteer  fire  department,  had 
an  engine  constructed  by  Mr.  A.  B.  Latta,  which  was  finished  in 
the  early  part  of  the  next  year.  In  this  engine  the  steam  was 
used  as  a  partial  aid  to  its  propulsion,  but  its  great  weight  — 
nearly  twelve  tons  —  necessitated  also  the  use  of  four  strong 
horses  to  drag  it.  Other  lighter  ones  were  built  the  next  year, 
and  finally  all  idea  of  using  steam  in  propelling  the  steam  fire  en¬ 
gines  has  been  done  away  with  by  the  best  constructors. 

The  first  of  these  engines  built  by  Cincinnati  was  peculiar  in 
the  method  of  its  construction.  It  had  a  square  fire-box,  like  that 
of  a  locomotive  boiler,  with  a  furnace  open  at  the  top,  upon  which 
was  placed  the  chimney.  The  upper  part  of  the  furnace  was  oc¬ 
cupied  bj7-  a  continuous  coil  of  tubes  opening  into  the  steam  cham¬ 
ber  above,  while  the  lower  end  was  carried  through  the  fire-box, 
and  connected  outside  with  a  force-pump,  by  which  the  water  was 
to  be  forced  continually  through  the  tubes  throughout  the  entire 
coil.  When  the  fire  was  commenced  the  tubes  were  empty,  but 
when  they  became  sufficiently  heated  the  force-pump  was  worked 
by  hand,  and  water  forced  into  them,  generating  steam,  which  was 
almost  instantly  produced  from  the  contact  of  the  water  with  the 
hot  pipes.  Until  sufficient  steam  was  generated  to  work  the  en- 


842 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. 


gine  regularly,  the  force-pump  was  continuously  operated  by  hand, 
and  a  supply  of  water  kept  up.  By  this  means  the  time  occupied 
in  generating  steam  was  only  from  five  to  ten  minutes  ;  but  the 
objections  to  thus  heating  the  pipes  empty  and  then  introducing 
water  into  them  are  too  well  known  to  be  insisted  upon  here. 

The  engines  made  upon  this  pattern  were  complicated  and 
heavy,  but  were  efficacious,  and  led  to  their  introduction  in  other 
cities,  and  also  to  a  quite  general  establishment  in  cities  of  a  paid 
fire  department  in  place  of  the  voluntary  one,  which  had  thereto¬ 
fore  prevailed.  The  lightest  steam  fire  engine  constructed  upon 
this  method  weighed  about  ten  thousand  pounds.  It  was  carried 
to  New  York  upon  exhibition,  and  upon  a  trial  there  threw,  in 
1858,  about  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  gallons  a  minute,  play¬ 
ing  about  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  feet,  through  a  nozzle 
measuring  an  inch  and  a  quarter,  and  getting  its  water  supply  from 
a  hydrant.  The  same  engine  is  said  to  have  played  in  Cincinnati 
two  hundred  and  ten  feet,  through  a  thousand  feet  of  hose,  get¬ 
ting  its  water  supply  from  a  cistern. 

In  1858  there  was  a  competitive  trial  of  steam  fire  engines  at 
Bostop,  Mass.,  the  city  authorities  having  offered  a  premium  for 
the  engine  which  should  be  proved  the  best.  In  the  trial  there 
were  four  engines  entered  the  list :  The  Philadelphia,  which  was 
built  in  that  city  by  Messrs.  Rainey,  Neafie  &  Co.  ;  the  Lawrence, 
built  at  the  Lawrence  Machine  Shop,  in  Lawrence,  Mass.  ;  the 
Elisha  Smith,  built  by  Messrs.  Bird  &  Co.,  of  East  Boston  ;  and 
the  New  Era,  built  by  Messrs.  Hinckley  &  Drury,  of  Boston.  In 
the  order  in  which  these  are  here  named  they  weighed  7455  pounds, 
7300,  9330,  and  9415.  Charged  with  water  they  weighed  re¬ 
spectively,  in  the  same  order,  8055,  7870,  9866,  and  9915 
pounds.  In  raising  steam  from  cold  water  to  sixty  pounds’  pres¬ 
sure,  they  took  respectively  eleven  minutes  eight  seconds,  ten 
minutes  twenty-nine  and  a  half  seconds,  thirteen  minutes  fifty-one 
seconds,  and  eighteen  minutes  twenty-one  seconds.  Their  capaci¬ 
ty  was,  in  the  same  order,  three  hundred  and  six,  three  hundred 
and  two  and  a  half,  three  hundred  and  nine,  and  three  hundred  and 
forty-five  gallons  a  minute  ;  their  horizontal  distance,  playing  an 
inch  and  a  quarter  pipe,  was  one  hundred  and  sixty-three,  one 
hundred  and  fifty-four  and  a  half,  one  hundred  and  forty,  and  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  feet.  Their  vertical  throw  was  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  ten,  one  hundred  and  ten,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five, 
and  ninety  feet. 


I 


l 


LONDON  FIRE  ENGINE,  1740. 


I 


c.:a,  .  \  ■  -  ••v.  *■ 


rErsusoN  Alb** 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES,  MANUFACTURED  BY  L  BUTTON  &  SON 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. 


845 


All  of  these  engines  had  upright  tubular  boilers,  with  recipro- 
caring*  steam  pumps.  Their  general  principles  were  the  same, 
their  differences  being  simply  in  the  special  devices  used  in  their 
individual  construction.  The  pressure  of  stem"  used  in  the  trial 
was  limited  to  one  Hundred  and  t  wenty  pounds  —  a  condition  which 
operated  unfavorably  to  the  Lawrence,  waicn  was  constructed  to 
work  most  advantageously  at  a  higher  pressure.  Under  the  con¬ 
ditions  prescribed  for  the  trial,  the  Philadelphia  was  declared  the 
victor,  but  the  Lawrence  was  purchased  by  the  city  of  Boston, 
and  placed  on  duty. 

This  trial  did  much  to  call  attention  to  the  superiority  of  steam 
fire  engines,  and  various  improvements  were  introduced  into  the 
methods  of  their  construction  by  different  inventors  and  manufac¬ 
turers,  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  greater  lightness  and  efficiency 
in  their  working. 

The  improvements  which  have  been  made  in  the  construction  of 
steam  fire  engines,  and  the  point  of  perfection  at  which  this  new 
industry  has  arrived  in  the  short  course  of  the  thirty  or  forty 
years  during  which  the  idea  of  their  practical  use  has  been  in  the 
world,  can  be  made  to  best  appear  by  a  description  of  the  steam 
fire  engines  manufactured  by  the  Button  Engine  Works,  situated 
at  Waterford,  Saratoga  Co.,  N.  Y. 

The  founder  of  these  works,  Mr.  L.  Button,  has  been  so  intimately 
connected  with  the  improvements  in  the  hand  engines,  which  pre¬ 
ceded  the  use  of  the  steam  fire  engine,  as  well  as  with  thosfe  of 
these  last,  that  he  deserves  even  a  more  extended  biographical  no¬ 
tice  than  our  space  will  permit.  Commencing  his  industrial  career 
without  any  adventitious  aids  of  education,  he  entered  a  machine 
shop  in  1825,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  and  by  persistent  application 
after  his  day’s  work  was  over,  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
arithmetic,  surveying,  navigation,  natural  philosophy,  and  astron¬ 
omy.  Becoming  the  foreman  of  an  engine  machine  shop  in  1833,  he 
was  made  a  partner  the  next  year.  Turning  his  attention  to  the  im¬ 
provement  of  the  hand  fire  engines,  which  were  then  in  use,  in  1838 
Mr.  Button  produced  the  first  “  piano  engine,”  which  delivered 
the  water  from  the  front  end  of  the  trunk,  or  box.  In  1841  he 
made  the  first  pump  for  a  fire  engine,  with  valves  at  an  angle  of 
about  45°,  and  straight  level  water-ways  from  the  inlet  to  the  out¬ 
let.  In  the  same  3Tear  he  made  the  first  engine  with  folding 
brakes  and  a  vacuum  chamber.  In  1842  he  made  the  first  engine 
with  a  slotted  or  grooved  walking  beam  or  cross  bar,  by  means 

49 


846 


STEAM  EIRE  ENGINES. 


of  which  the  leverage  on  the  pump  could  be  shortened  or  length¬ 
ened,  and  the  capacity  of  the  engine  changed,  without  altering 
the  travel  of  the  brakes.  In  1848  he  made  the  first  engine  with 
the  suction  hose  always  attached,  and  carried  in  what  is  called  the 
“  squirrel  tail  ”  style ;  and  the  same  year  he  made  the  first 
“crane  neck  ”  side  stroke  engine  with  large  forward -wheels  to 
turn  under  the  frame. 

By  these  various  successive  improvements  the  reputation  of 
the  Button  engines  was  assured.  At  a  competitive  exhibition 
of  hand  fire  engines  in  Hartford;  Conn.,  in  1857,  thirty-six  en¬ 
gines  competed  for  eight  prizes.  Among  them  were  eight  Button 
engines,  five  of  which  took  prizes,  each  engine  being  limited  to  a 
single  prize. 

With  the  advent  of  the  steam  fire  engine,  Mr.  Button,  about 
eight  years  ago,  turned  his  attention  to  their  manufacture,  and 
with  the  advantage  acquired  by  the  firm  from  their  long  and  suc¬ 
cessful  attention  to  the  requirements  of  the  fire  department,  took 
immediately  a  leading  position  in  their  manufacture,  which  has 
been  maintained  by  them  ever  since  ;  the  steam  fire  engines  made 
by  Button  &  Son  being  universally  recognized  as  combining  a 
greater  variety  of  excellences  in  design,  construction,  and  effi¬ 
ciency  than  those  of  any  other  make. 

In  1834  it  was  estimated  that  there  were  in  use  in  the  United 
States  about  five  hundred  fire  engines  ;  since  that  date  the  Button 
engine  works  have  made  and  sold  about  seven  hundred  engines  — 
an  evidence  of  the  public  appreciation  of  their  excellence  which 
is  conclusive.  It  is  estimated  that  at  present  there  are  in  use 
in  the  United  States  about  three  thousand  five  hundred  fire  en¬ 
gines  of  all  kinds,  about  one  thousand  of  which  are  steam  fire 
engines,  and  that  in  the  manufacture  of  these,  and  fire  apparatus 
of  all  kinds,  there  is  a  capital  employed  of  about  $2,000,000. 

Our  illustrations  represent  a  Button  engine  in  a  side  view,  and 
also  with  the  forward  wheels  turned  at  right  angles,  showing  the 
arrangement  of  the  works  upon  the  truck,  which  enables  the  en¬ 
gine  to  turn  round  in  its  length.  These  engines  are  made  of 
three  sizes,  weighing  respectively  four  thousand,  five  thousand, 
and  six  thousand  pounds. 

The  boilers  are  upright  and  tubular.  The  tubes  are  made  of 
copper,  since  tubes  of  this  material  do  not  corrode,  and  will  last 
as  long  as  the  rest  of  the  boiler,  and  longer  than  iron  tubes,  which 
4  would  be  worn  out  in  about  three  years.  In  the  engines  of  the 


STEAM  EIRE  ENGINES. 


817 


smallest  size  there  are  two  hundred  tubes,  one  and  a  quarter  inches 
in  diameter,  and  in  the  largest  four  hundred  and  twenty  of  the 
same  dimensions.  The  boilers,  when  finished,  are  tested  under  a 
pressure  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  to  the  square  inch, 
and  thus  far  in  their  experience  no  boiler  made  by  Messrs.  Button 
&  Son  has  failed  in  any  way  to  fulfil  the  requirements.  Indeed, 
it  is  believed  that  they  would  stand  a  pressure  twice  as  great  as 
that  to  which  they  are  subjected  in  the  test.  The  working  pres¬ 
sure  of  a  steam  fire  engine  is  properly  about  eighty  pounds,  and 
with  this  an  engine  weighing  four  thousand  pounds  will  throw  a 
stream  from  a  pipe  measuring  one  and  an  eighth  inches  in  diameter 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet. 

The  engine  proper  constitutes  no  part  of  the  frame  and  running 
gear,  but  is  built  entirely  separate,  and  then  securely  fixed  in  its 
place  by  suitable  braces.  Consequently  no  undue  strain  or  jar, 
produced  by  running  over  rough  pavements,  can  possibly  affect 
the  machinery.  The  steam  cylinder  and  pump  are  preserved  in  their 
relative  positions  by  a  casting  forming  a  head  for  each.  The  crank¬ 
shaft  and  balance-wheels,  together  with  the  valve-gear,  are  also 
made  a  part  of  the  back  head  of  the  steam  cylinder.  This  ingen¬ 
ious  arrangement  is  the  joint  invention  of  Messrs.  Button  &  Son, 
and  is  patented.  Its  advantage  is  twofold,  since  the  two  cylinders 
are  thus  placed  and  held  in  perfect  line  with  each  other,  and  in  the 
second  place  a  greater  strength  and  rigidity  are  thus  attained.  The 
chief  necessity  for  having  the  cylinders  placed  in  a  perfect  right 
line  is  plainly  apparent  when  we  remember  that  the  .slightest  devi¬ 
ation  from  such  a  line  causes  a  friction  against  the  pistons  and 
piston-rods,  which  greatly  decreases  the  efficiency  of  the  engine. 

With  these  engines,  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Button  &  Son, 
qnly  five  pounds  of  steam  are  necessary  for  drawing  and  throwing 
the  water,  while  with  twenty  pounds  of  steam  they  will  draw 
water  and  throw  it,  through  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  of  hose,  to 
a  vertical  height  of  ninety  feet.  This  was  the  result  attained  in  a 
trial  before  a  committee  of  impartial  and  competent  scientific 
engineers.  A  similar  successful  performance  has  never  been  made 
by  any  other  class  of  steam  fire  engines. 

The  steam  pump  used  in  these  engines,  manufactured  by  Button 
&  Son,  is  a  very  powerful  one>  and  is  comprised  within  the  small 
circle  of  four  feet  in  its  extreme  diameter,  which  enables  the  en¬ 
gine  to  be  turned  within  its  length,  as  shown  in  the  cut.  The 
pump  is  balanced  upon  the  fore  wheels  of  the  truck,  while  the 


848 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. 


boiler  is  balanced  on  the  hind  wheels.  The  fore  and  hind  wheels 
are  placed  at  the  proper  distances  from  each  other,  and  are  kept  in 
place  by  only  a  light  crane-neck  frame  of  iron.  This  arrangement 
of  balancing,  in  connection  with  the  peculiar  adjustment  of  the 
crane-neck,  is  the  invention  of  Button  &  Son,  and  is  patented. 
The  obviously  great  advantage  of  this  arrangement  is  the  dispens¬ 
ing  of  the  “  reach, ”  which  is  always  an  obstruction  to  the  rapid 
handling  of  a  steam  fire  engine,  while  at  the  same  time  it  so 
secures  the  safety  and  durability  of  the  engine  that  a  frame,  under 
which  the  forward  wheels  can  readily  and  easily  turn,  is  an 
achievement  in  the  art  of  their  mechanical  construction  which 
may  be  said  to  be  the  chief  improvement  made  in  the  model  of 
a  steam  fire  engine,  and  to  have  chiefly  contributed  to  Messrs. 
Button  &  Son’s  eminent  success  in  taking  the  lead  in  this  special 
branch  of  manufacture. 

Every  one  who  is  practically  acquainted  with  the  working  of 
steam  fire  engines  will  recognize  how  much  this  ability  to  handle 
the  engine  readily  and  easily  contributes  to  the  quickness  of  get¬ 
ting  into  position,  and  will  thus  see  its  importance.  The  delay  in 
doing  this  is  often  the  waste  of  the  most  important  time,  when  the 
fire  is  getting  under  such  headway  as  to  be  beyond  control. 

The  cranks,  shafts,  and  piston-rods  of  these  engines  are  made 
of  Bessemer  steel,  the  best  steel  for  the  bearings  or  stuffing-boxes, 
since  it  is  much  stiffer  than  iron  of  the  same  size.  The  water  cyl¬ 
inder  of  these  engines,  the  pump  of  which  is  called  a  “  plunger, ” 
is  so  constructed  that,  when  the  necessary  piston-packing  wears 
out,  it  may  be  speedily  and  accurately  “  set  up,”  or  tightened,  in¬ 
stead  of  the  pumps  being  taken  apart  and  repacked  —  an  impor¬ 
tant  consideration,  since  this  process  of  "  setting  up  ”  requires 
less  than  five  minutes,  while  "  repacking,”  in  any  other  engine, 
requires  at  least  half  a  day. 

In  those  engines  every  moving  joint,  bearing,  or  packing  is  so 
made  that  it  can  be  at  once  set  up  or  adjusted  in  case  of  any  wear. 
No  metal  is  used  in  these  engines  which  can  corrode,  Messrs.  But¬ 
ton  &  Son  mixing  their  own  metal,  and  using  none  that  is  old, 
so  that  their  composition  possesses  a  wonderful  tenacity  and  mal¬ 
leability,  while  every  portion  of  the  work,  during  every  stage  of 
its  progress,  is  carefully  inspected. 

rIhe  boilers  are  jacketed  with  Russia  iron  ;  the  steam  cylinders 
are  covered  with  brass,  and  the  water  cylinder  is  made  of  bronze. 
All  the  working  parts  are  of  polished  steel  or  iron.  The  smallest 


MEW  YORK  FIRE  ENGINE,  1730 


NEW  YORK  PIPE  ENGINE,  1733- 


STEAM  FIRE  ENGINES. 


851 


sized  engine,  weighing  four  thousand  pounds,  will  throw  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty -five  feet,  through  a  one  and  one  eighth  inch  pipe  ; 
the  best  result  ever  attained  by  a  hand  engine,  being  one  hundred 
feet  horizontally,  by  an  “  end  stroke  ”  engine.  The  next  size, 
weighing  five  thousand  pounds,  will  throw  two  hundred  and  fifty 
feet ;  and  the  largest  size,  weighing  six  thousand  pounds,  will 
throw  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet,  through  a  one  and  one 
fourth  inch  pipe.  These  engines  are  single,  the  general  objection 
of  oscillation,  which  is  usually  sought  to  be  guarded  against  by 
making  the  engines  double,  being  obviated  by  a  simple  device  in 
their  construction. 

Besides  their  simplicity  and  effectiveness,  Messrs.  Button  &  Son 
are  able  by  the  organization  of  their  business,  and  by  devoting  it 
to  this  specialty,  to  furnish  these  engines  cheaper  than  has  for¬ 
merly  been  done,  and  by  this  means  have  so  extended  the  demand 
for  them  that  numbers  have  been  sent  as  far  as  Canada. 

As  a  means  of  comparing  the  advance  made  in  modern  times  in 
the  appliances  for  extinguishing  fires,  besides  the  engravings  of 
the  steam  fire  engines  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Button  &  Son, 
we  present  our  readers  with  others  of  the  engines  formerly  in  use. 
One  of  these  engravings  represents  an  engine  used  in  London  in 
1740,  and  the  other  a  London  fire  engine  of  1765.  Besides  these 
there  are  engravings  representing  the  engines  used  in  New  York 
for  extinguishing  fires  in  1730  and  in  1733. 

For  the  use  of  these  engravings,  which  arc  interesting  as  show¬ 
ing  also  the  styles  of  building  in  use  at  the  time,  we  are  indebted 
to  the  kindness  of  the  Insurance  Monitor,  of  New  York  city,  in 
which  journal  they  first  appeared  as  illustrations  of  an  admirable 
history  of  the  fire  engine  from  the  earliest  times,  and  to  which 
those  of  our  readers  who  are  interested  in  this  matter  are  re¬ 
ferred  for  a  more  comprehensive  and  exhaustive  treatise  upon  this 
subject  than  would  evidently  be  possible  in  a  work  of  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  this. 


BRITANNIA  WARE. 

THE  MATERIALS  USED  FOR  MAKING  THE  EARLIEST  DOMESTIC  UTENSILS. - THE 

INTENTION  OF  POTTERY.  —  THE  USE  OF  METALS. — THE  EARLY  TABLE  CUS¬ 
TOMS  OF  ENGLAND. —  QUOTATIONS  FROM  EARLY  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. — THE 
DERIVATION  OF  THE  WORD  “TRENCHER.”  —  THE  DOMESTIC  UTENSILS  OF  THE 

EARLY  COLONISTS  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  — THE  INVENTION  OF  BABBITT  METAL. - 

IMPROVED  FORMS  OF  DOMESTIC  UTENSILS. — THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  MACHIN¬ 
ERY  INTO  THIS  BRANCH  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  MANU¬ 
FACTURE. 

The  making  of  dishes,  pitchers,  cups,  and  the  various  other  neces¬ 
sary  utensils  for  domestic  use,  was  one  of  the  first  steps  in  the  pro¬ 
gress  of  mankind  towards  civilization.  The  earliest  utensils  of  this 
kind  used  were,  most  probably,  shells  among  the  nations  who  lived 
upon  the  seaboard,  and  leaves  among  those  who  lived  where  the 
forests  afforded  them  of  a  kind  adapted  to  this  purpose. 

The  invention  of  pottery  was,  however,  one  of  the  earliest  arts 
discovered  by  mankind,  and  the  refuse  heaps  of  fragments  of  vessels 
made  of  clay,  and  baked,  are  still  remaining  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 
and  in  other  sites,  forming  the  most  suggestive,  and,  in  many  cases, 
the  only  remaining,  record  of  nations  which  have  long  ago  passed 
away. 

In  modern  times  the  succession  of  the  various  materials  employed 
for  articles  of  domestic  use  serves  to  mark  the  successive  steps  of 
society  towards  the  attainment  of  universal  comfort  and  luxury. 
With  the  ability  to  work  in  metals,  this  stronger  material  has 
replaced  the  fragile  pottery,  until  luxury  is  to-day  satisfied  with 
nothing  but  the  most  precious  substances,  and  gold  and  silver  have 
replaced  the  use  of  the  more  modest  pewter  and  brass  with  which 
our  ancestors  were  forced  to  be  content. 

In  the  early  times,  in  England,  it  was  quite  the  custom,  as  much 
from  t lie  greater  scarcity  of  articles  of  table  furniture  as  from  the 
freer  domestic  manners  of  the  time,  for  two  persons  to  eat  out  of 
the  same  plate;  and  it  was  with  persons  tenderly  attached  to  each 
other  a  manifestation  of  gallant  attention  to  thus  combine  at  table. 

(852) 


BRITANNIA  WARE. 


853 


This  practice  is  frequently  alluded  to  in  the  early  romances  and 
fabliaux.  In  general,  the  disposition  of  the  guests  about  the  tables 
was  not  left  simply  to  chance,  but  those  who  were  in  love  with  each 
other,  or  were  nearly  related,  were  placed  together.  In  the  poem 
La  Male  Sanz  Frain,  the  lady  of  the  castle  makes  Sir*Gawain  sit 
by  her  side,  and  eat  out  of  the  same  plate  with  her,  as  an  expression 
of  gallant  and  friendly  hospitality. 

In  the  fabliau  of  Trubert ,  a  lady  taken  into  the  household  of  a 
duke  is  given  a  seat  at  table  next  to  the  duke’s  daughter,  and  eats 
with  her  from  the  same  plate,  because  that  young  lady  had  conceived 
a  strongly  affectionate  feeling  for  her  visitor.  In  the  Gesta  Romano- 
rum,  an  earl  and  his  son  dine  together  at  the  Emperor’s  table,  and 
are  served  with  a  fish,  which  is  placed  between  them  upon  a  plate 
which  serves  for  both.  So  general  was  this  custom  that  it  passed 
into  language,  and  “  to  eat  from  the  same  dish  ”  became  expressive 
of  a  strong  friendship  between  two  persons. 

In  his  History  of  Domestic  Manners  and  Sentiments,  Mr.  Wright 
says :  “  It  must  have  been  remarked  that,  in  the  illuminations  of 
contemporary  manuscripts  which  represent  dinner  scenes,  the  guests 
are  rarely  represented  as  eating  on  plates.  In  fact,  only  certain 
articles  were  served  in  plates.  Loaves  were  made  of  a  secondary 
quality  of  flour,  and  these  were  first  pared  and  then  cut  into  thick 
slices,  which  are  called,  in  French,  tranchoirs ,  and  in  English  trench¬ 
ers ,  because  they  were  to  be  carved  upon.  The  portions  of  meat 
were  served  to  the  guests  on  these  tranchoirs ,  and  they  cut  it  upon 
these  as  they  ate  it.  The  gravy,  of  course,  went  into  the  bread, 
which  the  guest  sometimes,  perhaps  always,  at  an  earlier  period,  ate 
after  the  meat;  but  in  later  times,  and  at  the  tables  of  the  great,  it 
appeal's  to  have  been  more  frequently  sent  away  to  the  alms-basket, 
from  which  the  leavings  of  the  table  were  distributed  to  the  poor  at 
the  gate.” 

This  custom  is  alluded  to  quite  frequently  in  the  writings  of  this 
time.  In  the  romance  of  Sir  Tristrem ,  we  read :  — 

The  kyng  no  seyd  no  more, 

Bot  cresche  and  yede  (went)  to  mete  ; 

Bud  thai  pard  and  scohre  (cut), 

Ynough  thai  hadde  at  ete. 

For  the  rulers  of  the  time  a  silver  platter  was  often  placed  under 
the  tranchoir ,  and  most  probably  it  was  thus  that,  with  the  aban¬ 
doning  of  the  tranchoirs ,  the  platters  came  to  be  used  alone.  The 
general  use  of  silver  as  the  material  for  platters  was  of  course  im- 


854 


BRITANNIA  WARE. 


possible  from  its  cost ;  and  iron  was  the  material  used  for  the  poor  • 
Pewter,  however,  replaced  this,  since  it  was  a  cleaner  and  hand¬ 
somer  material. 

In  the  colonial  times  in  this  country,  and  even  until  into  this  cen¬ 
tury,  wooden  dishes  and  pewter  platters  were  used  almost  entirely. 
The  grandmothers  of  the  present  generation  took  as  great  a  pride 
in  a  plenteous  store  of  pewter  dishes  as  any  of  their  descendants 
now  take  in  the  gold  and  silver  ware  which  garnishes  their  side¬ 
boards  ;  and  the  brilliancy  with  which  it  was  kept  polished  was  as 
much  an  evidence  of  the  possession,  on  the  part  of  the  lady  of  the 
house,  of  thrifty  housekeeping  qualities,  as  anything  to-day  can  be. 

It  is  quite  within  this  century  that  china  and  porcelain  have  come 
into  general  use.  The  pewter  was  not  replaced  by  them  immedi¬ 
ately  ;  but  with  increasing  knowledge  in  the  chemistry  of  metal¬ 
working  other  materials  than  pewter  began  to  take  its  place.  About 
1825,  Mr.  Isaac  Babbitt,  of  Taunton,  Mass.,  invented  the  mixture 
which  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  Babbitt  metal,  and  commenced 
with  it  the  manufacture  of  Britannia  ware.  This  was  the  initia¬ 
tive  of  a  business  which  has  grown  to  great  importance  in  the 
United  States. 

The  fashion  and  form  of  the  various  domestic  utensils  have  been 
modified  and  improved  to  suit  the  more  fastidious  taste  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  day,  and  the  culture  which  is  sensitive  to  artistic  merit  in  all  of 
its  surroundings  can  find  the  materials  for  its  gratification  in  the 
various  utensils  now  produced  in  such  quantities  by  the  leading 
manufacturers  of  Britannia  ware,  and  at  such  low  rates  as  to  place 
them  within  the  reach  of  every  one. 

The  unconscious  but  persistent  educational  effects  of  our  sur¬ 
roundings  are  thus  made  almost  universal,  instead  of  being  the 
privilege  of  only  a  favored  few;  and  the  culture  which  comfort 
brings  necessarily  with  it  is  thus  slowly  but  surely  preparing  the 
way  for  the  progress  of  the  nation  towards  a  higher  and  broader 
civilization,  in  which  the  artistic  shall  keep  pace  with  the  indus¬ 
trial  advance  of  the  nation,  and  the  moral  effects  of  the  happiness 
which  arises  from  the  gratification  (not  the  crucifixion)  of  our 
desires  be  made  the  basis  of  our  social  organization. 

The  value  of  the  Britannia  ware  produced  in  the  United  States 
now  reaches  many  millions  of  dollars  yearly,  and  embraces  the  most 
extensive  variety  of  utensils,  while  the  quality  of  the  material  em¬ 
ployed  has  undergone  an  equal  improvement. 


SCREWS. 


THE  INVENTION  OF  THE  SCREW.  — AN  EXPLANATION  OF  THE  SCREW.  —  MALE  AND 
FEMALE  SCREWS.  —  HUNTER’S  SCREW. — MICROMETER  SCREWS. - THE  INTRO¬ 

DUCTION  OF  MACHINERY  IN  THE  MAKING  OF  SCREWS. — THE  FIRST  MACHINE 
PATENTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  MAKING  SCREWS. — OTHER  MACHINES 

INVENTED. - IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  FORM  OF  THE  SCREW. - THE  GIMLET- 

POINTED  SCREW.  —  ITS  PROBABLE  ACCEPTANCE  BY  CONSUMERS. 

The  invention  of  the  screw  is  generally  attributed  to  Archimedes, 
a  philosopher  of  Syracuse,  who  flourished  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  third  century  before  the  Christian  era.  It  is,  however,  most 
probable  that  the  practical  use  of  screws  was  known  before  his  time, 
but  that  to  him  the  credit  belongs  of  having  first  classified  the 
screw  as  one  of  the  mechanical  powers,  and  from  the  study  of  the 
laws  regulating  its  action  deduced  the  rule  for  calculating  its  effi¬ 
ciency. 

A  screw  is  evidently  a  special  application  of  the  inclined  plane, 
and  is  made  by  the  spiral  revolution  of  an  inclined  plane  about  a 
fixed  axis.  Cut  a  piece  of  paper  into  the  form  of  a  right-angled 
triangle,  the  perpendicular  side  of  which  is  of  the  length  of  the 
screw  to  be  made,  and  the  hypothenuse  will  represent  an  inclined 
plane.  By  simply  winding  this  piece  of  paper  about  any  object,  as, 
for  example,  an  ordinary  lead  pencil,  the  line  of  the  hypothenuse 
will  ascend  in  a  spiral  curve  from  the  point  to  the  top  and  represent 
the  threads  of  a  screw. 

From  the  fact  that  the  screw  is  a  modification  of  the  inclined 
plane,  the  method  of  its  mechanical  action  is  the  same,  and  the 
power  of  the  screw  depends  upon  the  ratio  between  the  distance 
apart  of  the  threads  compared  with  the  diameter  of  the  circle  they 
make  in  their  revolution.  As  in  practical  mechanical  applications 
the  screw  is  generally  combined  with  the  lever,  of  course  the  power 
exerted  is  increased  by  the  length  of  the  lever,  since  the  circle  de¬ 
scribed  by  the  power  applied  is  increased  by  this  distance. 

The  general  division  of  screws  is  into  male  and  female  screws ; 
the  male  screw  being  one  in  which  the  threads  project  upon  the 
cylindrical  body  of  the  screw,  and  the  female  screw  one  in  which 

(855)  * 


856 


SCREWS. 


channels  are  cut  for  the  reception  of  these  threads.  In  the  nuts 
and  bolts  in  ordinary  use,  the  bolts  afford  instances  of  the  male,  and 
the  nuts  instances  of  the  female  screws. 

A  combination  of  the  male  and  female  screw,  in  which  great  in¬ 
crease  of  power  is  gained,  is  that  known  as  Hunter’s  screw.  In  this 
arrangement,  a  screw  working  in  a  fixed  nut  is  made  hollow,  with  a 
female  screw  in  the  inside,  along  which  a  screw  with  finer  threads 
works.  The  powder  exerted  is  as  the  difference  in  the  distance  be¬ 
tween  the  threads  of  the  two  screws.  While,  of  course,  the  power 
exerted  by  this  arrangement  is  greatly  increased,  yet  from  the  law 
of  mechanics,  that  a  gain  in  power  is  obtained  by  an  expenditure  of 
time,  the  motion  produced  is  so  small  that  this  arrangement  is  not 
much  used  except  when  great  weights  are  to  be  moved  only  small 
distances.  Tho  jack-screws  which  are  used  for  raising  houses  or 
moving  great  weights  are  instances  of  one  of  the  modifications  of 
the  Hunter  screw. 

This  property,  however,  by  which  a  considerable  motion  in  the 
power  is  reduced  to  a  very  small  motion  in  the  weight,  makes  this 
combination  of  screws  of  great  service  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
philosophical  instruments  and  in  the  accurate  measurement  of 
modern  scientific  research.  By  the  use  of  micrometer  screws,  as 
they  are  called  wThen  devoted  to  such  purposes,  distances  which  are 
almost  infinitesimal  are  measured  with  the  greatest  accuracy.  With 
the  microscope,  objects  wholly  invisible  to  the  naked  eye  are  exactly 
measured  to  the  many  thousandth  part  of  an  inch. 

The  uses  of  screws  in  the  various  branches  of  modem  industry 
areas  innumerable  as  the  variety  of  their  sizes ;  ranging  from  the 
jack-screws,  strong  enough  to  raise  enormous  burdens,  to  those  used 
in  watch-making,  which  have  to  be  applied  with  the  microscope  in 
order  to  enable  the  operator  to  see  them  with  sufficient  distinctness 
to  discriminate  which  is  the  head  and  which  the  point. 

The  cutting  of  screws  was,  in  early  times,  the  chief  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  their  extensive  production  and  use.  As  the  process  was 
then  carried  on  entirely  by  hand,  and  required  skill  in  making  them 
with  the  desired  accuracy,  screws  were  too  expensive  to  enter  into 
very  general  consumption.  With  the  advent,  however,  of  the  mod¬ 
ern  era  of  industry,  in  which  the  idea  of  the  application  of  machinery 
to  the  various  processes  of  manufacture,  which  forms  so  distinctive 
a  characteristic  of  modern  methods  compared  with  those  of  antiquity, 
came  to  be  practically  applied,  various  attempts  to  produce  screws 
by  machinery  were  made. 


SCREWS. 


857 


Soon  after  the  formation  of  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  national  system  of  patent  rights,  David  Wilkin¬ 
son,  of  Rhode  Island,  about  1794,  applied  for  a  patent  for  a  machine 
for  cutting  screws.  In  1789,  Samuel  Briggs,  of  Philadelphia,  memo¬ 
rialized  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  General  Congress 
on  the  subject  of  a  machine  for  making  nails,  screws,  and  gimlets. 
In  1809,  Abel  Stowell,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  took  out  a  patent  for  a 
machine  for  cutting  screws ;  and  in  the  same  year  Ezra  l’Hommedieu, 
of  Saybrook,  Conn.,  patented  a  double-podded  screw  auger,  and 
later  in  the  year  informed  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  he 
made  wire  for  himself,  from  which  a  man,  aided  by  two  boys,  could 
make,  by  a  process  of  his  own,  three  hundred  pounds  a  day  of  as¬ 
sorted  screws,  which  were  better  than  the  imported  ones,  and  that 
in  his  opinion  in  a  short  time  the  demand  of  the  United  States 
would  be  supplied  by  screws  produced  by  his  simple  and  cheap  pro¬ 
cess. 

In  1811,  a  machine  for  cutting  screws  was  patented  by  Edward 
W.  Can',  of  Philadelphia,  and  put  into  operation  by  him  in  that  city. 
In  1812,  a  patent  for  another  machine  for  cutting  screws  was  granted 
to  E.  Hazzard  and  Joseph  White,  of  Philadelphia.  In  1813,  six 
patents  were  granted  various  parties  for  improvements  in  making 
screws  by  machinery.  One  of  these  was  to  Jacob  Perkins,  of  New- 
buryport,  Mass.,  for  manufacturing  the  shanks  of  screws,  and  two 
others  to  Abel  Stowell,  of  W orcester,  Mass.,  for  making  and  finish¬ 
ing  the  heads.  In  1817,  Phineas  Dow  and  Daniel  Treadwell,  of 
Boston,  Mass.,  patented  a  machine  for  making  screws,  which,  from  a 
coil  of  wire,  cut,  headed,  grooved,  polished,  and  finished  screws  at  the 
rate  of  ten  a  minute,  requiring  only  to  be  supplied  with  the  wire, 
and  have  the  end  given  to  it. 

In  1827,  Lemuel  W.  Wright,  of  London,  England,  the  inventor  of 
a  pin-machine,  patented  in  this  country  a  machine  for  making  screws, 
which  he  had  patented  in  England  the  year  before.  It  was  a  con¬ 
siderably  complex  machine,  and  was  superseded.  In  1834,  screws 
were  first  made  by  machinery  at  Providence,  R.  I.,  where  the 
New  England  Screw  Company,  and  another  devoted  to  the  same 
branch  of  manufacture,  were  organized  within  a  few  years,  and  com¬ 
menced  the  production  for  which  Providence  has  been  distinguished 
up  to  the  present  time. 

In  1852,  four  patents,  and  in  1856  four  more,  were  issued  to  Cullen 
Whipple  for  improvements  in  making  screws.  These  were  assigned 
by  him  to  the  New  England  Screw  Company. 


858 


SCREWS. 


Not  only  have  improvements  been  made  in  the  machines  for  the 
production  of  screws,  but  also  in  the  shape  and  method  of  construct¬ 
ing  the  screw  itself.  One  of  the  chief  of  these  is  the  introduction 
of  the  gimlet-pointed  screw,  which  has  almost  entirely  replaced  the 
old-fashioned  form  of  the  screw  ending  in  a  blunt  point.  It  seems 
singular  that  so  simple  an  improvement  as  this,  which  is  nothing  but 
combining  the  screw  point  of  the  gimlet,  which  was  formerly  needed 
for  making  the  hole  in  which  the  screw  was  afterwards  placed,  with 
the  screw  itself,  should  have  been  only  so  recently  made ;  but 
any  one  who  is  aware  of  the  slow  course  of  improvement,  both 
industrially  and  intellectually,  which  has  heretofore  necessarily 
marked  the  course  of  human  advancement,  from  the  want  of  a 
method  which  should  scientifically  direct  the  efforts  of  the  human 
mind  in  these  directions,  and  co-ordinate  into  a  consistent  system 
the  scattered  individual  efforts  towards  the  attainment  of  the  means 
for  producing  the  required  ends  which  have  so  frequently  proved 

•  j 

abortive  on  account  of  their  isolation,  will  not  be  surprised  at  it. 
The  history  of  industry,  among  its  numerous  instances  of  this, 
affords  perhaps  none  which  is  more  striking  than  the  above.  Screws 
and  gimlets  had  both  been  long  in  use  before  the  idea  of  combining 
them  together,  simple  as  the  idea  seems,  occurred  to  any  one  of  the 
thousands  daily  engaged  in  practically  using  both  of  these  imple¬ 
ments,  and  this,  too,  when  the  gimlet  itself  was  nothing  but  a  pointed 
screw.  And  this  is  the  more  singular  when  we  know  that  in  France 
gimlet-pointed  screws  were  made  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago, 
but,  from  the  want  of  a  simple  change  in  the  machinery  used  for 
making  them,  did  not  possess,  the  accuracy  needed  for  bringing 
them  into  general  use. 

The  manufacture  of  the  gimlet-pointpd  ( screws  is  chiefly  done 
by  the  American  Screw  Company,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  which 
is  a  consolidation  of  various  New  'England  companies  formerly 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  screws,  and  which  controls  their 
productions  by  the  ownership  of  nearly  fifty  various  patents  for 
improvements  in  the  processes  of  their  manufacture,  and  by  their 
consequently  exclusive  use  of  the  best  machines  yet  in  use  for  this 
purpose. 

The  machines  employed  by  this  company  are  marvels  of  ingenious  • 
construction,  and  perform  with  rapidity  and  accuracy  operations 
which  would  appear  impossible  to  be  performed  by  any  other  agency 
than  skilled  and  intelligent  manipulation. 

The  wire  from  which  they  are  made  is  furnished  in  coils,  and  is 


SCREWS. 


859 


first  dipped  into  acids,  then  annealed,  and  then  drawn  into  the 
proper  thickness.  A  machine  then  cuts  the  prepared  wire  into 
the  required  lengths,  and  cuts  the  heads  of  the  shanks,  at  the  rate  c  f 
about  ninety  a  minute.  Then  another  machine  shapes  the  head's  of 
the  screw,  cuts  the  groove,  and  removes  the  burr.  Then  in  another 
machine  the  threads  are  cut,  and  the  gimlet  point  forme d,  at  the 
rate  of  about  five  a  minute.  Then  they  are  counted  out  by  weight 
and  prepared  for  sale. 

The  value  of  the  screws  produced  by  this  company  exceeds  a  mil¬ 
lion  of  dollars  a  year,  and  consists  of  about  five  million  gross  of 
screws,  in  the  making  of  which  over  three  thousand  tons  of  iron  are 
consumed,  the  chippings  and  trimmings  from  which  amount  to  about 
three  tons  a  day. 

Another  improvement  in  the  method  of  making  screws  consists 
in  the  arrangement  of  the  threads  about  the  central  cylinder.  This 
invention  was  made  by  Mr.  Samuel  Pratt,  who  is  at  present  a  resi¬ 
dent  of  Hammonton,  New  Jersey.  This  screw  differs  from  the 
ordinary  screw  in  having  three  threads,  which  revolve  about  the  core 
only  once  and  a  half  in  their  passage  from  the  top  to  the  point,  in¬ 
stead  of  having,  as  in  the  ordinary  screw,  only  one  thread  which 
revolves  many  times  in  the  same  distance.  The  advantage  of  having 
the  threads  revolve  at  this  angle  lies  in  the  fact  that  a  screw  so  con¬ 
structed  can  be  driven  in  with  a  hammer,  instead  of  requiring  a 
screw-driver.  Under  the  blows  of  the  hammer  the  screw  in  its 
passage  through  the  wood  revolves.  Beside  these  merits,  the  sim¬ 
plicity  of  its  construction  renders  it  possible  to  manufacture  them 
at  a  cheaper  rate  than  other  screws,  and  as  the  threads  are  further 
apart,  and  take  a  stronger  hold  upon  the  wood,  it  holds  with  nearly 
double  the  strength  of  an  ordinary  screw.-  With  large  bolts,  such  as 
are  used  for  securing  large  timbers,  —  as,  for  instance,  those  of  a  ship, 
—  the  advantage  of  screws  of  this  kind  is  very  great.  The  patent 
for  their  manufacture  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  corporation, 
with  a  capital  of  two  millions  of  dollars,  the  chief  of  whose  estab¬ 
lishments  is  at  Northampton,  Mass. 

Although  not  yet  as  generally  in  use  as  the  ordinary  gimlet- 
pointed  screw,  from  the  recent  date  of  their  introduction,  yet  there 
is  but  little  question  that  their  superior  claims  to  attention  will  be 
recognized  in  time  by  .those  who  are  interested  in  such  matters. 


LIFE  INSURANCE. 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  SOCIAL  PROGRESS.  — THE  RESULTS  OF  SELFISHNESS. — IN¬ 
SURANCE  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS.  —  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  LIFE  INSUR¬ 
ANCE.  —  INSURANCE  DURING  THE  CRUSADES.  —  ANNUITIES.  —  TONTINES.  — 
THE  ROYAL  TONTINE. —  SYDNEY  SMITH  ON  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  SALARIES 
IN  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  — PASCAL.  — DE  WIT.  — THE  CENSUS.  —  PAR¬ 
ISH  REGISTERS.  —  JOHN  SMART.  —  THE  BILLS  OF  MORTALITY.  —  JOHN 
GRAUNT.  —  SIR  WILLIAM  PETTY.  —  THE  BRESLAU  TABLES.  —  DR.  HALLEY.  — 
THE  CARLISLE  TABLES.  —  LIFE  INSURANCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  IT8 
CHARACTERISTICS.  — THE  PIICENIX  MUTUAL  LIFE  INSURANCE  COMPANY.  — 
ITS  ASSETS.  —  ITS  GROWTH.  —  ITS  STABILITY.  —  THE  PRINCIPLES  UPON 
WHICH  IT  IS  CONDUCTED. 

The  introduction  and  progress  of  the  principle  of  insurance  in 
modern  times  is  one  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  the  tendency 
of  social  organization,  which  has  been  stated  concisely  by  various 
social  philosophers  as  the  replacing  of  individualism  by  altruism, 
or  the  extension  of  personal  selfishness  until  it  embraces  a  world¬ 
wide  sympathy,  and  by  an  increase  of  knowledge,  grows  to  see 
that  not  isolation,  but  union,  is  the  means  for  obtaining  the 
conditions  of  security  and  regularity  which  are  necessary  for 
individual  as  well  as  social  improvement  and  progress. 

In  this  commercial  phase  of  civilization,  which  is  at  the  present 
time  the  characteristic  of  our  social  life,  it  is  too  usual  for  those 
who  judge  of  social  matters  sentimentally  rather  than  logically, 
and  through  their  feelings  rather  than  through  their  reason,  to 
speak  of  the  selfish  desire  for  personal  aggrandizement  as  the 
cause  of  the  discords  evident  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  which 
seems  to  grow  more  intense  with  every  extension  of  our  culture, 
and  every  increase  in  its  demands  for  gratification. 

But,  in  reality,  personal  selfishness  —  that  is,  the  imperious  de¬ 
mand  for  the  gratification  of  our  desires  —  is  the  motive  force  of 
all  individual  or  social  progress.  It  is  the  educated  enlargement 
of  selfishness  which  is  needed,  and  not  a  hopeless  and  futile  at- 

(860)  ~ 


LIFE  INSURANCE. 


8GI 


tempt  to  eradicate  it.  The  very  intensity  of  the  commercial  spirit, 
directed  and  stimulated  by  increasing  knowledge,  has,  together 
with  other  things  which  distinguish  the  organization  of  our  present 
social  methods  from  those  of  all  antiquity,  led  to  the  discovery  and 
introduction  of  the  practice  of  insurance,  in  which,  by  combination 
and  union,  individual  losses  are  made  less  by  being  divided  among 
many. 

Among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  insurance  of  any  kind  was  en¬ 
tirely  unknown,  though  the  practice  of  paying  interest  on  loans 
was  in  vogue  at  the  earliest  historic  period,  as  it  is  now  among 
numerous  uncivilized  nations,  who  have  no  conception  of  insurance. 

While  the  nations  of  antiquity  —  the  Egyptians,  the  Greeks, 
and  the  Romans  —  had  made  great  progress  in  many  of  the  arts, 
had  organized  governments,  put  in  operation  systems  of  taxation, 
and  carried  on  large  commercial  transactions,  yet  they  never  en¬ 
tered  upon  the  course  of  social  and  financial  progress  which 
characterizes  the  whole  development  of  modern  society.  The  idea 
of  such  associations  as  banks,  insurance  companies,  or  joint  stock 
companies  was  entirely  unknown  to  them. 

\  . 

With  the  growth  of  commerce  in  the  middle  ages,  a  system  of 
marine  insurance  grew  up  in  some  of  the  chief  mercantile  cities. 
In  1588,  Chief  Justice  Coke,  in  orie  of  the  reports  of  his  decisions, 
speaks  of  insurance  in  England  as  quite  a  novelty  ;  but  there  is  no 
question  that  it  was  in  use  prior  to  that  time  among  the  merchants 
of  the  continental  cities,  though,  like  many  mercantile  customs,  it 
had  become  quite  general  before  being  recognized  by  the  law. 

The  first  English  statute  which  mentions  it  was  issued  in  1601, 
in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  This  first  application  of  the 
principle  of  insurance  was  limited  to  marine  risks.  The  manifest 
advantages  gained  by  it  led  soon  to  its  application  to  fire  risks, 
and  eventually  to  various  other  interests,  as  the  insurance  of 
growing  crops  against  hail,  which  is  largely  done  in  the  wine-grow¬ 
ing  regions  of  France,  where  hail  storms  from  the  Pyrenees  are 
common,  to  the  insuring  of  cattle  and  valuable  stock  of  all  kinds, 
to  the  insuring  of  boilers  from  explosion,  travellers  from  accidents, 
and  also  to  life  insurance,  which  has  become  one  of  the  most  ex¬ 
tensive  and  important  branches  of  the  whole  business  of  insurance. 

‘The  precise  date  at  which  the  practice  of  life  insurance  began 
is  not  known  with  any  definiteness.  It  has  been  stated  that  with¬ 
in  about  four  hundred  years  after  the  commencement  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  era,  tables  were  in  existence  for  the  calculation  of  annuities. 


8C2 


LIFE  .  NSURANCE. 


This  was,  however,  even  accepting  the  statement  that  such  calcu¬ 
lations  were  made,  very  far  from  being*  anything  more  than  the 
first  step  towards  life  insurance. 

The  next  step  towards  the  practical  realization  of  life  insurance 
was  the  introduction  of  the  system  of  annuities.  The  first  record¬ 
ed  instance  of  an  organized  attempt  to  introduce  the  use  of  annui¬ 
ties  was  that  made  by  Lorenzo  Tonto,  or  Tonti,  a  Neapolitan,  who 
lived  during  the  middle  portion  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Ilis 
plan  was  as  follows  :  A  certain  number  of  persons  contributed  a 
certain  sum  to  a  general  fund,  each  contributing  a  specified  amount, 
and  no  distinction  being  made  either  on  account  of  age  or  sex.  At 
the  end  of  each  year,  the  interest  of  the  general  fund  thus  created 
was  divided  among  those  of  the  contributors  who  were  living. 
This  was  done  year  by  year,  until  the  sole  survivor  received  the 
whole  of  the  interest. 

The  increased  interest  received  from  time  to  time  by  the  surviv¬ 
ors,  as  the  successive  deaths  of  the  subscribers  diminished  the 
number  of  participants,  made  this  system  quite  popular  for  a  time, 
until  the  question  was  raised  what  then  became  of  the  principal. 
On  investigation,  it  having  been  found  that  the  founders  of  the 
scheme  appropriated  this  to  their  own  use,  a  modification  in  the 
system  was  proposed,  by  which  the  subscribers  were  divided  into 
classes,  according  to  age,  and  the  principal  was  to  be  divided 
among  a  certain  number  of  the  survivors,  or  to  pass  into  the  pos¬ 
session  of  the  last  one  of  them. 

An  association  of  this  kind  was  formed  by  Tonti  in  France, 
under  the  patronage  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  in  1653,  and  was  called 
“  The  Royal  Tontine.”  The  subscribers  were  divided  into  ten 
classes,  each  class  contributing  102,500  francs,  making  a  total 
fund  of  1,025,000  francs.  The  subscription  of  each  member  was 
three  hundred  francs.  The  last  survivor  was  to  receive  the  inter¬ 
est  upon  the  entire  capital,  which,  after  his  death,  was  to  revert  to 
the  state.  It  was  this  last  provision  which  probably  caused  the 
want  of  success  of  this  scheme. 

Sydney  Smith,  with  the  acute  perception  of  the  average  char¬ 
acter  of  the  men  of  his  time  which  distinguished  him,  once  said, 
speaking  of  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  income  connected  with 
the  offices  of  the  English  Church,  that  it  was  better  as  it  was  than 
to  make  a  more  equable  division.  Though  many  curates  starve  on 
“  forty  pounds  a  year/’  yet  the  possible  chance  of  perhaps  becom¬ 
ing  a  bishop,  with  an  income  of  a  half  million  of  pounds,  induced 


LIFE  INSURANCE. 


863 


more  persons  to  take  up  with  the  church  as  a  profession  than  a 
more  even  distribution,  without  any  such  possible  prize.  This 
was,  perhaps,  true ;  but  the  reverend  wit  did  not  have  a  sufficiently 
philosophic  perception  of  the  growth  of  social  organization  to  see 
that  its  tendency  is  with  increasing  culture  to  substitute  the  cer¬ 
tainty  of  provision  for  the  excitement  of  speculation,  and  to  intro¬ 
duce  stability  and  regularity  into  all  our  commercial  relations. 

As  we  shall  still  clearer  see  in  the  course  of  this  article,  the 
system  of  insurance  has  been  much  prompter  in  recognizing  this 
tendency  of  social  progress,  and  much  readier  than  the  church  to 
foster  this  growth  of  social  morality,  by  its  practice,  as  well  as  its 
precepts. 

Though  this  “  Royal  Tontine”  was  not  successful,  yet  Tonti, 
who  was  an  enthusiast  in  the  advocacy  of  his  system,  proposed 
unsuccessfully  before  his  death  two  other  schemes,  which  were 
substantially  the  same  in  principle,  though  somewhat  modified  in 
their,  details.  The  idea  was,  however,  in  the  world,  and  has  since 
been  repeatedly  used.  In  1689,  Louis  XIV.  raised  one  million  four 
hundred  thousand  francs  by  a  Tontine  divide!  into  fourteen  classes, 
embracing  children  of  five  years  to  persons  of  seventy.  The  last 
survivor  of  this  association,  a  widow,  died  at  the  age  of  ninety- 
six,  in  1726,  having  enjoyed  for  a  few  years  an  income  of  seventy- 
three  thousand  five  hundred  francs  from  her  original  investment  of 
three  hundred  francs. 

In  1773  Tontines,  as  a  financial  measure,  were  prohibited  in 
France.  In  England  the  last  Tontine  established  was  in  1789, 
and  as  late  as  1859  was  still  paying  interest  to  survivors.  In  the 
United  States  the  system  was  introduced  into  various  cities,  but 
never  became  very  generally  practised. 

The  chief  value  of  the  Tontine  system  was,  that  it  stimulated 
a  methodical  investigation  of  the  question  of  the  probabilities  of 
life,  and  to  the  gathering  of  some  reliable  statistics  upon  this  sub¬ 
ject,  and  also,  from  its  purely  speculative  character,  suggested  the 
*  necessity  for  a  change  which  should  introduce  a  certainty  into  this 
species  of  investment,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  this  important  step  in  social  advance  by  life  insurance. 

Blaise  Pascal,  the  famous  author  of  the  Provincial  Letters, 
whose  interest  in  the  scientific  advance  of  his  age  is  well  known, 
suggested  in  this  work,  which  was  most  extensively  read,  the  im¬ 
portance  of  applying  the  conclusions  reached  by  the  doctrine  of 
probabilities  to  the  well-being  of  mankind,  and  John  De  Wit,  the 

50 


8G4 


LIFE  INSURANCE. 


distinguished  statesman  of  Holland,  made  use  of  Pascal’s  sugges¬ 
tion  for  the  calculation  of  the  annuities  upon  which  the  States 
General  were  borrowing  money  at  this  time.  In  the  second  vol¬ 
ume  of  the  Assurance  Magazine,  published  -in  London,  Mr.  Hen- 
'  driks  has  reproduced  a  report  issued  by  De  Wit  upon  life  annui¬ 
ties,  which  was  the  first  treatise  upon  the  subject,  and  may  be  con¬ 
sidered  the  inauguration  of  the  modern  system  of  applying  mathe¬ 
matical  formulae  and  processes  to  the  calculation  of  politico-social 
questions  of  this  kind. 

In  an  annuity,  the  payment  of  a  certain  capital  secures  the  re¬ 
ception  of  a  yearly  income  during  the  remainder  of  the  annuitant’s 
life.  From  this  to  the  theory  of  life  insurance,  in  which  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  a  small  yearly  sum  secures  at  the  payee’s  death,  or  at 
some  future  definite  time,  the  reception  by  his  heirs,  or  by  him¬ 
self,  of  a  certain  capital,  would  seem  but  so  simple  a  step  that  it 
could  be  made  almost  immediately.  But  those  wrho,  from  a  study 
of  the  slow  growth  of  social  organization,  know  how  difficult  and 
tardy  the  process  is,  will  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  this  change 
was  by  no  means  immediate. 

In  all  these  previous  attempts  to  realize  the  principle  of  insur¬ 
ance,  the  question  of  the  risk  must,  of  course,  have  been  decided 
speculatively,  rather  than  with  mathematical  accuracy.  It-  required 
that  care  should  be  taken  in  registering  the  data,  and  that  time 
enough  should  elapse  to  allow  the  working  of  the  natural  and  ac¬ 
cidental  causes  of  mortality,  before  the  materials  could  be  gathered 
upon  which  any  calculation  could  be  based. 

The  counting  of  the  population,  or  the  taking  of  the  census, 
had  been  a  custom  among  nations  from  the  earliest  historic  times, 
and  the  enumeration  of  the  population,  and  of  the  ownership  of 
the  land,  was  made  with  great  exactness  in  England  in  the  Domes¬ 
day  books,  which  were  completed  in  1086.  But  these  afforded  no 
data  by  which  to  arrive  at  any  accurate  conception  of  the  per¬ 
centage  of  mortality. 

The  first  parish  registers  .were  begun  in  England  in  1538.  They, 
had  been  kept  in  Augsburg  and  Breslau  for  a  long  time  before,  but 
did  not  become  general  in  Europe  until  the  beginning  of  the 
next  century.  At  first  these  registers  were  not  kept  with  desir¬ 
able  accuracy  as  to  the  age  of  persons  and  the  causes  of  their  deaths 
which  occurred,  but  in  time  these  deficiencies  were  supplied,  though 
it  was  not  until  1728  that  the  ages  were  uniformly  recorded. 

In  1726,  John  Smart  published  Tables  of  Interest,  Discount,  An- 


LIFE  INSURANCE. 


865 


nuities,  etc.,  in  which  he  suggested  that  the  parish  clerks  should 
make  a  return  of  the  age  of  every  person  who  died.  This  recom¬ 
mendation  was  carried  into  effect  two  years  afterwards,  as  above 
mentioned.  Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  quiet 
the  apprehensions  which  existed  throughout  the  country  by  the 
ravages  of  the  plague,  the  English  government  commenced  the 
weekly  publication  of  “  The  Bills  of  Mortality, ”  and  from  1603  to 
the  present  time  they  have  been  issued  regularly.  Their  publica¬ 
tion  excited  attention  to  the  subject  of  life  and  mortality,  and  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century  John  Graunt  published  a  work  entitled 
Natural  and  Political  Observations  on  the  Bills  of  Mortality ,  which 
has  been  considered  as  the  first  step  made  in  the  collection  of  the 
mathematical  data  upon  which  the  theory  of  life  insurance  is 
founded. 

His  contemporary,  Sir  William  Petty,  in  his  numerous  publica¬ 
tions,  aided  also  in  calling  attention  to  subjects  of  political  and 
social  arithmetic,  and  in  1693,  Dr.  Halley,  the  astronomer  royal, 
published  the  Breslau  Table  of  Mortality.  This  was  a  table  of  the 
probabilities  of  life  made  up  from  the  register  of  the  deaths  kept 
at  Breslau,  in  Silesia.  This  table  was  published  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions  for  1693,  and  being  thus  in  a  measure  learnedly 
buried,  did  not  excite  the  attention  of  the  commercial  circles  which 
it  might  have  done  had  it  been  made  more  accessible. 

Mr.  Hendriks,  a  writer  on  life  insurance  of  well-deserved  repu¬ 
tation,  speaks  of  these  tables  thus  :  “  Dr.  Halley  was  the  discov¬ 
erer  and  scientific  arranger  of  what  are  termed  life  tables  in  the 
full  and  highly  important  modern  acceptation  of  the  term,  and  in 
his  paper  (an  estimate  of  the  degrees  of  the  mortality  of  mankind, 
etc.)  he  taught  the  world  the  best  initiatory  and  theoretical  form 
for  the  computation  of  life  annuities  and  of  survivorships,  from 
and  to  given  ages.” 

From  this  time  the  literature  of  life  insurance  increased  steadily, 
and  suggests  that  the  practical  application  of  the  theories  enunci¬ 
ated  was  more  general  than  it  really  was.  But  the  religious  and 
superstitious  objections  to  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  system  of 
speculation  upon  death,  stood  so  strongly  in  its  way  that  it  made 
but  very  slow  advance.  In  1681  an  ordinance  was  issued  in 
France  forbidding  it ;  and  in  other  parts  of  the  continent  the  same 
legislation  created  a  prejudice  against  it,  which  has  prevented 
its  acceptance  until  quite  within  this  century. 

In  England,  the  data  for  mathematical  accuracy  in  life  insurance 


866 


LIFE  INSURANCE. 


were  slowly  gathered  ;  and  though  the  practice  of  insurance  suf¬ 
fered,  as  all  new  social  methods  suffer,  from  a  period  of  inflation, 
when  injudicious  speculators  seek  to  turn  the  growing  interest  of 
the  public  to  the  *  furtherance  of  their  own  selfish  aims,  yet  the 
principles  of  stability  and  accuracy  were  vindicated  by  the  general 
management  of  the  companies,  and  new  tables  were  constructed 
from  more  extended  experience,  until,  in  1816,  Mr.  Joshua  Milne 
produced  the  Carlisle  Tables,  based  upon  the  observations  of  Dr. 
Heysham  upon  the  mortality  of  Carlisle,  which  introduced  the 
modern  era  of  life  insurance. 

In  the  United  States  the  practice  of  life  insurance  was  intro¬ 
duced  before  the  revolution  by  the  formation  of  a  society  by  some 
Episcopal  ministers,  in  1769.  Their  association  was  called  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Association  for  the  Benefit  of  Widows  and 
Children  of  Clergymen  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  first  public  company  was  the  Pennsylvania  Company,  which 
was  established  in  1812,  and  still  continues  in  the  business. 

From  that  time  the  business  increased  slowly,  until,  about  1840, 
it  received  a  new  impetus,  and  has  since  progressed  with  new  vigor, 
until  there  are  now  in  the  United  States  over  one  hundred  life  in¬ 
surance  companies,  receiving  annually  an  income  from  premiums 
of  over  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  and  creating  poli¬ 
cies  yearly  upon  about  half  a  million  of  lives,  representing  risks 
amounting  to  the  enormous  aggregate  of  over  one  thousand  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars. 

While  there  is  no  country  in  the  world  in  which  the  practice  of 
life  insurance  is  so  general,  since  social  and  business  life  in  the 
United  States  is  naturally  stimulated  into  greater  activity  by  the 
larger  freedom  of  our  political  relations,  there  is  also  no  country 
in  which  the  principles  of  accuracy  and  stability  have  been  more 
generally  introduced  into  the  business,  and  its  organization  infused 
with  the  democratic  spirit  of  our  institutions,  by  which  the  general 
welfare  and  benefit  of  the  people,  rather  than  that  of  a  small  class, 
is  made  the  object  and  aim  to  be  attained. 

With  the  introduction  of  the  mutual  plan,  life  insurance  ceases 
to  be  a  speculation,  but  becomes  an  association  of  the  policy  hold¬ 
ers,  who,  united  together  for  a  common  object,  and  taking  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  strength  there  is  in  union,  make  the  business  the  best 
investment  possible  for  their  premiums.  With  the  proper  organi¬ 
zation  of  the  company,  and  by  intrusting  its  financial  affairs  to  the 
direction  of  reliable  and  safe  officers,  the  business  becomes  as 


LIFE  INSURANCE.  » 


867 


legitimate  and  safe  as  any  —  since  speculation  is  entirely  removed  ' 
from  it,  and  its  operations  reduced  to  the  basis  of  mathematical 
certainty. 

Among  the  numerous  companies  of  the  United  States  which 
have  deservedly  secured  public  confidence,  the  Phoenix  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  has  been  selected  for 
mention  here  as  the  representative  company  for  its  reliability  and  its 
successful  career.  With  its  assets  amounting  to  seven  millions  of 
dollars,  its  management  still  recognizes  the  importance  of  prudence 
and  economy  in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  and  avoiding 
injudicious  expenditure,  have  recently  renewed  the  lease  of  their 
modest  but  suitable  offices  for  another  term  of  ten  years. 

The  practical  result  of  this  theory  of  management  appears  in 
the  able  report  of  Mr.  Barnes,  the  Insurance  Commissioner  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  for  the  year  1869.  Speaking  of  the  Phoenix, 
he  says  that,  in  comparison  with  twenty  of  the  leading  companies, 
it  stands  lowest  in  "the  ratio  of  loss  to  total  income,”  and  occu¬ 
pies  the  same  position  in  “  the  ratio  of  disbursements  to  total  in¬ 
come.”  By  this  course  of  management  the  stability  of  the  Phoenix 
is  assured  and  placed  beyond  all  question.  The  official  statements 
show  that  the  company  has  nearly  one  hundred  and  forty-five  dol¬ 
lars  of  assets  invested  for  every  hundred  dollars  of  liability. 

Aside  from  this  claim  upon  public  confidence,  the  Phoenix  has, 
by  the  liberality  of  its  policies,  further  attracted  public  attention. 
Organized  in  1851,  it  has  shown  a  steady  increase  in  its  yearly 
business.  In  1863  it  issued  nine  hundred  and  eighteen  policies. 
This  number  has  risen  by  progressive  yearly  steps,  until,  in 
1869,  it  reached  eight  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-three. 
With  an  income  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars  in  1863,  its  income  in  1869  reached 
the  total  of  two  millions  four  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  seventy-nine  dollars,  a  result  which  will  com¬ 
pare  most  favorably  with  that  of  any  other  company,  while  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  judicious  investment  of  the  assets 
of  the  company  make  for  the  stability  and  certainty  with  which 
this  duty  is  performed,  even  a  more  favorable  statement  than 
this.  . 


THE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES. 

By  HORACE  GREELEY. 

THE  TARIFF  A  MODERN  DEVICE.  —  ITS  ADVANTAGES  OVER  OLD  FORMS  OF  TAXA¬ 
TION. —  OF  THEORISTS  WHO  CONDEMN  TARIFFS  ALTOGETHER. — A  LITTLE 
SCRIPTURE.  —  GENERAL  WASHINGTON  ON  HOME  PRODUCTIONS.  —  A  TRUTH 
WHICH  THE  SOUTHERN  CONFEDERATES  REALIZED.  —  A  POPULAR  BUT  FALLA¬ 
CIOUS  SUGGESTION  CONSIDERED.  —  WHY  OUR  MANUFACTURES  HAVE  PECULIAR 
NEED  OF  PROTECTION.  —  CHEAP  LABOR  IN  OLD  COUNTRIES. - WHAT  OUR  MANU¬ 

FACTURES  REQUIRE  FOR  THEIR  PROTECTION.  —  THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  BRITISH 
MANUFACTURERS.  —  IN  WHAT  MANUFACTURES  WE  LEAD  THE  WORLD.  —  OUR 
MANUFACTURES  SUPPLIED  TO  TnE  PURCHASER  CHEAPER  UNDER  PROTECTION 
THAN  POSSIBLE  UNDER  FREE  TRADE. 

Tariff  (from  Tarifa ,  a  small  seaport  on  the  Spanish  coast  of  the 
Strait  of  Gibraltar,  where  this  form  of  impost  seems  to  have  origi¬ 
nated),  is  the  generic  designation  of  all  taxes  levied  upon  or  restric¬ 
tions  affecting  the  introduction  of  the  products  of  one  country  into 
the  ports  or  other  territory  of  another.  It  is  a  comparatively  modern 
device,  but  was  very  rapidly  and  generally  adopted  by  civilized 
nations,  who  swiftly  discovered  its  superior  efficiency  and  relative 
popularity  to  direct  taxation.  Its  advantages  are  these  :  — 

1.  Fewer  persons  are  required  to  levy,  assess,  and  collect  a  given 
amount  by  tariff  than  by  direct  taxation. 

2.  It  is  less  inquisitorial,  and  subjects  comparatively  few  to  the 
visitation  and  scrutiny  of  officials. 

3.  It  insures  juster  and  more  equal  taxation.  In  semi-barbarous 
countries  like  Turkey  and  Persia,  the  great  majority  hide  or  conceal 
their  wealth,  so  far  as  possible,  in  order  to  evade  the  imperious  ex¬ 
actions  of  the  tax-gatherer.  This  renders  his  duties  more  invidious 
and  his  vocation  more  odious  than  it  need  or  should  be. 

4.  Under  a  tariff,  most  consumers  pay  taxes  only  when  they  see 
fit ;  that  is  to  say,  they  escape  taxation  when  they  confine  their  pur¬ 
chases  to  home-made  products. 

There  are  theorists  who  condemn  tariffs  altogether,  asserting  a 
preference  for  that  venerable  system  in  vogue  when  (according  to 

Scripture)  “Caesar  Augustus”  decreed  that  “all  the  [Roman]  world 
(808) 


TIIE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES.  8G9 


should  be  taxed.”  No  civilized  people,  however,  practically  accepts 
this  view ;  while  our  own  country,  throughout  the  eighty-odd  years 
which  have  transpired  since  the  States  adopted  her  federal  constitu¬ 
tion,  has  never  been  without  a  tariff  since  her  first  federal  congress 
had  time  to  make  one.  Direct  taxes  have  from  time  to  time  been 
imposed,  always  under  the  pressure  of  great  financial  necessities, 
and  always  to  supplement,  not  supersede,  her  tariff.  No  party,  no 
clique,  as  represented  in  Congress,  has  proposed  the  abrogation  of  all 
duties  on  imports,  and  a  reliance  on  direct  taxation  for  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  the  federal  government  and  the  satisfaction  of  its  liabilities. 
On  the  other  hand,  direct  taxes  levied  in  its  behalf  have  always 
been  exceptionally  odious,  and  repealed,  so  soon  as  it  was  deemed 
practicable,  to  raise  the  sum  required  by  tariff  alone. 

Nor  has  any  Congress  ever  enacted  an  undiscriminating  tariff, — 
that  is,  one  which  taxed  equally  each  and  every  article  imported. 
Protection  (so  called)  and  free  trade  have  by  turns  prevailed ;  but, 
so  far  from  enacting  a  uniform  impost,  the  anti-protective  tariff 
framed  under  the  guidance  of  Robert  J.  Walker,  in  1846,  admitted 
certain  articles  free,  and  taxed  others  from  twenty  to  one  hundred 
per  cent.  By  no  vote  within  my  recollection  has  any  considerable 
party  or  section  in  Congress  ever  committed  itself  to  the  taxation 
of  all  imports  alike. 

But,  while  all  favor  discrimination,  they  differ  widely  as  to  the 
objects  which  discrimination  should  contemplate.  General  Washing¬ 
ton,  in  one  of  liis  messages  as  President,  urged  that  the  home  pro¬ 
duction  of  staples  of  prime  necessity  in  time  of  war  should  be 
sought ;  and  he  instanced  iron  and  gunpowder  as  articles  for  which 
we  ought  not  to  be  dependent  on  foreign  nations,  whence  our  sup¬ 
plies  would  naturally  fail  or  become  precarious  whenever  we  should 
be  involved  in  hostilities  with  any  great  naval  power.  President 
Madison,  in  one  of  his  messages,  thoughtfully  suggests  that,  though 
we  might  procure  certain  articles  more  cheaply  from  abroad  so  long 
as  peace  facilitated  their  importation,  yet,  whenever  war  should 
intervene,  we  might  be  subjected,  by  such  dependence,  to  exactions 
which  would  speedily  outweigh  our  entire  previous  saving  by 
importation  instead  of  home  production,  —  a  truth  of  which  the 
Southern  confederates  realized  the  full  force  in  our  late  civil  war. 

/  Had  they  paid  millions  to  build  up  manufactures  and  mining  within 
their  borders  during  the  preceding  decade,  they  would  have  saved 
them  many  times  over  in  the  reduced  cost  and  more  ample  supply 
of  their  products  during  that  arduous  struggle. 


870  THE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES. 


A  popular  but  fallacious  suggestion  would  have  duties  levied 
mainly  on  luxuries,  leaving  necessaries  free.  Luxuries  are  usually 
of  exceptional  cost  in  proportion  to  their  bulk,  so  as  to  be  smug¬ 
gled  over  a  border  with  especial  facility.  Laces,  gems,  etc.  are 
luxuries ;  but  to  levy  high  duties  on  these  is  to  incite  the  cupid¬ 
ity  of  smugglers  and  often  tempt  to  their  clandestine  introduction 
concealed  in  false-bottomed  trunks,  ladies’  dresses,  etc.,  etc.  Like 
the  singing  crow  in  the  fable,  in  reaching  after  too  much,  those 
who  would  tax  luxuries  exceptionally  invoke  the  risk  of  getting 
nothing. 

The  most  vehement  condemnors  of  protection  all  but  uniformly 
vote  in  Congress  to  repeal  all  duties  levied  on  coal,  salt,  wool,  pig- 
iron,  etc.  Of  course  this  involves  the  raising  of  larger  sums  from 
articles  left  subject  to  tariff  taxation  ;  since,  if  A.  imports  salt  or 
coal  free,  B.,  who  imports  tea  or  sugar,  or  C.,  who  imports  something 
else,  must  pay  more  into  the  treasury  than  would  otherwise  be  re¬ 
quired  of  him. 

“  But  why  would  you  impose  higher  duties  on  manufactures  than 
on  other  articles  imported  ?  ” 

General  Jackson’s  answer*  in  substance  was,  —  in  order  to  create 
near  and  sure  markets  for  the  products  of  agriculture.  “  Withdraw 
(says  he)  six  hundred  thousand  of  our  people  from  agriculture  to 
employ  them  in  manufactures,  and  you  give  to  our  farmers  a  larger 
and  better  market  than  all  Europe  now  affords  them.”  This  view 
was  substantially  that  of  Henry  Clay,  A.  J.  Dallas,  Hezekiah  Niles, 
Walter  Forward,  R.  C.  Mallary,  and  the  great  body  of  those  who 
guided  the  public  mind  out  of  the  anarchy  which  seemed  to  prevail 
after  the  peace  of  1815  to  the  assured  and  decisive  triumph  of  pro¬ 
tection  in  the  enactment  of  the  tariffs  of  1824  and  1828.  By  the 
votes  of  States  and  communities  preponderantly  and  often  exclusively 
grain-growing,  in  contradistinction  to  those  either  cotton-planting 
or  commercial,  were  these  tariffs  demanded  and  sustained.  Had  it 
been  known  in  1832  that  General  Jackson  was  about  to  desert,  at 
the  dictation  of  the  slaveholding  interest,  the  protectionists  with 
whom  he  had  hitherto  affiliated,  and  to  whom  he  still  protested  his 
identity  of  conviction  and  purpose  with  theirs,  his  re-election  by  the 
overwhelming  vote  of  Pennsylvania  and  other  States  devoted  to 
protection  would  have  at  least  been  doubtful.  But,  like  too  many 
a  successful  wooer,  he  gave  his  vows  to  one  love  and  his  hand  to 
another. 


*  Letter  to  Dr.  Coleman,  1824. 


THE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES.  871 


Manufactures  in  tliis  country  stand  in  exceptional  need  of  protec¬ 
tion  because : — 

I.  They  embody  large  values  in  small  bulk,  and  are  thus  cheaply 
transferred  from  one  country  or  hemisphere  to  another.  A  ton  of 
Indian  corn  shipped  from  Iowa  to  England  pays  twice  as  much  to 
the  transporters  as  to  the  producer,  while  a  ton  of  broadcloth  or  of 
silks  may  be  sent  from  Europe  to  Iowa  for  less  than  five  per  cent 
of  its  value.  In  other  words :  —  the  producer  of  corn  in  Iowa  must 
sell  it  there  for  a  third  of  its  cost  to  the  consumer  in  England,  who 
can  nevertheless  obtain  at  his  mill  seven-eighths  of  the  price  at 
winch  (but  for  our  tariff)  his  cloth  could  be  delivered  in  Iowa. 
Hence,  nations  that  export  grain  and  buy  their  fabrics  of  distant 
communities  are  always  poor  and  in  debt.  They  are  forced,  by  the 
inexorable  laws  of  trade,  to  sell  their  surplus  products  for  less  than 
half  their  average  value  throughout  the  world. 

II.  Cheap  labor  in  old  and  densely  peopled  countries,  as  compared 
with  its  cost  in  new  and  thinly  settled  regions,  is  inevitable ;  and 
this  gives  the  former  a  great  advantage  in  the  production  and  sale 
of  manufactures.  The  latter,  having  an  abundance  of  cheap  and 
fertile  land,  may  produce  bread  and  meat  cheaper,  but  not  wares 
and  fabrics.  And,  other  things  being  equal,  the  cheaper  skilled  labor 
will  underwork  and  supplant  those  manufacturing  industries  which 
employ  the  dearer.  The  heavier  weight  in  equal  scales  causes  the 
lighter  to  kick  the  beam. 

III.  Manufacturers,  in  our  day,  require  large  aggregations  of 
capital,  machinery,  experience,  and  skill.  Nearly  all  of  them  are 
cheapened  by  inventions  still  under  patent,  constantly  re-enforced 
and  superseded  by  newer  as  the  old  become  common  property.  No 
one  can  profitably  make  pins  (for  instance)  by  the  aid  of  thirty- 
nine  inventions  which  have,  by  the  lapse  of  time,  ceased  to  belong 
to  the  inventor  or  his  assigns,  while  some  one  else  owns  and  uses  a 
fortieth  invention  no  better  than  any  of  the  thirty-nine,  but  still 
rendering  the  product  cheaper  or  more  perfect  than  it  otherwise  could 
be  made.  And,  beside,  a  house  which,  for  two  or  three  generations, 
has  supplied  purchasers  with  a  good  article,  has  an  immense  advan¬ 
tage  over  one  which  still  has  its  reputation  to  achieve.  I  confidently 
believe  (for  inslance)  that  as  good  steel  is  now  made  in  this  country 
as  in  Europe  ;  but  I  know  that  it  cannot  be  sold  so  readily  nor  for 
so  high  a  price  as  the  best  European  steel.  Whoever  makes  files,  or 
ploughs,  or  axes,  or  cutlery,  naturally  says,  “I  hope  the  American  steel 
will  prove  of  prime  quality ;  but  I  know  the  best  British  steel  will 


872  THE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES. 


not  fail  me,  and  I  dare  not  take  the  hazard  of  a  failure  which  would 
ruin  my  business.”  So  the  American  producers  of  steel  must  sell 
cheaper  than  their  British  rivals  or  not  sell  at  all. 

IV.  British  manufacturers  have  an  immense  advantage  over  ours 
in  the  extent  and  multiplicity  of  their  markets.  It  may  be  fairly 
said  that  all  the  world  faces  London  and  Manchester,  as  it  does  not 
face  Lowell  and  Philadelphia.  If  a  merchant  in  Madagascar  or 
Borneo,  Brazil  or  Hcav  Zealand,  wants  cloth,'  or  steel,  or  cutlery, 
lie  looks  to  Europe  for  it  as  a  matter  of  course ;  he  never  dreams 
that  it  may  be  obtained  from  the  United  States.  Though  it  were 
made  better  and  cheaper  here,  he  would  continue  to  order  from 
Europe  ;  the  invisible  threads  of  commerce  run  from  his  store  to  her 
workshops  ;  he  follows  a  well-beaten  track  rather  than  seek  out  a 
new  and  untried  one.  Steamships  bring  him  the  products  of  Euro¬ 
pean  mills,  forges,  and  shops ;  we  cannot  compete  with  those 
argosies  because  we  have  not  an  assured  demand  for  our  finer 
products ;  and  we  cannot  create  the  demand  because  we  lack  the 
lines  of  steamships  through  which  to  supply  it. 

V.  It  is  easy  to  sneer  at  “  infant  manufactures,”  and  wonder  when 
they  will  shed  their  milk-teeth.  The  ignorant  and  stupid  will  never 
consider  that  the  great  manufacturing  establishments  of  Europe  are 
the  slow  and  steady  growth,  not  of  generations,  but  of  centuiies,  — 
that  the  broadcloth  which  you  buy  for  your  coat  is  the  result  of  ten 
thousand  distinct,  successive  inventions  and  discoveries  auxiliary 
to  the  comber’s,  the  dyer’s,  the  spinner’s,  the  weaver’s  handicrafts. 
The  babyhood  of  an  elephant  outlasts  the  average  life  of  a  dog. 
Rare  excellence  ripens  slowly.  Our  oldest  manufactures  are  ante¬ 
dated  by  our  oldest  living  citizens  ;  yet  we  lead  the  world  in  making 
edge  tools,  cut  nails,  mowers  and  reapers,  ploughs,  sewing-machines, 
and  many  substantial  fabrics.  Europe  may  make  some  of  these 
cheaper  than  we  do,  but  of  inferior  quality  to  ours.  We  have  lately 
learned  to  make  mill-saws,  and  no  country  ever  made  better  than 
cm's.  Having  taught  Europe  to  cut  nails,  we  are  about  to  teach  her 
to  supersede  these  by  machine-made  wrought  nails,  nearly  as  cheap 
as  cut,  and  of  infinitely  superior  quality.  The  best  bed  blankets 
evef  made  on  earth  are  woven  from  American  wool  in  California ; 
but  Minnesota  treads  close  on  her  heels,  with  Colorado  not  far  be¬ 
hind.  A  factory  in  Waukesha,  Wisconsin,  makes  woollen  shawls 
exclusively,  such  as  cost  at  retail  8  8  to  $  12  and  are  worn  by  a 
majority  of  our  countrywomen  ;  a  mercantile  firm  in  Chicago  takes 
every  shawl  so  soon  as  made,  and  calls  for  more.  Hot  less  than  five 


THE  TARIFF,  A  PROTECTION  TO  MANUFACTURES.  873 


hundred  woollen-factories  are  now  running  in  our  Western  States, 
while  the  gigantic  furnace-fires  irradiating  the  midnights  of  Cleve¬ 
land,  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Detroit,  and  Milwaukee,  are  steadily  con¬ 
verting  the  ores  of  Lake  Superior,  and  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin  into 
pig-iron,  and  thence  into  bars  and  steel  rails.  If  our  theorists  will 
but  let  jis  alone,  we  shall  go  on  extending  and  perfecting  our  produc¬ 
tion  of  metals,  wares,  and  fabrics,  until  it  will  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  competition. 

“Then  you  admit  that  we  pay  more  for  home-made  than  we 
would  or  need  pay  for  foreign  manufactures  ?  ” 

No,  I  do  not.  On  the  contrary,  I  firmly  believe  that  we  obtain 
them  far  cheaper,  in  the  average,  of  our  own  producers  under  pro¬ 
tection, -than  we  could  of  their  foreign  rivals  under  free  trade.  The 
money  price  of  the  latter  might  be  less ;  but  their  cost  in  our  pro¬ 
ducts  would  be  vastly  more.  The  fruits,  vegetables,  hay,  timber, 
fuel,  etc.,  which  our  farmers  now  advantageously  exchange  for  the 
wares  and  fabrics  they  buy,  would  not  sell  for  half  so  much  —  would 
often  find  no  purchaser  at  all  —  if  we  imported  our  manufactures 
from  European  workshops.  Values  are  not  positive,  but  relative  ; 
and  the  farmer  who  now  buys  annually  $  100  worth  of  fabrics,  and 
pays  for  -them  by  the  sale  of  choice  apples  at  $  1  per  bushel,  would 
not  be  a  gainer  by  buying  instead  his  fabrics  (imported)  for  $  75  and 
selling  his  apples  at  25  cents  per  bushel,  because  of  a  falling  off  of 
customers.  And  this,  to  my  mind,  fairly  illustrates  the  average 
farmer’s  loss  and  gain  by  protection  as  contrasted  with  free  trade. 

But  enough.  I  have  sought  only  to  indicate  positions,  not  to  ex¬ 
haust  discussion.  My  views  on  this  subject  have  been  set  forth 
more  fully,  and  those  who  care  to  consider  them  may  readily  find 
them.  It  suffices  here  that  I  have  shown  that  protection  is  no  device 
of  manufacturers  to  aggrandize  their  calling  and  increase  their  gains, 
but  a  thoughtful  and  comprehensive  endeavor,  by  the  patriots  and 
statesmen  of  three  generations,  to  diversify  the  industry,  enlarge 
the  earnings,  and  increase  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  American 
people. 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


THE  CHANCES  OF  INVENTORS.  —  THE  FIRST  SUGGESTION  OF  PHOTOGRAPHY.  — 

WEDGWOOD  AND  DAVY.  — NIEPCE  AND  DAGUERRE.  —  THE  DAGUERREOTYPE. 

—  THE  PHOTOGRAPH.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  TAKING  SUN  PICTURES.  —  TALBOT. 

—  HIS  IMPROVEMENTS.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  TAKING  PHOTOGRAPHS.  — THE  EX¬ 
TENT  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  —  FERROTYPES.  — THE  FUTURE  OF  PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Some  inventions  are  happy  accidents,  others  arp  developed  by 
slow  and  painstaking  diligence.  In  reviewing  the  history  of  great 
discoveries  we  sometimes  wonder  by  what  brilliant  chance  a  great 
idea  occurred  to  the  mind  of  an  obscure  searcher  after  some  bet¬ 
ter  way ;  and  sometimes  we  see  a  series  of  patient  investigators, 
all  fascinated  with  the  importance  of  the  end  to  be  attained,  one 
proposing  to  master  a  difficulty  in  one  way,  another  by  a  different 
method,  each  working  for  years,  and  contributing  his  own  well- 
cut  square  of  hammered  stone  to  the  shaft  that  stands  at  last  com¬ 
plete  and  beautiful.  In  the  latter  way  has  the  marvellous  art  of 
drawing  by  the  chemical  power  of  sunbeams  emerged  from  dim¬ 
ness  and  shadows,  every  year  since  1840,  growing  clearer  and 
better  defined,  avoiding  errors,  overcoming  faults,  mastering  objec¬ 
tions,  throwing  older  methods  into  the  background,  till  at  last  it 
has  come  as  near  to  perfection  as  the  advancement  of  chemical 
science  and  the  keenness  of  human  faculties  will  allow. 

Almost  a  century  ago  chemists  had  observed  that  nitrate  of  sil¬ 
ver  is  a  substance  that  is  curiously  affeoted  by  the  sun’s  rays,  and 
it  had  occurred  to  them  that  somehow  this  property  might  be  used 
in  the  pictorial  art.  Near  the  beginning  of  this  century  two  of 
the  ablest  chemists  of  England,  Josiah  Wedgwood  and  Humphry 
Davy,  succeeded  in  producing  sun  pictures  by  smearing  a  leather 
surface  with  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver,  and  laying  over  it  a 
picture  on  glass.  The  shades  of  the  glass  picture  would  protect 
the  silvered  surface,  and  the  lights  on  it  would  expose  that  sur¬ 
face  in  such  a  way  that  the  glass  picture  would  be  copied  on  the 

(874J 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


875 


leather,  but  with  inversion  as  to  light  and  shade.  At  this  point 
photography  remained  for  almost  forty  years,  no  substance  or 
treatment  having  been  hit  upon  that  could  dissolve  the  unaltered 
salt  of  silver  and  fix  the  picture. 

Between  1830  and  1840  two  French  chemists  devoted  most  of 
their  time  to  the  mastery  of  the  difficulties  which  begirt  the  prob¬ 
lem.  These  men  were  Niepce  and  Daguerre.  Niepce  found  out 
a  way  to  coat  a  metal  plate  with  a  thin  film  of  bitumen,  and  ex¬ 
pose  it  for  several  hours  to  the  sun’s  rays.  The  actinism  of  the 
rays  would  act  unequally  on  the  bitumen,  according  to  the  lines  on 
the  glass  above  ;  and  after  removing  the  negative,  as  we  now  call 
it,  he  found  that  certain  essential  oils,  as  that  of  lavender,  would 
develop  the  positive  by  rendering  the  thin  film  of  bitumen  in¬ 
soluble. 

Daguerre  aimed  at  the  same  results  as  his  brother  chemist,  and 
sought  them  by  means  which  have  since  proved  more  effective, 
lie  prepared  his  plate  by  exposing  a  polished  silver  surface  to  the 
vapor  of  iodine.  In  this  way  he  obtained  a  sensitiveness  which 
enabled  him  to  use  the  camera,  and  to  obtain  results  by  a  few 
seconds’  exposure.  The  picture  was  developed  with  the  vapor  of 
mercury,  and  fixed  by  the  hyposulphite  of  soda.  It  was  right 
that  thg.  name  of  Daguerre  should  be  inseparably  connected,  as  it 
has  been,  with  this  art.  He  discovered  the  art  of  developing  la¬ 
tent  photographs  with  vapor  of  mercury,  and  he  hit  upon  a  rare 
and  little  known  combination  of  soda  and  sulphur  as  the  best 
chemical  for  fixing  the  impressions.  The  plates  which  he  used 
were  silver  or  copper,  well  plated.  The  highly-polished  silver 
surface  was  subjected  to  vapor  of  iodine  in  a  dark  chamber,  then 
in  a  camera  exposed  to  the  rays  which  come  from  the  object  to  be 
pictured.  His  mode  of  developing  the  dim  shadow  thus  obtained 
has  been  greatly  improved,  but  his  mode  of  fixation,  or  rendering 
permanent,  has  not  been  greatly  changed  by  forty  years  of  enthusi¬ 
astic  research. 

Now  and  then  we  may  find  one  of  those  weird,  shadowy  pic¬ 
tures,  made  in  1840  and  1841,  when  the  discovery  of  Daguerre 
was  first  presented  to  an  admiring  public.  In  clearness,  force, 
and  brilliancy  they  are  far  beneath  the  splendid  pictures  which 
come  from  the  galleries  of  Gurney,  of  Brady,  of  Salomon,  of 
Kurtz  ;  but  when  held  at  the  proper  angle,  and  in  a  strong  light, 
the  likeness  they  present  is  admirable,  and  when  the  materials 
were  well  handled  there  are  as  yet  no"  traces  of  “  decay’s  effacing 
fingers.” 


876 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


The  daguerreotype  was  very  properly  named  from  the  skilful 
and  persevering  French  chemist,  who,  ranging  through  hundreds 
of  substances  in  his  trials,  at  last  hit  upon  vapor  of  mercury  for 
developing,  and  a  combination  of  soda  and  sulphur  for  fixing,  sun- 
drawings.  But  the  photograph,  as  we  now  have  it,  was  mainly 
an  English  invention.  Six  months  before  Daguerre  published  his 
art,  Fox  Talbot,  an  English  chemist,  in  a  paper  laid  before  the 
Royal  Society,  described  a  sensitive  paper  for  copying  drawings 
or  paintings  by  direct  contact.  The  paper  was  bathed  in  a  solu¬ 
tion  of  chloride  of  sodium,  and  then  in  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  sil¬ 
ver.  Thus  he  obtained  on  paper  a  film  of  chloride  of  silver,  and 
the  copying  was  effected  by  placing  the  object,  which  must  be  in 
parts  transparent,  upon  the  sensitive  paper,  and  exposing  it  to  the 
rays  of  the  sun.  In  this  way  Talbot,  as  early  as  1840,  had  made 
a  negative,  that  is,  a  picture  in  which  the  lights  and  shades  were 
inverted,  and  from  this  negative  he  produced  positives  by  fixing 
the  first  impression  and  placing  it  on  another  piece  of  sensitive 
paper.  This  negative  could  be  multiplied  and  the  copies  used  to 
make  other  positives,  and  thus  photographic  printing  was  seen  to 
be  practicable. 

The  next  year,  1841,  Talbot’s  constant  experiments  were  suc¬ 
cessful  in  giving  photography  another  grand  advance.  lie  pre¬ 
pared  paper  with  iodide  of  silver,  thus  making  it  sensitive  to 
light,  fixed  it  in  the  camera,  threw  an  image  upon  it  with  a  lens, 
and  then  developed  the  shadow  into  a  picture,  and  fixed  it  with 
the  chemical  that  Daguerre  used  —  the  hyposulphite  of  soda.  Thus 
Talbot  made  paper  negatives,  with  which  quite  good  positives 
could  be  printed  ;  but  there  was  an  essential  difficulty  wfith  them  — 
a  want  of  unity  of  structure  and  delicacy  of  lines  inseparable  from 
the  use  of  even  the  best  paper.  Hence,  from  1840  to  1850,  most 
sun  pictures  were  made  upon  silver  plate,  and  were  very  properly 
called  daguerreotypes. 

About  the  year  1851  the  art  of  making  glass  negatives  was  in¬ 
vented.'  At  first  albumen  was  used  as  a  film  or  coating  on  plate 
glass,  and  albumen  plates  are  still  used  by  some  artists.  Legray 
was  the  first  to  suggest  that  collodion  would  make  a  better  film 
for  photographic  manipulation  than  albumen.  This  substance  is 
produced  by  dissolving  gun  cotton  in  ether  and  alcohol,  the  alco¬ 
hol  being  a  little  in  excess.  When  the  solution  is  poured  on  a 
plate  of  clean  glass,  it  forms  a  very  thin,  even,  and  transparent 
film,  which  quickly  dries,  and  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


877 


the  surface  of  the  glass  beneath.  The  plate  must  be  held  at  an 
angle  and  looked  at  closely  before  one  can  be  sure  that  it  has  been 
coated.  This  delicate  collodion  surface  can  be  made  sensitive  to 
light  just  like  a  silver  plate  ;  an  image  can  be  thrown  upon  it,  it 
may  be  developed  by  combination  of  iron  with  sulphur  and  with 
nitrate,  and  it  may  be  fixed  with  a  combination  of  potash. 

There  are  two  ways  of  finishing  this  collodion  shadow  into  a 
picture.  It  may  be  deepened  or  intensified,  fixed  and  set  against 
a  dark  background,  when  it  becomes  a  glass  positive,  sometimes 
called  a  melanotype  on  account  of  its  prevailing  dark  or  shadowy 
tints.  But  the  method  which  is  far  more  common  proposes  to 
work  this  collodion  shadow  into  a  glass  negative  or  type,  from 
which  any  number  of  pictures  may  be  taken  by  allowing  the  light 
to  shine  through  it  upon  properly  sensitized  paper. 

The  perfection  and  development  of  this  collodion  process  have 
given  modern  civilization  a  new  and  wonderful  art.  By  it  a  por¬ 
trait  can,  in  a  few  seconds,  be  thrown  upon  a  film  on  a  bit  of  plate 
glass.  After  that  the  sitter  may  go  his  way ;  he  may  travel  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  he  may  fall  in  battle  ;  his  true  and  very  likeness, 
more  like  him  than  the  most  gifted  artist  in  the  world  could  paint 
him,  can  be  fixed  upon  the  glass ;  the  glass  may  be  used  as  a  type 
by  which  sunlight  will  stamp  ten  thousand  images  upon  paper,  and 
at  a  cost  of  from  two  to  five  cents  the  picture,  can  be  transferred 
to  the  pockets  or  the  albums  of  millions. 

Within  twenty  years,  since  collodion  came  to  be  a  prominent 
chemical  in  photography,  there  have,  of  course,  been  a  thousand 
delicate  and  strictly  chemical  improvements  in  every  step  of  the 
process.  The  quality  of  the  coating  material  has  been  carefully 
studied,  and  artists  have  discovered  just  the  right  combinations 
of  gun  cotton,  alcohol,  and  ether  to  use.  The  best  mode  of  making 
this  film  sensitive,  the  best  material  for  developing  the  shadows 
when  thrown  upon  it,  the  manipulation  best  adapted  to  remove  de¬ 
fects  in  the  impression,  the  bath  that  will  set  the  lines,  and  more 
than-  all,  the  most  approved  and  skilful  handling  of  the  glass  as  a 
type  to  print  with,  and  the  various  modes  of  toning,  softening,  in¬ 
tensifying,  and  fixing  the  pictures  thrown  from  the  glass  to  the 
paper,  have  been  studied  with  persistent  enthusiasm.  Each  noted 
gallery  has  its  little  secrets  of  the  dark  room.  Some  artists  ex¬ 
cel  in  the  treatment  of  their  sitters  in  securing  an  easy  pose,  in 
getting  a  natural  expression,  in  throwing  just  the  right  light, 
enough  and  not  too  much,  upon  this  or  that  feature  or  limb. 


878 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


Others,  again,  surpass  in  the  chemical  branch  of  the  art ;  they 
know  just  how  to  manage  the  silver  bath,  just  how  many  grains 
of  protosulphate  of  iron  to  use,  and  exactly  how  the  hyposulphite 
of  soda  is  to  be  applied  as  a  fixing  solution. 

It  is  not  usual  to  find  the  grace  and  judgment  of  the  artist  com¬ 
bined  with  the  nice  knowledge  and  careful  manipulation  of  the 
chemist.  Most  galleries  have,  therefore,  one  or  more  who  devote 
themselves  wholly  to  the  study  of  light  and  shade,  posture,  ex¬ 
pression,  and  the  mysteries  of  actinism,  while  the  arts,  and  nice¬ 
ties,  and  strange  names  of  the  dark  room  are  given  over  to  a 
chemist.  In  large  cities  the  business  of  photography  is  dividing 
at  this  point  into  separate  establishments.  In  one  gallery  nothing 
is  done  but  to  make  the  best  possible  negatives.  The  glass  plates 
are  taken  to  a  photographic  printer,  who  knows  little  or  nothing 
of  the  camera,  but  gains  by  long  practice  and  exquisite  judgment 
in  the  matter  of  actinism,  of  the  lightness  and  the  depths  of  dif¬ 
ferent  negatives,  and  the  various  and  strange  chemicals  that  are.to 
compose  the  solutions  in  which  the  paper  takes  its  successive 
baths. 

To  give  all  the  minute  arts  and  expedients  by  which  a  first-class 
picture  is  produced  would  be  to  prepare  a  manual  for  the  photo¬ 
graphic  operator ;  but  the  general  reader  may  be  interested  in  a 
description  of  the  chief  steps  in  the  interesting  and  complicated 
process.  To  produce  a  negative,  the  essential  things  are  a  camera, 
a  dark  closet,  a  bottle  of  collodion,  a  plate  of  clear  glass,  a  solu¬ 
tion  of  nitrate  of  silver,  a  bottle  of  developing  solution,  made 
mostly  of  sulphate  of  iron  with  a  little  nitric  acid,  a  bottle  of  fix¬ 
ing  solution,  made  by  dissolving  five  ounces  of  hyposulphite  of 
soda  in  five  ounces  of  water.  Shallow  dishes,  like  a  soup  plate, 
will  be  needed,  and  a  plenty  of  clear  water.  The  person  or  arti¬ 
cle  to  be  photographed  is  placed  directly  before  the  camera,  and 
this  is  moved  back  and  forth  till  the  inverted  image  rests  in  the 
camera  just  as  the  artist  would  have  it  look  on  his  glass.  He 
goes  now  into  his  closet,  and  wiping  his  glass  clean,  pours  about 
a  spoonful  of  collodion  on  it,  and  tips  it  in  different  directions  till 
the  delicate  gum  has  flowed  over  the  whole  surface.  Before  the 
collodion  dries,  the  plate  is  plunged  gently  into  a  bath  of  nitrate 
of  silver,  where  it  is  moved  backward  and  forward  till  the  surface 
has  a  clear,  creamy  film  all  over  it.  It  is  drained  for  a  mo¬ 
ment,  and  placed  in  the  dark  frame,  which  is  at  once  set  into  the 
camera,  and  the  tube  and  the  sitter  adjusted  as  before.  Now  the 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


879 


cap  of  the  camera  is  removed,  and  the  image  is  thrown  upon  the 
plate  in  a  space  of  time  that  constantly  varies.  Perhaps  thirty 
seconds  is  about  the  average  time  of  the  exposure  of  a  properly 
prepared  plate.  The  plate  is  at  once  removed  to  the  closet.  The  - 
artist  takes  it  by  one  corner,  collodion  side  up,  and  pours  about 
an  ounce  of  the  developing  fluid  upon  the  surface,  and  flows  it 
back  and  forth,  looking  down  upon  it  and  through  it,  to  watch  the 
coming  out  of  the  picture.  If  it  comes  out  quick,  the  light  places 
very  light  and  the  dark  quite  heavy,  he  has  burnt  his  plate  —  the 
exposure  was  too  long.  If  it  comes  out  very  slowly,  and  the  out¬ 
line  is  dim  and  vague,  his  error  was  the  other  way  —  he  did  not 
expose  his  plate  long  enough.  The  happy  medium  between  these 
two  is  the  right  time  of  exposure. 

When  this  has  been  hit  upon,  the  image  makes  its  appearance 
steadily  and  gradually,  first  the  high  lights,  as  the  pearly  brow  or 
the  snowy  linen,  next  the  light  shades,  and  finally  the  shadows. 
When  all  the  details  come  out  well,  pour  the  developer  off, 
wash  the  plate,  and  examine  it  in  clear  light.  As  it  is  a  negative, 
the  whites  will  be  dark  in  the  glass,  and  the  parts  that  will  print 
dark  show  nearly  transparent.  If  the  whole  picture  is  full  of 
gradations  and  half  tones,  with  no  parts  quite  opaque,  and  the 
dark  parts  clear,  the  artist  has  a  good  negative,  and  he  may  pour 
the  hyposulphite  of  soda  over  it  to  set  everything  just  as  it  is. 
In  some  cases  a  solution  made  up  mostly  of  pyrogallic,  with  a  lit¬ 
tle  citric  acid,  is  poured  over  the  negative  before  it  is  set.  This 
has  the  effect  of  intensifying  the  picture,  making  the  whites 
whiter  and  the  darks  darker ;  but  the  acid  is  an  application  to  be 
made  with  much  caution,  as  good  judgment  and  a  happy  hit  in  the 
time  of  sitting  will  render  the  acid  process  unnecessary.  The 
soda  used  for  fixing  must  be  carefully  washed  away,  and  the  nega¬ 
tive  is  done. 

The  next  stage  in  the  process  is  printing  from  this  negative. 
For  this  purpose  sensitized  paper  is  used,  prepared  as  follows  : 
A  sheet  of  clear,  strong  linen  paper  is  dipped  in  a  solution  of 
iodide  of  potassium,  mixed  with  a  little  sugar  of  milk.  When  it 
has  been  washed  and  dried,  it  is  dipped  in  a  solution  of  nitrate  of 
silver,  to  which  a  little  acetic  acid  has  been  added.  This  gives  a 
film  of  iodide  of  silver,  and  if  exposed  to  the  light  it  would  turn 
dark.  It  is,  therefore,  made  sensitive  in  a  dark  chamber,  and  kept 
in  close  boxes  till  ready  for  use.  The  negative  is  carefully  laid 
over  a  sheet  of  this  sensitized  paper,  and  the  frame  that  clasps 
51 


8  80 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


both  is  laid  in  the  sun.  Much  judgment  is  required  in  knowing 
just  how  long  a  negative  should  be  exposed.  Much  depends  on 
the  character  of  the  negative,  and  still  more  on  the  actinic  quality 
of  the  rays,  for  this  is  an  element  which  varies  every  day,  and 
each  hour  in  the  day.  When  the  paper  has  been  under  the  nega¬ 
tive  long  enough,  throw  it  into  a  vessel  of  water,  and  move  it 
considerably.  When  the  nitrate  has  been  washed  away  in  pure 
water  and  a  wTeak  brine,  the  paper  goes  into  the  toning  bath. 
Tin's  is  a  solution  of  chloride  of  gold,  with  a  little  alcohol  and  a 
little  soda  added.  Then  it  passes  into  the  fixing  solution,  which 
is  the  same  as  was  used  for  fixing  the  negative.  When  dry,  the 
picture  is  done.  It  only  remains  to  paste  it  on  some  firm  back¬ 
ground,  trim,  and  set  in  its  frame,  or  attach  to  the  card-board.  A 
few  subtleties  and  refinements  have  been  omitted  in  this  account, 
but  in  substantially  the  way  described  nineteen  twentieths  of  the 
photographic  business  of  this  country  is  conducted. 

As  an  industry,  photography  has  grown  to  proportions  that  sur¬ 
prise.  The  best  indication  of  the  immense  extent  to  which  pic¬ 
tures  are  taken  is  found  in  the  quantity  of  prepared  or  albumenized 
paper  required.  There  are  but  two  mills  in  the  world  where  this 
is  made,  one  in  Germany  and  the  other  in  France,  the  finest  and 
purest  of  linen  being  used,  and  every  part  of  the  process  is  care¬ 
fully  watched,  as  the  least  metallic  substance  in  the  pulp  would 
render  the  paper  wholly  unfit  for  photographers.  There  are  four 
hundred  and  eighty  sheets  in  a  ream,  and  each  sheet,  as  consumed 
by  the  artists,  makes  probably  thirty  pictures ;  that  is,  fourteen 
thousand  four  hundred  photographs  are  made  from  a  ream.  We 
import  thirty-five  hundred  of  these  reams  annually.  This  indicates 
the  amazing  number  of  fifty  millions  and  four  hundred  thousand 
photographs  made  every  3^ear. 

Besides  photographs  there  are  ferrotypes,  made  by  throwing  a  pic¬ 
ture  on  a  surface  of  tin.  This  is  the  cheapest  form  of  picture,  and 
great  numbers  of  them  are  taken,  nearly  every  large  town  having 
one  or  more  cheap  galleries,  where  “  six  pictures  for  a  quarter  of 
a  dollar  ”  draw  the  million. 

There  are  about  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  persons  in 
the  United  States  who  follow  photography  as  a  business,  and  the 
leading  house  in  this  country  in  photographic  materials  estimates 
that  each  gallery  or  operator  consumes  two  hundred  dollars*  worth 
of  chemicals  and  paper  annually.  To  obtain  a  cheap  outfit  for 
making  cards  of  the  usual  size,  one  requires  an  outlay  of  some 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


881 


two  hundred  or  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  The  great  galleries 
of  the  metropolis,  where  sometimes  eighty  or  a  hundred  first-class 
pictures  are  made  in  a  day,  have  expended  at  least  three  thousand 
dollars  in  their  chemical  and  mechanical  outfit,  and,  including  the 
dark  room,  the  drapery,  and  the  various  devices  for  regulating  the 
light,  the  outlay  for  equipping  a  first-class  gallery  is  not  less  than 
ten  thousand  dollars. 

The  extent  to  which  sun-drawing  has  been  applied  as  a  substi¬ 
tute  for  printing,  and  for  hand-drawing  for  wood-cutters,  though 
interesting  and  full  of  hope  for  the  future,  will  hardly  entitle  these 
experiments  to  a  rank  among  the  great  industries. 

In  both  branches  of  this  marvellous  art,  the  artistic  and  the 
chemical,  there  is  encouragement  for  the  most  zealous  and  hopeful 
laborer.  Wonderful  advances  have  been  made  in  the  skill  with 
which  lights  are  managed,  with  which  the  actinic  power  of  light 
has  been  mastered  and  made  subservient  to  art.  Several  enthusi¬ 
asts  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  are  making  nice  experiments  in 
the  hope  of  solving  that  most  difficult  problem  in  the  art,  that  of 
reproducing  tints  as  well  as  forms,  securing  a  photography  of 
natural  colors,  as  well  as  an  accurate  transcript  of  figure  and  ex¬ 
pression.  By  using  bromide,  as  well  as  iodide  of  silver,  great 
delicacy  and  sensitiveness  of  surface  are  obtained,  so  that  we  may 
expect  to  see,  not  merely  the  fixed  and  standard  expression,  but 
the  flitting  and  evanescent  shades  of  character,  reproduced.  In 
this  way  this  curious  art  promises  to  give  us  individual  history 
in  a  series  of  sketches,  following  the  person  with  the  accuracy  of 
nature,  and  furnishing  us,  not  one  picture  of  a  friend,  but  a  hundred 
tracing  him 

“  From  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to  severe.” 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION. 

METHODS  OF  TRANSPORTATION  HERETOFORE  USED.  —  THE  NEW  PRINCIPLE  AND 
ITS  METHOD.  —  TILE  NEW  ROAD  BED  OR  TRACK.  —  MODE  OF  OPERATING  THE 
NEW  METHOD.  —  MANNER  OF  STOPPING  THE  SPHERES.  —  RATE  OF  SPEED.  — ’ 
COST  OF  CONSTRUCTION.  —  ECONOMY  OF  MANAGEMENT. 

Although  this  new  method  of  transportation  is  not  as  yet  prac¬ 
tically  in  operation,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  strictly  classed  as  a 
great  industry,  yet  it  has  been  thought  advisable  to  introduce  a 
notice  of  it  in  this  work.  As  yet  it  is  only  in  the  theoretical  stage 
of  development ;  but  the  advantages  it  offers  are  so  manifest  that 
we  feel  confident  our  readers  will  be  pleased  to  know  the  means 
which  it  proposes  for  a  cheaper  and  swifter  circulation  of  the  prod¬ 
ucts  of  industry  than  is  at  present  in  use,  and  we  feel  that  its  • 
introduction  here  is  strictly  in  conformity  with  the  design  which 
has  presided  over  the  preparation  of  this  volume.  The  notice  we 
give  of  it  is  prepared  from  the  statement  of  its  method,  written  by 
its  inventor,  Mr.  Albert  Brisbane,  of  New  York  city. 

General  Views. 

The  great  advantages  of  rapid  and  cheap  transportation  are  so 
well  understood  at  the  present  day  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  explain 
the  importance  of  an  invention  which  proposes  to  transport  the 
mails  and  products  of  the  country  —  its  grains,  fruits,  meats,  cot¬ 
ton,  highwines,  oils,  minerals,  coal,  and  merchandise  generally  — 
to  and  from  all  parts  of  it  in  a  few  hours,  instead  of  days,  and  at 
a  cost  far  less  than  by  means  of  railroads.  It  will  at  once  be  ad¬ 
mitted  that  such  an  invention,  if  practicable,  will  be  of  incalculable 
benefit,  and  will  inaugurate  a  new  era  in  the  industrial  and  com¬ 
mercial  interests  of  the  world. 

Methods  heretofore  used. 

If  we  ascend  to  primitive  historical  times,  and  examine  the 
methods  of  transportation  which  have  been  used,  we  shall  find 

(882) 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION. 


883 


that  but  two  distinct  methods  have  been  employed.  In  the  earlier 
times  animals,  tamed  and  brought  under  subjection,  were  used  as 
carriers.  The  horse,  ass,  ox,  camel,  dromedary,  and  elephant 
were  the  animals  domesticated  and  used  for  that  purpose. 

The  first  device,  to  effect  transportation  by  mechanical  means, 
was  the  wheel.  At  first  rude  carts  with  two  wheels  were  con¬ 
structed  ;  and  these  simple  vehicles  were  drawn,  by  the  animals 
already  tamed,  on  the  natural  surface  of  the  earth,  which  was 
the  primitive  and  simple  road-bed  to  which  man  resorted.  Next 
wagons  with  four  wheels  were  devised,  and  artificial  roads  were 
.made  by  levelling  and  grading.  Then  springs  were  invented  —  an 
improvement  which  was  unknown  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  At 
length  the  railroad  system  was  Invented,  substituting  an  iron  track 
or  road-bed,  level  and  straight,  in  the  place  of  the  old  road-bed  of 
earth  or  hammered  stone,  and  the  locomotive  in  the  place  of  the 
horse.  The  railroad  is  the  full  and  complete  development  of  the 
system  that  employs  the  wheel  and  axle  principle  ;  it  unites  all  the 
conditions  for  rendering  it  the  most  efficient  and  practicable,  and 
completes  the  series  of  improvements  possible  in  this  direction. 

The  New  Principle  and  its  Method. 

The  invention  that  has  now  been  made  introduces  a  new  princi¬ 
ple,  and  with  it  a  new  system,  fundamentally  different  from  the 
old.  It  starts  from  the  full  development  and  completion  of  the 
old,  and  introduces  something  entirely  new  in  its  place. 

The  new  means  or  instrument  of  locomotion  which  the  invention 
employs  is  the  sphere,  an  instrument  which  it  substitutes  in  place 
of  the  wheel.  The  sphere  is  the  simplest  and  the  true  form  of  a 
vehicle  of  motion.  It  revolves  upon  its  periphery  without  friction, 
is  moved  with  the  least  power,  and  permits  the  highest  rate  of 
speed  attainable  by  any  form  of  ponderable  or  material  body. 
Nature,  in  all  her  departments  in  which  she  requires  high  velocity, 
employs  the  sphere  as  the  form  best  adapted  to  rapid  and  unvary¬ 
ing  motion,  as  is  exemplified  in  all  her  works,  from  the  planet, 
which  is  a  spherical  body,  rotating  on  an  imaginary  axis,  to  the 
falling  drop  of  rain,  which  assumes  the  spherical  form  in  passing 
rapidly  through  free  space. 

To  adapt  the  sphere  to  the  purpose  of  transportation,  it  is  made 
hollow,  and  the  load  to  be  carried  is  placed  inside.  Thus  hollow 
spheres  or  globes,  carrying  their  loads  inside,  are  the  vehicles  used 
under  the  new  system.  They  may  be  of  any  size,  from  two  feet 


884 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION. 


to  ten  in  diameter.  They  would  be  made  of  metal,  —  thin  cast- 
steel  shells  for  the  smaller  sizes,  and  boiler  iron  for  the  larger 
sizes,  — turned  in  a  lathe  with  precision,  so  as  to  roll  evenly  and 
smoothly.  They  would  be  provided  with  apertures,  or  “  man¬ 
holes  (with  covers  made  to  screw  in,  so  as  to  form  a  part  of  the 
surface),  through  which  they  could  be  loaded  and  discharged  easily 
and  readily. 


PACKING  A  SPHERE. 


The  New  Road-bed  or  Track. 

The  properties  of  the  pneumatic  tube  fit  it  perfectly  for  the  new 
vehicle  of  motion.  It  will  furnish  the  vehicle,  first,  a  road-bed 
that  is  even,  smooth,  and  solid  ;  second,  entirely  free  from  dirt  and 
dust,  or  other  obstructions,  and  protected  against  the  disturbing 
action  of  the  wind,  rain,  and  snow ;  and  third,  a  passage-way  in 
which  the  spheres,  moving  with  the  current  of  air,  will  not  be  im¬ 
peded  in  their  course  by  the  resistance  of  the  atmosphere.  The 
tubes  will  be  constructed  a  very  little  larger  than  the  spheres,  to 
allow  them  a  fnee  passage.  A  metallic  rail  or  plate  will  be  placed 
as  a  road-bed  on  the  bottom  of  the  tube,  of  a  suitable  width,  and 
slightly  concave,  to  adapt  it  to  the  convexity  of  the  sphere. 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION. 


885 


From  these  explanations  it  will  be  seen  that  the  invention  con¬ 
sists  in  employing  hollow  spheres  or  globes,  with  the  load  to  be 
transported  inside,  operating  in  pneumatic  tubes. 

Lines  of  pneumatic  tubes  can  be  cheaply  and  rapidly  construct¬ 
ed  throughout  all  parts  of  the  country.  Straight  lines  should,  as 
far  as  practicable,  be  preserved ;  but  ascents  are  of  but  little  im¬ 
portance,  as  the  spheres,  when  in  rapid  motion,  will  overcome 


steep  grades.  The  tubes  may  be  placed  under  or  over  ground, 
but  better  over,  raised  some  fifteen  feet  in  the  air,  and  supported 
on  posts  or  piers.  Wood  is  the  best  material  with  which  to  con¬ 
struct  the  tubes ;  it  would  not  expand  and  contract  with  the  heat 
and  cold,  like  iron,  while  it  would  be  far  cheaper.  Narrow  planks, 
tongued  and  grooved,  properly  seasoned  and  saturated  with  oil  or 
coal-tar,  would  furnish  the  best  kind  of  material.  By  a  system  of 
way-stations  and  relays  of  power  at  proper  distances,  the  lines  of 


886 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION, 


tubes  can  be  made  to  connect  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  entire 
country,  effecting  transportation  rapidly  and  cheaply  to  and  from 
all  parts  of  it. 


Mode  of  Operating  the  New  Method. 

Let  us  imagine  a  line,  one  hundred  miles  in  length,  constructed 
between  two  cities.  When  the  spheres  are  to  be  forwarded,  the 
mouth  of  the  tube,  at  the  end  from  which  they  are  to  be  sent,  is 
closed,  and  the  air  exhausted  for  a  short  time  from  the  other  end,  and 
at  way-stations,  if  necessary,  by  air-pumps  worked  by  steam.  As 
soon  as  a  sufficient  quantity  is  exhausted  to  cause  a  current  to  set 
in,  the  mouth  at  the  closed  end  is  opened,  and  the  spheres  are  rolled 
in  at  short  intervals,  the  exhausting  process  being  kept  up  in  the 
meantime.  The  current  of  air  rushing  in  and  striking  the  spheres 
will  carry  them  rapidly  forward  to  their  destination.  If  they  are 
set  in  motion  by  a  slight  fall  in  the  tube,  or  a  push,  they  will  then 
move  by  the  application  of  very  little  force.  If  necessary,  a  cur¬ 
rent  of  air  can  be  driven  in  upon  them. 

Manner  of  Stopping  the  Spheres. 

At  each  station  a  succession  of  brakes,  held  down  by.  springs, 
will  be  placed  on  the  top  of  the  tube.  There  may  be  fifty  of  these 
brakes,  if  necessary,  ranged  one  after  the  other  in  close  proximity. 
They  will  be  concave,  so  as  to  clasp  the  sphere,  and  present  a 
large  surface  as  it  strikes  them.  They  will  be  lined  with  leather 
or  gutta  percha  to  prevent  any  abrasion  of  the  surfaces. 

The  strength  of  the  springs  and  the  pressure  they  will  effect 
will  be  proportional  to  the  size  of  the  sphere,  and  the  weight  to  be 
brought  to  bear.  In  addition  to  the  brakes,  the  current  of  air  can 
be  reversed  and  thrown  in,  causing  the  spheres  to  meet  an  elastic 
air-cushion  as  they  arrive  at  their  destination.  When  the  spheres 
are  to  be  stopped,  the  brakes  will  be  put  down,  and  the  spheres, 
striking  them  one  after  the  other,  will  raise  each  in  succession, 
with  more  and  more  difficulty,  until  they  are  brought  to  a  stand. 
Lines  of  telegraphic  wires  will  run  through  the  tubes,  furnishing 
at  every  moment  information  in  relation  to  the  position  of  the 
spheres,  and  transmitting  orders  for  the  regulation  of  their  move¬ 
ments. 

Care  will  be  taken  to  pack  the  load  in  the  spheres  securely  and 
tightly,  or  in  the  compartments,  if  necessary.  Besides,  centrifugal 
action  and  rotary  motion  will  suffice  to  keep  everything  in  its 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION. 


887 


place,  even  if  not  tightly  packed,  except  at  the  moment  of  depart¬ 
ure  and  of  arrival.  It  is  to  prevent  shaking  at  these  two  transitional 
points  that  the  proper  packing  of  articles  liable  to  injury  will  be 
requisite.  When  the  spheres  are  once  in  motion,  nothing  inside 
will  move.  The  effect  of  rotary  and  centrifugal  action  is  illus¬ 
trated  in  the  case  of  revolving  cylinders,  in  which  ores  are  rubbed 
and  castings  cleaned.  They  must  revolve  slowly  to  permit  the 
articles  within  to  fall.  A  cylinder  four  feet  in  diameter  can  make 
about  thirty-six  revolutions  in  a  minute,  which  is  equal  to  a  speed 
of  seve’n  feet  a  second,  or  five  miles  an  hour.  Above  this  rate 
centrifugal  action  begins  to  counterbalance  gravity. 

Rate  of  Speed. 

A  locomotive,  running  alone  and  on  a  good  track,  will  attain  a 
speed  of  one  hundred  miles  an  hour.  If  this  rate  of  speed  is  pos¬ 
sible  with  a  heavy  vehicle,  weighing  thirty  tons  and  running  on 
sixteen  wheels,  and  on  two  separate  rails  that  are  never  laid  ex- 
.  actly  even  and  smooth,  we  may  safely  calculate  for  the  spheres, 
moving  on  their  smooth  and  even  track,  and  on  a  rolling1  surface 
much  less  in  breadth  than  that  of  a  single  wheel,  a  speed  of  at 
least  double,  or  two  hundred  miles  an  hour. 

Cost  of  Construction. 

An  intelligent  carpenter  can,  with  proper  data,  calculate  the 
cost  per  mile  of  the  tubes.  If  proper  mechanical  facilities  are 
provided  to  construct  the  tubes,  they  can  be  put  together  rapidly 
and  cheaply.  The  spheres  will  not  be  expensive  ;  one  of  five  or 
six  feet  diameter,  made  of  cast-steel  half  an  inch  thick,  would  cost 
less  than  a  pair  of  cast-iron  car-wheels,  the  axletrees  and  springs 
and  the  framework  for  holding  them  not  included.  The  land  ought 
to  be  a  light  expense,  as  it  would  be  but  slightly  damaged  by  the 
posts.  A  line  of  tubes,  six  to  eight  feet  diameter,  could  be  con¬ 
structed  for  a  half  or  third  of  what  a  line  of  railroad  costs,  and 
that  in  the  United  States,  where  railroads  are  built  cheaply.  Let 
a  single  trial  demonstrate  the  practicability  of  the  method,  and 
the  question  of  expense  will  be  of  no  importance. 

Economy  of  Management. 

Transportation  will,  under  the  new  method,  be  extremely  simple 
-and  economical.  A  train  of  one  hundred  spheres,  once  under  way, 
will  move  on  to  their  destination  without  a  hand  to  touch  them,  or 


888 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  TRANSPORTATION 


an  eye  to  look  after  them.  What  a  contrast  with  the  railroad  ! 
A  train  of  cars  requires  for  its  management  the  constant  attention 


of  an  engineer,  a  fireman,  a  conductor,  and  several '  brakemen, 
switchmen,  and  trackmen,  while  the  wear  and  tear  of  track  and 
rolling  stock  are  enormous. 


GLASS. 


THE  ART  IN  EARLY  TIMES.  — THE  SKILL  OF  THE  EGYPTIANS  IN  MAKING  GLASS. 

—  GLASS  AMONG  THE  ROMANS. - THE  CRUSADES  AND  GLASS  MAKING.  — 

VENETIAN  GLASS  WARE.  —  TECHNICAL  DEFINITION  OF  GLASS.  —  THE  VARI¬ 
ETIES  OF  GLASS.  — THE  QUALITIES  OF  GLASS. — ANOTHER  CLASSIFICATION 
OF  GLASS.  —  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  GLASS  MAKING  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. — 

THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  BUSINESS. — ITS  PROBABLE  FUTURE. 

The  art  of  making  glass  was  known  at  a  very  early  period  in 
history  ;  in  fact,  the  discovery  of  this  art  dates  so  far  back  that 
all  record  of  it  is  lost.  With  the  mummies  taken  from  the  Egyp-  \ 
tian  tombs,  beads  and  other  ornaments  of  glass,  colored  to  imitate 
precious  stones,  have  been  found.  The  date  of  their  manufacture 
must  be  carried  back  more  than  three  thousand  years.  In  the 
tombs  at  Beni-ITassan,  and  in  other  places,  pictorial  representa¬ 
tions  have  been  found  of  the  process  of  glass  making,  thus  proving 
that  the  Egyptians  were  acquainted  with  this  manufacture  in  the 
age  of  Osirtasen  I.,  who  reigned  three  thousand  five  hundred  years 
ago,  and  was  most  probably  a  contemporary  of  Joseph. 

From  the  Egyptians  the  Assyrians  undoubtedly  became  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  process,  and  the  Jews,  during  their  captivity, 
must  have  learned  the  art.  Yet,  singularly,  the  onty  allusion  to 
it  in  the  old  Testament  is  a  passage  in  Job  xxviii.  17,  “  the  gold 
and  the  crystal  cannot  equal  it,”  and  that  this  was  intended  to 
refer  to  glass  is  strongly  questioned  by  good  authorities.  The 
Egyptians  were  acquainted  with  many  of  the  arts  of  working  in 
glass.  They  could  cut,  grind,  engrave,  and  even  enamel  it.  In 
the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  lenses,  vases,  bottles,  and  various  other 
utensils  have  been  found.  It  is  most  probable,  however,  that  the 
first  suggestions  of  glass  making  were  derived  from  the  glazing 
which  frequently  takes  place  in  baking  pottery,  and  that  b^  vari¬ 
ous  experiments  they  happened  upon  several  processes  of  its 
manufacture.  We  know  that  the  ancients  had  not  arrived  at  the 

(889) 


890 


GLASS. 


positive  knowledge  of  modern  times,  and  had  not  the  ability,  by 
chemical  analysis,  to  accurately  understand  what  caused  their  fail¬ 
ures,  or  what  was  necessary  to  be  done  to  insure  success  in  the 
future. 

From  the  Egyptians  the  Phoenicians  unquestionably  derived  their 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  glass  making,  though  Pliny  ascribes  their 
discovery  of  it  to  accident.  According  to  his  account,  some  sail¬ 
ors  who  were  shipwrecked  built  a  fire  on  the  beach,  and  found 
that  the  sand,  from  its  contact  with  some  lumps  of  soda,  had  fused 
into  a  glass.  Such  an  explanation  was  satisfactory  to  the  spirit 
of  history  in  ancient  times,  when  the  accidental  or  the  marvellous 
was  more  readily  received  as  the  cause  of  anything  than  the  regu¬ 
lar  and  orderly  course  of  cause  and  effect.  With  the  sceptical 
spirit  of  modern  history,  however,  such  accounts  must  submit  to 
the  test  of  logical  examination,  and,  as  in  this  instance,  are  reject¬ 
ed  if  they  cannot  stand  it.  We  know  that  a  fire  so  built,  in  the 
open  air,  and  only  for  the  purpose  of  cooking,  could  not  fuse  sand, 
nevermind  how  much  soda  was  accidentally  present. 

In  the  time  of  Pliny  and  Strabo,  glass  works,  according  to  their 
statements,  were  in  operation  at  Alexandria  and  at  Sidon,  while 
Theophrastus  states  that  three  hundred  and  seventy  years  before 
the  commencement  of  our  Christian  era  the  arts  of  cutting,  grind¬ 
ing,  coloring,  and  gilding  glass  were  in  use,  and  that  articles  of 
exquisite  workmanship  were  produced,  but  were  so  costly  as  to  be 
possessed  only  as  luxuries  by  the  very  rich.  The  Emperor  Aure- 
lian,  it  is  said,  required  a  portion  of  the  tribute  from  Egypt  to  be 
paid  in  articles  of  glass. 

The  manufacture  of  glass  was  introduced  into  Rome  during  the 
time  of  Cicero,  who  died  in  the  year  43  B.  C.  In  the  third  cen- 
tury,  articles  of  glass  were  in  common  use  in  Rome,  and  in  Her¬ 
culaneum  various  utensils  made  of  it  have  been  discovered,  and 
in  Pompeii  window  glass,  though  the  Romans  generally  used 
sheets  of  mica  for  their  windows,  when  they  used  anything,  to 
make  them  a  protection  from  the  outer  air,  which  the  mildness 
of  their  climate  rendered  generally  unnecessary.  Stained  glass  is 
known  to  have  been  used  in  the  churches  of  Europe  as  early  as  in 
the  eighth  century  ;  but  its  use  in  private  houses  was  much  later, 
so  that  as  late  even  as  the  twelfth  century,  a  house  in  England  in 
which  the  windows  were  provided  with  glass  was  considered  to 
have  everything  which  luxury  could  afford. 

The  crusades,  which  did  so  much  to  give  Western  Europe  a 


GLASS. 


891 


practical  knowledge  of  the  industries  and  civilization  of  the  East, 
were  the  immediate  cause  of  the  introduction  of  the  manufacture 
of  glass  into  Venice,  where  the  art  was  greatly  improved,  new 
processes  being  invented,  until  the  industry  became  one  of  the 
chief  sources  of  the  wealth  of  the  state.  Venetian  glass  became 
famous  all  over  Europe,  and  to-day  articles  of  this  manufacture 
are  among  the  most  choice  and  valuable  treasures  of  the  various 
art  and  industrial  museums.  During  the  middle  ages,  it  was  quite 
generally  believed  that  a  certain  kind  of  Venetian  glass  had  the 
rare  virtue  of  shivering  to  fragments  when  any  poison  was  intro¬ 
duced  into  a  vessel  made  from  it ;  nor  has  the  tradition  entirely 
died  out  to  this  day. 

This  industry,  during  its  flourishing  period,  was  guarded  most 
jealously  by  the  state  ;  the  workmen  were  granted  certain  privi¬ 
leges,  but  were  carefully  guarded  to  prevent  their  carrying  the 
knowledge  of  the  process  into  other  countries,  or  to  sell  the  infor¬ 
mation  to  strangers.  It  was  at  the  Venetian  factories  that  mirrors 
were  first  made  of  glass,  and  soon  replaced  the  use  of  those 
of  polished  metal,  which  had  been  used  by  the  ancients. 
The  financial  importance  of  this  industry,  as  developed  by  the  Ve¬ 
netians,  was  soon  seen  by  the  French,  and  the  government  offered 
great  inducements  for  its  introduction.  As  early  as  1634  attempts 
were  made  to  manufacture  mirrors,  and  in  1666  workmen  were  ob¬ 
tained  from  Venice  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  the  Venetian 
processes.  In  1688  Abraham  Thevart  discovered  the  method  of 
casting  mirror  plates,  and  soon  after  a  factory  for  their  production 
was  established  at  St.  Gobain,  which  for  nearly  a  century  re¬ 
tained  the  monopoly  for  the  manufacture  of  this  desirable  article 
of  luxury. 

In  England,  it  is  claimed  that  window  glass  was  made  as  early 
as  1439.  Walpole,  in  his  Anecdotes  of  Painting ,  has  given  an  old 
builder's  contract,  from  which  this  fact  appears.  But  at  this  time 
it  also  appears  that  a  preference  was  given  to  that  which  was  im¬ 
ported.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  a  manufacture  of  window 
glass  was  established  in  London  in  1557,  and  that  soon  after  a  fine 
quality  of  flint  glass  was  manufactured  in  another  factory  in  the 
same  place.  Coal  was  introduced  as  fuel  in  the  place  of  wood  in 
1635,  by  Sir  Robert  Mansell,  and  a  great  impetus  was  given  the 
manufacture  by  the  improvement.  In  1673  the  first  sheets  of 
blown  glass  for  mirrors  or  windows  were  manufactured  in  a  factory 
at  Lambeth,  established  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  in  which 


892 


GLASS. 


Venetian  workmen  were  employed.  The  government  at  first  pro¬ 
tected  this  manufacture  by  a  bounty,  and  by  other  measures  which 
reduced  the  cost  of  production  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent., 
and  in  consequence  various  other  manufactories  were  established. 
Eventually,  however,  obstacles  were  thrown  in  the  way  of  manu¬ 
facturing  glass  in  England,  and  especially  in  the  introduction  of 
any  new  or  improved  methods,  by  the  establishment  of  the  excise 
system,  and  the  consequent  stationing  of  government  officers  in 
the  manufactories.  In  1845  the  bounties,  the  aids,  and  the  restric¬ 
tions  were  all  removed,  and  under  the  system  of  total  non-inter¬ 
ference  by  the  government,  the  glass  manufacture  of  England  has 
steadily  and  rapidly  increased.  In  1844  the  English  exports  of 
glass  amounted  to  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
and  in  1855  they  exceeded  two  million  five  hundred  thousand  dol¬ 
lars,  and  the  quality  of  the  English  crown  glass,  or  blown  glass, 
is  unrivalled. 

The  chief  production  of  glass  in  Europe,  if  not  in  the  world,  is 
carried  on  in  Belgium.  .  In  1854  the  amount  made  there  was  one 
fourth  more  than  that  in  England,  being  both  crown  and  sheet. 

Glass  may  be  technically  defined  as  a  transparent,  homogene¬ 
ous,  hard  product,  formed  by  the  fusion  of  silica  with  the  oxides 
of  the  alkaline,  earthy,  or  common  metals.  It  is  usually  without 
color,  and  then  resembles  rock  crystal.  It  can  be  colored,  how¬ 
ever,  cither  by  accident  or  design,  with  the  colored  metallic  ox¬ 
ides.  It  is  brittle  in  thick  pieces,  but  in  thin  plates,  or  threads, 
is  very  elastic.  At  a  red  heat  it  becomes  soft,  ductile,  and  plastic. 
Silica,  the  basis  of  all  glass,  is  by  itself  infusible  by  any  heat  which 
our  furnaces  can  sustain,  but  its  vitreous  fusion  is  easily  caused  by 
mixing  with  it  a  sufficient  quantity  of  potash  or  soda,  either  alone 
or  mixed  with  lime  or  litharge.  Silica  being,  as  chemistry  has 
shown,  an  acid,  it  combines  at  the  fusing  heat  with  these  bases, 
forming  a  saline  compound  ;  so  that  glass  may  be  considered  as  a 
silicate  of  certain  oxides,  in  which  the  acids  and  the  bases  exist 
in  equivalent  proportions. 

If  it  were  possible  to  ascertain  beforehand  the  quantities  or  the 
proportions  of  the  bases  required  by  the  silica  for  its  saturation, 
we  could  in  advance  determine  readily  the  best  proportions  for 
making  glass.  But  as  we  have  not  yet  done  this,  and  as  it  is  most 
probable  that  the  differences  of  the  temperature  cause  a  difference 
in  the  capacity  for  saturation  of  the  silica,  and  as  the  properties 
of  the  glass  vary  with  the  various  bases,  we  must  in  the  present 


GLASS. 


893 


condition  of  our  knowledge  depend  more  upon  experience  and  prac¬ 
tice  than  upon  theory  in  this  matter.  The  following  chemical  dis-- 
tribution  of  the  various  glasses  has  been  proposed  :  — 

1.  Soluble  glass;  a  simple  silicate  of  potash  or  soda,  or  of 
both  of  these  alkalies. 

2.  Bohemian,  or  crown  glass  ;  silicate  of  potash  and  lime. 

3.  Common  window  glass  and  mirrors ;  silicate  of  soda  and 
lime  ;  sometimes  also  of  potash. 

4.  Bottle  glass ;  silicate  of  soda,  lime,  alumina,  and  iron. 

5.  Ordinary  crystal  glass ;  silicate  of  potash  and  lead. 

6.  Flint  glass;  silicate  of  potash  and  lead;  richer  in  lead  than 
No.  5. 

7.  Strass  ;  silicate  of  potash  and  lead  ;  still  richer  in  lead. 

8.  Enamel ;  silicate  and  stannate,  or  antimoniate  of  potash  or 
soda  and  lead. 

When  melted  or  cooled  slowly,  the  glasses  which  contain  sev¬ 
eral  bases  are  liable  to  changes.  The  silica  becomes  divided  among 
the  bases,  making  different  compounds  of  definite  proportions, 
which  crystallize  separate  from  each  other,  so  that  the  homogeneity 
of  the  glass  is  destroyed,  and  it  becomes  hard,  loses  its  transpar¬ 
ency,  is  fibrous,  much  less  fusible,  and  a  better  conductor  of  heat 
and  electricity.  This  is  called  devitrifted  glass,  or  Reaumur’s  por¬ 
celain,  after  the  discoverer  of  this  process. 

The  proportion  with  which  silica  unites  with  the  alkaline  and 
other  oxides,  is  modified  by  the  temperature  at  which  the  union  is 
effected ;  the  lower  the  heat,  the  less  silica  and  the  more  of  the 
base  will  be  required.  If,  therefore,  a  glass  which  has  an  excess 
of  alkali  be  exposed  to  a  higher  temperature  than  that  of  its  for¬ 
mation,  a  portion  of  the  base  will  be  set  free,  until  a  permanent 
combination  is  formed  according  to  the  temperature.  Hence  a  va¬ 
riety  of  results  will  obtain  from  the  same  mixture  of  materials, 
according  to  the  degree  of  heat  at  which  they  are  fused  and 
worked  ;  and  the  essential  composition  should  always  be  referred 
to  the  heat  of  the  furnace  in  which  it  was  made.  When  a  glass 
has  been  made  at  a  high  temperature,  with  a  considerable  quantity 
of  lime,  and  is  afterwards  kept  for  some  time  fused  at  a  lower 
temperature,  a  portion  of  the  lime  will  form  such  another  combi¬ 
nation  with  the  silica  as  to  destroy  the  transparency  of  the  glass. 
An  excess  of  silica,  with  an  increased  heat,  will  produce  the  same 
results. 

The  power  of  glass  to  resist  the  action  of  water,  alkalies,  acids, 


804 


GLASS. 


the  air,  and  of  light,  is,  as  a  general  rule,  the  greater  as  the  heat 
employed  in  its  manufacture  has  been  higher,  as  the  proportion  of 
the  bases  is  smaller,  and  as  its  constituent  parts  more  nearly  ap¬ 
proach  to  exactness  the  equivalent  ratios.  Glass  containing  too 
great  a  proportion  of  alkali  is  partially  soluble  in  water,  and,  as  a 
rule,  the  affinity  of  glass  for  water,  or  its  hygrometric  attraction, 
is  proportional  to  the  quantity  of  alkali  it  contains.  Air  and  light 
operate  upon  glass  most  probably  by  their  oxidizing  powers. 
Bluish  or  greenish  colored  glass  becomes  colorless  by  exposure. 
If  glass  containing  lead  be  exposed  to  air  in  which  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  be  present,  the  oxide  of  lead  is  converted  into  a  sulphu- 
ret,  and  the  surface  of  the  glass  becomes  opaque  and  iridescent. 
This  effect  is  often  seen  in  stables.  The  test  for  a  glass  vessel  to 
resist  most  of  these  effects,  is  boiling  concentrated  sulphuric  acid 
in  it,  or  boiling  it  in  the  acid  :  if  the  glass  is  good,  it  will  remain 
smooth  and  transparent;  if  not,  it  will  become  dim  and  rough. 

After  the  glass  is  made,  it  is  toughened  by  annealing.  Without" 
this  process  it  is  very  brittle  ;  a  vessel  of  thick  glass,  unannealed, 
will  sometimes  fly  to  pieces  by  the  simple  effect  of  the  changes  of 
the  atmospheric  temperature.  Annealing  is  performed  by  heating 
the  glass,  and  allowing  it  to  cool  slowly.  Frequently  the  vessels 
are  heated  in  salt  water  or  oil  to  as  high  a  temperature  as  these 
fluids  can  contain,  and  then  allowed  to  cool  very  slowly.  The 
glass  thus  treated  will  stand  the  variations  of  temperature  within 
the  limits  of  the  heat  that  has  been  used. 

The  following  classification  of  the  various  kinds  of  glass  may 
be  of  interest  for  comparison  with  the  one  already  given  :  — 

1.  Bottle  glass,  including  the  varieties  from  which  hollow  ves¬ 
sels  and  tubes,  common  bottles,  medicine  bottles,  vials,  tumblers, 
and  so  on,  are  made.  The  dark-colored  varieties  contain  a  larger 
proportion  of  oxide  of  iron  and  alumina,  and  in  none  of  them  is 
any  oxide  of  lead.  White  bottle  glass  is  made  of  silica,  soda  or 
potash,  and  lime. 

2.  Window  glass,  including  cylinder  or  sheet  glass,  and  English 
crown  glass,  is  a  silicate  of  potash  or  soda,  lime,  and  alumina. 

3.  Plate  glass,  which  differs  from  the  preceding  only  in  the 
greater  purity  of  the  materials,  and  their  freedom  from  color. 

4.  Flint  glass,  used  for  grinding,  making  sand  paper,  Ac.,  com¬ 
posed  of  silica,  potash,  and  oxide  of  lead. 

5.  Crystal  glass,  used  for  optical  instruments  and  table  purposes, 


GLASS. 


895 


consists  of  silica  or  boracic  acid,  potash,  and  more  lead  than  the 
preceding. 

6.  Strass,  or  the  material  used  for  the  imitation  of  precious 
stones,  contains  much  oxide  of  lead,  and  also  the  metallic  oxides 
used  for  giving  the  various  colors. 

7.  Enamel,  composed  of  silica,  soda,  and  oxide  of  lead,  and 
rendered  opaque  by  the  oxide  of  tin  or  antimony,  which  forms  a 
stannate  or  antimoniate  with  the  soda.  Besides,  there  is  soluble 
glass,  being  a  simple  silicate  of  soda  or  of  potash,  or  a  mixture 
of  the  two  silicates. 

To  describe  the  various  operations  by  which  glass  is  worked, 
would  require  so  much  elaboration,  and  so  many  illustrations  to 
make  them  intelligible,  that  it  is  evidently  impossible  to  attempt 
it  here.  A  visit  of  an  hour  to  any  one  of  the  numerous  glass  fac¬ 
tories,  in  actual  operation,  will  give  a  clearer  comprehension  of 
the  simplicity  and  skill  with  which  the  various  processes  of  manu¬ 
facture  are  carried  on,  than  an  entire  volume  could  do. 

The  introduction  of  the  manufacture  of  glass  into  the  United 
States  was  contemporaneous  with  the  settlement  of  the  country. 
With  the  establishment  of  the  first  colony  at  Jamestown,  Va.,  in 
1607,  some  of  the  colonists  brought  over  were  glass  makers,  and 
the  first  cargo  sent  back  to  England  contained  “  trials  of  pitch, 
tar,  glass,  frankincense,  and  soap  ashes,  with  what  wainscot  and 
clapboard  could  be  provided.”  At  the  same  time,  Captain  John 
Smith,  of  famous  memory,  returned  “  a  plain  and  scholarly  an¬ 
swer”  by  the  same  vessel  to  the  council  in  London,  who  had  com¬ 
plained  of  the  want  of  profitable  returns  from  the  colony.  From 
Stith’s  History  of  Virginia  we  learn  that  the  glass  house  stood  in 
the  woods,  about  a  mile  from  Jamestown.  Small  as  it  unquestion¬ 
ably  was,  yet  it  deserves  mention  as  being  the  first  manufactory 
erected  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  Stith  also  informs 
us  that,  in  1621,  a  fund  was  subscribed  to  establish  a  factory  of  glass 
beads,  to  be  used  as  a  currency  in  the  trade  with  the  Indians  for 
furs,  and  a  Captain  Norton,  with  some  skilled  Italian  workmen, 
was  sent  over  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  this  profitable  specula¬ 
tion.  At  the  same  time,  also,  a  subscription  was  opened  for  the 
purpose  of  importing  women  into  the  colony,  so  as  to  give  the 
necessary  conditions  for  the  permanency  of  the  settlement,  and  it 
would  appear  that  this  last  venture  proved  more  immediately  profit¬ 
able  than  the  first,  the  price  of  maids  rising  as  high  as  one  hun- 

52 


806 


GLASS. 


*-» 


dred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco,  and  the  demand  being  active 
enough  to  quickly  absorb  the  supply. 

In  the  settlement  at  Massachusetts  the  first  establishment  of  a 
glass  manufactory  is  said  to  hUve  been  made  at  the  village  of  Ger¬ 
mantown,  in  Braintree.  Glass  bottles  alone  were  made  here,  and 
the  business  was  continued  until  shortly  before  the  revolution, 
when  the  failure  of  the  proprietors  and  the  burning  of  the  build¬ 
ings  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the  enterprise,  which  has  never 
been  resumed.  In  1639  a  glass  house  was  established  at  Salem, 
and  the  court  granted  “  to  the  glass  men  severall  acres  of  ground 
adjoyning  to  their  howses,”  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  enter¬ 
prise.  In  1641  the  court  further  authorized  the  authorities  of  the 
town  of  Salem  to  lend  the  proprietors  thirty  pounds,  to  be  deduct¬ 
ed  from  the  next  town  rate,  and  to  be  repaid  by  the  borrowers 
“  if  the  work  succeeded,  when  they  are  able.”  Bottles  and  coarse 
articles  of  inferior  kinds  of  glass  were  alone  made  here.  The 
use  of  glass  in  windows  was  at  this  time  not  common  in  the 
mother  country,  and  of  course  it  was  not  in  the  colonies.  One  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  Plymouth  settlement  wrote  to  his  friends 
in  England,  “  Bring  paper  and  linseed  oil  for  your  windows,  and 
cotton  yarn  for  your  lamps.”  In  1629  Mr.  Iligginson,  writing 
from  Salem,  says,  “  Bring  glass  for  your  windows.” 

In  1152  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts' passed  an  act  grant¬ 
ing  the  sole  privilege  of  making  glass  in  the  province  to  Isaac  C. 
Winslow  and  his  associates.  In  New  York,  Jan  Smeeds  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  have  been  the  first  glass  maker,  and  a  map  made  in  1732 
indicates  the  existence  of  two  establishments  in  the  city  for  glass 
making.  A  glass  house  is  also  mentioned  as  existing  in  Philadel¬ 
phia  in  1683.  The  business  did  not,  however,  assume  any  impor¬ 
tance  in  the  country  before  the  time  of  the  revolution,  although 
glass  was  one  of  the  articles  taxed  by  the  mother  country.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  revolution,  the  importations  being  suspended,  the  need  of 
glass  was  greatly  felt.  Lord  Sheffield,  writing  when  peace  was 
declared,  says,  “  There  are  glass  works  in  Pennsylvania.  Bad 
glass  is  made  in  New  Jersey  for  windows,  but  there  is  not  any 
quantity  of  glass  made  in  America  as  yet  except  bottles.” 

In  1788  the  legislature  of  New  York  voted  a  loan  of  three 
thousand  pounds  for  eight  years  to  the  proprietors  of  a  glass  fac¬ 
tory  near  Albany,  which,  in  1797,  became  the  property  of  an  asso¬ 
ciation  known  as  the  “  Hamilton  Manufacturing  Company,”  and 
was  exempted  from  taxation  by  the  state  for  five  years.  The 


GLASS. 


807 


glass  made  by  them  was  in  good  repute,  and  the  business  was  ac¬ 
tively  carried  on,  producing  about  twenty  thousand  feet  of  glass 
a  month,  besides  bottles  and  flint  glass,  and  continued  until  1815, 
when  it  was  discontinued  from  the  exhaustion  of  the  supply  of 
fuel  in  the  vicinity  of  the  works. 

Glass  works  were  commenced  in  Boston  in  1787,  which  in  1800 
produced  about  a  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  a  year,  and 
the  business  is  still  carried  on  most  successfully  in  Massachu¬ 
setts.  Connecticut,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  also  commenced  tfye 
production  of  glass  during  the  last  century.  The  first  factory 
commenced  in  Pittsburg,  which  is  at  present  a  most  important  cen¬ 
tre  of  the  production  of  glass  in  this  country,  was  begun  in  1795. 
General  O'Hara  deserves  the  chief  credit  for  establishing  the  busi¬ 
ness  in  Pittsburg.  Among  his  papers  at  his  death  was  found  a 
memorandum  to  this  effect,  “  To-day  we  made  the  first  bottle,  at 
a  cost  of  thirty  thousand  dollars." 

The  production  of  glass  and  glass  ware  in  this  country  was,  by 
the  census  of  1860,  given  as  nearly  nine  millions  of  dollars,  and  in 
1870  it  had  reached  nearly  double  this  amount,  and  the  business 
bids  fair  to  increase  still  further.  Though  some  of  the  modern 
processes,  as,  for  example,  the  making  of  mirrors,  are  not  yet  car¬ 
ried  on  in  this  country,  and  we  have  to  depend  still  upon  Europe 
for  the  supply  of  many  of  the  articles  of  glass  ware  to  meet 
the  demands  of  artistic  cultivation,  yet,  in  time,  so  surely  has 
American  industry  become  established,  there  is  no  doubt  that  we 
shall  here,  as  in  other  departments  of  industry,  attain  the  ability  of 
supplying  the  demand. 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS—INCLUDING  ALE,  BEER,  LAGER 
BEER,  PORTER,— WINE,  AND  WHISKEY. 

BEER  AN  ANCIENT  INVENTION.  —  TACITUS,  CONCERNING  GERMAN  BEER.  —  A  BEER 
INCIDENT  OF  THE  LATE  FRANCO-PRUSSI AN  WAR.  —  CHINESE  ORDINANCE  IN  RE¬ 
GARD  TO  THE  GRAPE.  —  HOW  WINE  IS  MADE  IN  THE  CELESTIAL  EMPIRE.  — 
CHINAMEN,  SATURATED  WITH  ALCOHOL,  BURN  LIKE  CANDLES.  —  ALE  AMONG 
THE  SAXONS.  —  THE  COMMON  “  SCRIPTURE  DISPUTE  ”  ABOUT  THE  WORD 

“WINE.” -  THE  IMMENSE  AMOUNT  OF  MONET  ANNUALLY  SPENT  IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES  FOR  INTOXICATING  LIQUORS.  —  THE  ONLY  TEMPERANCE  SO¬ 
CIETY  IN  ITALY.  —  THEOCRATIC  PUNISHMENTS  OF  INTEMPERANCE.  — MORAL 
SUGGESTIONS.  —  INTEMPERANCE  A  DISEASE. 

A  drink,  corresponding  to  what  is  called  ale  or  beer,  made  of 
barley  or  other  grains,  steeped  in  water  and  afterwards  fermented, 
has  been  known  among  all  nations  from  a  very  early  period.  It  is 
generally  believed  to  have  been  a  discovery  or  invention  of  the 
Egyptians.  In  almost  all  countries,  even  including  those  where 
wine  is  a  natural  production,  beer  has  been  a  common  beverage. 
The  people  of  Spain  and  France,  and  different  states  of  Germany, 
the  inhabitants  of  India  and  China,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Abyssinia, 
have  been,  and  are,  beer-drinkers. 

Tacitus,  in  his  History  of  the  Germans  (chapter  xxiii.),  says  the 
people  made  drink  of  barley  or  other  grain,  and  fermented  it  so  as 
to  resemble  wine.  *  lie  intimates  also,  that  while  their  food  was 
very  plain  and  inexpensive,  there  was  not  the  same  sobriety  in 
their  drink  ;  and  that,  if  any  one  should  give  them  all  they  de¬ 
sired  to  drink,  they  would  be  known  for  their  vices  rather  than 
their  valor.  The  fondness  of  the  Germans  for  beer  does  not  appear  • 
to  have  become  less  since  the  days  of  Tacitus.  During  the  siege  of 
Strasburg,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1870,  some  German  citizens 
sent  a  request  to  General  Uhlrich  that  he  would  officially  ask  the 
Prussians  not  to  direct  their  fire  towards  the  breweries. 

In  China,  in  different  periods  of  its  history,  the  cultivation  of 
the  grape  has  been  forbidden,  because  the  production  of  other 
(898) 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


899 


things  was  necessary  for  the  sustenance  of  the  people.  The  im¬ 
mense  population  of  that  empire  requires  the  land  to  be  used  for 
the  production  of  grain  in  its  various  kinds,  so  that  the  culture  of 
the  grape  is  neglected,  and  wine  is  regarded  as  a  luxury.  Being, 
therefore,  in  some  respects  deprived  of  grape  wine,  the  Chinese 
make  liquors  from  corn  and  other  grains,  which  are  used  in  great 
quantities.  That  most  common,  however,  is  obtained  from  the 
fermentation  of  rice.  It  is  a  kind  of  beer,  and  has  not  an  unpleas¬ 
ant  taste,  though,  as  generally  used  in  China,  is  of  inferior  quality, 
and  not  very  agreeable,  but  at  the  same  time  not  possessing  a 
large  amount  of  alcohol.  On  one  occasion  an  excellent  quality  of 
this  rice  beer  was  offered  to  an  English  connoisseur  in  wine,  who 
discovered,  as  he  thought,  that  it  was  the  produce  of  some  cele¬ 
brated  vintage  in  Spain.  He  served  it  at  dessert  to  some  of  his 
countrymen,  who  pronounced  it  excellent,  and  perceived  in  it  the 
true  flavor  and  bouquet  of  Spanish  wines. 

In  the  manufacture  of  this  beer  the  rice  is  fermented  in  large 
jars  ;  a  kind  of  yeast  or  leaven  is  mixed  with  it,  which  is  called 
the  “  mother  of  wine.”  This  yeast  is  made  of  unbolted  wheat 
flour,  and  prepared  with  great  care,  as  the  goodness  of  the  wine 
or  beer  depends  on  the  quality  of  the  yeast  employed.  It  is  some¬ 
times  made  of  the  flour  of  oats,  barley,  rye,  and  also  of  peas  and 
beans,  to  which  is  often  added  odoriferous  herbs,  and  fruits  dried 
and  reduced  to  powder.  In  the  northern  parts  of  China  this  beer 
is  made  of  millet  instead  of  rice. 

A  kind  of  brandy  is  made  of  corn,  and  in  some  parts  of  the  em¬ 
pire  from  large  millet  (sorghum)  ;  and  by  passing  it  several  times 
through  the  still,  it  has  the  fire  and  strength  of  alcohol.  These 
liquors  have  a  very  unpleasant  taste,  which  is  sometimes  modified 
by  bruising  in  them  green  fruits  and  aromatic  herbs.  The  Chinese 
swallow  these  fiery  fluids  with  the  greatest  avidity,  and  usually 
take  them  hot.  A  recent  traveller  in  China  says,  “  One  can  hard¬ 
ly  imagine  what  pleasure  the  Chinese  find  in  imbibing  these  burn¬ 
ing  drinks,  which  are  absolutely  like  liquid  fire,  and  moreover  very 
ill-tasted.  But  many  instances  have  been  mentioned  of  their  hav¬ 
ing  died  a  fiery  death  for  the  sake  of  it ;  of  men  who  have  absorbed 
such  a  quantity  of  alcohol  as  to  have  become  fairly  saturated  with 
it,  and  to  have,  in  a  manner,  exhaled  it  from  every  pore.  The 
slightest  accident  then,  the  mere  lighting  of  a  pipe,  has  been  suffi¬ 
cient  to  envelop  in  flames  and  consume  these  wretched  creatures.” 

The  manufacture  of  alcoholic  liquor  from  corn  was  the  accidental 


900 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


discovery  of  a  Chinese  peasant  in  the  thirteenth  century,  though 
rice  beer,  or  rice  wine,  was  known  to  that  people  twenty  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era.  •  While  Chinese  law  prohibits  the  making 
of  rice  wine  and  other  spirits,  since  the  various  grains  are  needed 
as  food  for  the  immense  population,  yet  this  law  is  a  dead  letter ; 
a  fee  to  the  local  mandarin  removes  all  difficulty.  Though  the 
government  sells  permission  to  distil  brandy,  it  is  on  the  condition 
that  no  grain  shall  be  used  which  is  not  spoiled,  and  so  unsuked 
for  food.  But  this  condition  is  never  regarded.  The  immense 
consumption  of  rice  beer  and  corn  brandy  has  its  results  in  the 
common  vice  of  drunkenness,  which  is  a  prime  cause  of  poverty  in 
China,  as  in  all  other  countries. 

Among  the  Saxons  and  Danes  ale  or  beer  has  been,  from  earliest 
times,  a  favorite  drink.  It  was  never  wanting  at  their  feasts  ;  and 
in  their  pagan  faith  beer-drinking  constituted  one  of  the  principal 
sources  of  happiness  in  the  Ilall  of  Odin.  The  modern  representa¬ 
tion  of  John  Barleycorn  on  his  beer  barrel,  called  by  Burns  “the 
king  o’  grain,”  doubtless  suggests  the  idea  of  an  earthly  paradise 
to  many  devotees  of  Barclay  &  Perkins,  or  of  “  guid  auld  Scotch 
drink.”  In  the  early  periods  of  English  history,  ale  and  bread 
were  considered  equally  as  absolute  necessaries  of  life.  This  ap¬ 
pears  from  the  various  ordinances  regarding  bread  and  ale  passed 
from  time  to  time  to  regulate  the  price  of  these  articles.  In  that 
time,  when  brewers  in  the  city  paid  twenty-four  pence  for  a  quar¬ 
ter  of  barley,  they  were  obliged  to  sell  two  gallons  of  ale  for  a 
penny.  Before  beer  by  fermentation  converts  the  sugar  it  contains 
into  alcohol,  it  is  to  a  certain  extent  a  nourishing  drink  ;  the  pro¬ 
portion  of  alcohol  it  ordinarily  contains  is  small,  varying  from  three 
to  eight  per  cent.  It  holds  in  solution  certain  quantities  of  gum, 
sugar,  and  starch,  qualities  which  are  nutritious. 

In  the  earliest  times  beer  has  been  spoken  of  as  possessing  in¬ 
toxicating  qualities ;  it  has  been  called  the  wine  of  barley. 
Writers  of  the  early  centuries,  describing  the  mode  of  making 
beer,  say,  “  The  grain  is  steeped  in  water  and  made  to  germinate, 
by  which  its  spirits  are  excited  and  set  at  liberty  ;  it  is  then  dried 
and  ground,  after  which  it  is  infused  in  a  certain  quantity  of  water, 
which,  being  fermented,  becomes  a  pleasant,  warming,  strengthen¬ 
ing,  and  intoxicating  liquor.” 

Beer  is  a  favorite  drink  of  Germans,  and  their  persistent  de¬ 
mand  for  it  has  caused  it  to  be  extensively  manufactured  in  the 
United  States,  though  its  consumption  is  by  no  means  confined  to 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


901 


the  German  population.  The  number  of  barrels  of  fermented 
liquors,  —  ale,  beer,  lager  beer,  and  porter,  —  returned  for  tax  dur¬ 
ing  the  year  1866,  was  more  than  five  millions ;  for  the  year  end¬ 
ing  June  30,  1811,  the  number  of  barrels  was  1,159,380,  on  which 
was  paid  as  internal  revenue  the  sum  of  $1,389,141.  13.  It  is  al¬ 
together  probable  that  the  number  of  barrels  returned  for  taxation 
does  not  represent  the  number  actually  manufactured  and  con¬ 
sumed. 

That  a  drink  known  for  so  many  centuries,  and  used  by  all  peo¬ 
ples  and  nations,  is  evil  in  its  effects  in  all  cases,  can  hardly  be 
supposed.  And  yet  the  stronger  kinds  of  beer,  consumed  in  large 
quantities,  as  it  is  by  the  great  multitude  of  beer-drinkers,  can 
have  only  a  pernicious  influence  on  health  and  morals.  Apoplexy 
and  palsy  are  the  common  perils  of  intemperate  beer-drinking.  The 
average  German  beer-drinker  is  so  intellectually  confused  and  stu¬ 
pefied  that  he  is  said  to  laugh  at  a  joke  only  the  day  after  he  hears 
it.  Its  tendency  is  to  heavy  sottishness  and  intellectual  paralysis. 
The  cost  of  the  beer  consumed  in  the  United  States,  including 
grain,  hops,  labor,  coal,  yeast,  etc.,  cannot  be  less  than  thirty-five 
millions  of  dollars  annually  ;  and  for  all  this  expense,  with  the 
time  lost  in  beer  shops,  and  the  diseases  acquired  in  them,  there  is 
really  no  equivalent. 

Wine  is  the  name  of  a  liquor  obtained  by  the  fermentation  of 
the  juice  of  the  grape.  The  same  name  is  given  to  other  bever¬ 
ages  made  by  fermenting  the  juice  of  other  fruits.  In  the  earliest 
records,  in  the  oldest  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  wine  is  spoken 
of  as  though  already  known.  Of  the  exact  signification  of  the 
word,  as  variously  used  in  the  Scriptures,  much  has  been  written, 
and  different  opinions  expressed.  Its  general  meaning  however 
is,  the  fermented  juice  of  the  grape.  It  is  known  in  all  countries, 
either  as  a  domestic  or  a  foreign  production.  The  geographical 
range  of  the  grape  is  very  wide,  and  wine  may  be  made  on  both 
continents  between  latitude  50°  north  and  latitude  45°  south.  In 
the  warm  or  hot  regions  the  richest  sweet  wines  are  made. 
The  quality  of  wine  is  also  determined  by  soil  and  situation.  The 
percentage  of  alcohol  in  pure  wines  varies  from  six  to  sixteen  per 
cent.  Where  much  alcohol  is  present,  they  are  termed  strong  or 
generous  wines  ;  where  otherwise,  light  or  weak ;  where  much  sugar 
is  undccomposed,  they  are  called  sweet  or  luscious  wines ;  where 
little,  they  are  called  dry  wines. 

Chemists  are  generally  agreed  that  the  condition  in  which  alco- 


902 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


hoi  exists  in  the  natural  product  of  the  first  and  second  fermenta¬ 
tion  of  the  grape  juice,  is  very  different  from  that  in  which  it  is 
found  when  obtained  by  distillation.  The  addition  of  alcohol,  or 
any  distilled  spirits,  is  always  injurious  to  wine,  destroying  its 
finer  qualities,  and  rendering  it  decidedly  hurtful  in  its  effects. 
Alcohol  or  spirits  thus  added  to  wine  do  not  assimilate  with  it, 
but  remain  as  foreign  and  unnatural  elements.  “  The  alcohol  thus 
uncombined  acts  on  the  body  in  the  same  way  as  alcohol  simply 
diluted  with  an  equivalent  quantity  of  water.  This  is  manifest 
even  in  the  difference  of  the  moral  effects  of  unadulterated  wine, 
in  which  the  spirit  is  an  integral  element,  and  those  of  the  colored 
liquids,  which  serve  merely  as  a  vehicle  for  a  large  portion  of  alco¬ 
hol.  The  pure,  light  wines  of  France  and  Germany  produce  an 
agreeable  exhilaration  of  mind,  very  unlike  the  mere  physical 
excitement,  almost  amounting  to  ferocity,  which  results  from 
largely  brandied  wines.”  It  is  the  universal  practice  in  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Sicily  to  add  brandy  to  wines  which  are  intended  for 
a  foreign  market.  The  wines  manufactured  in  the  United  States 
are  made  unnaturally  strong  by  the  addition  of  distilled  spirits  and 
of  sugar  before  fermentation,  while  the  light  wines  of  Europe  are 
the  pure,  unmixed  juice  of  the  grape.  The  custom,  however,  is 
common  in  all  countries  of  adulterating  wine  by  the  addition  of 
spirits  and  other  foreign  substances. 

“  The  diseases  which  attend  spirit-drinkers,  chiefly  disorders  of 
the  liver,  are  commonly  met  with  among  the  consumers  of  wines, 
to  which  brandy  or  whiskey  has  been  added,  though  such  disor¬ 
ders  rarely,  if  ever,  follow  even  the  intemperate  use  of  pure  wine. 
Much,  therefore,  of  the  ill  health  supposed  to  follow  the  habitual 
use  of  wines,  must  be  attributed  to  the  alcohol  with  which  they 
are  adulterated,  not  to  the  wine  itself.  It  has  been  held  to  be  in¬ 
explicable  why  a  quantity  of  alcohol,  forming  an  integral  portion 
of  some  good,  sound  wine,  will  not  affect  the  head  to  the  extent 
or  with  the  rapidity  that  half  the  quantity  will  do  when  taken  pure, 
or  still  more  rapidly  when  diluted  with  water.  If  the  power, 
which  all  vegetable  acids  possess  of  counteracting  intoxication  be 
called  to  mind,  it  seems  natural  that  the  free  acids  present  in 
wine  should  hinder  the  spirit  from  acting  prejudicially.  Tartaric 
acid,  that  one  most  common  in  good  wine,  has  the  greatest  power 
in  this  respect.”  • 

Unfortunately  for  the  consumers  of  wine,  it  is  difficult  to  find 
pure  wine  in  the  market,  in  this  or  any  country.  In  wine-grow¬ 
ing  countries  adulterated  wine  is  common,  pure  wine  the  exception. 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


903 


The  number  of  gallons  of  wine  made  in  the  United  States  can¬ 
not  be  known  with  certainty,  since,  besides  the  large  product  in 
Ohio,  California,  Indiana,  and  Kentucky,  more  or  less  is  made 
for  domestic  use  in  almost  all  the  other  states.  The  foreign  im¬ 
portation  of  wine  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1811,  amounted  to 
9,553,156  gallons,  and  5,815,080  bottles,  at  a  cost  of  $5,513,389. 

It  is  not  probable  that  any  considerable  amount  of  these  imported 
wines  could  be  called  the  pure  fermented  juice  of  the  grape. 

Whiskey  is  a  spirituous  liquor  distilled  from  rye,  corn,  molasses, 
and,  it  is  said,  also  from  potatoes.  It  is  the  most  common  and 
the  cheapest  form  of  intoxicating  liquor  ;  and  in  the  compounding 
and  manufacture  of  other  liquors,  it  enters  more  or  less  into  all 
kinds  of  different  names.  Of  the  large  amount  manufactured  in 
the  United  States,  a  part  is  reduced  to  alcohol,  a  part  exported  to 
be  returned  in  a  few  months  under  the  pleasing  names  of  “French 
brandy  ”  and  “  Holland  gin/’  etc.,  but  it  is  principally  consumed 
at  home.  The  number  of  gallons  of  whiskey  made  in  the  United 
States,  and  returned  for  tax  in  the  year  1810,  was  11,331,099.  In 
addition  to  this  amount,  there  was  imported  during  the  same  year, 
under  the  name  of  spirits  and  cordials,  1,661,226  gallons,  making 
a  total  of  more  than  13,000,000  of  gallons.  In  the  year  1810  the 
amount  received  as  internal  revenue  from  spirituous  liquors,  in¬ 
cluding'  special  tax  on  distillers,  dealers,  etc.,  exceeded  $55,000,000. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  this  ocean  of  whiskey  is  for  the  most 
part  retailed  by  the  glass  at  an  enormous  profit,  the  immense  cost, 
and  greater  moral  waste  to  whiskey-drinkers,  may  be  understood.  *•' 

The  temperance  reform  is  one  of  the  noticeable  features  of  our 
modern  social  life.  In  Europe,  generally,  a  reformation  on  the 
subject  of  wine  and  spirit-drinking  is  not  understood  or  appre¬ 
ciated.  When  the  grape  disease  diminished  the  supply  of  wine 
and  augmented  its  price,  the  people  formed  the  habit  of  using 
strong  spirituous  liquors,  and  much  drunkenness  was  the  conse¬ 
quence.  A  temperance  society  was  organized  in  Turin  in  the 
year  1861,  —  probably  the  first  and  only  one  in  Italy,  —  not  to 
discourage  the  use  of  wine,  but  of  strong  liquors.  Though  men 
of  learning  and  influence  had  an  active  interest  in  this  society,  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  had  any  significant  results.  It  is  reported 
of  a  German  clergyman,  that  in  addressing  his  people  on  what  he 
called  temperance,  he  said  that  “  ordinarily  a  man  should  not  take 
more  than  two  bottles  of  wine  at  a  sitting ;  that  God  had  given  to 
but  few  persons  the  capacity  of  taking  eight,  as  he  had  to  him.” 


904 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


The  warfare  made  among  us  against  the  use,  as  a  beverage,  of 
all  intoxicating  liquors,  has  for  many  years  been  earnest,  and  re¬ 
sulted  in  great  good.  A  great  host  of  our  population,  including  all 
ages,  have^been  educated  into  the  sentiment  of  total  abstinence. 
In  carrying  forward  this  reform,  doubtless  some  errors  have  been 
committed  through  excess  of  zeal.  In  a  fair  examination  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Scriptures  on  the  use  of  wine  and  strong  drink, 
we  may  not  find  that  their  use  is  denounced  as  in  itself  a  sin. 
While  no  such  sentiment  may  be  declared,  it  may  still  be  true  that 
in  millions  of  individual  cases  it  would  be  a  sin  to  use  the  one  or 
the  other.  We  must  distinguish  between  a  general  principle  and 
individual  acts,  the  character  of  which  must,  in  many  cases,  be 
determined  by  circumstances.  It  was  the  adoption  of  the  princi¬ 
ple  that  the  use  of  wine  was  a  sin  per  se,  i.  e.,  in  itself,  in  any  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and  absurdly  demanding  the  substitution  of  water  for 
wine  at  the  communion,  that  at  one  time  greatly  injured  the  cause 
of  temperance. 

Another  sentiment  clearly  taught  in  the  Scriptures  is,  that  infem- 
perance  is  a  sin,  and  under  the  Theocracy  it  was  punished  in  the 
most  summary  manner.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  parents  of  a  re¬ 
bellious  son,  who  was  a  drunkard,  to  denounce  him  to  the  elders 
of  his  city.  And  the  divine  direction  was,  that  “  all  the  men  of 
the  city  shall  stone  him  with  stones,  that  he  die  ;  so  shalt  thou 
put  evil  away  from  among  you,  and  all  Israel  shall  hear  and  fear.” 
“Woe  to  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim,  whose  glorious  beauty  is  a 
•  fading  flower.  Behold,  the  Lord  hath  a  mighty  and  strong  one, 
which,  as  a  tempest  of  hail  and  a  destroying  storm,  as  a  flood  of 
mighty  waters  overflowing,  shall  cast  down  to  the  earth  with  the 
hand  ;  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim  shall  be  trodden  under  feet.” 
God  condemns  drunkenness  as  a  sin,  for  which  the  drunkard  is  re¬ 
sponsible. 

With  the  plain  teachings  of  the  Scriptures  concerning  the  sin  of 
intemperance,  we  may  connect  the  teachings  of  all  ages  and  coun¬ 
tries  that  it  is  the  most  fruitful  cause  of  all  forms  of  pauperism  and 
crime.  Guided  by  such  instructions,  it  may  be  said  that  absti¬ 
nence  from  all  intoxicating  liquor  is  a  safe,  and  should  be  adopted 
as  a  general  rule  of  duty  ;  and  that  exceptions  are  to  be  made  only 
in  favor  of  the  infirm,  the  weak,  and  the  sick,  and  even  then  only 
in  behalf  of  those  whose  infirmities  do  not  come  of  excess  or  in¬ 
temperate  habits. 

Intemperance  is  a  physical  disease,  and  undermines  moral  prin- 


FERMENTED  LIQUORS. 


905 


ciple  ;  so  that  temperance,  like  any  other  virtue,  is  best  promoted 
by  carefully  observing  all  hygienic  cases,  as  well  as  cultivating 
the  moral  sentiments  and  feelings.  The  reformation  of  the 
thoroughly  intemperate  is  an  immense  difficulty.  To  eradicate 
a  vice  like  drunkenness,  is  far  more  difficult  than  to  cultivate 
the  virtue  of  temperance  before  bad  habits  are  formed.  The 
homely  proverb,  that  “  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound 
of  cure/7  applies  in  full  force  to  this  subject.  Temperance  must 
be  promoted  by  prevention,  by  a  firmer  expression  of  domestic  au¬ 
thority  in  cultivating  and  establishing  the  character  of  children. 

In  an  article  where,  as  in  this,  the  space  of  the  writer  is  limited, 
much  which  bears  upon  the  temperance  phase  of  our  subject  must 
necessarily  be  omitted  which  might  otherwise  be  introduced  with 
good  moral  effect.  But  it  will  not  occur  to  the  reader,  because 
less  is  herein  expressed  upon  the  moral  bearings  of  the  use  and 
abuse  of  fermented  liquors  than  might,  under  other  circumstances, 
have  been  offered,  that  therefore  the  writer’s  zeal  in  the  cause 
of  temperance,  after  an  advocacy  of  total  abstinence  from  all  in¬ 
toxicating  drinks  for  nearly  thirty  years,  has  in  the  least  abated. 

John  B.  Gough. 


SCREW-WRENCHES  AND  TIIEIR  MANUFACTURE. 

DEFINITION  OF  A  WRENCH.  —  TIIE  EXTENT  TO  WHICH  THEY  ARE  USED.  —  THE 

HISTORY  OF  THE  SCREW-WRENCH. —  A.  G.  COES  AND  CO.’S  SCREW-WRENCH. 

—  merrick’s  patent. — a.  g.  coes’s  patent.  —  improvements,  upon  it. 

—  THE  MACHINERY  USED  IN  WRENCH-MAKING.  —  A.  G.  COES’S  IMPROVE¬ 
MENTS  IN  IT.  — THE  “HEADER.” — THE  “UP-SETTER.”  —  A.  G.  COES  AND 

CO.’S  ESTABLISHMENT.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  ITS  BUSINESS.  —  MR.  COES’S  PER¬ 
SONAL  HISTORY. 

A  wrench  is  an  instrument  for  giving  a  wrenching  motion  to  a 
bolt  or  bar,  and  is  used  for  twisting  out  screws.  A  screw-wrench 
is  one  in  which  the  jaws  used  for  taking  hold  of  the  square  head 
of  the  screw  or  bolt,  or  the  nut  by  which  it  is  fastened,  are  made 
adjustable  to  the  required  size  by  means  of  a  screw,  which  moves 
one  of  them.  The  extent  to  which  machinery  is  used  in  this 
country,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  manufacturers  of  screw- 
wrrenches,  the  use  of  which  has  been  introduced  by  the  necessity 
incident  to  it,  has  become  the  important  industry  it  now  is.  The 
number  of  screw-wrenches  made  annually  in  the  United  States  is 
estimated  at  about  a  quarter  of  a  million.  These  are  of  all  kinds, 
good,  bad,  and  indifferent. 

With  the  exception  of  perhaps  twenty  thousand,  the  rest  of  this 
supply  it  produced  by  the  house  of  Messrs.  A.  G.  Coes  &  Co., 
who  thus  rank  at  the  head  of  this  industry,  and  control,  through 
their  patents,  the  manufacture  of  the  only  really  valuable  wrench, 
which  is  known  in  the  market  as  the  “  Coes  Wrench.” 

The  history  of  the  screw-wrench  extends  back  only  to  the  lfth 
of  August,  1835,  that  being  the  date  when  letters  patent  were 
granted  to  Solyman  Merrick,. of  Springfield,  Mass.," for  a  screw- 
wrench,  which  is  now  almost  entirely  superseded,  where  reliable 
wrenches  for  constant  use  are  needed,  by  the  improved  wrench 
made  exclusively  by  Messrs.  A.  G.  Coes  &  Co.,  under  their  pat¬ 
ents  relating  to  the  form  of  the  wrench,  and  to  the  improved  ma¬ 
chinery  by  which  they  are  made. 

(DOC)* 


SCREW-WRENCHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  907 


Before  Mr.  Merrick’s  invention,  many  attempts  had  been  made 
to  produce  a  practicable  screw-wrench,  and  not  a  few  of  the  de¬ 
vices  arrived  at  worked  passably  well.  But  they  all  failed  in  some 
point  of  reaching  even  the  partial  perfection  which  his  attained, 
and  were  eventually  abandoned.  Mr.  Merrick’s  patent  secured 
the  mode  of  connecting  and  operating  the  screw  upon  the  main 
bar  of  the  wrench.  Though  this  was  a  very  valuable  improve¬ 
ment  upon  anything  previously  produced,  yet  it  required  the  ex¬ 
penditure  of  much  time  and  money  to  get  it  introduced,  the  chief 
difficulty  in  its  way  being  the  fact  that  the  instrument  was  con¬ 
structed  upon  such  principles  that  there  was  no  certainty  of  per¬ 
fection  in  its  construction.  One  good  wrench  of  this  kind  was 
no  guarantee  to  the  purchaser  that  the  next  one  would  be  equally 
good.  The  screw  running  upon  the  bar,  upon  the  sides  of 
which  the  threads  were  cut,  made  it  necessary  that  not  only  the 
threads  of  the  male  and  female  screw  should  be  accurately  cut, 
but  also  that  the  material  of  which  the  nut  and  the  bar  were  con¬ 
structed  should  be  of  the  finest  quality,  and  be  forged  in  the  best 
manner,  to  prevent  the  bending  of  the  bar  by  the  strain  necessarily 
put  upon  it,  so  that  the  nut  should  not  “  bind,”  or  work  with  great 
difficulty,  or  not  at  all. 

Though  eventually  this  screw-wrench  of  Mr.  Merrick’s  obtained 
a  large  sale,  yet  it  was  not  large  enough  to  remunerate  him  for 
the  time  and  expense  of  its  introduction,  and  in  1848  an  extension 
of  the  patent  was  granted  him.  By  the  introduction  of  this  screw- 
wrench  the  public,  however,  was  habituated  to  their  use,  in  the 
place  of  the  devices  previously  provided  for  this  purpose,  and  the 
inventive  genius' of  others  Was  excited  to  attempt  the  construction 
of  some  other  implement  which  should  more  perfectly  subserve 
the  purposes  for  which  it  was  intended,  by  being  less  liable  to  be¬ 
come  wholly  or  partially  inoperative  by  severe  usage. 

In  1841  a  patent  was  granted  for  a  screw-wrench  which  obvia¬ 
ted  these  objections,  and  also  in  which  the  position  of  the  movable 
screw,  running  on  the  bar,  and  requiring  for  its  operation  both 
hands  of  the  person  using  it,  was  supplemented  by  a  rotary  screw, 
upon  a  fixe<? axis,  and  so  constructed  as  to  drive  the  movable  jaw 
by  the  simple  application  of  a  “  rosette,”  or  a  corrugated  head  of 
the  screw,  by  the  thumb  of  the  operator,  as  he  holds  the  wrench 
in  his  hand. 

This  patent  was  held  by  Messrs.  L.  &  A.  G.  Coes,  of  Worces¬ 
ter,  Mass.,  and  under  it  they  for  many  years  controlled  the  rnanu- 


908  SCREW-WRENCIIES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


facture  of  this  improved  wrench.  As  described  in  the  letters’  pat¬ 
ent,  this  improvement  consisted  in  “the  moving  of  the  sliding  jaw 
by  a  screw,  combined  with  and  placed  by  the  side  of  and  paral¬ 
lel  with  the  bar  of  the  permanent  jaw  and  handle,  when  the 
required  rotation  for  sliding  the  jaw  is  given  by  the  head  or  ro¬ 
sette,  which  retains  the  same  position  relatively  to  the  handle 
during  the  operation.” 

On  the  expiration  of  this  patent  it  was  extended  for  seven 
years,  and  re-expired  ;n  1862.  Since  that  time  several  manufac¬ 
turers,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  have  attempted  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  this  wrench  ;  but  though  in  some  instances  possessing 
large  capital,  they  have  invariably  failed  to  continue  their  opera¬ 
tions  long,  partly  through  the  want  of  the  requisite  mechanical 
skill,  but  mainly  from  the  impossibility  of  competing  with  the  es¬ 
tablished  reputation  of  the  Messrs.  Coes,  who  had  gained  the 
public  confidence  in  their  wares.  The  signal  failure  of  these  at¬ 
tempts  is  an  evidence  of  the  consideration  which  conscientious 
workmanship  receives  from  a  discriminating  public. 

Valuable,  however,  as  was  the  wrench  as  manufactured  for  some 
time  after  the  expiration  of  the  patent  by  the  Messrs.  Coes,  yet 
it  has  been  greatly  improved,  and  particularly  by  a  patent  obtained 
in  March,  1866,  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Coes,  the  principal  of  the  firm  of 
A.  G.  Coes  &  Co.,  the  successors  of  the  original  firm  of  L.  &  A.  G 
Coes  which  was  dissolved  some  years  ago  by  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  L.  Coes  from  the  screw-wrench  business. 

In  this  improvement  the  haft  or  handle  was  relieved  from  the 
back  pressure  of  the  rosette  screw,  and  the  instrument  thus  ren¬ 
dered  more  durable,  and  less  liable  to  be  deranged.  This  improve¬ 
ment  is  so  great  that  a  screw-wrench  is  not  now  considered  desir¬ 
able  without  it,  and  consists  in  a  ferrule  so  constructed  that  when 
the  handle  is  thoroughly  fixed  to  the  tang,  or  bar,  it  is  held  by  an 
eccentric  cap  affixed  to  it,  in  a  slot  slightly  cut  in  the  tang  or  bar, 
so  that  the  ferrule  cannot  be  forced  back  by  any  amount  of  strain 
upon  the  movable  jaw  of  the  wrench. 

The  next  improvement  upon  the  screw-wrench  was  that  known 
as  the  Richard  patent,  which  is  owned  by  Messrs,  if.  G.  Coes  & 
Co.  A  difficulty  had  always  been  experienced  with  screw-wrenches 
of  any  form  in  so  constructing  the  bar  that,  under  great  strain,  it 
would  not  be  liable  to  bend,  or  perhaps  to  break.  Experience  had 
shown  that  the  chief  strain  came  upon  the  bar  at  a  point  between 
the  jaws  and  a  distance  from  the  fixed  jaw,  to  be  determined  by  the 


SCREW-WRENCHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  .909 


m&mmvicm 


size  of  the  nut  to  be  turned.  To  remedy  this,  the  bar  was  made, 
under  the  Richard  patent,  broader  between  the  jaws,  while  it  re¬ 
mained  of  the  same  size  through  the  rest  of  its  length.  This 
simple  improvement  overcomes  the  difficulty,  and  makes  the  screw- 
wrench  a  much  more  valuable  utensil  than  before. 

It  was  at  first  thought  that  making  the 
bar  of  two  sizes,  as  thus  proposed,  would  be 
so  difficult  an  operation  as  to  render  it  finan¬ 
cially  impossible  to  manufacture  the  screw- 
wrench  in  this  form,  but  Messrs.  A.  G.  Coes 
&  Co.  soon  invented  machinery  for  this  pur¬ 
pose. 

A  still  further  improvement  in  the  screw- 
wrench  was  patented  in  May,  1871,  by  Mr. 
Aury  G.  Coes,  the  senior  partner  of  Messrs. 
A.  G.  Coes  &  Co.,  by  which  the  wrench 
is  enabled  to  receive  a  larger-sized  nut 
than  it  otherwise  could,  and  by  which, 
also,  the  clasp  strap  of  the  movable  jaw  is 
prevented  from  “  binding,”  or  becoming  set 
upon  the  imperfectly  cut  portion  of  the  screw 
thread,  as  was  formerly  of  frequent  occur¬ 
rence.  These  two  important  improvements 
were  obtained  by  counter-boring  the  screw 
opening  of  the  movable  jaw,  for  a  slight  dis¬ 
tance,  the  screw  opening  of  the  jaw  being 
extended  sufficiently  beyond  what  was  cus¬ 
tomary  in  the  old  form  to  secure  a  like  length 
of  thread. 

These  three  improvements,  that  by  which 
the  back  pressure  upon  the  handle  is  pre¬ 
vented,  the  widening  of  the  bar  between  the 
jaws,  and  the  counter-boring  of  the  movable 
jaw,  the  patent  rights  to  which  are  held  by 
Messrs.  A.  G.  Coes  k  Co.,  enable  them  to 
control  the  market  for  the  improved  screw- 
wrench  as  thoroughly  as  the  original  firm, 
of  which  they  are  the  successors,  controlled  that  for  the  original 
screw-wrench  ;  and  these  improvements,  as  they  have  brought  the 
screw-wrench  to  perfection,  may  be  said  to  have  inaugurated  a  new 
era  in  its  history. 


SCREW-WRENCH. 


910  SCREW-WRENCHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE. 


In  the  manufacture  of  screw-wrenches  but  little  machinery  of 
a  peculiar  nature  has  been  heretofore  used,  but  such  as  was  in  use 
was  the  invention  of  Mr.  A.  G.  Coes.  In  July,  1870,  however, 
he  patented  an  important  machine,  called  a  “header/7  for  forging 
the  heads  of  wrenches,  by  which  two  heads  can  be  formed  in 
the  time  which  it  formerly  took  to  make  one  by  hand.  This 
machine  operates  with  a  pair  of  opening  and  closing  jaws,  oper¬ 
ating  in  unison  with  a  head  drop,  by  which  the  head  is  formed, 
and  prevented  from  spreading  laterally,  while  the  rapidly-driven 
drop  beats  upon  the  upper  end  with  great  force,  forming  the  head 
with  a  few  blows. 

Another  important  improvement  in  the  machinery  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  screw-wrenches,  patented  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Coes  in  April, 
1871,  is  called  the  “  up-setter. 77 

The  wrench  bar  had  heretofore  been  prepared  for  heading  by 
rolling  or  forging  down  under  a  trip-hammer  to  the  required  size, 
which  was  a  slow  and  expensive  process.  By  the  new  “  up-set¬ 
ter,77  a  bar  of  iron,  heated  to  a  red  heat,  and  of  the  proper  size,  is 
instantly  formed  into  a  wrench  bar-head,  having  the  requisite  even¬ 
ness  at  its  corners,  and  without  a  surplus  of  material,  thus  obvi¬ 
ating  the  necessity  for  forging  or  rolling  down  the  bar  of  iron. 
This  machine  is  simple,  consisting  principally  of  a  pair  of  dies  and 
a  “  plunger.77  The  dies  hold  the  iron  in  position,  and  are  so  con¬ 
structed  at  their  upper  ends  as  to  allow  the  iron  to  expand  to  the 
proper  dimensions  under  the  pressure  of  the  plunger.  By  the  use 
of  this  machine  the  production  of  wrench  bar-heads  is  increased 
at  least  threefold  with  the  same  expenditure  of  power  and  time. 

The  establishment  of  Messrs.  A.  G.  Coes  &  Co.  is  situated  in 
Webster  Square,  in  that  part  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  known 
as  New  Worcester.  It  was  here  that  the  business  was  originally 
established  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Coes,  in  connection  with  his  brother, 
nearly  thirty  years  ago.  The  buildings  have  been  enlarged  to 
meet  the  growing  needs  of  the  business,  and  now  form  the  only 
establishment  in  which  the  invaluable  “  Coes  Wrench, 77  with  its 
improvements,  which  add  at  least  fifty  per  cent,  to  its  value,  fs 
manufactured.  Though  attempts  have  been  made  to  compete  with 
them,  even  by  using  a  similar  name  in  their  manufacture,  yet  the 
superiority  of  the  wrenches  made  by  Messrs.  A.  G.  Coes  &  Co. 
have  led  to  their  general  use,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  also  in 
the  West  Indies,  Australia,  South  America,  and  Europe. 


SCREW  WRENCH  MANUFACTORY,  A.  G.  COES  &  CO.,  WORCESTER,  MASS. 


SCREW-WRENCHES  AND  THEIR  MANUFACTURE.  913 


Mr.  Aury  G.  Coes,  the  senior  member  of  the  firm,  by  whose 
industry  and  inventions  the  screw-wrench  manufacture  has  been 
elevated  into  one  of  the  leading  industries  of  the  country,  is 
highly  esteemed  as  a  citizen  of  Worcester,  having  filled,  with 
the  perfect  satisfaction  of  his  townsmen,  several  civic  positions, 
and  having  also  been  elected  •  by  them  to  serve  in  the  state 
legislature. 


/ 


1 3 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


THE  INSPECTION  OF  FLEECES.  —  DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  WOOL,  AND  THE  DIFFERENT 
USES  TO  WHICH  THEY  ARE  PUT. — THE  SORTING  OF  WOOL.  — PROCESSES  OF 
MANUFACTURE.  —  WOOL-DYEING.  —  WORSTED.  —  THE  LONG-WOOL  INTEREST. 
—  AMERICAN  INVENTION  OF  WOOL-WORKING  MACHINERY.  —  STEADY  PROG¬ 
RESS  OF  THE  ART  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  fleece,  when  it  comes  into  the  wool  merchant’s  hands,  i-s 
.  subjected,  first,  to  a  general  division,  which  determines  the  class  of 
goods  for  which  it  is  best  adapted  ;  then,  in  the  hands  of  the  man¬ 
ufacturer,  it  is  very  carefully  examined  and  sorted.  The  three 
leading  classes  of  wool  are,  first,  felting  wools.  Their  peculiarity 
consists  in  the  serrations  along  the  edge  of  the  fibre.  Some  wools 
have  very  little  of  this,  and  felt  very  imperfectly.  The  best  class 
of  goods  for  gentlemens’  wear — broadcloths,  cassimeres,  and 
beavers  —  are  manufactured  from  felting  wools. 

Second,  combing  woqjs.  The  object  in  handling  and  working 
felting  wools,  is  to  pack  the  fibre  as  closely  as  possible.  In  the 
treatment  of  combing  wool,  the  object  is  right  the  reverse  —  to 
work  out  the  fibres  in  long,  silk-like  threads,  and  thus  produce  a 
fabric  resembling  silk  goods.  From  combing  wools  are  made  a 
large  class  of  fabrics  for  ladies’  wear,  as  poplins,  mohairs,  and 
alpacas. 

Third,  wild  and  hairy  wools.  These  come  from  Australia, 
Mexico,  and  South  America.  Wool  in  those  warm  countries, 
adapting  itself  to  the  climate,  does  not  compose  the  fine,  oily  mat 
for  the  protection  of  the  animal  from  cold  and  wet  which  we  find 
on  the  sheep  of  England  and  Germany.  It  falls  away  from  the 
belly  and  legs  of  the  animal,  whose  back  and  sides  only  yield  a 
light  fleece  of  a  coarse  and  hairy  nature.  This  is  used  in  the  lower 
grades  of  blanketings,  and  extensively  in  weaving  carpets.  Be¬ 
tween  the  felting  wool  and  the  combing  wool  proper  is  a  great 

variety  of  mixed  or  graded  fleeces,  adapted  to  the  production  of 
(914) 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


915 


white  bed-blankets,  kerseys,  linseys,  flannels,  and  tweeds.  Quite 
the  majority  of  American  mills  are  engaged  upon  the  latter  class 
of  manufactures. 

When  a  bale  of  felting  wool  is  opened  at  the  factory  of  a  weaver 
of  cassimeres  or  doeskins,  the  first  operation  is  the  sorting ;  and 
here  great  judgment  and  long  experience  are  demanded.  The 
loom  has  been  brought  to  such  perfection  that  the  different  faces 
that  can  be  given  to  goods  afford  a  wonderful  variety  of  appear¬ 
ances,  from  material  which  is  practically  the  same  in  all.  Thus 
alternate  groups  of  threads  may  be  lifted  so  as  to  make  ribbed 
goods ;  they  may  be  lifted  in  a  curious  alternation,  so  as  to  give  a 
basket  or  braided  appearance.  The  part  of  the  fleece  that  is  thus 
thrown  to  the  surface,  or  makes  the  face  of  the  goods,  is  the  best 
in  the  fleece.  The  sorter  rolls  out  the  fleece  on  a  table,  sloped  a 
little  towards  him,  and  lays  his  hands  first  on  the  wool  that  cov¬ 
ered  the  sides  and  shoulders  of  the  animal.  Each  bale  of  wool, 
as  well  as  the  wool  from  the  different  parts  of  the  sheep’s  body, 
affords  many  different  degrees  of  fineness,  softness,  strength,  color, 
cleanness,  and  weight ;  and  the  sorter,  beginning  with  the  best 
wool  in  the  fleece,  separates  it  into  prime,  choice,  super,  head, 
downrights,  seconds,  fine  abb,  coarse  abb,  and  tags.  This  assort¬ 
ment  is  of  great  importance,  and  on  it  is  based  the  reputation  of 
a  mill  for  producing  high  grades  of  goods  with  uniformity. 

The  manufacturer  must  have  nice  judgment  in  deciding  what  he 
can  do  with  the  various  bins  of  assorted  wool.  In  the  winter  and 
spring,  for  instance,  he  uses  his  prime  and  choice  to  compose  the 
face  of  light  summer  goods,  as  fancy  cassimeres.  This  gives  him 
a  large  supply  of  downrights  and  seconds,  of  which  he  can.  make 
the  body  of  heavy  goods  for  cold  weather.  Thus  it  is  convenient 
and  profitable  to  change  the  make  of  goods  from  time  to  time  in 
the  same  mill,  as  different  sortings  are  the  better  adapted  to  this 
or  that  fabric. 

The  most  thorough  coloring  is  obtained  when  the  material  is 
dyed  in  the  wool.  A  preparation  from  indigo  is  found  to  make  the 
best  basis  of  color.  But  the  wool  must  be  well  cleansed  before  it 
is  dyed.  The  old  mixture  was  composed  of  strong  soap-suds, 
with  some  animal  acid  as  the  uric.  The  quantity  of  soap  absorbed 
by  wool  is  very  great.  England  consumes  fourteen  million  pounds 
of  it  annually  in  scouring  her  wools. 

In  visiting  a  woollen  mill,  it  is  not  often  that  the  dye-room  is 
opened  to  inspection.  Each  large  mill  has  its  secrets  and  peculiar 


91G 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


processes,  on  which,  perhaps,  tho  fame  of  their  cloth  is  based. 
Before  the  development  of  that  wonderful  and  beautiful  series  of 
colors  from  coal-tar,  known  as  the  annaline  dyes,  it  was  held  that 
blue  was  the  most  durable  of  all  the  colors  given  to  broadcloth. 
It  is  supposed  that  less  damage  to  the  fibre  and  soundness  of  the 
wool  is  wrought  by  indigo  rather  than  by  any  of  the  red  and  dark 
colors.  The  usual  proportions  for  a  good  black  dye,  for  every 
hundred  pounds  of  wool  previously  indigoed,  are  five  pounds  of 
copperas,  five  pounds  of  nutgalls,  bruised,  and  thirty  pounds  of 
logwood.  The  wool  is  first  dipped  in  the  solution  of  nutgalls, 
then  into  the  logwood  and  copperas.  Pyrolignite  of  iron  is  used 
to  set  or  fix  the  black  dye. 

Now  commences  the  long  and  complicated  process  of  converting 
the  wool  into  cloth.  The  first  step  is  to  thoroughly  pick  the  locks 
apart,  and  separate  all  sand,  dirt,  and  foreign  matter.  It  is  thrown 
upon  an  endless  apron,  which  feeds  it  into  a  cone-shaped  mill,  hav¬ 
ing  spikes  on  the  inside  of  the  cone  and  on  the  axis  or  shaft  that 
revolves  with  much  rapidity.  These  revolving  spikes  pull  and  pick 
the  wool  very  thoroughly,  and  a  blast  of  air  from  a  fan  carries 
away  the  dust.  It  now  passes  to  the  carding  machines.  These 
consist  of  large  cylinders,  belted  with  leather,  which  is  filled  with 
fine  steel  wires  curved  all  one  way.  Within  a  fraction  of  an  inch 
of  one  cylinder  another  revolves  in  the  opposite  direction,  equipped 
with  little  wire  teeth,  which  are  bent  in  the  opposite  direction  from 
those  on  the  first  cylinder.  Tho  wool  is  thus  pulled  into  a  fine 
film,  and  wound  around  the  cylinder ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  ma¬ 
chine  a  comb,  with  a  rapid  up-and-down  motion,  takes  the  carded 
wool  from  the  cylinder,  and  guides  draw  the  fibres  into  a  delicate, 
rope-like  bundle  of  very  loose  fibres,  having  hardly  any  tenacity. 
This  is  the  penumbra,  from  which  the  even,  compact  thread  is  to  be 
condensed  by  the  spinning-jenny.  Just  before  entering  the  card¬ 
ing  mill  the  wool  is  sprinkled  with  olive  oil.  The  slender  pipe  or 
roll  of  wool,  as  it  comes  from  the  machine,  is  twisted  into  a  soft, 
spongy  yarn,  and  this  is  twisted  hard,  or  slack-twisted,  according 
to  the  requirements  of  the  fabric  in  hand. 

No  verbal  description  of  a  spinning-jenny  and  of  a  power  loom, 
with  its  various  and  most  complicated  outfit,  can  be  made  intelli¬ 
gible.  When  two  or  more  different  sorts  of  threads  are  ready  for 
the  loom,  it  will  be  sufficient  for  our  present  purposes  to  say  that 
there  are  contrivances  inweaving  that  will  throw  the  fine  and  hard- 
twisted  yarns  to  the  face  of  the  web,  and  repress  the  coarser  and 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


917 


softer  twists  to  the  back  of  the  cloth.  In  other  looms  botli  sides  are 
treated  impartially,  and  a  garment  made  of  this  class  of  woollens, 
of  which  Melton  is  an  instance,  can  be  turned,  and  will  give  as 
good  service  on  the  under  as  on  the  upper  side.  In  some  looms 
all  threads  of  a  certain  color  can  be  carried  at  the  face,  while  the 
reverse  is  quite  different  —  almost  the  opposite  in  color. 

But  the  best  class  of  woollens  are  only  half  made  when  the  piece 
is  unwound  from  the  loom-beam.  Fulling  or  felting  is  the  next 
important  process  ;  and  here  the  need  for  careful  sorting  before 
the  wool  is  handled  becomes  apparent.  A  good  felting  wool  has 
about  twenty-five  hundred  spurs  or  notches  to  the  inch,  when 
examined  under  a  good  glass,  while  in  an  inch  of  Leicester  wrool 
there  are  only  eighteen  hundred  spurs.  The  process  of  felting 
consists  in  rubbing,  moulding,  and  pressing  these  fibres,  so  the 
spurs  will  interlock  and  become  fixed.  Superfine  cloth  has  four 
pullings,  of  three  hours  each,  the  layers  of  cloth  having  a  thick 
solution  of  Castile  soap  between  them.  When  cloth  is  wrell  pulled, 
the  fibres  of  the  web  and  woof  are  inextricably  united,  and  it  will 
not  unravel  when  cut  on  the  line  of  one  of  the  threads,  but  is 
alike  in  every  direction,  having  the  uniform  texture  and  soft  feel 
of  chamois  leather.  When  tire  fabric  is  well  fulled,  the  fibre  of  the 
wool  is  pulled  up  by  a  peculiar  process,  called  teazling.  Teazles 
are  seed-pods  of  a  weed,  called  dipsacus,  in  botany.  It  bristles 
■with  points  like  a  thistle-burr,  but  these  points  are  curved  over  a 
little,  and  are  very  stubborn  at  the  end.  When  a  number  of  these 
teazles  are  set  in  a  cylinder,  and  the  cloth  slowly  drawn  over 
them,  the  points  lift  the  fibres  of  wool  ;  but  if  they  pick  up  a 
thread  which  offers  considerable  resistance,  the  point  of  the  teazle 
gives  way  or  breaks.  If  steel  points  are  used,  they  pull  the 
threads  out,  or  pick  holes  through  the  cloth.  The  teazle  leaves 
a  rough,  unsightly  surface  on  the  cloth,  which  is  removed  by  shear¬ 
ing.  Two  keen  steel  edges  on  a  cylinder  are  made  to  play  near 
each  other,  like  the  limbs  of  a  pair  of  shears,  and  under  the  point 
of  contact  the  cloth  is  slowly  drawn.  Fine  broadcloth  is  teazled 
and  shorn  several  times,  till  it  presents  a  very  short  and  perfectly 
uniform  nap.  Then  it  is  subjected  to  the  action  of  steam,  and 
afterwards  pressed,  to  give  it  lustre  and  compactness.  To  review 
this  process  by  which  the  best  cloth  is  made  :  there  are  nine  steps 
or  stages  in  it,  and  at  some  grand  exhibitions  manufacturers  have 
displayed  nine  parcels  of  wool,  or  specimens  of  work,  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  broadcloth,  as  follows  :  — 


918 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


First,  a  good  specimen  of  felting  wool,  scoured  white.  Second, 
the  same  after  the  indigo  bath,  presenting  a  bluish  tinge.  Third, 
dyed  quite  black,  with  nutgalls,  logwood,  and  pyrogallic  acid. 
Fourth,  carded  in  plaits  or  rolls,  as  it  comes  from  the  cylinders  of 
the  carding-machine.  Fifth,  spun  and  ready  for  the  loom.  Sixth, 
just  as  it  comes  from  the  loom.  Seventh,  after  being  felted  or 
fulled.  Eighth,  after  the  nap  is  raised  by  teazling.  Ninth, 
sheared,  steamed,  brushed,  and  ready  for  the  tailor’s  shears. 

These  steps  are  much  abridged  in  the  manufacture  of  flannels, 
blankets,  and  tweeds.  In  these  fabrics  both  sides  are  alike,  the 
loom  is  simple  in  its  construction,  and  the  goods  are  ready  for 
wear  as  soon  as  they  come  from  the  loom,  except  that  in  the  man¬ 
ufacture  of  blankets  fine-toothed  cards  are  used  to  raise  the  nap 
or  down. 

Worsted  is  a  thread  spun  of  wool  that  has  been  combed,  and 
which  in  the  spinning  has  been  twisted  harder  than  ordinarily. 
The  word  originated  from  Worstead,  a  village  in  Norfolk  County, 
England,  where  the  manufacture  of  this  article  was  first  introduced. 

The  reason  why  a  long-stapled,  strong  and  firm,  though  some¬ 
what  coarse  wool,  is  best  adapted  for  this  class  of  cloths  is,  be¬ 
cause  they  require  a  fine,  smooth  yam,  with  no  tendency  to  shrink 
or  felt.  The  wool  is  washed  and  willowed,  as  for  making  pulled 
cloth.  Then  follows  the  combing  process,  the  object  of  which  is 
to  draw  the  fibres  out  in  parallel  lines  or  threads.  It  was  former¬ 
ly  done  by  hand  ;  but  forty-two  years  ago  John  Platt,  of  Salford, 
invented  a  comber,  which  has  been  improved  and  modified,  till  it 
does  the  work  expected  of  it  with  great  perfection.  No  verbal 
description  of  a  machine  so  complicated  can  be  made  intelligible. 
The  work  on  alpacas  and  mohairs  is  expended  mostly  on  the 
yarns,  to  make  them  even,  regular,  and  glossy,  for  weaving  is  the 
last  operation  on  goods  of  this  class. 

The  long-wool  interest,  as  it  is  called,  in  distinction  from  felting 
wool,  is  comparatively  new  in  this  country,  having  been  developed 
since  the  war  ;  but  the  manufacturers  in  this  line  have  made  won¬ 
derful  advances,  and  we  can  show  lustre  goods  as  elegant  in  their 
finish  as  any  from  the  French  looms. 

Erastus  Bigelow,  of  Boston,  has  done  more  than  any  American, 
as  much  as  any  one  inventor  that  ever  lived,  to  bring  woollen 
manufactures  to  their  present  perfection.  lie  has  taken  out  more 
than  fifty  distinct  patents  for  devices  and  improvements  in  looms 
and  other  machines  for  handling  wool.  His  chief  improvement  is 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


929 


in  a  loom  for  weaving  Brussels  carpeting.  Previous  to  his  inven¬ 
tion,  a  boy  was. required  to  stand  by  the  old  loom,  and  ply  the 
brass  wire  or  rod,  over  which  the  threads  are  looped,  to  form  the 
pattern  peculiar  to  the  Brussels  style  of  tapestry.  He  invented 
an  automatic  loom,  by  which  Brussels  carpeting  can  be  woven  with 
great  rapidity  and  perfection.  His  loom  has  been  adopted  in  the 
English  mills,  and  there  are  several  factories  in  this  country  where 
the  more  expensive  sorts  of  carpeting,  as  Brussels,  Wilton,  and 
Axminster,  are  made  with  great  perfection  and  beauty  of  pattern.' 

Workmen  and  workwomen  in  woollen  mills  are  well  paid.  The 
care  and  skill  required  in  many  stages  of  the  process  demand 
operatives  beyond  the  average  in  steadiness  and  discretion.  In 
broadcloths  especially  there  is  room  for  indefinite  development  and 
improvement  at  almost  every  stage  of  production.  The  sorting 
can  be  made  more  nice  and  perfect ;  the  washing  and  removal  of 
the  animal  oil  can  be  more  thorough  ;  the  spinning  can  be  careful¬ 
ly  adjusted  to  the  nature  of  the  wool,  and  the  quality  or  grade  of 
goods  in  which  it  is  to  be  wrought.  In  the  fulling,  and  shearing, 
and  steaming,  also,  the  most  careful  manufacturer  will  find  that,  as 
perfectly  as  he  may  conduct  his  operations,  some  bolt  that  he  may 
see  at  an  importer’s,  made  in  the  west  of  England,  will  surpass  his 
best  efforts  in  the  compactness  of  the  fabric,  in  the  shortness  of 
the  nap,  in  the  smoothness  of  finish,  and  in  that  remarkable  quality 
of  the  best  English  goods,  the  freshness  of  their  appearance  after 
months  of  constant  wear.  But  year  by  year  our  mills  are  gaining 
on  the  west  of  England  in  the  excellence  of  their  goods,  and  there 
is  not  sufficient  excuse  for  the  too  prevalent  idea  that  a  gentleman 
cannot  array  himself  in  first-class  garments  unless  made  up  by  a 
tailor  that  imports  his  materials.  We  have  no  class  of  men  more 
intelligent,  more  enterprising,  or  more  patient  than  our  woollen 
manufacturers,  and  their  greatest  drawback  is  the  irrational  preju¬ 
dice  that,  because  we  make  great  quantities  of  cheap  goods  for 
popular  service,  our  mills  cannot  turn  out  a  first-class  diagonal,  or 
cassimere,  or  beaver,  or  Melton. 


0 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 

ANCIENT  TAMBOURING  APPARATUS.  —  THE  MACHINE  FOR  EMBROIDERING.  — 
MOSES’S  ACQUAINTANCE  WITH  EMBROIDERING.  — THE  EMBROIDERING  MA¬ 
CHINE  THE  PRECURSOR  OF  THE  SEWING-MACHINE.  — INDUSTRY  IN  THE  FAR 
EAST  IN  MOSES’S  DAY. — THE  INDUSTRIAL  ADVANCE  OF  THIS  CENTURY.  — 
“OUT  WEST,”  “DOWN  SOUTH,”  “UP  EAST.”  —  A  COMPARISON  OF  THE  PRESENT 

WITH  COLONIAL  TIMES.  —  THE  TELEGRAPH  AND  THE  POST-BOY. - BOSTON  IN 

1630  AND  IN  1790.  —  CINCINNATI  IN  1788  AND  IN  1850. - CLEVELAND  IN ’1796 

AND  1860.  —  ITS  GEOGRAPHICAL  ADVANTAGES  FOR  TRADE.  —  ITS  RAILROAD 
FACILITIES. - ITS  MANUFACTURES. — THE  WILSON  SEWING-MACHINE  COM¬ 
PANY.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THEIR  BUSINESS. - THE  PRINCIPLES  UPON  WHICH  IT 

IS  CONDUCTED.  —  MR.  WILSON  A  REPRESENTATIVE  MAN. 

4 

Probably,  in  the  earliest  days,  whenever  sewing  with  the  com¬ 
mon  needle  first  became  onerous  to  the  housewife, — or  the  house- 
band  [husband],  it  may  have  been,  for  perhaps  domestic  relations 
were  better  balanced  than  now,  and  domestic  duties  more  equitably 
divided,  —  probably  human  hopes  longed  for  and  human  genius 
attcnqited  to  devise  some  plan  of  sewing  more  speedy  and  easy  than 
that.  Tlius  the  ancient  tambouring  apparatus,  employed  for  em¬ 
broidering  figures  upon  fabrics,  to  be  afterward  removed  and  sewed 
upon  others,  was  an  example  evincing  a  general  desire  in  the ‘direc¬ 
tion  of  the  sewing-machine,  and  combined  the  eye-pointed  needle 
with  other  devices  now  common  in  sewing-machines.  Machine 
embroidering  with  a  large  number  of  needles  seems  to  have  been 
invented  about  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  by  John 
Duncan,  whose  process  was  patented  in  May,  1804.  lie  used  barbed 
or  hooked  needles,  attached  in  a  straight  line  to  a  horizontal  bar; 
the  forward  motion  of  which  carried  the  barbed  ends  all  through 

O 

the  fabric  together,  and  each  being  then  supplied  with  a  thread  by 
a  feeding-needle,  the  reverse  motion  took  them  all  back,  with  the 
loops  of  the  thread,  which  passed  through,  and  secured,  the  loops  of 
the  previous  stitch.  Patterns  were  worked  by  a  sliding  motion  of 
the  fabric  with  its  vertical  frame,  either  to  the  right  or  the  left,  up 
or  down,  the  movement  being  produced  either  by  screw  spindles, 
(920) 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 


921 


worked  by  hand,  or  pattern  cams  cut  to  the  required  design.  This 
may  be  considered  the  first  important  step  made  in  embroidering 
machinery,  which  was  afterwards  carried  to  great  perfection  in  the 
machines  of  M.  Heilmann. 

The  embroidering  machine  as  the  precursor  of  the  more  modern 
sewing-machine  is  worthy  of  more  extended  description,  both  his¬ 
toric  and  mechanical,  than  we  shall  be  able  to  give  it  in  this  article, 
and  is,  as  to  its  influence  in  the  fine  arts,  of  no  less  importance  than 
the  sewing-machine.  On  first  reflection  it  would  seem  strange  that 
the  machine  for  producing  ornamental  work  or  fabrics  should  have 
preceded  that,  in  the  line  of  invention,  of  the  machine  designed  for 
more  practical  and  necessary  purposes.  But  the  savage,  while  he 
simply  folds  about  him  his  rude  garment  of  a  bullock’s  hide,  if  in¬ 
deed  he  wears  any,  elaborates  and  profusely  adorns  his  cap  with 
feathers,  paints  his  face,  or  tattoos  his  limbs,  etc.  The  march  of  the 
race  from  barbarism  to  the  highest  degree  of  present  civilization 
is  perhaps  as  signally  expressed  in  the  matter  of  its  personal  adorn¬ 
ments  as  in  any  other  way.  In  barbarism  gewgaws  of  all  possible 
sorts  constitute  the  chief  movable  property  of  tribes  and  individuals, 
worn  without  any  regard  to  what  we  call  “  good  taste,”  and  with 
whatever  profusion  the  individual’s  ability  will  permit.  In  semi¬ 
barbarism  less  ornamentation  attends  the  individual,  as  well  as  the 
tribe  or  nation  in  its  public  j^arades,  its  religious  demonstrations,  its 
“going  forth  to  battle,”  etc.,  than  distinguishes  .the  wholly  bar¬ 
baric  tribes.  And  as  the  race  moves  on  it  divests  itself  of  a  portion 
of  its  ornaments,  and  turns  its  energies  to  the  possession  of  more 
“'substantial  and  useful  wealth;  and  in  most  enlightened  civilization 
we  observe  but  little  of  personal  adornment,  especially  among  those 
really  advanced  in  literary  culture,  or  winning  the  great  triumphs  of 
modern  progress.  Indeed,  the  ornamentation  of  the  person  to  any 
great  extent  has  come  to  be  regarded  by  the  more  refined  society 
of  these  days  as  the  badge  of  ill-breeding  and  lack  of  brains.  The 
fop  and  the  silly  woman,  the  gambler  and  pot-house  politician,  the 
flunkey  and  the  bar-tender,  the  sporting  fraternity,  and  people  of 
their  kind,  are  distinguished  by  their  love  of  display  in  personal 
adornment, — vain  of  their  finger-rings,  ear-rings,  pins,  and  gaudy 
dresses,  while  the  earnest,  intelligent,  honest  woman  and  philo¬ 
sophic  man  eschew  these  things  altogether.  Indeed,  the  skilful 
reader  of  human  nature  needs  no  better  evidence  of  a  man’s  or 
woman’s  lack  of  the  better  characteristics  of  the  heart  and  brain 
than  the  showy  ornaments  they  wear.  In  fact,  he  may  read  the 


922  MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 

comparative  moral  and  intellectual  merits  or  demerits  of  people  by 
noting  the  different  degrees  of  their  ornamentation. 

But  to  return  from  this  digression  upon  the  moral  significance  of 
“  finery,”  to  the  history  of  embroidery,  —  the  machinery  to  accom¬ 
plish  much  of  which  was  the  forerunner  of  that  great  power  of 
these  times,  the  sewing-machine. 

It  appears  that  from  the  earliest  historic  times  embroidery  re¬ 
ceived  the  attention  of  the  “  powers  that  be.”  Indeed,  every  earnest 
Jew  and  Christian  cannot  but  believe  that  God  himself  was  not 
only  not  insensible  to  the  pleasing  influences  of  embroidery,  but 
that  he  took  special  care  to  cultivate  a  love  of  it  in  his  creatures. 
It  behooves  us  then  to  speak  of  the  embroidery  of  the  days  of  Moses 
with  respect,  if  not  admiration.  But  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that 
much  of  the  embroidery  of  modern  times  has  not  enjoyed  supreme 
guidance  in  its  manufacture ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  not  a 
little  of  our  clothing,  shirts,  etc. 

In  Exodus,  twenty-fifth  and  twenty-sixth  chapters,  we  find  that 
the  Lord  spake  to  Moses  directly  upon  this  subject  of  embroidery, 
among  other  things,  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  ornamenting  of  the 
Tabernacle  then  making.  There  are  people  of  doubting  minds, 
Atheists  and  Infidels,  who  profess  to  disbelieve  this  record  of  God’s 
personal  communication  with  Moses.  But  the  doubts  of  these  men 
can  never  disturb  the  fact. 

God’s  special  interposition  in  the  matter  of  embroidery  gives  to 
the  writer  a  peculiar  charm  in  its  discussion,  and  we  shall  be  par¬ 
doned  by  our  readers,  we  trust,  for  quoting  somewhat  from  the  au¬ 
thority  to  which  we  have  referred.  After  instructing  Moses  how  to* 
have  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  and  sundry  candlesticks  made 
(Ex.  xxv.),  the  Lord  proceeded  to  give  him  directions  how  to  adorn 
the  Tabernacle.  The  chief  regret  of  the  student  of  history  would 
naturally  be,  that  at  that  time  they  had  no  such  thing  as  an  em¬ 
broidering  or  sewing  machine,  which  would  have  greatly  aided 
the  parties,  the  superintendent  and  workmen  alike,  and  shortened 
their  day’s  work  by  several  hours  pemaps.  But  it  could  not  be  ex¬ 
pected  that  anybody,  not  even  Moses  with  all  his  sacred  inspiration, 
could  be  master  of  everything. 

In  his  orders  to  Moses,  the  Lord  made  detailed  specifications  of 
how  lie  would  have  the  Tabernacle  adorned  (Ex.  xxvi.)  :  “More¬ 
over,  thou  shalt  make  the  Tabernacle  with  ten  curtains  of  fine 
twined  linen,  and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet:  with  cherubims  of 
cunning  work  shalt  thou  make  them. 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 


923 


“  The  length  of  one  curtain  shall  be  eight-and-twenty  cubits,  and 
the  breadth  of  one  curtain  four  cubits,  and  every  one  of  the  cur¬ 
tains  shall  have  one  measure. 

“  The  five  curtains  shall  be  coupled  together  one  to  another ;  and 
other  five  curtains  shall  be  coupled  one  to  another. 

“And  thou  shalt  make  loops  of  blue  upon  the  edge  of  the  one 
curtain  from  the  selvedge  in  the  coupling;  and  likewise  shalt  thou 
make  in  the  uttermost  edge  of  another  curtain,  in  the  coiqfiing  of 
the  second. 

“  Fifty  loops  shalt  thou  make  in  the  one  curtain,  and  fifty  loops 
shalt  thou  make  in  the  edge  of  the  curtain  that  is  in  the  coupling 
of  the  second ;  that  the  loops  may  take  hold  one  of  another. 

“  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  taches  of  gold,  and  couple  the  cur¬ 
tains  together  with  the  taches;  and  it  shall  be  one  tabernacle.” 

We  have  not  space  to  quote  here  in  extent  from  the  exceed¬ 
ingly  interesting  and  -spirited  history  of  Moses’s  business  conferences 
with  the  Lord,  —  suffice  it  that  extended  instructions  followed  as  to 
how  to  adorn  the  outside,  etc.,  of  the  Tabernacle  by  those  arts  in 
which  the  embroidery  machine  and  its  “  regular  descendant  ”  the 
sewing-machine  would,  if  then  in  existence,  have  played  a  chief 
part,  and  have  entered  into  sacred  history,  as  well  as  candlesticks 
and  like  unimportant  wares.  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  the 
East  of  those  days  was  not  blessed,  like  the  West  of  these  times, 
with  such  machines,  —  beautiful  emblems  of  the  progress  which  the 
race  has  made  since  Moses’s  time.  But  our  confined  space  forbids 
our  dwelling  in  comment  upon  either  the  wants  or  glories  of  the 
East,  either  with  or  without  its  Moses.  Not  only  Western  Europe 
with  its  teeming  nations  has  become  known  to  history  since  his 
day,  but  another  West,  in  the  shape  of  two  great  continents, 
has  been  opened  to  races  which  were  allied  to  those  over  whom 
Moses  ruled.  Our  own  Republic  takes  the  lead  of  the  world 
in  active  business  and  mechanical  enterprise,  and  the  most  no¬ 
ticeable  feature  of  the  industrial  advance  in  the  United  States 
during  this  century  lies  in  the  rapidity  with  which  an  organized 
and  highly  differentiated  society  has  been  established  in  “  the 
West.”  Though  this  term,  like  that  of  “  down  South,”  or  “up 
East,”  is  indefinite,  and  has  come  to  be  applied  in  turn  to  every 
section  of  the  country  lying  between  the  Atlantic  sea-coast  and  the 
Pacific,  yet  the  rapidity  with  which  in  this  century  it  has  leaped 
from  the  borders  of  the  settlements  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution 
is  astounding,  and  wildernesses  larger  than  many  of  the  countries  of 


924 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 


Europe  have  been  redeemed,  making  “  out  West”  no  longer  refer  to 
the  borders  of  the  Ohio,  or  the  unsettled  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  but  to  the 
outskirts  of  a  region  which  was  unknown  and  unexplored  even  fifty 
years  ago,  showing  that  in  civilization,  as  in  everything  else,  the  world 
has  entered  upon  the  railroad  era  of  progress.  When  we  compare 
the  century  and  a  half  which  it -took  for  the  settlements  upon  the 
Atlantic  sea-coast  to  extend  towards  the  inland,  not  more  than  a 
few  hundred  miles,  with  the  rapidity  with  which  west  of  the  Ohio 
River  growing  cities  and  a  well-cultivated  country  have  been  created 
from  ^  wilderness,  we  see  the  difference  between  the  activity  of  the 
social  forces  at  work  in  the  world  of  to-day  and  those  which  were 
in  action  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  the  colonies. 

The  isolation  of  a  society  which,  by  the  want  of  means  of  com¬ 
munication,  was  limited  to  the  narrow  circle  of  its  own  members  for 
subjects  of  interest  and  the  stimulants  to  social  activity,  has  now 
been  replaced  by  a  condition  of  things  in  which  the  daily  journals 
give  the  news,  not  only  from  all  over  the  country,  but  from  all 
round  the  world.  The  telegraph  lias  replaced  the  post-boy,  and 
news  from  Europe  is  old  in  a  day,  instead  of  being  fresh  in  three 
months,  as  it  was  at  the  commencement  of  this  century.  With  the 
railroad,  also,  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts  are  brought  practically 
into  more  immediate  connection  than  Boston  and  New  York  were 
fifty  years  ago. 

In  fact,  the  material  civilization  of  the  present  has  made  it  possi¬ 
ble  that  a  single  nation,  composing  an  homogeneous  social  and  po¬ 
litical  organization,  should  extend  through  the  wide  expanse  of  our 
national  domain  without  the  danger  of  disintegration  and  falling  to 
pieces  for  want  of  any  close  connection  between  its  parts,  which  has 
heretofore  in  the  history  of  the  world  led  to  the  disruption  of  all 
attempts  at  universal  empire.  It  has  been  shown  elsewhere  in  this 
work  how  slow  and  difficult  was  the  process  of  establishing  the 
various  staple  branches  of  manufactures  in  the  early  days  of  the 
colonial  times ;  but  by  the  gradual  process  of  differentiation  the  ma¬ 
terials  have  been  prepared,  and  the  forces  necessary  for  their  organ¬ 
ization  have  been  generated,  so  that  now  the  building  of  a  city  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  hardly  a  greater  undertaking  than  the  construction  of 
a  single  modest  house  was  to  the  settlers  at  Plvmouth. 

As  a  child,  who  with  difficulty  has  mastered  his  figures,  and  ob¬ 
tained  a  comprehension  of  the  simplest  rules  of  arithmetic,  comes 
finally  by  practice  to  be  able  to  apply  them  to  the  calculation  of  the 
earth’s  orbit,  and  predict  the  future  motions  of  the  solar  system,  so 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 


925 


has  the  nation  by  slow  steps  learned  the  use  of  its  faculties,  and 
obtained  the  experience  in  their  use  which  enables  it  to  extend  the 
complex  civilization  of  the  present  with  greater  ease  than  it  was 
formerly  enabled  to  clear  and  stock  a  neighboring  farm.  Boston 
was  settled  in  1630,  and  in  1700  contained  only  about  seven  thou¬ 
sand  inhabitants.  In  1790  the  first  national  census  showed  the 

* 

population  amounted  to  18,038  persons,  it  having  in  ninety  years 
less  than  trebled. 

For  a  comparison  with  this  growth  of  the  chief  city  of  New  Eng¬ 
land,  we  will  take  a  city  in  Ohio,  which  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century  was  about  the  limit  of  “the  West,”  and  which  as  the  first 
State  lying  in  the  line  of  the  course  of  the  westward  emigration  of 
free  labor,  which,  avoiding  slavery,  has  rolled  in  a  steady  stream  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  building  up  cities,  and  carrying  with  it  all 
the  appliances  of  civilization,  was  the  first  settled  State  of  the  W est, 
—  Cincinnati,  which  ^was  first  laid  out  in  1788,  had  in  1800  only 
four  hundred  inhabitants,  the  disputed  title  to  the  territory  which 
then  formed  what  was  called  the  Northwest  Territory  having 
proved  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  rapid  settlement.  With  the 
settlement  of  this  question,  the  West  was  opened  freely  to  the  tide 
of  emigration  which  flowed  from  the  Eastern  States,  caused  by  the 
attractions  of  the  new  life  of  a  new  country,  and  the  opportunities 
it  afforded  for  enterprise,  together  with  that  from  Europe,  composed 
of  those  who  looked  with  hope  to  the  new  republic,  and  sought  to 
live  where  the  simple  right  of  political  representation  which  it 
required  a  revolution  to  obtain  at  home  was  freely  offered  to  any 
one  who  desired  it. 

Fifty  years  after  the  opening  of  this  century,  less  than  the  time 
allotted  for  two  generations,  the  population  of  Cincinnati  had  in¬ 
creased  from  four  hundred  to  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  persons, 
had  built  nearly  a  thousand  steamboats,  and  shipped  yearly  nearly 
one  hundred  millions  of  dollars’  worth  of  produce,  importing  nearly 
eighty  millions  of  dollars’  worth  of  materials  from  abroad.  Beside 
this,  the  industrial  enterprise  of  the  city  had  built  up  a  manufactur¬ 
ing  interest  which  produced  an  aggregate  of  over  fifty  millions  of 
dollais’  worth  of  various  articles,  and  the  city  has  established  rail¬ 
road  connection  with  more  than  ten  thousand  miles  of  railroad  lead¬ 
ing  directly  to  or  through  it.  Nor  was  all  this  done  at  the  expense 
of  the  rest  of  the  State ;  on  the  contrary,  the  freedom  of  our  political 
conditions  leads  to  the  mutual  interdependence  of  the  commercial 
and  agricultural  interests.  Our  cities  are  not  founded,  as  those  of 


92G 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 


Europe  frequently  are,  upon  the  possession  of  monopolies  created 
by  artificial  restraints  upon  commerce  or  manufactures,  or  to  sub¬ 
serve  some  political  purpose,  but  are  as  naturally  the  outgrowth  of 
the  increasing  activity  of  the  whole  people,  and  serve  their  purpose 
as  the  heart  fulfils  the  necessary  functions  in  the  circulation  of  the 
blood. 

The  growth  of  the  second  city  in  Ohio  is  perhaps  a  better  in¬ 
stance  even  than  Cincinnati  of  this.  Cleveland,  situated  upon  the 
southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  and  upon  both  sides  of  the  Cuyahoga 
River,  is  celebrated  among  tourists  as  one  of  the  handsomest  and 
finest  located  cities  of  the  Union.  It  was  laid  out  in  179G,  and  at  the 
end  of  this  year  its  population  amounted  to  three  persons.  In  fifty 
years,  however,  it  numbered  nearly  twenty  thousand,  and  this  is  more 
than  doubled  in  the  last  census.  Before  the  advent  of  railroads, 
Cleveland  was  a  centre  of  the  canal  system  of  Ohio,  and  has  been 
prompt  to  assume  the  same  position  in  the  railroad  era  of  intercom¬ 
munication.  The  territory  in  which  it  is  situated  having  been  origi¬ 
nally  owned  by  Connecticut,  and  known  as  the  Western  Reserve,  the 
chief  portion  of  its  population  has  been  derived  from  New  England, 
and  the  increased  advance  they  have  made  industrially  and  in  the 
culture  of  civilization  over  that  which  their  ancestors  made  in  the 
same  time  shows  how  much  greater  are  the  social  forces  acting  in 
the  world  to-day  than  then,  and  how  much  more  intense  is  their 
action. 

With  its  advantages  of  position,  and  the  natural  elements  of 
wealth,  of  coal  and  iron,  which  surround  it,  the  enterprise  of  its 
people  has  turned  them  to  the  best  advantage,  and  Cleveland  ranks 
high  among  the  manufacturing  centres  of  the  West.  Not  only  are 
the  staple  manufactures  of  the  raw  materials  furnished  by  nature  car¬ 
ried  on  extensively,  but  the  more  accurate  processes  necessary  in  the 
production  of  machines,  into  which  skilled  labor  enters  for  so  large  an 
amount,  and  the  production  of  which  shows  a  highly  organized  social 
condition,  both  in  the  ability  to  make  them  and  in  the  demand  for 
them.  This  process  of  specialization  and  diversity  of  employments, 
which  in  the  early  history  of  the  country  we  have  seen  was  of 
such  slow  growth,  has  here  advanced  with  rapid  strides. 

Among  the  numerous  manufacturing  industries  carried  on  in 
Cleveland,  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  one  of  this  kind  is  that 
of  the  Wilson  Sewing-Machine  Company.  This  company  have 
within  the  short  time  since  the  sewing-machine  was  first  introduced 
built  up  their  business  to  its  present  proportions.  Employing  him- 


MANUFACTORY  OF  THE  WILSON  SEWING  MACHINE  CO.,  CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY.  929 

X 

dreds  of  men  in  their  works,  they  have  a  large  force  of  agents 
scattered  not  only  throughout  this  country,  but  also  in  Europe, 
engaged  in  creating  and  supplying  the  demand  for  their  wares. 
To  meet  this  demand,  their  works  produce  over  sixteen  hundred 
machines  a  week.  Taking  the  inspiration  for  the  character  of 
their  business  from  the  spirit  of  Western  industry,  from  the 
broad  prairies  which  supply  the  world  with  cheap  food,  and  the 
mighty  rivers  which  carry  to  the  sea  the  materials  for  the  cheap 
food  of  nations,  they  designed  to  extend  their  business  among  the 
people  by  selling  their  wares  so  as  to  place  them  within  the  reach 
of  all. 

In  the  pursuance  of  this  plan  they  have  so  organized  their 
business  as  to  be  able  to  produce  excellent  machines  of  their  class 
at  a  rate  lower  than  the  high-priced  sewing-machines  can  be 
afforded ;  and  while  never  allowing  any  machine  of  their  make  to 
be  placed  in  the  market  which  is  not  perfect  in  its  operation,  they 
have  found  their  reward  in  the  reputation  their  machines  have 
gained  among  the  consumers,  and  in  the  large  demand  for  them 
which  they  have  thus  created. 


■Wilson  Shuttle  Sewing-Machine. 

The  gentlemanly  inventor  and  proprietor  of  the  Wilson  machine 
is  one  of  the  remarkable  products  of  free  civilization  indigenous 
to  the  West,  and  found  nowhere  else,  whose  destiny  seems  to 
ever  be  to  lead  on  the  march  of  empire  in  its  westward  growth, 
and  himself,  as  well  as  his  great  factory,  an  object  worthy  of  the 
tourist’s  visitation.  Mr.  Wilson  is  one  of  those  advanced  men  who 


v 


930 


MODERN  INVENTION  IN  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRY. 


give  character  to  the  enterprises  they  undertake,  and  always  make 
their  mark  upon  the  times,  —  reaping  usually  the  due  reward  of  their 
genius  and  energy,  commanding  for  themselves  the  luxuries  as  well 
as  the  honors  of  life.  Mr.  Wilson’s  superb  “  turn-out,”  as  it  rolls 
down  Euclid  Street,  in  Cleveland,  is  a  marked  feature  in  a  democratic 
government,  and  not  onlyan  object  of  interest  on  account  of  the 
taste  of  the  proprietor  displayed  in  it,  but  as  an  historical  contrast 
to  the  wagon  of  only  fifty  years  ago,  which  moved  over  the  same 
ground  creaking  on  its  axles,  and  now  and  then  losing  its  linchpin. 


Wilson  Sewing-Machine.  Full  Cabinet. 


STEEL. 


THE  STONB.  BRONZE,  AND  IRON  AGES.  —  THE  STEEL  AGE. — THE  CHEMICAL  CON¬ 
STITUTION  OF  STEEL.  —  THE  EARLY  PROCESS  OF  MAKING  STEEL.  — WOOTZ. - 

DAMASCUS  BLADES. — RICHARD  AND  SALADIN. — MODERN  ATTEMPTS  TO  IMI¬ 
TATE  THE  DAMASCUS  BLADES.  —  GENERAL  ANOSSOFF.  -  THE  PROCESS  OF 

CEMENTATION. — THE  VARIETIES  OF  TEMPER.  —  DEFINITION  OF  STEEL.  - 

TESTS  OF  STEEL. — MODERN  PROCESSES  OF  MAKING  STEEL.  —  THE  BESSEMER 
PROCESS.  —  A  DESCRIPTION  OF  IT.  —  PROFESSOR  A.  K.  EATON’S  PROCESSES. — 
PRACTICAL  AND  THEORETICAL  PURSUITS. - THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THEIR  UNION. 

Modern  archaeology  divides  the  periods  in  the  early  history  of 
the  human  race  into  the  stone,  the  bronze,  and  the  iron  eras,  thus 
indicating  the  gradual  advance  of  mankind  towards  a  methodic 
knowledge  of  the  natural  products  of  the  earth,  and  an  ability  to 
make  use  of  them  for  our  own  purposes.  With  his  unassisted  hands 
the  primitive  man  had  only  such  advantages  over  other  animals  as  his 
different  structure  gave  him,  and  in  fact  he  was  inferior  to  most  of 
them  in  his  ability  to  perform  the  operations  for  which  they  are 
fitted  by  nature  with  certain  special  appliances.  The  hog,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  can  turn  up  the  ground  in  search  of  roots  much  better  with 
his  snout  than  a  man  can  with  his  fingers. 

From  wood,  bone,  and  finally  from  stone,  the  first  tools  were  made ; 
then  entering  on  the  metallic  age,  man  first  made  use  of  such  of  the 
metals  as  are  most  readily  found  and  most  easily  worked,  until 
finally  he  became  able  to  fashion  iron  for  his  use.  Perhaps  to  the 
archaeologist  of  the  future,  this  age  of  the  world’s  progress  will  be 
classed  as  the  steel  age,  for  we  are  certainly  entering  upon  its  appli¬ 
cation  to  purposes  and  uses  for  which  it  has  not  been  before  em¬ 
ployed. 

Chemically  considered,  steel  occupies  an  intermediate  position  be¬ 
tween  wrought  iron  and  cast  iron ;  wrought  iron  being  simply  iron, 
while  steel  contains  an  addition  of  from  one  to  one  and  a  half  per 
cent  of  carbon,  and  cast  iron  contains  about  four  per  cent  of  car¬ 
bon.  Steel  may  therefore  be  made  by  a  process  which  shall  give  to 
wrought  iron  the  necessary  amount  of  carbon,  or  by  another  which 
shall  eliminate  from  cast  iron  the  excess  of  that  substance.  Of  the 

54  (931) 


STEEL. 


562 

reason  why  this  apparently  slight  change  in  chemical  constitution 
should  produce  such  marked  changes  in  the  properties  of  iron  and 
steel,  we  know  nothing  as  yet.  The  fibrous  constitution  of  wrought 
iron  appears  by  this  process  to  become  granular  in  texture,  approxi¬ 
mating  cast  iron  in  this  respect,  while  it  loses  in  ductility  and  mal¬ 
leability,  but  becomes  elastic  and  harder,  more  difficult  and  slow  to 
receive  magnetic  properties,  but  also  more  tenacious  of  them  when 
received. 

It  occupies  also  an  intermediate  position  between  wrought  iron 
and  cast  iron  in  its  fusibility,  melting  at  a  much  less  degree  of 
temperature  than  wrought  iron  requires,  and  only  at  a  greater  than 
required  for  fusing  cast  iron.  The  melting-point  of  steel  is  given  as 
2,786  degrees  F.  .  _  ,  r  ?  * 

The  early  process  for  making  steel  is  most  probably  about  identical 
with  that  still  in  use  in  India,  and  •'which  has  not  varied  since  the 
time  of  Alexander  the  Great.  It  is  supposed  that  the  use  of  steel 
was  known  to  the  Egyptians,  and  that  in  their  pictorial  writings,  as 
in  the  pictures  decorating  the  tomb  of  Rameses  III.,  the  articles 
colored  blue  were  intended  to  represent  it.  Butchers  are  here 
represented  sharpening  their  knives  upon  what  are  supposed  to  be 
steel  sharpeners.  In  Jeremiah  xv.  12  occurs  the  sentence,  “  Shall 
iron  break  the  northern  iron,  and  the  steel  ?  ”  The  term  here  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  refer  to  the  steel  made  in  Chalybia,  in  Asia  Minor,  whose 
iron-works  were  so  extensive  as  to  give  the  name  to  iron  among  the 
Greeks,  from  whom  we  have  now  the  term  “  chalybeate  ”  as  applied 
to  mineral  springs  containing  iron.  Whether,  however,  the  term 
“steel”  is  here  correctly  used  to  translate  the  original  is  questioned, 
and  some  authorities  maintain  that  the  correct  translation  is  copper, 
the  art  of  hardening  which  to  a  cutting  edge  we  know  was  pursued 
by  the  ancients,  though  it  is  now  lost. 

Several  expressions  in  Grecian  authors  are  supposed  to  refer  to 
steel.  Ilomer  compares  the  hissing  made  by  the  glowing  stick  which 
Ulysses  thrust  into  the  eye  of  the  Cyclops  to  that  made  by  a  heated 
iron  bar  thrust  by  the  smith  into  water.  Yet  no  articles  of  steel 
have  been  found  among  the  remains  left  us  by  the  nations  of  an¬ 
tiquity,  even  down  to  the  period  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

The  Hindoos  still  prepare  steel  in  their  early  primitive  way,  which 
is  uniformly  practised  from  the  Himalaya  Mountains  to  Cape  Com¬ 
orin.  Their  name  for  it  is  icootz ,  by  which  it  is  known  in  commerce. 
The  ore  they  use  is  a  magnetic  oxide  of  iron,  mixed  with  quartz  in 
the  general  proportion  of  forty-two  parts  of  quartz  to  fifty-eight  of 


STEEL. 


933 


magnetic  oxide.  This  is  pounded  fine,  the  quartz  being  separated 
from  the  oxide  by  winnowing.  Their  furnaces  are  small,  and  are 
built  of  clay,  being  four  or  five  feet  high,  pear-shaped,  measuring 
about  two  feet  at  the  bottom  and  one  at  the  top.  The  opening  at 
the  front  is  built  up  with  clay  for  the  smelting  operation.  The 
bellows  used  for  intensifying  the  fire  are  made  of  a  goatskin, 
stripped  otf  whole.  The  holes  for  the  legs  are  tied  up,  and  a  nozzle 
placed  in  the  hole  for  the  neck,  while  the  air  is  supplied  through  the 
hole  for  the  tail,  which  is  closed  when  the  air  is  blown  out.  With 
two  such  bellows,  worked  alternately,  one  by  each  hand,  a  continuous 
blast  is  kept  up,  of  sufficient  force  to  smelt  the  ore.  The  fuel  used 
is  charcoal.  The  iron  thus  made  is  converted  into  steel  in  crucibles, 
containing  about  a  pound  each.  The  iron  is  cut  into  small  pieces, 
and  mixed  with  wood  chopped  fine.  Upon  each  crucible  thus  filled, 
one  or  two  green  leaves  are  laid.  The  proportions  of  iron  and  wood 
with  which  the  crucibles  are  charged  are  generally  ten  of  iron  to  one 
of  wood  and  leaves.  The  crucibles  are  then  plugged  tightly  with 
clay,  and  are  piled  up  in  an  arch  so  as  to  form  a  furnace,  which  is 
charged  with  charcoal  as  fuel.  The  heat  is  kept  up  about  two  hours 
and  a  half.  The  crucibles  are  then  allowed  to  cool,  and  on  being 
taken  out  the  steel  is  found  in  a  cake  in  the  bottom  of  each.  If  the 
fusion  has  been  perfect,  the  tops  of  the  cakes  are  covered  with 
thread-like  lines  radiating  from  the  centre.  If,  however,  the  tops  of 
the  cakes  appear  honeycombed,  with  lumps  projecting,  the  fusion 
has  been  imperfect,  and  the  cake  is  rejected.  As  an  average,  four 
or  five  of  the  cakes  are  found  to  be  thus  defective. 

From  the  steel  thus  made,  when  remelted  and  drawn  into  rods, 
it  is  claimed  by*  competent  judges  that  the  best  cutlery  can  be  made ; 
and  for  this  purpose  that  “  it  is  infinitely  superior  to  the  best  English 
cast  steel.”  Not  only  is  excellent  steel  made  by  this  rude  process 
among  a  people  who,  as  yet,  are  guided  in  their  operations  by  tra¬ 
dition  only,  having  no  conception  of  the  more  accurate  methods  of 
modern  science,  but  depending  entirely  upon  individual  experience 
and  skill  for  success;  but  the  Hindoos,  as  do  various  other  half-civil¬ 
ized  nations,  excel  in  tempering  their  weapons  and  tools,  though  this 
work  is  performed  in  the  same  rude  manner.  The  celebrated  Da¬ 
mascus  blades,  which  were  so  highly  valued  in  Europe  for  their  tem¬ 
per  and  edge,  were  made  in  Damascus  from  this  steel  manufactured 
in  India.  The  Crusades  extended  the  reputation  of  these  sword- 
l  lades  all  over  Europe,  and  the  readers  of  the  Waverley  Novels  will 
recall  the  scene  between  Richard  of  England  and  Saladin,  in  which 


934 


STEEL. 


they  displayed  the  various  merits  of  their  respective  weapons. 
Richard,  with  his  long  two-handed  sword,  severed  at  a  blow  the  iron 
handle  of  a  battle-axe,  without  injuring  at  all  the  edge  of  his 
weapon ;  while  Saladin,  to  show  the  temper  and  sharpness  of  his 
Damascus  blade,  tossed  a  silken  gauze  scarf  into  the  air,  and,  as  it 
floated  down,  drew  the  edge  of  his  scimitar  across  it,  dividing  it 
into  two  pieces  without  disturbing  its  slow  movement. 

The  art  of  thus  tempering  blades  has,  however,  been  lost,  and 
though  numerous  experiments  were  made  in  Europe  to  discover 
and  imitate  the  process,  they  were  unsuccessful.  Though  most 
probably  the  process  was  a  simple  one,  yet  it  baffles  all  the  science 
and  skill  of  modern  times.  The  nearest  approach  to  success  was 
made  by  General  Anossoff,  who  conducted  an  extended  series  of 
researches  with  the  most  exact  and  scrupulous  nicety.  The  success 
he  met  with  led  him  to  establish  a  manufactory  at  Zlatoosk,  in  the 
Ural  Mountains,  wdiere  he  made  blades  similar  to  those  of  Damascus. 
His  chief  method  of  procedure  was  as  follows. 

The  ore  was  melted  with  graphite,  in  crucibles  charged  with  about 
eleven  pounds  each,  together  with  a  small  quantity  of  dolomite. 
The  fusion  was  continued  as  long  as  possible.  The  blast  is  kept  up 
until  all  the  fuel  is  consumed,  and  the  crucible  is  not  removed  until 
it  is  cold.  Attention  is  then  to  be  given,  in  drawing  the  steel  out, 
that  it  is  not  too  hot.  When  tempered,  the  hardest  finish  is  given 
at  the  straw-yellow  color;  the  greatest  elasticity  at  the  blue  ;  and 
at  the  green  it  begins  to  lose  its  elasticity.  The  blades  are  cooled 
by  plunging  in  boiling  grease.  A  sabre  is  given  the  best  temper 
by  a  blue  heat  at  the  point,  a  violet  in  the  middle,  a  yellow  along 
the  edge,  and  a  green  near  the  handle.  At  these  works  General 
Anossoff  produced  blades  writh  which  a  floating  gauze  scarf  could 
be  divided  at  a  stroke.  They  could  be  bent  at  right  angles,  and 
would  return  to  their  original  form.  Since  the  death  of  General 
.Anossoff,  in  1851,  the  quality  of  the  products  of  the  works  has  fallen 
off. 

In  Western  Europe,- during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  manufacture  of 
steel  was  almost  unknown.  In  England,  the  first  patent  for  making 
steel  was  given,  in  1626,  to  Richard,  Lord  Dacre,  Thomas  Letsome, 
and  Nicholas  Page.  The  invention  of  the  process  was  made  by  Let- 
some.  In  1670,  mention  is  made  of  the  process  of  making  steel  by 
boiling  the  material  “in  sowr-metal.”  This  is  supposed  to  be  the 
method  spoken  of  by  various  authors  as  in  early  use  on  the  Conti¬ 
nent. 


STEEL. 


935 


The  process  of  cementation  consists  of  heating  iron  bars,  packed 
in  charcoal,  in  a  furnace,  for  a  period  of  from  six  to  ten  days,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  quality  or  characteristics  of  the  product  required.  The 
greater  the  heat  maintained  the  quicker  is  the  process  of  conversion. 
Steel  thus  made  is  called  blistered  steel,  from  the  fact  of  the  bars 
being  found  covered  with  blisters.  Steel  of  this  kind  has  its  interior 
texture  very  irregular ;  it  is  white  like  frosted  silver,  and  its  fracture 
shows  crystalline  angles  and  facettes,  which  are  larger  in  proportion 
as  the  process  has  been  further  carried  on,  and  the  mixture  with  the 
carbon  of  the  charcoal  has  been  greater.  The  crystals  of  the  centre 
are  always  smaller  than  those  near  the  surface  of  the  bar.  Before 
using  for  tools,  such  steel  needs  to  be  subjected  to  the  process  of 
tilting ,  as  it  is  called ;  that  is,  it  is  drawn  out  by  hammering,  by 
which  the  texture  is  made  more  uniform  and  dense.  Cast  steel  is 
blistered  steel,  broken  into  fragments,  and  fused. 

The  chief  property,  however,  of  steel,  which  gives  it  its  value  for 
so  many  purposes,  is  that  of  being  hardened,  or  tempered.  When 
exposed  to  a  progressive  heat,  it  takes  in  succession  the  following 
colors  :  1,  a  faint  yellow,  which  indicates  the  fit  temper  for  lancets, 
which  require  the  finest  edge,  with  but  little  strength  of  metal ;  2, 
a  pale  straw-color,  indicating  the  temper  for  razors,  and  surgeons’ 
amputating  instruments ;  3,  a  full  yellow,  indicating  the  temper  for 
penknives,  with  increased  toughness ;  4,  a  brown  yellow,  indicating 
the  temper  for  cold-chisels,  and  shears  for  cutting  iron  ;  5,  a  brown 
with  purple  spots,  indicating  the  temper  for  axes  and  plane  irons ; 
6,  a  purple,  indicating  the  temper  for  table-knives  and  shears  for 
cleth ;  7,  bright  blue,  indicating  a  temper  for  swords  and  watch- 
springs  ;  8,  a  full  blue,  indicating  a  temper  for  small  fine  saws  and 
daggers ;  9,  a  dark  blue,  verging  on  black,  indicating  the  temper 
for  large  saws,  the  teeth  of  which  are  to  be  sharpened  with  a 
file. 

The  degrees  of  heat  required  for  these  vaiious  degrees  of  temper 
are  as  follows:  1,430°  F.;  2,  450°;  3,  470°;  4,  490°;  5,  510°;  6, 
530° ;  7,  550° ;  8,  560° ;  9,  600°.  Above  this  the  metal  approaches 
so  near  ignition  that  the  differing  colors  cannot  be  distinguished. 
After  ignition,  if  allowed  to  cool  slowly,  the  steel  becomes  very  soft, 
and  fit  for  the  use  of  engravers. 

Steel  has  been  defined  as  any  kind  of  iron  which,  when  heated  to 
redness,  and  suddenly  cooled  by  being  plunged  into  cold  water,  be¬ 
comes  harder.  Every  kind  of  malleable  or  flexible  iron  which  can 
be  hardened  by  that  process  is  a  steel.  A  simple  test  to  distinguish 


936 


STEEL. 


steel  from  iron  is  found  in  dropping  upon  the  surface  of  the  body  to 
be  ^ested  a  drop  of  diluted  nitric  acid.  This  on  steel  gives  a  dark 
gray  spot,  while  upon  iron  it  gives  a  green  spot.  Steel,  exposed  to 
the  air,  rusts  slower  than  iron  ;  and  the  more  highly  it  is  carbonated 
the  more  slowly  it  rusts,  and  the  darker  is  the  spot  made  by  the  test 
with  acid. 

Tempering  steel  alters  its  texture,  the  granulation  becomes  coarser 
or  liner  according  to  the  degree  of  heat  to  which  it  has  been  sub¬ 
jected.  It  can  be  made  hard  enough  to  scratch  glass,  and  resist  the 
keenest  file,  while  it  becomes  very  brittle.  The  quality  of  steel  is 
tested  by  the  homogeneous  character  of  its  granulation  ;  by  its  being 
worked  easily  on  the  forge ;  by  its  hardening  and  tempering  easily 
and  well ;  by  its  strength  of  resistence  ;  and  by  its  elasticity.  The 
first  of  these  qualities  is  shown  by  grinding  and  polishing  it,  when 
the  texture  appears ;  the  second  test  requires  a  skilled  and  experi¬ 
enced  workman  to  heat  it  to  the  right  degree ;  the  color  and  size  of 
the  granulation  are  best  shown  by  breaking  a  hardened  and  tempered 
bar,  worked  thin,  in  a  razor-like  form.  Testing  it  with  a  file,  or  as 
a  chisel  for  cutting  iron,  or  subjecting  it  to  heavy  weights,  will 
show  the  other  qualities. 

The  difference  between  cast  steel  and  bar  steel  is  due  simply  to 
the  mechanical  effects  produced  by  the  hammering  necessary  in 
drawing  it  out.  In  order  to  produce  this  effect,  blistered  steel  is 
broken  into  pieces,  melted  down,  then  tempered,  broken  again,  and 
the  pieces  welded  together  at  a  good  welding  heat.  By  this  process 
the  steel  is  made  more  malleable,  its  texture  more  homogeneous, 
tenacious  and  uniform,  and  it  will  have  these  qualities  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  times  it  has  been  subjected  to  this  process.  Steel 
so  worked  is  called  “  wrought  or  shear  steel.’5 

If  it  is  attempted  to  make  steel,  by  cementation,  from  ordinary 
iron,  in  which  the  proportion  of  silica  is  generally  quite  small  as 
compared  with  that  of  carbon,  and  in  which,  beside,  there  is  not 
enough  phosphorus  and  arsenic  for  softening  easily  the  metallic  mole¬ 
cules,  the  result  will  be  only  a  carburet  of  iron  and  a  little  siliciuret 
of  iron,  and  the  carbon  does  not  unite  or  combine  with  the  silica. 
The  steel  will  therefore  be  wanting  in  tenacity  and  malleability,  since 
the  molecules  have  not  crystallized  and  united  until  they  have  taken 
up  more  carbon  than  enough  to  produce  steel.  Simple  carburetted 
iron,  or  iron  containing  more  carbon,  will  not  harden  at  all  when 
tempered.  Sometimes  even  when  it  does  not  contain  more  carbon 
than  steel  of  good  quality  it  becomes  friable  and  brittle  when  heated 


STEEL 


937 


to  a  red  heat.  The  fracture  of  such  steel  will  be  gray  and  dull, 
while  that  of  good  steel  is  silvery,  and  shows  cubical  crystals. 

The  best  steel  is  made  by.  cementation  from  forged  iron  ;  and  in 
the  process  the  iron  must  not  become  completely  fused,  since  then 
groups  of  crystals  of  different  degrees  of  carbonization  are  formed. 
In  making  cast  steel  it  is  important  that  the  workman  should  have 
the  experience  and  skill  sufficient  to  judge  when  the  moment  of 
proper  fusion  has  arrived,  since  the  quality  and  uniformity  of  the 
steel  depends  in  a  great  measure  upon  this.  The  fracture  of  a  bar 
of  hard  steel  is  silvery,  and  has  a  quantity  of  rays  radiating  from 
the  centre,  while  that  of  softer  steel  is  uniformly  granular  and  crys¬ 
talline  in  texture,  and  possesses  all  the  brittleness  of  cast  metals. 
Steel  which  is  very  hard  and  highly  carbonized  contracts  consider¬ 
ably  when  fused  and  poured  into  moulds,  so  that  great  skill  is  needed 
to  fill  the  moulds  well.  When  steel  is  made  from  iron  of  bad 
quality,  and  carburets  of  various  kinds  have  been  produced  in  it 
during  the  process  of  cementation,  melting  it  makes  it  W'orse,  instead 
of  better,  since  the  carburets  separate  the  more  during  cooling,  and 
it  is  to  these  that  the  flaws  and  weaknesses  of  the  steel  thus  made 
are  due. 

The  fracture  of  cast  steel  should  show  a  perfectly  uniform  and 
homogeneous  appearance  when  the  bar  is  broken  by  a  sharp  blow. 
The  inequalities  should  be  slight  and  undulating,  blending  at  their 
bases  insensibly  with  the  rest  of  the  metallic  surface.  When,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  stand  out  perpendicularly,  they  show  the  separation 
at  this  point  of  two  layers  of  unequally  carbonized  particles. 

Numerous  attempts  have  been  made  in  modern  times  to  discover 
some  method  for  shortening  and  cheapening  the  process  of  making 
steel.  A  Mr.  Josiah  M.  Heath  patented,  in  1839,  the  process  of 
adding  one  per  cent,  or  even  less,  of  carburet  of  manganese  to  the 
melting-pot,  with  the  blistered  steel  it  was  intended  to  cast.  By 
this  a  better  steel  was  produced,  which  had  also  the  property  of 
being  weldable  to  wrought  iron,  or  to  itself.  By  this  invention  or 
discovery  the  price  of  table-knives  in  Sheffield,  the  seat  in' England 
of  this  branch  of  manufacture,  was  reduced  from  thirty  to  forty  per 
cent.  Beside  this  and  other  improvements  in  the  method  of  manu¬ 
facturing  or  working  steel,  the  attention  of  inventors  in  modern 
times  has  been  turned  in  another  direction.  Heretofore  we  have 
examined  the  methods  in  use  for  carbonizing  iron  ;  that  is,  for  adding 
to  iron  the  carbon  by  which  it  shall  be  converted  into  steel.  But  as 
steel  holds  an  intermediate  position  as  regards  the  aniount  of  carbon 


938 


STEEL. 


it  contains,  between  iron  and  cast  iron,  we  will  now  examine  the 
attempts  made  to  decarbonize  cast  iron,  that  is,  to  so  reduce  the 
amount  of  carbon  it  holds  in  combination  as  to  convert  it  into 
steel. 

It  is  only  in  quite  modem  times  that  this  idea  has  been  held  by 
inventors,  or  that  they  could  have  proceeded  methodically  and 
scientifically  to  work  to  attain  this  end.  It  was  absolutely  neces¬ 
sary  that  chemistry  should  have  arrived  at  the  positive  state  of 
development  which  it  has  reached  in  quite  modern  times,  before  the 
knowledge  or  the  ability  to  make  an  accurate  chemical  analysis  could 
have  existed,  and  it  was  only  when  such  an  analysis  showed  the 
chemical  constitution  of  steel  that  men  could  have  entertained 
the  idea  of  arriving  at  the.  manufacture  of  steel  by  the  process  of 
decarbonization.  There  were  several  processes  proposed  for  at¬ 
taining  this  end,  but  we  need  notice  here  only  the  most  successful 
one,  known  as  the  Bessemer  process,  from  the  name  of  its  inventor, 
Mr.  Henry  Bessemer. 

The  method  proposed  in  this  process  was  to  bum  out  the  carbon, 
and  to  attain  this  result  the  iron  in  a  state  of  fusion  was  to  be  sup¬ 
plied  with  currents  of  air,  which  should  furnish  the  oxygen  necessary 
for  such  combustion.  The  following  quotation  from  a  paper  read  by 
Mr.  Bessemer  himself  before  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  con¬ 
cerning  his  process,  will  give,  in  the  most  condensed  and  authentic 
form,  the  desired  information. 

Mr.  Bessemer  says :  “  The  want  of  success  which  attended  some 
of  the  early  experiments  was  erroneously  attributed,  by  some  per¬ 
sons,  to  the  “burning”  of  metal,  and  by  others  to  the  absence  of 
cinder  and  to  the  crystalline  condition  of  cast  metal.  It  is  almost 
needless  to  say  that  neither  of  these  causes  assigned  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  failure  of  the  process,  in  those  cases  where  failure 
had  occurred.  Chemical  investigation  soon  pointed  out  the  real 
source  of  difficulty.  It  was  found,  that  although  the  metal  could  be 
wholly  decarbonized,  and  the  silicium  be  removed,  the  quantity  of 
sulphur  and  of  phosphorus  was  but  little  affected  ;  and  as  different 
samples  were  carefully  analyzed,  it  was  ascertained  that  red  short¬ 
ness  was  always  produced  by  sulphur,  when  present  to  the  extent 
of  one  tenth  per  cent,  and  that  cold  shortness  resulted  from  the 
presence  of  a  like  quantity  of  phosphorus ;  it  therefore  became 
necessary  to  remove  those  substances.  Steam  and  pure  hydrogen 
gas  were  tried  with  more  or  less  success  in  the  removal  of  sulphur, 
and  various  fluxes,  composed  chiefly  of  silicates  of  the  oxide  of  iron 


STEEL. 


939 


and  manganese,  were  brought  in  contact  with  the  fluid  metal  during 
the  process,  and  the  quantity  of  phosphorus  was  thereby  reduced. 
Thus,  many  months  were  consumed  in  laborious  and  expensive  ex¬ 
periments  ;  consecutive  steps  in  advance  were  made,  and  many 
valuable  facts  were  elicited.  The  successful  working  of  some  of  the 
Higher  qualities  of  pig-iron  caused  a  total  change  in  the  process.  It 
was  determined  to  import  some  of  the  best  Swedish  pig-iron,  from 
which  steel  of  excellent  quality  was  made,  and  tried  for  almost  all 
the  uses  for  which  steel  of  the  highest  class  was  employed.  It  was 
then  decided  to  discontinue,  for  a  time,  all  further  experiments,  and 
to  erect  steel-works  at  Sheffield  for  the  express  purpose  of  fully  de¬ 
veloping  and  working  the  new  process  commercially,  and  thus  to 
remove  the  erroneous  impressions  so  generally  entertained  in  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  Bessemer  process. 

“  In  manufacturing  tool  steel  of  the  highest  quality,  it  was  found 
preferable,  for  several  reasons,  to  use  the  best  Swedish  pig-iron,  and, 
when  converted  into  steel  by  the  Bessemer  process,  to  pour  the 
fluid  steel  into  water,  and  afterwards  to  remelt  the  shotted  metal  in 
a  crucible,  as  at  present  practised  in  making  blister  steel,  whereby 
the  small  ingots  required  for  this  particular  article  were  more  per¬ 
fectly  and  more  readily  made. 

“  The  form  of  converting  vessel  which  had  been  found  most  suit¬ 
able  somewhat  resembled  the  glass  retort  used  by  chemists  for 
distillation.  It  was  mounted  on  axes,  and  was  lined  with  ‘  gannister5 
or  road-drift,  which  lasted  during  the  conversion  of  thirty  or  forty 
charges  of  steel,  and  was  then  quickly  and  cheaply  repaired,  or  re¬ 
newed.  The  vessel  was  brought  into  an  inclined  position  to  receive 
the  charge  of  crude  iron,  during  which  time  the  tuyeres  were  above 
the  surface  of  the  metal.  As  soon  as  the  whole  charge  was  run 
in,  the  vessel  was  raised  on  its  axis,  so  as  to  bring  the  tuyeres  be¬ 
low  the  level  of  the  metal,  when  the  process  was  at  once  brought 
into  full  activity,  and  twenty  small  though  powerful  jets  of  air 
sprang  upward  through  the  fluid  mass ;  the  air,  expanding  in  vol¬ 
ume,  divided  itself  into  globules,  or  burst  violently  upward,  carry¬ 
ing  with  it  a  large  quantity  of  the  fluid  metal,  which  again  fell  back 
into  the  boiling  mass  below.  The  oxygen  of  the  air  appeared,  in 
this  process,  first  to  produce  the  combustion  of  the  carbon  contained 
in  the  iron,  and  at  the  same  time  to  oxidize  the  silicium,  producing 
silicic  acid,  which,  uniting  with  the  oxide  of  iron  obtained  by  the 
combustion  of  a  small  quantity  of  metallic  iron,  thus  produced  a 
fluid  silicate  of  the  oxide  of  iron,  or  ‘  cinder,’  which  was  retained  in 


940 


STEEL. 


the  vessel  and  assisted  in  purifying  the  metal.  The  increase  of 
temperature  which  the  metal  underwent,  and  which  seemed  so  dis¬ 
proportionate  to  the  quantity  of  carbon  and  iron  consumed,  was 
doubtless  owing  to  the  favorable  circumstances  under  which  com¬ 
bustion  took  place.  There  was  no  intercepting  material  to  absorb 
the  heat  generated,  and  to  prevent  its  being  taken  up  by  the  metal ; 
for  heat  was  evolved  at  thousands  of  points,  distributed  throughout 
the  fluid,  and  when  the  metal  boiled,  the  whole  mass  rose  far  above 
its  natural  level,  forming  a  sort  of  spongy  froth,  with  an  intensely 
vivid  combustion  going  on  in  every  one  of  its  numberless,  ever- 
changing  cavities.  Thus  by  the  mere  action  of  the  blast  a  temper¬ 
ature  was  attained,  in  the  largest  masses  of  metal,  in  ten  or  twelve 
minutes,  that  whole  days  of  exposure,  in  the  most  powerful  furnace, 
would  fail  to  produce. 

“  The  amount  of  decarbonization  of  the  metal  was  regulated  with 
great  accuracy,  by  a  meter,  which  indicated  on  a  dial  the  number 
of  cubic  feet  of  air  that  had  passed  through  the  metal ;  so  that  steel 
of  any  quality  or  temper  could  be  obtained  with  the  greatest  cer¬ 
tainty.  As  soon  as  the  metal  had  reached  the  desired  point  (as 
indicated  by  the  dial)  the  workmen  moved  the  vessel  so  as  to  pour 
out  the  fluid,  malleable  iron,  or  steel,  into  a  founders’  ladle,  which 
was  attached  to  the  arm  of  a  hydraulic  crane,  so  as  to  be  brought 
readily  over  the  moulds.  The  ladle  Was  provided  with  a  fire-clay 
plug  at  the  bottom,  the  raising  of  which,  by  a  suitable  lever,  allowed 
the  fluid  metal  to  descend  in  a  clear,  vertical  stream  into  the  moulds. 
'When  the  first  mould  Avas  filled,  the  plug-valve  was  depressed,  and 
the  metal  was  prevented  from  flowing  until  the  casting-ladle  Was 
moved  over  the  next  mould,  when  the  raising  of  the  plug  allowed 
this  to  be  filled  in  a  similar  manner,  and  so  on  until  all  the  moulds 
were  filled. 

“  The  casting  of  large  masses  of  a  perfectly  homogeneous,  malle¬ 
able  metal  into  any  desired  form  rendered  unnecessary  the  tedious, 
expensive,  and  uncertain  operation  of  welding  now  employed  when¬ 
ever  large  masses  were  required.  The  extreme  toughness  and  exten¬ 
sibility  of  the  Bessemer  iron  was  proved  by  the  bending  of  cold  bars 
of  iron  3  inches  square,  under  the  hammer,  into  a  close  fold,  without 
the  smallest  perceptible  rupture  of  the  metal  at  any  part ;  the  bar 
being  extended  on  the  outside  of  the  bend  from  12  inches  to  16| 
inches,  and  being  compressed  on  the  inside  from  12  inches  to  7} 
inches,  making  a  difference  in  length  of  9^  inches  between  what, 
before  bending,  were  the  two  parallel  sides  of  a  bar  3  inches 


STEEL. 


941 


square . Steel  bars,  2  inches  square,  and  2  feet  6  inches  in 

length,  were  twisted  cold  into  a  spiral,  the  angles  of  which  were 
about  45  degrees  ;  and  some  round  steel  bars,  2  inches  in  diameter, 
were  bent  cold  under  the  hammer  into  the  form  of  an  ordinary 
horseshoe  magnet,  the  outside  of  the  bend  measuring  5  inches  more 
than  the  inside. 

“  The  steel  and  iron  boiler  plates,  left  without  shearing,  and  with 
their  ends  bent  over  cold,  afforded  ample  evidence  of  the  extreme 
tenacity  and  toughness  of  the  metal ;  while  the  clear,  even  surface 
of  railway  axles  and  pieces  of  malleable  iron  ordnance  were  ex¬ 
amples  of  the  perfect  freedom  from  cracks,  flaws,  or  hard  veins,  which 
forms  so  distinguishing  a  characteristic  of  the  new  metal.  The 
tensile  strength  of  this  metal  was  not  less  remarkable,  as  the  sev¬ 
eral  samples  of  steel  tested  in  the  proving  machine  at  Woolwich 
arsenal  bore,  llbcording  to  the  reports  of  Colonel  Eardly  Wilmot, 
R.  A.,  a  strain  varying  from  150,000  pounds  to  160,900  pounds  on  the 
square  inch,  and  four  samples  of  iron  boiler  plate,  from  68,314 
pounds  to  73,100  pounds ;  while,  according  to  the  published  experi¬ 
ments  of  Mr.  W.  Fairbairn,  Staffordshire  plates  bore  a  mean  strain 
of  45,000  pounds,  and  Low  Moor  and  Rowling  plates  a  mean  of 
57,120  pounds,  to  the  square  inch . 

“  That  the  process  admitted  of  further  improvement  and  of  a 
vast  extension  beyond  its  present  limits,”  the  author  had  no  doubt ; 
but  these  steps  in  advance  would,  he  imagined,  “  result  chiefly  from 
the  experience  gained  in  the  daily  commercial  working  of  the  pro¬ 
cess,  and  would  most  probably  be  the  contributions  of  the  many 
practical  men  who  might  be  engaged  in  carrying  on  the  manufacture 
of  iron  and  steel  by  this  system.” 

Beside  these  processes  in  use  in  other  countries,  for  the  purpose 
of  making  steel,  either  by  carbonizing  iron  or  decarbonizing  cast 
iron,  methods  for  producing  the  same  result  have  been  invented  in 
America  by  Professor  A.  K.  Eaton,  which  are  now  in  successful 
operation.  Having  his  attention  directed  to  the  necessity  of  cheap¬ 
ening  the  process  Qf  making  steel,  he  found,  in  the  course  of  experi¬ 
ments,  that  a  bar  of  iron  raised  to  a  bright  red  heat  in  a  tube,  or  in 
any  other  way  protected,  and  subjected  to  the  influence  of  cyanogen 
gas,  a  gas  composed  of  carbon  and  nitrogen,  was  rapidly  converted 
into  steel.  His  application  of  this  discovery  was  this :  Bars  of  malle¬ 
able  iron,  packed  in  charcoal,  with  which  was  mixed  a  proportion  of 
yellow  prussiate  of  potash,  or  any  other  cyanide,  were  under  a  high 
temperature  carbonized  into  steel. 


912 


STEEL. 


In  the  manufacturing  of  steel  by  this  process,  the  iron,  broken 
into  pieces,  and  mixed  with  powdered  charcoal  and  the  cyanide  salts, 
is  heated  in  crucibles,  thus  producing  cast  steel.  This  process  was 
patented,  and  has  been  extensively  employed  in  various  localities. 
The  chief  objection  to  it  is  the  difficulty  and  expense  of  obtaining 
crucibles  which  can  stand  the  needed  heat.  Continuing  his  experi¬ 
ments,  and  directing  Ids'  attention  towards  the  decarbonization  of 
cast  iron,  Professor  Eaton  invented  and  patented,  in  18G1,  various 
processes,  of  which  the  chief  are  the  following.  lie  found  that  by 
boiling  iron  castings,  made  from  such  iron  as  produces  a  silver-white 
iron,  which  is  very  hard,  and  so  fluid  when  melted  as  to  take  the 
finest  impressions  from  the  mould,  in  fused  carbonate  of  soda,  the  iron 
was  gradually,  from  the  outside,  converted  into  steel,  so  that  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  stage  of  the  process,  which  was  tested  by  bars  introduced 
into  the  pot,  and  removed  from  time  to  time,  any  de%red  grade  of 
hardness,  or  any  proportion  of  decarbonization  could  be  given  to  the 
articles.  The  pots  were  made  of  cast  iron,  and  it  required  a  boiling 
of  about  twenty  hours’  duration  to  thoroughly  decarbonize  an  article 
an  inch  in  thickness.  The  carbonate  of  soda  was  found  to  be  much 
better  suited  for  this  process  than  the  hydrate. 

He  also  discovered  the  u§e  of  carbonic  acid  gas  as  an  agent  for 
decarbonization.  A  retort,  the  bottom  of  which  was  covered  with 
bits  of  limestone,  was  filled  with  pieces  of  cast  iron,  while  through 
the  top  was  an  opening  for  the  escape  of  the  gas.  The  retort  was 
so  arranged  as  to  be  heated  in  the  middle,  furnishing  only  enough 
heat  to  the  limestone  to  liberate  the  gas.  The  retort  being  heated, 
it  wavs  found  that  the  gas  escaping  was  inflammable,  showing  bv  its 
blue  flame  that  it  had  become  carbonic  oxide,  having  acquired  an 
atom  of  carbon  from  the  iron.  When  the  gas  passing  off  was  found 
to  be  no  longer  inflammable,  the  operation  was  know  n  to  be  com¬ 
plete,  and  the  retort  being  opened,  the  iron  wras  found  to  have  been 
converted  into  steel.  The  amount  of  carbonic  acid  needed  to  de¬ 
carbonize  any  certain  amount  of  cast  iron  is  as  GO  to  GOO,  this  last 
being  the  weight  of  the  iron. 

The  addition  of  peroxide  of  iron  increases  the  amount  of  gas 
produced,  enabling  the  same  amount  to  operate  upon  double  the 
amount  of  cast  iron.  This  process  is  known  as  the  soda  process, 
and  some  further  modifications  have  been  arrived  at,  by  which  the 
cheapness  of  the  conversion  has  been  increased,  wdiile  the  waste  of 
the  material  has  been  lessened. 

These  vi  irious  processes  are  in  use  in  various  places  in  the  United 


STEEL. 


913 


States.  By  the  cheapening  of  the  production  of  steel,  and  the 
ability  to  cast  it  in  large  masses  which  they  have  given  to  modern 
industry,  it  will  be  possible  to  so  multiply  and  extend  its  uses  that 
in  the  future  steel  will  unquestionably  replace  iron,  for  many  pur¬ 
poses,  since  its  greater  strength,  its  greater  ability  to  resist  atmos¬ 
pheric  influences,  and  its  elasticity,  make  it  much  more  useful. 
Already  we  see  in  its  application  to  railroad  axles  and  rails  but  the 
beginning  of  the  advantages  to  society  at  large  which  these  inven¬ 
tions  will  produce.  And  here,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  tedious, 
we  cannot  refrain  from  calling  attention  to  the  invention  of  these 
new  processes  as  a  further  proof  of  the  value  and  importance  of 
scientific  studies  upon  industrial  pursuits ;  and  also  of  the  necessity 
that  the  theories  of  science  should  precede,  as  they  must,  the  prac¬ 
tical  application  of  laws  which  are  thus  arrived  at  to  the  processes 
of  industry.  .*•  m  •  >  ;  r 

It  was  impossible,  before  the  theoretic  pursuit  of  chemistry  led 
to  the  deductions  of  the  laws  regulating  chemical  attractions,  that 
men  should  arrive  at  the  practical  deductions  by  which  they  could 
institute  experiments  based  upon  a  method,  and  confidently  expect 
the  certainty  of  success.  Men  who  are  engaged  wholly  in  indus¬ 
trial  or  commercial  pursuits  are  too  apt  to  think  lightly  of  the 
value  of  those  who  devote  themselves  to  what  is  supposed  to  be 
mere  theory,  impracticable  dreaming.  On  the  other  hand,  those 
who,  by  the  constitution  of  their  minds,  are  naturally  attracted  to 
theory,  are,  in  their  turn,  too  apt  to  despise  those  who  care  only  for 
what  are  termed  practical  pursuits.  Here,  however,  as  everywhere 
else,  we  see  the  necessity  and  the  gain  to  both  classes  by  a  mutual 
esteem  and  sympathy,  and  a  mutual  pinion  and  co-operation,  working 
towards  the  same  end,  the  progress  of  mankind. 


THE  GATLING  GUN. 


THE  ERA  OF  MACHINE  GUNS.  —  THE  IDEA  AN  AMERICAN  ONE.  —  THE  GATLING  GUN 
THE  PIONEER.  — ITS  HISTORY.  —  A  DESCRIPTION  OF  ITS  MECHANISM.  —  AN 
ACCOUNT  OF  HOW  IT  IS  OPERATED.  — THE  PERSONAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  IN¬ 
VENTOR.  —  IIIS  OTHER  INVENTIONS.  —  THE  TRANSMISSION  OF  POWER  BY  COM¬ 
PRESSED  AIR.  — ITS  USE  IN  EUROPE  AND  THIS  COUNTRY.  —  ITS  FUTURE.  — 
THE  GATLING  GUN. 

Within  the  past  few  years  attention  lias  been  turned  towards 
the  invention  of  machine  guns  ;  and  in  the  recent  wars  which  have 
raged  in  Europe  their  use  by  the  French  has  brought  them  forcibly 
to  the  consideration  of  European  nations.  There  can  be,  however, 
no  doubt  that  the  idea  of  a  machine  gun  is  entirely  American,  and 
that  the  Gatling  gun  was  the  original  from  which  were  derived  the 
mitrailleuse  and  the  other  machine  guns. 

This  fact  will  appear  from  a  simple  history  of  the  invention  of 
the  Gatling  gun.  The  first  gun  of  this  kind  was  built  by  the  in¬ 
ventor,  R.  J.  Gatling,  M.  D.,  in  1862,  in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  his 
place  of  residence,  and  his  first  American  patent  bears  date  of 
November  4,  of  that  year.  The  idea  of  the  gun  had  occurred  to 
Dr.  Gatling  in  1861,  and  he  had  within  this  short  time  reduced  his 
conception  to  this  practical  realization.  This  gun  was  repeatedly 
fired  during  1862,  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  persons,  dis¬ 
charging  two  hundred  shots  a  minute,  and  the  results  of  the  trials 
were  published  to  the  world. 

In  the  autumn  of  1862  Dr.  Gatling  went  to  Cincinnati,  and 
had  six  of  his  guns  constructed  in  the  establishment  of  Miles 
Greenwood  &  Co.  ;  but  about  the  time  they  were  completed  the 
works  were  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  guns,  together  with  the 
patterns  and  drawings,  were  consumed.  Soon  after  this  accident, 
however,  Dr.  Gatling  made  an  arrangement  with  another  firm  in 
the  same  city,  and  twelve  of  these  guns  were  made.  During  this 
time  the  gun  made  at  Indianapolis  was  repeatedly  fired  in  Cincin- 
(944) 


TIIE  GATLING  GUN. 


915 


nati  before  officers  of  the  army ;  and  the  press  of  the  United 
States,  during’  the  years  1862  and  1863,  spoke  frequently  of  the 
trials  and  their  results,  while  no  mention  had  as  yet  appeared  of 
any  such  invention  as  a  machine  gun  in  Europe. 

There  was  no  effort  made  to  keep  the  facts  of  the  Gatling  gun 
secret ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  evidently  the  desire,  as  it  was  the 
interest,  of  the  inventor  that  as  wide  a  publicity  as  possible  should 
be  given  to  it,  and  to  the  success  which  had  attended  its  trials. 
Full  descriptions  of  the  gun  were  also  published,  with  cuts  and 
diagrams  showing  the  method  of  its  working,  and  these  were  sent 
to  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world.  During  1863  and  1864  Dr. 
Gatling  continued  to  make  these  guns  in  Cincinnati,  and  in  the  fall 
of  this  last-mentioned  year  made  improvements  in  the  lock  and 
rear  cam,  without,  however,  altering  its  main  features.  These  im¬ 
provements  were  secured  by  a  patent,  which  bears  date  May  9, 
1865. 

During  the  year  1865  and  1866,  the  guns  thus  improved  were 
manufactured  in  Philadelphia  at  the  Cooper’s  Fire-arms  Manufac¬ 
tory,  and  since  that  time  have  been  made  in  large  numbers  at 
Colt’s  Armory,  in  the  city  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  where  expensive 
machinery  has  been  fitted  up  to  make  them  in  the  highest  perfec¬ 
tion.  The  accuracy  of  the  dates  in  this  statement  is  placed  be¬ 
yond  denial  by  the  official  report  to  Governor  Morton,  of  Indiana, 
of  a  committee  appointed  to  examine  the  merits,  of  the  gun.  This 
report  is  dated  Indianapolis,  July  14,  1862,  and  signed  by  T.  A. 
Morris,  A.  Ballweg,  and  P.  G.  Ptose.  A  gun  made  in  1862,  and 
having  this  date  upon  it,  can  also  be  found  in  the  Ordnance  Muse¬ 
um  at  Washington.  The  report  to  Governor  Morton  so  impressed 
him  with  the  value  and  efficiency  of  this  gun,  that,  in  1862,  he 
wrote  officially  to  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  at  Washington, 
P.  II.  Watson,  Esq.,  to  call  his  attention  to  the  subject  of  intro¬ 
ducing  it  into  the  national  service.  In  1863,  during  the  months 
of  May  and  July,  trials  of  the  gun  were  made  at  the  Washington 
Navy  Yard,  and  its  merits  favorably  reported  upon  by  Lieutenant 
J.  S.  Skerrett,  of  the  army 

From  among  the  mass  of  testimony,  official  and  otherwise, 
which  could  be  brought  to  establish  the  claim  of  the  Gatling  gun 
to  being  the  first  practically  efficient  machine  gun  made,  the  above 
instances  must  suffice,  since  our  space  will  be  better  occupied  with 
a  statement  of  its  method  of  construction.  The  gun  consists  of 
a  series  of  barrels,  in  combination  with  a  grooved  carrier  and  lock- 


946 


THE  GATLING  GUN. 


cylinder.  All  these  several  parts  are  rigidly  secured  upon  a  main 
shaft.  There  are  as  many  grooves  in  the  carrier  and  as  many 
holes  in  the  lock-cylinder  as  there  are  barrels.  The  lock-cylinder, 
which  contains  the  locks,  is  surrounded  by  a  casing  which  is  fas¬ 
tened  to  a  frame,  to  which  trunnions  are  attached.  There  is  a  par¬ 
tition  in  the  casing,  through  which  there  is  an  opening,  and  into 
which  the  main  shaft,  which  carries  the  lock-cylinder  and  barrels, 
is  journaled.  The  main  shaft  is  also  at  its  front  end  journaled  in 
the  front  part  of  the  frame.  In  front  of  the  partition,  in  the  cas¬ 
ing,  is  placed  a  cam,  provided  with  spiral  surfaces  or  inclined 
planes.  This  cam  is  rigidly  fastened  to  the  casing,  and  is  used  to 
impart  a  reciprocating  motion  to  the  locks  when  the  gun  is  rotated. 
There  is  also  in  the  front  part  of  the  casing  a  cocking-ring,  which 
surrounds  the  lock-cylinder,  is  attached  to  the  casing,  and  has  on 
its  rear  surface  an  inclined  plane,  with  an  abrupt  shoulder.  This 
ring  and  its  projection  are  used  for  cocking  and  firing  the  gun. 
This  ring,  the  spiral  cam,  and  the  locks  make  up  the  loading  and 
firing  mechanism. 

On  the  rear  end  of  the  main  shaft,  in  the  rear  of  the  partition  in 
the  casing,  is  located  a  gear-wheel,  which  works  to  a  pinion  on  the 
crank-shaft.  The  rear  of  the  casing  is  closed  by  the  cascable  plate. 
There  is  hinged  to  the  frame,  in  front  of  the  breech-casing,  a 
curved  plate,  covering  partially  the  grooved  carrier,  into  which  is 
formed  a  hopper  or' opening,  through  which  the  cartridges  are  fed 
to  the  gun  from  feed-cases.  The  frame  which  supports  the  gun  is 
mounted  upon  the  carriage  used  for  the  transportation  of  the  gun. 

The  operation  of  the  gun  is  very  simple.  One  man  places  a 
feed-case  filled  with  cartridges  into  the  hopper ;  another  man 
turns  the  crank,  which,  by  the  agency  of  the  gearing,  revolves  the 
main  shaft,  carrying  with  it  the  lock-cylinder,  carrier,  barrels,  and 
locks.  As  the  gun  is  rotated,  the  cartridges,  one  by  one,  drop 
into  the  grooves  of  the  carrier  from  the  feed-cases,  and  instantly 
the  lock,  by  its  impingement  on  the  spiral  cam  surfaces,  moves 
forward  to  load  the  cartridge  ;  and  when  the  butt  end  of  the  lock 
gets  on  the  highest  projection  of  the  cam,  the  charge  is  fired, 
through  the  agency  of  the  cocking  device,  which  at  this  point 
liberates  the  lock,  spring,  and  hammer,  and  explodes  the  cartridge. 
As  soon  as  the  charge  is  fired,  the  lock,  as  the  gun  is  revolved,  is 
drawn  back  by  the  agency  of  the  spiral  surface  in  the  cam  acting 
on  a  lug  of  the  lock,  bringing  with  it  the  shell  of  the  cartridge 
after  it  has  been  fired,  and  dropping  it  on  the  ground.  Thus,  as 


THE  GATLING  GUN 


THE  GATLING  GUN. 


919 


the  gun  is  rotated,  the  locks,  in  rapid  succession,  move  forward  to 
load  and  fire,  and  return  to  extract  the  cartridge-shells.  The 
whole  operation  of  loading,  closing  the  breech,  discharging,  and 
expelling  the  empty  cartridge-shells  is  conducted  while  the  barrels 
are  kept  in  continuous  motion.  The  gun  is  so  novel  in  its  method 
of  operation  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  give  a  satisfactory  ac¬ 
count  of  it  without  detailed  illustrations,  for  which  we  have  not 
the  space. 

One  feature  should  be  specially  noticed  —  that  while  the  gun  is 
revolving  with  a  constant  and  uniform  motion,  the  locks  rotate 
with  the  barrels  and  breech,  and  at  the  same  time  have  a  longitudi¬ 
nal,  reciprocating  motion,  performing  the  consecutive  operations 
of  loading,  cocking,  and  firing  without  any  pause  in  these  consec¬ 
utive  operations.  There  is  no  other  gun  in  existence  in  which  the 
barrels,  inner  breech,  and  locks  all  revolve  simultaneously.  This 
gun  can  neither  be  loaded  nor  fired  except  when  the  barrels,  locks, 
and  breech  are  revolving.  This  gun  has  been  accepted  by  most 
of  the  European  governments,  and  numerous  ones  have  been  made 
for  Russia  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  also  at  Vienna,  Austria,  to  fill  the 
orders  of  Hungary  and  Turkey,  and  of  England  at  Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne.* 

•The  inventor,  Richard  Jordan  Gatling,  was  born  in  Hartford 
County,  N.  C.,  the  12th  of  September,  1818.  His  father  was  a 
substantial  farmer,  and  the  young  inventor  obtained  such  ad¬ 
vantages  of  education  as  the  common  schools  of  that  region 
afforded.  From  his  father,  however,  who  was  a  man  of  great  ener- 

;  *•  -  -  r  '  •  |  r  •  » 

gy  of  character,  he  received,  though  living  in  a  slaveholding  com¬ 
munity,  the  lessons  of  the  necessity  of  labor  and  economy  as  the 
surest  roads  to  success.  When  but  a  lad,  he  assisted  his  father  in 
the  invention  of  a  machine  for  sowing  cotton,  and  another  for 
thinning  out  the  young  cotton  plants,  which,  with  modifications, 
are  still  in  use  in  the  South. 

His  youth  was  passed  in  a  variety  of  employments  —  teaching 
school,  serving  as  a  clerk,  and  in  doing  business  on  his  own  account. 
He  also  invented  the  propeller-wlieel,  in  the  form  in  which  it  is 
now  used  ;  but  on  going  to  Washington  with  his  model,  in  order 
to  apply  for  a  patent,  he  found  that  he  had  been  forestalled  in  his 
invention.  The  disappointment  and  mortification  of  this  failure  were 

*  Improved  Gatling  guns  can  now  be  fired  at  the  rate  of  four  hundred  shots 
per  minute. 


55 


950 


THE  GATLING  GUN. 


severe,  because  he  foresaw  the  importance  of  the  new  method  for 
propulsion  ;  but  with  youth  and  energy,  he  overcame  its  depress¬ 
ing  effects.  In  1844  he  patented  a  machine  for  sowing  rice,  and, 
having  removed  to  St.  Louis,  adapted  it  to  sowing  wheat,  and  in¬ 
troduced  this  first  machine  of  the  kind  to  the  farmers  of  the  West. 
While  on  a  trip  from  Cincinnati  to  Pittsburg,  he  was  attacked  by 
the  small  pox  ;  and  having  his  attention  thus  turned  to  the  advan¬ 
tages  of  a  knowledge  of  medicine,  he  went  through  a  course  of 
medical  study,  not  with  any  purpose  of  practising  the  profession, 
but  to  satisfy  his  own  desire  for  knowledge. 

In  1849  Dr.  Gatling  invented  a  method  of  transmitting  power 
by  means  of  compressed  air  driven  through  pipes.  His  applica¬ 
tion  for  a  patent  for  this  process  from  the  United  States  was  re¬ 
jected  by  the  commissioner  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  discovery, 
and  not  an  invention.  Patents  were,  however,  obtained  for  it  in 
Europe  ;  and  it  is  by  means  of  this  method  that  the  tunnel  of 
Mont  Cenis  has  been  worked.  The  process  is  also,  we  believe, 
used  in  the  work  on  the  Iloosac  Mountain  Tunnel.  The  refusal  to 
grant  him  a  patent  called  his  attention  from  this  valuable  idea, 
though  it  is  unquestionable  that  by  it,  in  the  future,  power  will  be 
thus  created  and  distributed  in  cities,  avoiding  the  bother,  expense, 
and  complication  of  individuals  having  their  own  sources  of  power. 
Like  the  distribution  of  gas  and  water,  this  method  of  distributing 
power  is  at  a  glance  so  advantageous  that  its  merits  are  evident. 

In  1851  Dr.  Gatling  invented  and  patented  a  steam  plough,  or 
earth-pulverizing  machine,  to  be  propelled  by  steam  and  animal 
power  combined.  The  failure  of  his  health,  and  the  low  price  of 
grain  at  that  time,  prevented  his  bringing  this  invention  into  prac¬ 
tical  use.  Since  1861  Dr.  Gatling,  as  has  been  stated,  has  devoted 
his  time  and  attention  to  the  gun  which  bears  his  name  ;  and  the 
success  which  has  attended  his  labors  has  temporarily  seduced  him 
from  the  more  congenial  field  of  peaceful  invention. 


THE  MANUFACTURE  *  OF  CHEESE. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  PRESENT  CHEESE-FACTORIES. —THE  EXTENSION'OF  THE  SYS¬ 
TEM. - THE  DAIRYMEN’S  ASSOCIATION. - THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  BUSINESS  OF 

CHEESE-MAKING. — THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  PROFITS  OF  THE 
BUSINESS.  —  THE  EXPENSES.  —  THE  POSSIBLE  FUTURE  IMPROVEMENTS. 

About  twenty  years  ago  a  substantial  farmer  in  Oneida  County, 
Central  New  York,  had  won  an  enviable  reputation  among  his 
neighbors  for  the  uniform  excellence  of  his  cheese.  One  of  his 
sons  bought  a  farm,  a  few  miles  distant  from  his  father’s,  and  pro¬ 
posed  to  lift  the  debt  upon  it  by  cheese-making.  But  he  could  not 
be  sure  of  as  good  prices  as  his  father’s  make  always  commanded. 
It  was  therefore  arranged,  between  father  and  son,  that  the  milk  from 
the  new  farm  should  be  brought  over  in  cans  and  made  up  in  the 
paternal  cheese-room.  The  plan  worked  admirably,  and  the  next 
year  some  of  the  neighbors  asked  to  be  admitted  as  partners  or  pat¬ 
rons.  It  was  done,  and  presently  other  dairymen  followed  the 
example  set  by  the  Williams  family,  and  a  dozen  or  more  cheese- 
factories  were  erected. 

In  the  years  1862  and  1863  the  system  spread  rapidly,  on  account 
of  excellent  prices  obtained  in  England  for  American  cheese.  A 
year  or  two  later,  the  farmers  who  make  cheese  a  special  product 
formed  an  association,  and  sent  their  most  intelligent  members  to 
England  to  study  English  methods  and  the  London  market.  The 
society  thus  begun  grew  apace,  and  was  enlarged  to  the  American 
Dairymen’s  Association,  which  holds  annual  conventions  at  Utica, 
and  publishes  a  volume  of  reports  each  winter,  in  which  the  various 
problems  and  difficulties  of  cheese-makers  are  fully  and  ably  dis¬ 
cussed.  The  fame  of  these  meetings,  and  the  reading  of  this  litera¬ 
ture,  has  stimulated  other  communities,  and  the  cheese-factory 
system,  or  the  American  system,  as  English  dairymen  call  it,  has 
spread  through  the  Western  States,  has  penetrated  to  Kentucky 
and  North  Carolina,  and  is  pushing  rapidly  across  the  great  grassy 

(951) 


952 


THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  CHEESE. 


plains  which  spread  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  base  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

The  result  is  remarkable  uniformity  in  the  size,  flavor,  and  general 
excellence  of  our  cheese  and  its  consequent  popularity  in  the  Eng¬ 
lish  markets.  Cheese-making  has  thus,  within  eight  years,  come  to 
the  front  as  a  great  rural  industry,  in  which  many  millions  of  capital 
are  invested,  and  several  hundred  thousand  men  and  women  find 
wholesome,  regular,  and  well-rewarded  employment. 

The  essential  equipments  of  a  cheese-factory  are  from  one  to  six 
large  vats,  holding  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  gallons.  These 
vats  rest  upon  or  fit  into  a  tank,  or  water-tight  box,  and  there  must 
be  some  arrangement  for  heating  that  water  to  blood-heat.  There 
are  eight  or  ten,  sometimes  twenty  presses ;  some  simple  tools  for 
handling  and  working  curds ;  and  in  the  story  above  the  cheese¬ 
making  room,  or  in  a  separate  but  adjacent  building,  a  large  apart¬ 
ment  with  conveniences  for  keeping  the  temperature  at  or  near 
seventy  degrees  Fahrenheit.  Here  the  cheeses  are  cured  or  ripened. 
A  platform-scale  is  required  for  ascertaining  the  pounds  of  milk 
brought  by  each  patron  daily.  A  few  factories  buy  the  milk  of  the 
farmers,  paying  them  about  two  or  two  and  a  half  cents  a  quart. 
But  in  most  cases  the  cheese-maker  is  allowed  so  many  cents  per 
pound  for  manufacturing  the  milk  into  cheese  and  making  sale  of  it. 
We  will  suppose  that  several  hundred  gallons  per  day  have  been 
engaged,  and  the  factory  gives  notice  that  they  will  commence  to 
make  on  the  10th  of  May.  Each  patron  is  provided  with  one  or 
more  large  tin  cans  holding  say  forty  gallons ;  by  sunrise  these  cans 
begin  to  arrive,  and  most  or  all  of  them  are  in  by  seven  o’clock. 
There  is  a  platform  about  four  feet  high,  close  beside  which  the 
wagons  are  driven,  and  the  cans  are  lifted  or  rolled  at  once  from  the 
■wagon  to  the  scale,  and  the  contents  noted.  The  careful  cheese- 
maker  also  observes  the  condition  of  the  milk,  testing  it  by  smell 
and  tongue,  and,  if  he  does  not  approve,  setting  some  in  a  jar  by 
itself,  and  perhaps  refusing  to  pour  the  contents  of  a  suspected  can 
into  his  vat.  By  a  steam-pipe  running  through  the  water  under  the 
can,  the  milk  is  slowly  raised  to  about  eighty  or  eighty-five  degrees, 
when  the  rennet  is  added.  This  is  a  liquid  obtained  by  soaking  the 
dried  stomach  of  a  young  calf  in  tepid  water.  The  peculiar  acid  of 
the  stomach  whose  function  is  to  convert  milk  into  curd  acts  with 
great  promptness  and  power,  and  a  little  of  this  gastric  or  peptic 
acid  will  affect  a  great  body  of  milk.  But  it  is  important  that  the 
rennet  should  be  wiped  very  clean  and  carefully  dried,  without  the 


THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  CHEESE. 


953 


use  of  much  salt.  Pad  rennet  imparts  its  qualities  to  the  curd,  and 
lowers  the  flavor,  and  especially  the  curing  and  keeping  qualities  of 
the  cheese. 

In  a  little  while  the  rennet,  by  gentle  stirring,  has  affected  the 
entire  body  of  cheese  in  the  vat  and  the  whole  is  curdled.  Soon 
the  whey  parts  from  the  curd,  and  this  is  promoted  by  running  a 
blunt-edged  wooden  sword  or  series  of  cutters  through  the  body  of 
the  curd.  Now  a  part  of  the  whey  is  drawn  or  dipped  off,  and  the 
heat  is  raised  under  what  remains,  in  order  to  scald  it.  The  degree 
of  heat  to  which  the  curd  is  subjected  is  a  matter  in  debate  among 
the  members  of  the  craft.  In  our  hottest  months  many  believe  it 
necessary  to  make  a  very  stiff  curd  and  raise  the  heat  to  nearly 
100°.  But  tenderness  and  the  fine,  even,  pasty  quality  that  is  most 
admired  in  good  cheese,  cannot  be  obtained  if  the  curd  is  stiffened 
by  whey  over  80°  or  85°  in  temperature.  The  peculiarity  of  the 
Cheddar,  the  best  English  make,  is,  that  the  curd  is  handled  with 
great  care  and  never  scalded  hard.  High  heat  also  melts  a  portion 
of  the  cream  and  drives  it  away  in  the  whey,  thus  reducing  the 
quality  of  the  make  and  requiring  more  milk  for  a  pound  of  the 
product.  As  a  rule,  ten  pounds  of  milk  go  to  a  pound  of  cheese ; 
but  care  and  skill  in  making  produce  noteworthy  differences  in  this 
respect.  In  some  factories  nine  pounds  of  milk  represent  a  pound  of 
cheese ;  in  a  few,  eight  and  three  quarter  pounds  of  milk  only  are  con¬ 
sumed  in  giving  the  pound  of  cheese ;  while  in  badly  conducted  dairies 
eleven  pounds  of  milk  disappear  for  every  pound  of  salable  product. 
About  the  time  of  the  scalding,  the  lumps  or  cubes  of  curd,  as  they 
are  cut  by  the  curd-knife,  are  made  considerably  smaller  by  being 
ground  between  the  fingers  of  the  operator,  or  by  the  use  of  curd 
mills.  The  best  operators  are  careful,  at  this  stage  of  the  process,  to 
press  the  curd  as  little  as  possible.  When  the  curd  is  fine  enough 
and  firm  enough  it  is  lifted  from  the  vat  and  laid  upon  a  strainer  of 
strong,  coarse  linen,  where  most  of  the  whey  drips  away  from  it. 
Now  it  is  salted  and  thrown  into  the  hoops,  which  are  generally  of 
galvanized  iron  strongly  bound,  and  the  hoops  are  fitted  with  a  fol¬ 
lower  like  a  rude  piston-head  and  a  weight,  at  first  very  moderately 
applied.  Much  may  be  known  of  the  skill  of  the  cheese-maker  by 
noting  the  color  of  the  whey.  It  should  be  of  a  pale  green  color, 
and  watery  in  appearance.  If  it  flows  thick  and  milky  in  color, 
caseine  and  butter  are  driven  off  and  the  operation  is  badly  con¬ 
ducted  in  some  respects.  The  size  of  most  of  the  factory  cheese  is 
from  fifty  to  sixty  pounds.  We  have  supplied  ourselves  with  hoops 


954 


THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  CHEESE. 


and  presses  for  making  this  large  cheese,  because  this  size  suits  the 
English  market.  In  order  to  please  the  same  customers,  we  have 
adopted  the  practice  of  staining  our  curds  a  deep  yellow  with  an 
extract  of  the  anotta  bean.  When  a  cheese  is  pressed,  that  is,  when 
no  more  whey  runs  from  it,  it  is  taken  into  the  curing  room,  where 
it  is  kept  at  about  70°  for  six  weeks  or  two  months.  Here  it  is 
turned  every  day,  and  the  rind  rubbed  over  with  fresh  whey-butter 
made  of  a  deep  yellow  color  with  anotta.  As  soon  as  the  curd  of 
each  day  has  been  handled,  the  vats  are  carefully  washed  and  scald¬ 
ed  out,  the  floors  also  scrubbed,  and  the  factory  put  in  readiness 
.  to  receive  the  evening’s  milking.  In  hot  weather,  this  is  poured  into 
the  vats,  and  a  stream  of  cold  water  is  poured  through  the  vessels 
under  the  tanks  to  reduce  the  temperature  certainly  as  low  as  70°, 
and  to  62°  if  practicable. 

Much  vigilance  is  required,  during  the  months  of  July  and  August, 
to  prevent  mischief  to  the  entire  vat  of  milk,  on  account  of  the  mis¬ 
behavior  of  one  or  two  dairies.  If  cows  are  worried  by  dogs,  if  they 
drink  bad  swamp  water,  if  they  wade  in  black  muck  and  are  an¬ 
noyed  by  mosquitoes,  if  carrion  pollutes  the  air  of  their  pastures, 
if  they  are  fevered  by  sexual  heat  or  abused  by  harsh  attendants,  if 
the  grasses  they  eat  are  coarse  and  watery,  all  these  circumstances 
report  themselves  in  the  imperfect  quality  of  the  milk,  and,  during 
the  hottest  months,  many  factories  are  greatly  annoyed  and  non¬ 
plussed  by  the  bad  behavior  of  their  curds.  The  vats  emit  an  un¬ 
pleasant  odor,  —  there  is  a  gas  that  becomes  entangled  in  the  curds 
and  causes  them  to  float  on  the  whey,  instead  of  slowly  settling  be¬ 
neath  it,  as  all  good  curd  will  do.  If  this  impure  curd  is  made  into 
cheese,  it  will  swell  on  the  shelves,  and  crack  or  discharge  whey, 
and  give  the  maker  great  annoyance. 

There  are,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  something  near  900  cheese- 
factories.  Each  of  these  represents,  on  an  average,  475  cows.  In  cows 
whose  milk  is  used  mainly  in  cheese-making,  this  State  has  twenty 
million  dollars  invested,  and  the  money  employed  in  her  900  cheese- 
factories  cannot  be  less  than  three  millions.  The  annual  receipts 
from  each  cow  are  in  some  factories  $  70  in  some  $  GO,  but  the  aver¬ 
age  may  not  reach  above  $  50.  The  cheese  of  New  York  is  mostly 
shipped  to  the  city.  The  number  of  cheeses  annually  received  in 
New  York  City  ranges  from  a  million  to  a  million  and  a  half  boxes, 
and  the  average  weight  of  each  cheese  is  about  fifty  pounds.  The 
wages  of  a  cheese-maker,  in  a  factory  where  the  milk  of  several  hun¬ 
dred  cows  is  handled,  are  good.  A  man  with  a  good  reputation 


THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  CHEESE. 


955 


readily  commands  $  50  and  $  60  a  month.  He  needs  one  male  and 
two  or  three  female  assistants,  who  are  paid  from  $  12  to  $  20  a 
month. 

The  cost  of  the  building,  in  'which,  for  instance,  the  milk  of  one 
thousand  cows  can  be  received,  is  generally  from  $2,000  to  $3,000, 
though  a  much  more  durable  and  cooler  building,  with  heavy  stone 
walls,  and  stone  or  concrete  floors,  costing  $4,000,  would  be  much 
better  suited  to  the  production  of  first-class  cheese. 

In  some  factories  butter  as  well  as  cheese  is  produced.  Some¬ 
times  the  milk  brought  at  night  is  skimmed  before  the  morning’s 
arrival  is  added  to  the  vats.  Cheese  where  a  part  only  of  the  cream 
from  half  the  milk  is  removed  is  about  as  good,  if  all  the  subsequent 
manipulations  are  proper,  as  that  where  all  the  cream  is  stirred  in, 
and  little  or  no  difference  in  the  price  is  noticed.  In  other  estab¬ 
lishments  the  milk  is  poured  into  pails  which  are  set  in  a  tank  of 
cool  water,  or  by  some  arrangement  kept  at  a  temperature  of  about 
60°.  When  most  of  the  cream  has  come  to  the  surface  and  been 
removed,  the  milk  is  treated  with  rennet  in  the  usual  way,  and 
skim-milk  cheese  is  the  product.  It  is  about  as  nutritious  as  richer 
cheese,  but  low  in  flavor  and  less  easy  of  digestion.  Still,  when 
good  prices  are  obtained  for  the  butter  thus  made,  the  whole  income 
from  a  creamery,  counting  sales  of  butter  and  cheese,  is  greater  than 
when  cheese  alone  is  sold. 

The  business  in  America  has,  however,  just  begun ;  and  the  mar¬ 
kets  for  which  our  cheese  is  made  are  our  own  and  that  of  England, 
where  the  least  fastidiousness  of  taste  is  exercised,  and,  in  conse¬ 
quence,  the  finer  varieties  of  cheese  are  unknown  and  unappreciated. 
In  Paris,  however,  there  are  some  thirty  varieties  of  cheese,  varying 
from  the  delicate  double  creme  suisse  which  is  of  a  consistency  only 
a  little  thicker  than  cream,  and  of  as  exquisite  a  flavor  as  though 
perfumed  with  the  pollen  of  flowers,  to  a  cheese  as  strong  as  may 
be  desired,  each  of  them  having  its  own  distinctive  flavor,  and  each 
of  them  made  with  such  accuracy  that  from  year  in  to  year  out  they 
are  the  same,  there  being  no  hazard  or  chance  in  the  result.  With 
a  larger  experience  and  a  greater  cultivation  of  taste  among  the 
consumers,  unquestionably,  in  time,  the  business  of  cheese-making  in 
America  will  attain  a  perfection  which  may  compare  favorably  with 
that  of  any  country ;  for  here  are  the  elements  of  a  greater  diversity 
of  culture  than  in  any  other  land  where  the  political  relations  do 
not  allow  the  freedom  we  enjoy  for  development. 


CHILLED  ROLLS  AND  ROLLING  MACHINERY. 

THE  INCREASED  WORKING  OF  METALS  IN  MODERN  TIMES.  —  THE  INTRODUCTION 
OF  THE  ROLLING  MILL.  — ITS  EFFECT  UPON  METAL-WORKING. —  THE  MANU¬ 
FACTURE  OF  ROLLING  MACHINERY.  — TIIE  FARREL  FOUNDRY  AND  MACHINE 
COMPANY.’ — TIIE  PROCESS  OF  MAKING  CHILLED  ROLLS.  —  THE  CONSTRUC¬ 
TION  OF  TIIE  MOULDS.  —  CASTING  THE  ROLLS.  —  FINISHING  THE  ROLLS.  — 
ROUGHING  MILLS.  — FINISHING  ROLLS. —  GRINDING  THE  ROLLS. — THE  PRO¬ 
CESS  BY  WHICH  ACCURACY  IS  SECURED.  —  HISTORY  OF  THE  ESTABLISHMENT 
OF  TIIE  FARREL  FOUNDRY.  —  ITS  PROBABLE  FUTURE. 

The  wonderful  increase  in  the  working  of  metals,  which  is  so 
distinguishing  a  characteristic  of  the  industry  of  this  country  dur¬ 
ing  this  century,  is  chiefly  due  to  the  ability  of  handling  them 
which  has  been  brought  about  by  the  use  of  the  rolling  mill. 
Though  this  method  of  working  metals  has  been  known  and  prac¬ 
tised  only  a  little  over  two  hundred  years,  yet  in  that  time  it  has 
revolutionized  the  entire  treatment  of  metals  ;  and  though  there  are 
now  some  hundreds  of  rolling  mills  scattered  throughout  the  coun¬ 
try,  yet  in  the  future  the  business  appears  destined  to  greatly  in¬ 
crease,  and  the  uses  of  the  metals  in  the  arts  to  receive  an  exten¬ 
sion  which  shall  be  as  great,  if  not  greater,  than  that  which  has 
taken  place  during  the  last  century. 

To  the  successful  introduction  of  the  rolling  mill  we  owe  the 
ability  to  manipulate  iron  so  that  bars,  sheets,  and  rails  can  be 
produced  readily  and  cheaply;  and,  in  fact,  it  is  upon  this  invention 
that  iron  vessels,  railroads,  and  steam  boilers  have  become  possi¬ 
ble,  together  with  many  other  applications  of  iron  to  various  pur¬ 
poses  of  a  similar  nature.  With  the  great  increase  of  the  rolling 
mills,  the  preparation  of  their  machinery  has  become  an  important 
interest,  and  the  manufacture  of  chilled  rolls,  which  are  the  rollers 
for  rolling  mills,  is  of  itself  a  very  considerable  business.  The 
chief  establishment  in  the  country,  engaged  in  this  branch  of  in¬ 
dustry,  is  the  Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine  Company,  at  Ansonia, 
(956) 


CHILLED  ROLLS  AND  ROLLING  MACHINERY. 


957 


Conn.  The  iron  used  in  making  chilled  rolls  is  pig  iron  and  can¬ 
non  iron,  and  of  these  only  the  best  quality  is  used. 

The  process  of  casting  chilled  rolls  is  as  follows  :  The  molten 
iron  is  run  from  the  furnace  into  cast-iron  moulds,  which  are  slight¬ 
ly  heated  before  the  iron  is  run  into  them,  in  order  to  keep  them 
from  cracking  or  splitting  from  the  heat  of  the  fused  iron.  The 
cast-iron  mould  draws  the  heat  from  the  casting  rapidly,  and  thus 
chills  the  face  of  it ;  whereas,  if  the  casting  was  made  in  sand,  as 
is  generally  done,  the  iron  would  be  a  long  time  in  cooling.  The 
effect  of*  this  speedy  cooling  or  chilling  is  to  greatly  harden  the 
surface  of  the  roll,  and  make  it  much  more  suitable  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  for  which  it  is  intended.  Only  the  “  body  ”  of  the  rolls,  that 
is,  the  part  which  is  actually  to  become  such,  or  the  surface  ex¬ 
tending  in  towards  the  centre  a  few  inches,  becomes  chilled  and 
hard  enough  to  serve  as  a  roller  for  copper,  brass,  and  other  metals. 
The  journals  of  the  rolls  are  cast  in  the  sand  at  the  same  time  with 
the  rolls,  the  sand-mould  being  made  for  it  below  the  cast-iron 
mould  for  the  roll.  A  deep  pit  is  sunk  in  the  floor  of  the  foun¬ 
dry,  and  at  the  bottom  is  placed  an  iron  flask,  or  a  series  of  flasks, 
set  one  upon  another,  in  case  a  long  journal  is  required.  The 
journal  is  the  axis  upon  which  the  roll  revolves  in  the  rolling  mill. 
This  flask  contains  a  sand-mould,  in  which  the  journal  part  of  the 
roll  is  to  be  cast.  Upon  this  the  “  chill/’  or  cast-iron  mould,  is 
placed.  The  chill  is  a  hollow  cast-iron  cylinder,  which  may  be 
from  four  to  seven  inches  thick,  and  from  four  to  twenty-four  inches 
in  diameter,  according  to  the  size  of  the  roll  it  is  intended  to  make. 
The  chill  is  made  in  sections,  or  consists  of  several  hollow  cylin¬ 
ders  placed  one  above  the  other,  and  locked  together,  if  they  are 
small  ;  but  if  they  are  large  enough  to  remain  in  place  by  their 
own  weight,  they  are  simply  superposed,  without  being  locked 
together. 

After  the  chill  is  in  position,  it  is  surmounted  by  an  iron  flask 
containing  a  sand-mould  similar  to  the  one  at  the  bottom,  in  which 
the  journal  for  the  upper  end  of  the  roll  is  to  be  cast.  The  bottom 
flask  is  provided  with  a  lt  pocket,”  or  a  projection  from  its  circum¬ 
ference,  extending  about  a  foot,  into  which  the  iron  is  poured 
through  a  u  runner,”  which  is  a  long  cast-iron  flask,  containing  a 
hollow  sand-mould  or  tube,  and  which  reaches  to  the  top  of  the 
pit.  Into  this  runner  the  molten  iron  is  poured,  and  the  casting 
may  be  said  to  begin  at  the  bottom  and  continue  upwards.  The 
object  of  casting  the  roll  in  this  perpendicular  position  is  to  obtain 


958 


CHILLED  ROLLS  AND  ROLLING  MACHINERY. 


greater  certainty  that  the  surface  of  the  roller  will  be  without  any 
flaw,  solid,  and  having  no  pores  or  bubbles  in  it.  The  specific  grav¬ 
ity  of  the  molten  iron,  as  it  rises  in  the  mould,  forces  above  it  what¬ 
ever  air  may  be  in  the  mould  at  the  bottom,  and  carries  with  it, 
floating  upon  its  top,  all  the  dirt  there  may  be  in  the  mould.  This 
dirt,  which  gathers  at  the  top,  is  called  the  “  riser/ ’  and  is  cut 
off,  being  spongy  and  full  of  air-bubbles. 

The  sand-moulds,  when  they  are  formed,  are  blacked  with  char¬ 
coal  blacking  —  a  combination  made  of  pulverized  charcoal  and 
clay  water.  The  moulds  are  then  placed  in  a  furnace,  ami  baked 
until  they  become  as  hard  as  a  brick.  Then  they  are  ready  to  be 
placed  in  position  for  the  casting  of  the  roll.  In  casting  the  roll, 
the  molten  iron,  as  it  rises  in  the  cast-iron  roll,  is  chilled  by  its 
contact  with  the  cast  iron,  and  by  this  process  some  difference 
takes  place  in  the  atomic  arrangement  of  its  particles,  by  which  it 
becomes  hard,  and  fit  to  endure  the  severe  usage  and  immense  pres¬ 
sure  to  which  it  will  be  subjected  in  the  rolling  mill.  After  tho 
rolls  are  cast,  they  contract  sufficiently  upon  cooling  to  be  easily 
lifted  from  the  mould,  and  are  then  taken  to  an  engine  lathe,  where 
the  journals  are  turned.  When  this  is  done,  they  are  removed  to 
large  facing-lathes,  in  which  the  chilled  cylinder  is  faced  off,  or 
turned  to  great  smoothness  of  surface,  and  to  the  size  required. 
The  process  of  turning  the  chilled  face  of  the  roll  is  very  slow  on 
account  of  its  great  hardness.  A  roll  of  medium  size,  say  sixteen 
inches  in  diameter  and  thirty-six  inches  long,  requires  about  three 
days  to  be  properly  turned. 

After  they  are  turned,  the  rolls  are  removed  to  a  grinding-lathe, 
and  the  journals  ground  upon  emery  wheels  until  they  are  perfect¬ 
ly  smooth.  This  process  takes  about  two  hours.  Then  they  are 
carried  to  emery  grinders  of  a  finer  quality,  where  the  chilled  por¬ 
tion  is  ground  for  about  the  space  of  five  hours,  when  the  roll  is 
finished.  So  accurate  and  true  are  these  rolls  made,  that  iron 
and  other  metals  have  been  rolled  out  by  them  into  sheets  as  thin 
as  paper.  A  hundred  weight  of  iron  has  been  made  into  a  sheet 
thin  enough  to  cover  seven  thousand  and  forty  square  feet,  indi¬ 
cating  thus  a  thickness  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  leaves  to  an  inch. 
At  an  industrial  exhibition  in  Breslau,  in  1852,  a  bookbinder  ex¬ 
hibited  a  book  bound  by  himself  from  sheets  of  iron  thus  prepared, 
and  the  leaves  of  which  were  as  flexible  as  paper,  and  quite  com¬ 
petent  to  be  printed  upon. 

The  roughing  rolls,  in  quite  common  use  in  the  United  States  for 


CHILLED  ROLLS  AND  ROLLING  MACHINERY. 


959 


the  purpose  of  rolling  the  bloom  from  the  furnace  into  bars,  is  so 
constructed  as  to  leave  between  the  rollers,  which  revolve  close 
together,  one  above  the  other,  lozenge-shaped  openings,  through 
which,  as  the  bloom  is  drawn,  it  is  elongated,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  edges  are  kept  even,  and  the  bloom  is  in  good  shape  for 
making  round,  flat,  or  square  bars.  To  reduce  bars  from  six 
inches  to  one  inch  square,  they  should  be  passed,  if  of  hard  iron, 
through  nine  grooves  of  gradually  diminishing  sizes  ;  if  the  iron 
is  soft,  six  grooves  will  answer.  The  diameter  of  a  roughing  roll 
is  from  eighteen  to  twenty  inches.  Different  forms  are  given  to 
the  rolls,  according  to  the  various  shaped  bars  to  be  made  ;  some 
of  them  are  quite  complicated,  and  require  much  ingenious  skill  in 
their  construction,  as,  for  instance,  in  those  which  are  used  for 
making  the  rails  for  railroads. 

Finishing  rolls  are  often  arranged  in  what  is  called  a  “  train. ” 
Sometimes  these  consist  of  three  rolls  placed  together,  one  above 
another,  by  which  the  operation  is  much  expedited,  the  bar  being 
rolled  as  it  passes  each  way,  first  below  and  then  above  the  middle 
roll.  Sheet  iron  is  passed,  under  great  pressure,  through  hard 
and  well-polished  rolls,  which  are  kept  at  a  low  temperature,  and 
often  reheated.  For  this  purpose  it  is  essential  that  both  the  iron 
and  the  fire  should  be  entirely  free  from  sulphur.  Charcoal  is  the 
best  fuel,  and  superior  qualities  of  gray  pig  iron  make  the  best 
sheets.  To  make  the  surface  of  the  sheets  clean,  as  they  pass  into 
the  rolls  a  scraper  is  so  arranged  as  to  scrape  away  all  the  scales 
which  would  injure  the  polish  and  color  of  the  sheets.  Sheets  of 
iron,  which  are  intended  for  tinning,  are  passed  through  the  rolls 
cold.  Boiler-plqte  iron  is  rolled  at  one  heat  from  a  slab  forged 
under  the  hammer,  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  long,  seven  to  ten 
wide,  and  two  to  three  thick,  heated  to  a  bright  red,  but  not  a 
welding  heat.  ^Vs  it  is  rolled,  the  iron  is  repeatedly  sprinkled 
with  water,  which  chills  the  surface,  causing  the  scale  to  fall  off. 
This  must  not  be  done,  however,  with  the  finer  qualities  of  sheet 
iron,  and  in  making  these  the  use  of  water  is  carefully  avoided. 

At  the  Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine  Company’s  establishment 
all  kinds  of  rolling  mills  are  made,  for  rolling  iron,  brass,  copper, 
tin,  German  silver,  gold  leaf,  britannia  metal,  tin  foil,  and  paste¬ 
board  or  paper,  such  as  the  rollers  used  by  photographers  for  roll¬ 
ing  their  cards.  These  rolling  mills  for  various  purposes  are  con¬ 
structed  upon  the  same  general  mechanical  principles,  and  differ 
from  each  other  chiefly  in  sizes,  and  in  their  special  adaptation  to 


960 


CHILLED  ROLLS  AND  ROLLING  MACHINERY. 


certain  specific  ends.  In  their  construction  mechanical  skill  is  re¬ 
quired,  and  in  some  of  them  this  must  be  of  a  very  high  order,  and 
united  with  a  scientific  ability  to  thoroughly  comprehend  and  mas¬ 
ter  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  their  successful  working. 

Besides  rolling  mills  of  all  descriptions,  machinery  of  other 
kinds  is  made  at  the  works  of  the  Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine 
Company,  such  as  machines  for  working  rubber,  calenders  and 
grinders,  calenders  for  paper,  in  which  great  care  is  necessary  in 
order  to  secure  the  required  accuracy  in  the  working  of  the  ma¬ 
chine. 

The  process  used  in  this  establishment  for  grinding  the  rolls  is 
peculiar  to  it,  being  patented  and  controlled  by  the  Farrel  Foun¬ 
dry  and  Machine  Company.  By  the  use  of  this  process  of  grind¬ 
ing  the  rolls  at  this  establishment,  the  rolls  are  perfectly  adjusted 
to  each  other,  that  is,  each  roll  is  perfectly  cylindrical  throughout 
its  entire  length,  its  surface,  considered  in  its  length,  being  made 
up  of  an  infinite  number  of  minute  lines,  which  are  all  exactly 
parallel  to  each  other.  Such  certainty  of  accuracy  can  be  secured 
by  no  other  process  of  grinding.  Two  emery  wheels  are  used  in 
the  process  of  grinding,  one  on  each  side  of  the  roll,  and  placed 
exactly  opposite  each  other.  These  are  then  caused  to  move  at 
the  desired  rate  of  motion  along  the  roll,  the  surface  of  which  is 
kept  cool  by  a  constant  stream  of  water.  The  emery  used  in  this 
operation  is  of  about  that  grade  known  as  No.  90. 

At  the  Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine  Company  more  chilled 
rolls  are  made  than  at  any  other  establishment  in  the  United  States. 
For  burring  off  the  face  of  the  chill  two  tools  are  used  at  the  same 
time,  making  together  a  cut  about  fourteen  inches  in  width.  The 
chief  portion  of  the  establishment  is  situated  at  Ansonia,  upon  the 
the  banks  of  the  Naugatuck  River,  and  the  power  used  is  both 
water  power  and  steam.  At  Waterbury  is  also  another  portion  of 
the  establishment,  at  which  a  great  many  of  the  presses  manufac¬ 
tured  by  the  Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine  Company  are  made, 
this  part  of  their  production  being  a  specialty  with  this  portion  of 
their  works.  In  the  manufacture  of  chilled  rolls  only  the  very 
best  quality  of  iron  is  used,  the  differences  in  iron  in  this  respect 
being  very  great.  Some  iron  will  chill  for  the  distance  of  six  or 
seven  inches,  while  other  qualities  will  not  chill  at  all. 

The  Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine  Company  was  founded  in 
1848  by  Almon  Farrel,  the  father  of  Franklin  Farrel,  the  present 
president  of  the  company.  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Almon  Farrel, 


WORKS  OF  THE  FARRELL  FOUNDRY  AND  MACHINE  COMPANY,  ANSONIA,  CONN, 


■  .  .  ' 

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■(  * 

•  . 


CHILLED  ROLLS  AND  ROLLING  MACHINERY. 


9G3 


which  occurred  in  1857,  the  management  of  its  affairs  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Mr.  Franklin  Farrel,  who  has  retained  this  position 
ever  since.  The  capital  stock  of  the  company  was  originally  fixed 
at  ninety  thousand  dollars,  but  has  since  been,  practically,  largely 
increased,  until,  as  in  the  case  of  many  other  of  the  successful 
establishments  of  New  England,  the  “nominal  capital/7  so  called, 
bears  but  little  comparison  to  the  actual  capital  employed  ;  and 
under  the  energetic  management  of  its  president,  the  concern  has 
largely  increased  its  facilities  for  the  transaction  of  its  business, 
which  is  now  the  largest  in  its  specialty  in  the  United  States,  and 
which  is  still  increasing. 

With  the  great  increase  of  our  industrial  activity,  and  the 
growing  population  of  the  country,  the  uses  of  metals  in  this  era 
of  civilization  must  keep  pace,  and  new  applications  for  them  be 
continually  discovered.  With  this  the  appliances  for  working 
them,  chief  among  which  is  the  rolling  mill,  will  come  into  greater 
demand,  and  the  future  production  of  the  Farrel  Foundry  and 
Machine  Company,  great  as  it  is  at  present,  may  be  depended 
upon,  under  the  management  which  has  brought  it  to  its  present 
importance,  to  keep  pace  with  the  demand,  until  it  shall  hold,  in 
comparison  with  the  manufactories  of  the  world,  the  same  leading 
position  which  it  now  holds  with  reference  to  those  in  the  United 
States. 


1 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES.* 


INTRODUCTORY  HISTORICAL  COMMENTS.  — COTTON  FABRICS  IN  EGYPT,  CHINA, 
ETC.,  A  THOUSAND  YEARS  BEFORE  CHRIST.  —  HOW  COTTON  IS  RAISED.  — 
THE  COTTON  GIN  DESCRIBED.  —  AN  UNSOLVED  PROBLEM  IN  THE  MANUFAC¬ 
TURE  OF  COTTON.  —  AN  INTERESTING  QUOTATION  FROM  JOHN  WYATT’S  LET¬ 
TERS  PATENT,  1738.  — ARKWRIGHT  AND  HARGREAVES.  — THE  PROPORTION 
OF  COTTON  GROWN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  WHICH  IS  MANUFACTURED  HERE. 
—  STANDARD  FOR  JUDGING  COTTON  FABRICS. 

In  a  history  of  the  great  industries  peculiar  to  the  present  gen¬ 
eration,  no  single  element  of  a  purely  material  character  is  found 
so  important  and  influential  as  the  white,  downy  filaments  that 
enclose  the  seed  in  a  pod  of  the  cotton  plant.  A  generation  ago 
the  woollen  interest  was  mighty,  the  industries  of  iron,  and  coal, 
and  brass,  and  silk  were  well  developed,  while  that  of  cotton  was 
in  its  infancy.  When  General  Burgoyne  surrendered,  and  the  folly 
and  obstinacy  of  George  III.  robbed  the  British  empire  of  its 
richest  possessions,  the  cotton  imported  into  England  consisted  of 
a  few  thousand  bales  of  yellow  short  staple  from  East  India.  Dur¬ 
ing  those  eventful  years,  from  1760  to  1780,  when  the  rashness 
and  stubborn  pride  of  England’s  rulers  were  doing  so  much  to 
cripple  her  power,  four  poor  and  humble  men  —  mechanics  —  with 
blackened  hands  and  fustian  jackets,  were  developing  machines  the 
effect  of  which  has  been  to  restore  to  England  more  than  she  lost 
at  Saratoga  and  Yorktown.  A  century  ago  England  aspired  to 
govern  half  the  world  by  the  skill  of  her  generals,  the  valor  of 
her  soldiers,  the  audacity  and  genius  of  her  statesmen.  Now  she 
dictates  prices,  and  governs  with  a  sway  that  cannot  be  broken  in 
the  world  of  commerce  ;  and  this  is  done  by  her  amazing  power 
of  gorging  every  mart  of  the  world  with  the  products  of  her 
looms.  This  she  can  do  because  Wyatt,  and  Arkwright,  and  Har¬ 
greaves,  and  Crompton,  by  their  wonderful  devices,  have  taught 
her  how  one  man  may  do  the  work  that  two  hundred  men  did  be- 
(964) 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


965 


fore,  and  show  a  better  and  more  uniform  product  than  the  most 
skilful  of  the  two  hundred  could  have  done  without  their  machines. 
The  carding  rollers,  the  drawing  frame,  the  jenny,  and  the  power 
loom,  in  their  exact  adaptation  to  cotton  fabrics,  created  at  once 
a  keen  demand  for  that  product ;  and  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century,  a  Yankee  inventor  gave  southern  agriculture  the  one 
machine  that  was  needed  to  place  cotton  among  the  leading  mate¬ 
rial  powers  of  the  world.  With  Whitney’s  cotton  gin  in  our 
southern  states,  and  the.  great  inventions  alluded  to  in  England, 
the  equipment  was  complete.  England  and  the  north-eastern 
states  could  spin  all  the  cotton  the  South  could  grow.  Enormous 
mills  went  up,  rural  population  flocked  to  manufacturing  centres, 
cloth  merchants  opened  branch  houses  in  China,  in  India,  in  Bra¬ 
zil,  in  Africa,  and  Australia.  Then  our  cotton-producing  states, 
conceiving  that  a  control  of  a  staple  of  such  importance  was  vir¬ 
tually  a  control  of  the  commercial  interests  of  the  most  powerful 
nations  on  earth,  proposed  from  that  vantage-ground  to  dictate 
fundamental  laws  between  capital  and  labor  for  the  whole  conti¬ 
nent  to  obey,  and  thus  originated  our  civil  war.  Great  credit  is 
given  to  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  radical  in  politics,  for  sowing  the 
seeds  of  that  strife  ;  but  when  the  remote,  but  efficient,  cause  is 
discovered,  we  see  not  a  theorizer,  but  a  mechanic  —  not  a  Cal¬ 
houn,  but  Eli  Whitney. 

Cotton  fabrics  are  nearly  as  old  in  history  as  fabrics  of  wool 
and  silk.  The  Egyptian  dead  who  were  embalmed  when  Joseph 
was  prime  minister  of  Pharaoh  were  swathed  about  with  fine  cot¬ 
ton  cambric.  The  Hindoos  and  Chinese  used  it  with  silk  as  a 
national  staple  for  clothing  a  thousand  years  before  Christ.  The 
East  India  spinners  and  weavers  became  renowned  for  the  fineness 
and  beauty  of  their  lawns  many  hundred  years  ago.  With  the 
rudest  and  most  clumsy  looking  machines,  a  woman,  sitting  under 
a  palm  tree  on  the  edge  of  an  oblong  pit,  with  threads  tied  to  her 
toes,  could  produce  a  gauze  so  uniform  and  delicate  that,  when 
wet  and  laid  upon  the  grass,  the  eye  could  barely  detect  a  film 
spread  over  the  green  blades.  The  latest  and  utmost  skill  of 
English  artisans  has  recently  been  able  to  rival,  but  not  to  surpass, 
in  delicacy  and  perfection  the  fabrics  that  Indian  females  could 
produce  with  a  few  bamboo  sticks.  The  peculiarity  of  modern 
manufactures  is  not  that  better  cloths  are  produced,  but  that  the 
forces  of  nature  have  been  so  skilfully  harnessed  that  the  opera¬ 
tions  which  man  once  performed  he  now  simply  directs.  Iron, 


966 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


water,  steam,  all  mechanical  powers,  all  chemical  agents,  are  his 
faithful  drudges,  and  not  only  yield  their  amazing  forces  to  his 
command,  but  execute  works  more  subtile  and  delicate  than  he 
could  accomplish  by  dexterity  alone. 

The  observation  and  experiments  of  many  centuries  have  devel¬ 
oped  but  four  materials  or  sources  of  the  clothing  of  the  race. 
Two  of  these  are  in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  two  are  in  the  vege¬ 
table  kingdom  —  silk,  wool,  linen,  and  cotton.  A  walk  across 
one  of  our  southern  plantations,  and  a  calculation  of  the  moderate 
amount  of  labor  by  which  a  large  quantity  of  cotton  wool  is  pro¬ 
duced,  will  show  that  when  the  beauty,  warmth,  and  durability  of 
cotton  are  considered  in  connection  with  the  ease  with  which  it  is 
grown,  this  plant  is  and  must  continue  to  stand  in  the  front  rank 
as  the  material  far  the  clothing  of  mankind. 

Cotton  is  planted  in  rows  about  four  feet  apart,  and  the  stalks 
are  cut  away  from  the  first  stand,  or  sprouting,  till  they  are  about 
two  feet  apart  in  the  row.  Thus  planted,  the  boughs  of  the  plants 
by  the  month  of  July  touch  each  other  across  the  middles,  and 
the  entire  field  is  covered,  so  that,  in  good  land,  not  a  spot  of 
earth  can  be  seen  except  as  the  thick  branches  and  leaves  are 
pushed  aside.  Early  in  the  month  of  August,  the  pods  which 
contain  the  seed  and  the  enveloping  wool  begin  to  burst.  Then 
picking  commences.  The  first  pods  to  open  are  those  first  formed 
on  the  larger  and  earlier  stalks.  As  the  season  advances,  other 
pods  growing  on  the  middle  and  top  branches  of  the  plant  expand, 
and  the  snowy  wool,  pushing  out  from  the  crisp  segments  of  the 
pod,  gives  a  white  and  beautiful  appearance  to  the  whole  field. 
So  profuse  is  this  crop  of  vegetable  wool  that  a  prosperous  plan¬ 
tation  in  the  month  of  October,  when  the  greatest  number  of  bolls 
are  open,  looks  as  though  a  shower  of  snow-flakes  had  fallen,  and 
the  white  mantle  had  not  been  blown  or  melted  from  the  surface 
of  the  vegetation.  One  man  can  easily  plough,  plant,  and  cultivate 
ten  acres  of  cotton.  A  good  yield  is  a  bale  or  bag  of  four  hun¬ 
dred  pounds  for  each  acre.  The  labor  of  one  man  and  one  mule 
produces,  then,  in  a  good  season,  and  on  good  soil,  four  thousand 
pounds  of  material  for  cloth.  On  an  average,  as  cloth  is  made, 
each  of  those  pounds  will  be  converted  into  four  yards  of  cloth. 
Thus,  one  man  laboring  in  the  cotton  field  can  give  society  the 
raw  staple  for  sixteen  thousand  yards  of  cloth.  It  would  task 
the  activity  and  care  of  the  same  man  to  take  charge  of  one  hun¬ 
dred  sheep  that  might  yield  a  clip  of  four  hundred  pounds  of  wool, 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


907 


to  provide  supplies  for  wintering  them,  and  to  shear  the  fleeces. 
In  this  view  of  the  case,  the  raw  material  for  cotton  spinning  can 
be  produced  with  about  one  tenth  the  ease  that  the  same  quantity 
of  wool  is  given  to  the. manufacturer. 

In  an  important  sense  of  the  word  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
begins  at  the  plantation  and  the  gin-house.  After  the  lint,  or 
wool,  has  passed  through  one  stage  of  the  process,  it  is  packed 
closely  in  square  bales,  hooped  with  iron,  and  sent  many  hundred 
or  thousand  miles  to  the  pickers,  rollers,  throstles,  and  jennies  that 
convert  it  into  yarn,  and  the  looms  that  make  cloth  of  it.  A  cot¬ 
ton  gin.  is,  in  its  essential  parts,  a  series  of  circular  saws,  with 
fine  hooked  teeth  on  one  cylinder,  which  revolves  rapidly  against 
a  mass  of  the  seed  cotton  as  it  comes  from  the  field.  Cotton  wool 
is  a  species  of ^  hair  or  down  that  grows  out  of  the  seed  and  envel¬ 
ops  or  wraps  it.  The  seed  is  somewhat  smaller  than  the  common 
field  pea,  and  when  the  down,  or  lint,  is  pulled  away  from  it,  shows 
a  black  and  rather  oily  husk.  The  weight  of  the  seed  is  about 
thrice  that  of  the  enveloping  wool.  Thus  twelve  hundred  pounds, 
as  it  comes  from  the  field,  will  be  separated  by  the  gin  into  three 
hundred  pounds  of  lint  and  nine  hundred  of  seed.  Back  of  the 
saw  cylinder  is  a  revolving  brush  which  removes  the  lint  from  the 
teeth,  and  a  blast  of  air  from  a  fan  blows  the  lint  away  from  the 
brush,  and  throws  it  back  in  a  snowy  shower  into  the  lint  room. 
It  is  one  of  the  unsolved  problems  of  political  economy  in  this 
country  how  to  unite  the  manufacturing  with  the  cotton  growing 
interest,  so  as  to  bring  the  carding  mill,  the  roving  frame,  and  the 
jenny  to  run  by  the  same  power  that  drives  the  gin.  The  loss  of 
time,  and  power,  and  material  by  thus  interrupting  the  process, 
packing  the  lint,  compressing  and  hooping  it,  removing  it  to  the 
factory,  where  there  are  other  machines  for  picking  it  light  and 
whipping  out  the  dust,  is  very  great.  When  a  mass  of  cotton 
wool  is  made  fleecy  and  wholly  freed  of  dust,  it  is  ready  for  the 
carding  rollers.  These  draw  the  staple  out  into  fine  parallel 
threads,  or  filaments,  and  wind  them  around  a  large  cylinder.  A 
device  not  unlike  a  fine  steel  comb  removes  them  from  the  cylin¬ 
der,  and  by  a  slow,  gentle  motion  these  fine  fibres,  are  drawn  to¬ 
gether  into  a  long,  white  roll  or  cloud-like  rope,  that  parts  at  a 
slight  pull.  The  great  inventions  which  have  given  cotton  manu¬ 
facture  such  impetus  take  up  the  staple  at  this  point.  This  soft 
rope,  or  tube  of  fibres,  held  so  loosely  together,  must  be  very 
gently  drawn  out  and  compacted.  Perhaps  the  mode  of  doing 
56 


9C8 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


this  cannot  be  better  stated  than  in  the  letters  patent  granted  to 
the  invention  of  John  Wyatt  in  It 38.  It  is  copied  from  the  close 
rolls  of  George  II.,  the  twelfth  year  of  his  reign,  and  the  quaint 
spelling  of  that  age  is  retained  :  “One  end  of  the  mass,  rope, 
thread,  or  sliver  is  put  betwixt  a  pair  of  rowlers,  cillinders,  or 
cones,  or  some  such  movements,  which,  being  twirled  around  by 
their  motion,  draw  in  the  raw  mass  of  wool  or  cotton  to  be  spun 
in  proportion  to  the  velocity  given  to  such  cillinders.  As  the  pre¬ 
pared  mass  passes  regularly  betwixt  these  rowlers,  cillinders,  or 
cones,  a  succession  of  other  cillinders,  moving  proportionably 
faster  than  the  first,  draw  the  sliver  or  thread  into  any  degree  of 
fineness  which  may  be  required.  Sometimes  these  successive 
rowlers  have  another  rotation  besides  that  which  diminishes  the 
thread,  and  they  give  it  a  small  degree  of  twist  betwixt  each  pair 
by  means  of  the  thread  itself  passing  through  the  axis  and  centre 
of  that  rotation.” 

Here  we  have  the  essential  thing  in  roving  and  spinning  by 
rollers  —  a  sliver  drawn  down  to  the  required  fineness  by  a  differ¬ 
ence  in  the  velocity  of  two  cylinders  between  which  it  is  carried 
and  the  twist  to  be  given  it  by  connecting  the  thread  with  the  mo¬ 
tion  at  the  axis  of  the  cylinder.  Thirty  years  this  plan,  thus 
clearly  stated,  slumbered  in  the  close  rolls,  and  then  was  taken  up 
by  a  patient  and  resolute  inventor,  Sir  Richard  Arkwright,  who, 
in  the  midst  of  difficulties,  and  in  poverty  so  great  that  his  friends 
made  up  a  purse  to  buy  him  decent  clothes,  kept  on  with  wheel, 
and  cog-,  and  cylinder,  and  bobbin  till  he  gave  the  world  the  thros¬ 
tle  and  water  frame  substantially  as  now  is  used  in  a  thousand 
cotton  mills. 

About  the  same  time  —  that  is  to  say,  a  little  over  one  hundred 
years  ago  —  another  great  invention  took  up  the  cotton  where  the 
drawer  of  Arkwright  left  it,  and  made  yarn  of  it.  This  invention 
was  the  jenny ,  and  Thomas  Hargreaves,  illiterate  and  humble,  a 
weaver  of  Stand  Hill,  near  Blackburn,  was  the  father  of  it.  He 
is  said  to  have  received  his  original  idea  from  seeing  a  common 
one-thread  hand  wheel  overturned  upon  the  floor,  when  both  the 
wheel  and  spindle  continued  to  revolve.  Why  could  not  a  row  of 
spindles  be  set  side  by  side  ?  Why  could  not  one  band  drive 
them  all  ? 

Why  might  not  some  mechanical  device  let  through  just  so 
much  roving  or  soft  thread  for  each  spindle,  and  so  one  spinster 
make  eight,  sixteen,  thirty-two,  or  more  threads  as  easily  as  she 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


960 


now  makes  one  ?  These  problems  Hargreaves  puzzled  over  for 
months,  and  with  much  casting,  and  filing,  and  adjusting,  con¬ 
trived  a  frame,  in  one  part  of  which  he  placed  eight  rovings  in  a 
row,  and  over  against  them  eight  spindles.  The  rovings,  when 
extended  to  the  spindles,  passed  between  two  bars  of  wood,  form¬ 
ing  a  clasp,  which  opened  and  shut  somewhat  like  a  parallel  ruler. 
A  portion  of  the  roving,  or  roll,  being  extended  from  the  spindles 
to  the  wooden  clasp,  this  was  closed  and  drawn  out  on  the  hori¬ 
zontal  frame  to  a  suitable  distance  from  the  spindles,  thus  making 
the  thread  fine  enough ;  at  the  same  time,  by  turning  a  crank,  the 
eight  spindles  were  made  to  spin  eight  lengths  of  yarn,  and  by 
opening  the  wooden  clasp  the  spun  thread  could  be  run  back  and 
wound  about  the  spindles.  lie  soon  saw  that  sixteen  spindles 
could  be  turned  by  the  same  wheel  by  which  the  eight  were 
driven  ;  and  if  sixteen,  why  not  thirty-two  ?  why  not  sixty-four  ? 
His  discovery  it  was  that  gave  cotton  manufacture  its  amazing 
impetus.  Before,  it  had  crept  along  the  earth  ;  now,  it  took  on 
wings,  and  could  speed  with  a  geometric  velocity. 

One  invention,  or  rather  one  combination,  more  was  needed,  and 
this  was  devised  by  Samuel  Crompton.  lie  joined  the  drawing 
'  machine  with  the  jenny,  and  instead  of  moving  out  with  the  roll, 
the  spindles  being  fixed,  he  reversed  the  process,  and  took  the 
spindles  out  on  the  roving  frame,  spinning  as  lie  drew  out.  It  is 
clear  that  he  could  get  a  much  finer  thread  by  this  plan,  as,  by 
twisting,  the  thread  constantly  grew  more  compact  as  it  was  drawn 
out.  This  combination  he  named  the  mule.  With  it  he  made  yarn 
never  before  equalled  in  England  for  fineness  and  uniformity. 
Other  and  more  skilful  artisans  made  mules.  William  Kelley,  of 
Lanark  Mills,  first  turned  the  mule  by  water  power  in  T790.  Soon 
after  a  double  mule  was  made,  then  the  unheard-of  exploit  of 
working  no  less  than  four  hundred  spindles  on  one  frame,  and  of  late, 
in  Manchester,  Eng.,  and  elsewhere,  eight  hundred  spindles  each  on 
a  double  mule  have  been  used,  and  in  some  mills  the  prodigious 
number  of  eleven  hundred  spindles  each,  $r  twenty-two  hundred 
the  pair,  all  managed  by  one  spinner. 

About  forty  years  ago  one  Roberts,  an  ingenious  machine  maker, 
contrived  an  automatic .  mule  that  could  roll  out  several  hundred 
spindles  on  one  frame  with  a  perfectly  uniform  motion  ;  and  at  a 
given  time,  when  the  revolutions  had  made  the  thread  hard  enough, 
it  returns,  winding  the  spun  thread  on  the  spools,  and  goes  out 
without  aid  or  touch  of  hands,  thus  dismissing  the  spinner,  or 


970 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


making  him  merely  a  looker-on,  to  mend  a  broken  thread  or  throw 
off  the  band  in  case  of  accident. 

In  order  that  weaving  might  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  produc¬ 
tion  of  yarns,  several  inventors  and  machinists  wrought  upon  the 
power  loom  and  on  the  dressing  and  sizing  apparatus  necessary  to 
make  the  power  loom  in  every  respect  more  rapid  and  economi¬ 
cal  than  hand  weaving.  These  labors  were  consummated  a 
little  more  than  forty  years  ago,  when  the  series  of  grand  inven¬ 
tions  culminated  in  giving  England  and  America  the  facilities  we 
now  have  for  converting  our  immense  cotton  crops  of  four  mil¬ 
lion  bales  each  into  cloth,  and  performing  all  this  Briarean  labor  by 
the  gravitation  of  falling  water  and  the  expansion  of  steam. 

Of  the  cotton  grown  in  this  country  we  manufacture  about  one 
fourth  or  one  fifth.  That  is  to  say,  of  a  four  million  bale  crop, 
somewhat  over  three  millions  are  exported,  and  from  eight  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  to  one  million  bales  are  converted  into  cloth,  mostly 
in  the  north-eastern  states.  The  standard  for  judging  of  the 
weight  and  durability  of  a  cotton  fabric  is  the  number  of  threads 
in  a  square  inch.  Some  cambric  shows  a  network  under  the 
glass  of  92  X  96  threads  in  each  square  inch.  Some  standard 
sheetings  show  64X64.  Of  the  million  bales  spun  by  us,  full 
one  half  is  made  into  such  coarse,  durable  fabrics  as  the  Osna- 
burgs,  Attakapas  jeans,  and  Alabama  plaids. 

While  the  Manchester,  Eng.,  mills  are  much  more  numerous  than 
any  of  our  manufacturing  towns  can  boast,  and  are  engaged  mainly 
on  the  finer  grades  of  muslin,  which  require  nicely-adjusted  jennies 
and  mules,  it  is  justly  a  matter  of  pride  with  the  American  spin¬ 
ners  that  our  mill  hands  are  more  intelligent,  more  cleanly,  and 
better  paid  than  the  English  operatives. 


CAOUTCHOUC,  OR  INDIA  RUBBER. 

THE  MODERN  INTRODUCTION  OF  INDIA  RUBBER.  —  THE  VARIETIES  OF  THE 
NATURAL  PRODUCT.  —  THE  TREES  WHICH  YIELD  IT.  —  WHERE  THE  BEST 
QUALITY  COMES  FROM. — THE  PROCESS  OF  GATHERING  IT.  —  ITS  CHEMICAL 
ANALYSIS.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  WORKING.  —  CHARLES  GOODYEAR.  —  VUL¬ 
CANIZED  RUBBER.  —  THE  USES  OF  THE  NEW  MATERIAL  THUS  MADE. — THE 
VALUE  OF  THE  MANUFACTURE. 

The  use  of  Caoutchouc,  or  India  rubber,  and  its  application  to 
the  numerous  purposes  for  which  it  is  employed,  is  an  industry 
which  has  been  developed  within  a  very  short  time,  and  affords  a 
striking  instance  of  the  difference  between  the  industrial  methods 
of  an  uncivilized  people,  and  one  which  has  arrived  at  a  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  laws  of  chemistry,  and  is  able  to  apply  them  prac¬ 
tically  to  the  arts. 

The  history  of  the  gradual  steps  by  which  the  qualities  of  In¬ 
dia  rubber  became  better  known,  and  improved  methods  of  treat¬ 
ing  it  were  discovered,  so  that  the  area  of  purposes  to  which  it  is 
applied  was  constantly  widened,  shows  conclusively  the  importance 
and  the  value  of  a  theoretic  knowledge  of  science,  as  a  basis  for  its 
practical  application  to  the  arts.  India  rubber  is  the  juice  of  a  tree 
which  is  found  in  various  parts  of  South  America,  and  also  in  the 
East  Indies.  The  natives  of  South  America  gave  the  name  cahu- 
chu  to  the  hardened  juice,  from  which  our  word  caoutchouc  is 
derived,  while  the  term  India  rubber  came  from  the  application  of 
this  material,  derived  from  the  East,  to  the  purpose  of  rubbing 
out  marks  made  by  the  ordinary  lead  pencils. 

There  are  several  varieties  of  trees  from  which  this  product 
is  obtained,  and  the  American  tree  has  been  thus  variously 
named  by  botanists  :  Linnteus  calls  it  the  Jalrof)ha  elastica  ;  Per- 
soon,  the  Siphonia  elastica  ;  Schreber,  the  Siphonia  cahuchu ;  and 
Aublet,  the  Hevea  guianensis.  The  trees  which  furnish  the  chief 

(971)- 


972 


CAOUTCHOUC,  OR  INDIA  RUBBER. 


supply  from  Asia  are  the  ficus  elaslica,  belonging  to  the  fig  family 
of  trees,  and  others  which  furnish  an  inferior  quality  of  this  mate-  • 
rial.  This  Ficus  elastica  is  one  of  the  noblest  trees  in  the  world. 
It  grows  either  alone  or  in  groups  of  two  or  three.  The  circum¬ 
ference  of  one  which  was  accurately  measured  was  seventy-four 
feet,  while  the  girth  of  the  main  trunk,  with  the  supports  imme¬ 
diately  about  it,  was  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  The  height 
of  the  central  tree  was  one  hundred  feet,  and  it  covered  an  area, 
the  circumference  of  which  measured  six  hundred  and  ten  feet. 

In  Assam,  in  the  district  of  Chardwar,  there  is  a  forest  near 
Ferozepoor,  in  which  over  forty-three  thousand  such  trees  were 
counted  in  a  space  thirty  miles  long  and  eight  broad.  This  tree 
flourished  on  the  hill  slopes,  reaching  an  elevation  of  twenty-two 
thousand  five  hundred  feet.  It  belongs  to  the  banyan  tribe  of 
trees,  which  spread  by  the  rooting  of  the  branches.  In  the  dis¬ 
trict  of  Chardwar,  the  juice  of  the  Ficus  elastica  is  considered  to  be 
better  when  drawn  from  the  old  trees  than  when  taken  from  the 
young  ones,  and  richer  in  the  cold  than  in  the  hot  season.  It  is 
obtained  by  making  cuts  through  the  bark  down  to  the  wood,  all 
around  the  tree  from  the  trunk  up  to  the  top,  including  the  main 
branches,  the  yield  increasing  with  the  height  of  the  incision. 
The  juice,  when  first  drawn,  is  pure  white,  and  about  the  consis¬ 
tency  of  cream.  The  yield  is  about  forty  pounds  each  bleeding, 
which  can  be  repeated  on  an  average  once  a  fortnight  during  the 
cold  season,  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  healthy  vegetation  of 
the  tree  during  the  hot  months. 

The  richest  juice  is  said  to  be  obtained  from  tapping  in  the  same 
way  the  roots,  where  they  turn  and  are  half  exposed  above  the 
ground.  By  being  guarded  from  exposure  to  the  air,  or  to  too 
great  heat,  the  juice  can  be  kept  in  a  creamy  state  for  a  long  time. 
In  South  America  the  chief  supply  of  caoutchouc  is  obtained  from 
the  district  of  Para,  lying  south  of  the  equator,  in  Brazil.  The 
trees  are  tapped  each  morning,  and  during  the  day  about  a  gill  of 
liquid  is  secured  from  each  incision  in  a  cup  placed  for  its  recep¬ 
tion.  This  is  then  poured  into  a  jar,  and  is  ready  to  be  made  im¬ 
mediately  into  the  various  articles  of  rude  manufacture,  in  which 
form  the  natives  prepare  it  for  export.  Clay  moulds  of  bottles, 
shoes,  or  other  forms,  are  dipped  into  the  fluid  mass,  and  the  coat¬ 
ing  which  adheres  is  dried,  and  then  thickened  by  a  repetition  of 
the  operation.  It  has  also  been  exported  in  its  liquid  form,  in  air¬ 
tight  vessels  prepared  for  this  purpose. 


CAOUTCHOUC,  OR  INDIA  RUBBER. 


973 


By  chemical  analysis  this  gum  has  been  found  to  be  hydrocar¬ 
bon,  consisting  of  eight  equivalents  of  carbon  to  seven  of  hydro¬ 
gen,  which  would  give  the  proportion  of  carbon  87.27,  and  of 
hydrogen  12.73  in  100  parts.  This  was  very  nearly  the  result 
of  Faraday’s  analysis.  Another,  made  by  Mr.  Ure,  gave  90 
parts  of  carbon  and  10^  of  hydrogen,  being  three  atoms  of  the 
former  to  two  of  the  latter. 

In  his  work  upon  Perspective,  printed  in  1770,  Dr.  Priestley,  who 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  modern  science  of  chemistry,  speaks 
of  caoutchouc  as  a  substance  which  had  just  been  brought  to  his 
notice,  as  admirably  suited  for  rubbing  out  pencil  marks.  lie 
states  that  it  was  then  sold  at  the  rate  of  six  shillings  the  cu¬ 
bical  inch.  Some  of  the  properties  of  this  material  were  known 
to  the  natives  of  South  America  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
conquest.  They  used  it  for  making  their  drinking  utensils,  and 
for  other  purposes.  In  this  form  it  had  been  carried  to  Eu¬ 
rope,  and  re-worked  into  such  forms  as  Priestley  mentions. 

The  increasing  activity  of  chemical  research  occupied  itself 
with  this  substance  soon  after  Priestley’s  time,  and  various  appli¬ 
cations  of  the  peculiar  qualities  of  this  substance  were  suggested 
and  practically  realized.  The  best  qualities  of  this  gum  are 
obtained  from  South  America,  and  as  imported,  in  either  the 
rough  or  manufactured  state,  it  is  re-worked  by  being  first  broken 
up  into  small  pieces,  which  are  washed  and  kneaded  with  water 
in  mills  of  a  peculiar  construction.  These  mills  are  furnished 
with  knives  and  iron  teeth,  which  cut  and  grind  the  pieces.  So 
much  heat  is  evolved  in  this  process  that  the  water  boils,  and  the 
charge  of  a  mill  is  limited  to  only  five  pounds.  Having  thus 
removed  the  impurities  from  the  crude  material,  it  is  again  ground, 
cut,  pressed,  and  pounded  in  a  mill  with  a  little  quicklime. 
Here  again  it  gets  very  hot,  and  with  a  series  of  explosions  and 
crackling  it  discharges  the  water  and  air  it  had  before  absorbed, 
in  steam.  After  this  process  is  completed,  it  becomes  more  com¬ 
pact,  and  assumes  the  dark  color  seen  in  the  rubber  sold  by  sta¬ 
tioners.  A  third  process  of  the  same  character  unites  several 
balls,  thus  prepared,  in  one  homogeneous  mass,  which  is  placed  in 
a  box  and  squeezed  by  screws  to  a  cake-like  form. 

After  being  left  for  some  days  thus  compressed,  it  is  then  taken 
out  and  cut  into  small  cakes,  or  into  threads,  as  may  be  desired. 
The  knife  with  which  this  is  done  must  be  very  sharp,  and  a 
stream  of  water  must  flow  constantly  in  the  cut  in  order  to  pre- 


974 


CAOUTCHOUC,  OR  INDIA  RUBBER. 


vent  the  two  sides  of  the  divided  cake  from  instantly  uniting 
again,  or  sticking  to  the  blade  so  as  to  prevent  its  working. 
When  it  is  cut  into  threads  for  weaving  into  the  various  elastic 
fabrics  which  are  made  from  it,  these  threads  are  stretched  about 
eight  times  their  original  length,  by  being  held  tightly  enough  to 
produce  this  effect  between  the  wet  thumb  and  finger  of  the  oper¬ 
ator.  In  this  process,  as  always  when  the  rubber  is  stretched, 
heat  is  evolved.  The  threads  thus  treated  are  rendered  unelastic, 
and  being  afterwards  covered  with  braid  in  a  machine,  are  woven 
into  ribbons  or  textures  of  the  kind  that  may  be  desired. 

The  elasticity  which  the  rubber  in  the  fabric  has  lost  during  the 
process  described  above,  is  then  restored  to  it  by  pressing  the 
fabric  with  a  hot  iron.  In  thus  regaining  its  elasticity  the  rubber 
contracts  to  its  former  dimensions,  and  thus  are  produced  the 
fabrics  which  seem  to  have  been  fluted  or  crimped.  Caoutchouc 
can  be  dissolved  in  petroleum  (coal  tar),  naphtha,  or  oil  of  turpen¬ 
tine  ;  and  when  this  is  done  the  result  is  a  varnish  which  is  used 
to  make  water-proof  clothing.  Heated  to  about  the  temperature 
of  600°  F.,  caoutchouc  passes  off  in  a  vapor  which,  by  proper 
appliances,  can  be  condensed  into  a  liquid  which  is  called  caout- 
choudne,  and  is  distinguished  for  its  solvent  properties,  both  on 
caoutchouc  itself,  and  all  other  resinous  and  oleaginous  sub¬ 
stances.  It  is  itself  extremely  volatile,  but  its  vapor  is  so  heavy 
that  it  can  be  poured  from  one  vessel  into  another. 

With  the  increasing  variety  of  purposes  to  which  caoutchouc 
was  applied,  the  attention  of  inventors  and  chemists  was  directed 
towards  the  discovery  of  some  method  of  rendering  it  insensible 
to  the  effects  of  cold.  Its  tendency  to  stiffen  at  the  tempera¬ 
ture  of  40°,  thus  losing  its  elasticity,  rendered  it  ineligible  for 
various  purposes.  The  first  successful  method  of  vulcanizing 
India  rubber  was  patented  in  1839  by  Mr.  Charles  Goodyear,  as 
assignee  of  Nathaniel  Hayward.  Mr.  Goodyear  had  for  years 
been  experimenting  with  the  intention  of  inventing  some  method 
for  treating  India  rubber  so  as  to  make  it  of  greater  value  in  the 
arts.  In  September,  1835,  he  had  taken  out  a  patent  for  treating 
the  surface  of  native  caoutchouc  with  nitric  acid,  so  as  to  remove 
its  adhesive  properties.  This  first  method  of  vulcanizing  rubber 
was  found  to  be  imperfect,  the  process  being  to  mix  it  with 
sulphur,  which  preserved  its  offensive  smell,  and  did  not  entirely 
prevent  its  becoming  rigid  under  the  effects  of  cold.  Having  im¬ 
proved  the  process  by  the  use  of  sulphur  and  certain  salts  of  lead. 


CAOUTCHOUC,  OR  INDIA  RUBBER. 


975 


Mr.  Goodyear  took  out  another  patent  in  1844,  which  was  reissued 
in  1849,  extended  in  1858,  and  again  reissued  in  1860. 

The  material  produced  by  this  new  process  possessed  peculiar 
qualities.  It  was  more  perfectly  elastic  than  common  caoutchouc, 
resisted  the  action  of  the  ordinary  solvents  of  that  material,  was 
better  able  to  resist  the  wear  and  tear  of  its  surface,  and  pre¬ 
served  its  flexibility  at  all  temperatures.  Then  Mr.  Nelson  Good¬ 
year  patented  a  process  for  solidifying  rubber,  making  it  suscepti¬ 
ble  to  a  polish,  capable  of  being  moulded  into  any  desired  form, 
and  thus  completed  a  series  of  inventions  which  are  among  the 
most  valuable  in  the  present  century,  as  having  opened  entirely 
new  fields  to  industry. 

To  attempt  to  enumerate  the  various  uses  to  which  rubber  is 
now  applied  would  be  almost  to  write  a  catalogue  of  the  various 
utensils  needed  in  the  various  occupations  of  our  daily  life.  It  is 
made  into  tires  and  springs,  jewelry,  combs,  knife  handles,  boxes, 
drinking  cups,  coats,  tents,  and  life  preservers,  water  beds,  and 
shoes,  and  a  patent  has  been  taken  out  for  making  from  it  rails  for 
railroads.  The  history,  too,  of  the  determined  and  expensive  litiga¬ 
tion  which  ensued  upon  the  enormous  extension  of  the  business 
which  these  discoveries  gave  rise  to,  would  be  too  long  to  enter 
into  here,  but  will  long’  be  remembered  in  legal  and  industrial 
circles.  From  being  merely  valued  as  a  curious  natural  product 
in  the  early  part  of  this  century,  caoutchouc  has  now  come  to  be 

m 

the  material  used  in  manufactures  which  amount  to  millions  yearly. 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 

THE  PINE  FORESTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THOSE  OF  EUROPE.  —  SPIRITS  OF 

TURPENTINE.  —  THE  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  PINE. — ARTIFICIAL  CAMPHOR. - CAM- 

PHENE. —  ROSIN.  —  VIRGIN  DIP,  TELLOW  DIP,  AND  SCRAPE.  — PROCESS  OF 
GATHERING.  - DISTILLATION.  - IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANU¬ 

FACTURE. —  THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  LATE  WAR  ON  THE  BUSINESS.  —  THE  PROFITS 
OF  THE  BUSINESS. — TAR.  —  THE  PROCESS  pF  MAKING.  —  THE  EXTENT  OF  THE 

^  v 

BUSINESS. 

Commencing  in  tlie  southern  half  of  New  Jersey  and  extending 
as  far  to  the  south-west  as  the  river  Brazos  in  Texas,  is  a  broad  belt 
of  country  covered  with  a  heavy  growth  of  pitch-pine.  The  soil  on 
which  this  tree  is  found  is  noted  for  its  sterility.  Tillage  of  itself 
hardly  supports  the  sparse  and  ignorant  population  which  has  drifted 
in,  and  for  generation  after  generation  lived  upon  these  sandy  bar¬ 
rens,  and  they  are  forced  to  eke  out  a  miserable  support  by  the  in¬ 
dustries  to  which  the  forests  around  them  have  given  birth.  The 
region  covered  by  the  forests  which  produce  the  naval  stores  of  the 
world  embraces  the  eastern  part  of  North  and  South  Carolina,  the 
southern  parts  of  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  the 
northern  part  of  Florida. 

This  southern  pine,  as  it  is  familiarly  called,  is  known  among 
botanists  as  JPinus  Australis ,  and  comprises  several  species.  These 
differ  chiefly  in  the  length  of  time  they  yield  the  gum,  for  which 
they  are  valuable,  —  those  in  North  Carolina  lasting  for  ten  years, 
while  in  Florida  six  years  is  the  average  limit  of  production.  The 
pines  of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  the  south  of  France  supply  small 
quantities  of  naval  stores;  but  their  forests  are  of  a  species  greatly 
inferior  to  ours,  since  they  do  not  yield  as  much,  nor  for  so  long  a 
time,  as  those  of  the  Southern  United  States. 

Though  the  gum  or  resin  from  which  spirits  of  turpentine  is  made 
was  known  to  the  ancients,  this  volatile  fluid  is  of  comparatively 
recent  discovery,  and  it  is  only  within  the  last  forty  years  that  it 
lias  risen  to  the  dignity  of  an  article  of  commerce.  For  some  years 

previous  to  this  the  spirits  of  turpentine  derived  from  the  Euro- 
(976) 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


977 


pean  pines  was  used  to  a  limited  extent  for  medicinal  purposes. 
Its  great  production  and  extensive  use  in  this  country  is  due  to  the 
introduction  and  universal  application  of  paints,  and  the  necessity 
for  having  some  volatile  vehicle  to  mix  with  the  oil. 

The  products  of  the  pine  are  four  in  number, — rosin,  gum  or  crude 
turpentine,  tar,  and  pitch.  The  last  two  were  made  by  the  earliest 
settlers  of  our  country,  and  formed  an  important  item  in  the  exports 
of  the  Carolina  colonies.  They  have  been  known  from  the  earliest 
recorded  time,  and  have  always  been,  as  they  are  now,  chiefly  used 
in  calking  the  bottoms  of  vessels.  Chemically,  these  four  substances 
are  compounds  of  hydrogen  and  carbon,  varying  in  nature  and  pro¬ 
portions  in  the  same  way  as  do  the  various  products  of  coal-oil, 
petroleum,  naphtha,  and  asphaltum.  Spirits  of  turpentine  presents 
a  fine  illustration  of  one  of  the  marvellous  revelations  made  known 
by  chemical  science.  The  constituents  of  this  liquid  and  of  the  oil 
of  lemons  are  hydrogen  and  carbon  in  precisely  the  same  propor¬ 
tions,  and  yet  no  means  of  converting  the  one  into  the  other  has 
ever  been  discovered.  Nature,  mighty  alchemist  that  she  is,  manu¬ 
factures  in  her  secret  laboratory,  from  the  same  materials,  com¬ 
pounds  differing  from  each  other  thus  widely,  and  man  vainly  en¬ 
deavors  to  find  the  secret  of  her  skill.  As  a  medicine,  spirits  of 
turpentine  is  diuretic,  and  so  powerful  is  its  action  that  sailors  on 
vessels  loaded  with  a  cargo  of  this  material  are  sometimes  danger¬ 
ously  affected  by  the  evaporation  from  the  leaking  barrels.  It  is 
used  also  in  rheumatism  and  similar  affections,  but  if  the  applica¬ 
tion  is  long  continued  the  joints  and  muscles  become  injured.  By 
chemical  operations,  spirits  of  turpentine  is  resolved  into  a  number 
of  substances  of  no  particular  value,  the  most  curious  of  which  is 
artificial  camphor, —  so  called  from  its  singular  resemblance  in  odor 
and  appearance  to  that  gum.  It  is  made  by  the  action  of  hydro¬ 
chloric  acid  on  the  spirits  of  turpentine.  One  of  the  most  power¬ 
ful  solvents  of  caoutchouc,  or  india-rubber,  of  many  of  the  gums  and 
resins  is  spirits  of  turpentine.  It  possesses  electrical  affinity  and 
polarizes  light ;  it  absorbs  ozone  to  such  a  degree,  that,  if  left  stand¬ 
ing  a  length  of  time,  it  acquires  the  power  of  bleaching  vegetable 
colors.  In  the  art  of  painting,  no  substitute  for  it  Ms  ever  been 
obtained,  though  the  scanty  supply  from  1860  to  1865  stimulated 
much  endeavor  in  this  direction.  The  various  light  products  of 
petroleum  were  used  for  a  time,  but  were  abandoned  as  soon 
as  spirits  of  turpentine  could  be  again  obtained.  Low  grades 
of  white  paints  are  made  whiter  by  its  use,  while  those  in 


978 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


which  benzine  is  used  readily  turn  yellow.  Formerly  a  burning- 
fluid  called  camphene  was  made  from  spirits  of  turpentine.  This 
was  done  by  mixing  with  it  alcohol  and  re-distilling  the  compound, 
but  since  the  introduction  of  coal-oil  the  manufacture  ot  camphene 
has  entirely  ceased. 

A  substance  strongly  resembling  spirits  of  turpentine,  though 
much  less  valuable  in  its  properties,  is  obtained  by  dry  distillation 
of  pine  wood.  This  fluid  is  an  excellent  solvent  of  gums,  and  when 
deodorized  can  be  used  for  light  varnishes,  or  for  dissolving  aniline 
crystals,  in  place  of  alcohol,  which  is  much  more  exj^ensive. 

The  article  known  to  commerce  as  rosin  is  a  brittle,  vitreous  sub¬ 
stance,  melting  at  a  low  temperature,  and  varying  in  color  from  a 
blackish  red  to  a  pale,  transparent  yellow.  When  white  and 
opaque  it  contains  either  water  or  spirits  of  turpentine.  It  is  used 
in  small  quantities  in  a  thousand  different  ways,  but  the  chief  ends 
to  which  it  is  applied  are  the  adulteration  of  soaps  and  varnishes. 
Strict  inspectors  class  it  according  to  color  and  transparency  into 
thirteen  grades.  The  common  black  grade  is  generally  used  by 
small  towns  and  hotels  for  the  manufacture  of  gas,  since  gas  derived 
from  rosin  keeps  longer  without  spoiling  than  that  made  from  coal. 
Our  manufacturers  use  it  in  their  size,  and  even  the  bill-poster  must 
have  a  little  lump  in  the  paste  with  which  he  fastens  up  to  our  gaze 
his  great  show-bills.  Large  quantities  of  the  black  grades  are  used 
to  make  rosin-oil,  from  which  gas  is  manufactured,  and  which  in  a 
refined  state  is  employed  to  adulterate  other  oils. 

Rosin  and  spirits  of  turpentine  are  both  derived  from  crude  tur¬ 
pentine.  This  is  the  sap  of  the  tree,  and  is  technically  known  as 
virgin  dip,  yellow  dip,  and  scrape.  The  first  is  the  product  of  the 
tree  for  the  first  year  after  it  is  tapped.  When  of  good  quality,  it 
is  limpid  as  honey  and  of  a  pale  straw-color ;  exposure  to  the  air 
soon  causes  it  to  grow  opaque  and  creamy.  From  the  virgin  dip 
are  made  the  beautiful  pale  grades  of  rosin.  A  barrel  weighing  two 
hundred  and  eighty  pounds  yields  seven  gallons  of  spirits  and  about 
one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds  of  rosin.  This  dip  is  used  to  a 
limited  extent  for  making  plasters  and  salves.  The  product  of  the 
tree  for  the  second  and  several  succeeding  years  is  called  yellow  dip. 
This  yields  more  rosin,  but  not  so  much  spirits.  “  Scrape  ”  is  the 
term  applied  to  the  sap  which  exudes  from  the  tree,  during  the  last 
two  or  three  years  of  its  productiveness.  It  is  a  waxlike  substance 
of  great  whiteness  when  first  taken  from  the  tree,  but  soon  turned 
yellow  by  exposure  to  the  air.  It  is  used  in  small  quantities  for 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


979 


various  purposes,  beside  distillation,  one  of  which  is  the  making  of 
frankincense.  Taken  in  small  pills,  it  is  an  excellent  medicine  for 
removing  obstructions  of  the  liver  and  kidneys,  and  for  promoting 
activity  in  the  general  secretions.  By  distillation  it  yields  a  much 
smaller  quantity  of  spirits  than  can  be  obtained* from  the  products 
of  the  previous  years,  but  a  larger  proportion  of  rosin,  and  of  a  grade 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  from  the  virgin  dip. 

The  mode  of  gathering  these  products  and  their  preparation  is 
as  follows.  A  cut  is  made  in  the  tree  as  near  the  roots  as  possible, 
which,  on  the  outside,  is  shaped  like  a  half-moon  ;  it  extends  several 
inches  into  the  tree,  forming  a  pocket,  and  is  large  enough  to  hold 
one  or  two  quarts  of  sap,  according  to  the  size  of  the  tree ;  some¬ 
times  two  or  three  boxes,  as  they  are  called,  are  cut  in  one  tree.  A 
good  hand  will  cut  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  a 
day,  according  to  their  size,  and  on  an  acre  of  trees  from  five  hun¬ 
dred  to  one  thousand  such  boxes  may  be  made.  They  are  usually 
cut  at  so  much  a  box,  from  a  cent  to  a  cent  and  a  half  each.  After 
the  boxes  are  cut  they  are  counted  off  into  tasks,  generally  of  ten 
thousand  each,  and  a  laborer  assigned  to  every  task.  If  it  is  an 
early,  warm  spring,  by  the  time  each  task  has  been  cut  and  counted 
the  boxes  are  full  and  must  be  dipped  out.  For  this  a  flat  spoon¬ 
shaped  instrument  and  an  ordinary  bucket  are  used.  The  man 
carries  the  bucket  on  his  arm  by  an  arrangement  like  that  employed 
in  fastening  on  the  shield  of  former  times  ;  he  pushes  it  up  against 
one  corner  of  the  box,  inserts  his  dipper,  and,  by  a  dexterous  flirt, 
throws  out  the  gum.  A  practised  hand  will  frequently  clear  the 
box  at  one  dip.  When  the  bucket  is  full  it  is  emptied  into  a  larger 
one,  and  from  that  poured  by  another  hand  into  barrels  which  are 
placed  at  convenient  intervals  among  the  trees.  Just  after  the  first 
dipping  the  boxes  are  usually  cornered.  This  is  done  by  taking  out 
a  triangular  chip  at  each  end  of  the  half-moon.  If  the  season  is 
good,  by  the  time  the  laborer  has  cornered  his  whole  task  the  boxes 
will  be  again  full.  They  are  dipped  out  for  the  second  time  and 
then  given  two  cuts  on  each  side  with  the  “hack.”  This  is  an 
instrument  resembling  a  gouge,  and  the  operation  of  “hacking  ” 
consists  in  taking  out  a  circular  chip  along  the  edge  of  the  place 
where  the  “  corner  ”  chip  was  previously  cut  out.  These  strokes 
slope  downward  to  the  centre  of  the  box,  so  that  the  gum  will  all 
run  in  that  direction.  A  box  is  usually  given  about  fourteen  strokes 
each  year  at  seven  different  rounds.  These  will  cover  a  space  from 
one  and  a  half  to  two  feet  in  height,  and  as  the  trees  .are  seldom 


980 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


worked  more  than  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  in  height  from  the 
ground,  this  space  will  be  gone  over  in  about  ten  years.  They  are 
seldom  worked  much  longer  than  this,  since  they  are  of  small  profit 
after  the  first  three  or  four  years,  but,  as  they  have  already  paid  for 
themselves,  what  they  yield  after  this  period  is  clear  gain.  The 
tasks  are  usually  assigned  to  a  man  called  the  “  hacker,”  who  takes 
the  whole  by  contract  and  employs  the  dippers.  In  other  cases 
two  dippers  generally  follow  one  hacker.  When  the  trees  are 
worked  to  much  height  the  hack  is  fastened  to  a  long  pole  and  the 
man  who  gathers  the  “scrape”  is  obliged  to  use  a  ladder.  During 
these  latter  operations  a  round-share  is  used  to  scarify  the  whole 
face  of  the  box  and  make  the  gum  ooze  out  more  freely.  • 

The  boxing  must  be  done  after  the  sap  falls  in  November  and 
before  it  commences  to  rise  in  the  spring.  If  there  are  five  hun¬ 
dred  boxes  to  the  acre,  twenty  acres  will  be  required  to  make  a  task 
of  ten  thousand  boxes.  Two  hundred  boxes  to  the  acre  is  all,  how¬ 
ever,  that  the  average  forest  will  allow.  This  would  give  fifty  acres 
to  the  task.  The  value  of  virgin  land  or  round  pine  as  it  is  famil¬ 
iarly  called,  is  seldom  over  five  dollars  an  acre,  and  frequently  less 
than  that.  Allowing  five  hundred  boxes  to  the  acre,  the  capital 
invested  in  a  task  of  ten  thousand  boxes  would  be  for  land  one 
hundred  dollars ;  boxes,  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars ;  tools, 
fifty  dollars ;  in  all,  three  hundred  dollars.  Supposing  there 
are  but  two  hundred  boxes  to  the  acre  the  investment  would 
run  up  to  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  From  this  fifty  acres  may 
be  gathered  the  first  year  at  least  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
barrels  of  virgin  turpentine,  worth  in  market  not  less  than  four  dol¬ 
lars  a  barrel,  in  all  eleven  hundred  dollars.  The  hacking  and  dip¬ 
ping  continues  from  April  1  to  November  1,  about  seven  months, 
the  total  cost  for  three  hands  being  sixty  dollars  a  month,  or  four 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars  for  the  season.  The  hauling  may  be 
contracted  for  at  about  ten  cents  a  barrel,  making  the  sum-total  of 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents.  Hence  in 
a  good  season,  with  care  and  economy,  the  land  and  the  labor  may 
be  paid  for  the  first  year  and  handsome  profits  be  derived  from  the 
operations  of  each  succeeding  year. 

So  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  the  production  of  the  gum  or 
crude  turpentine.  To  obtain  the  spirits  and  rosin  the  gum  must  go 
through  a  process  of  distillation.  This  operation  is  conducted  in 
large  turnip-shaped  stills,  made  of  copper  and  set  in  brick-work,  the 
fire  being  applied  directly  to  the  bottom  of  the  still.  The  stills  will 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


981 


hold  ten,  fifteen,  twenty,  and  sometimes  forty  barrels  of  gum.  This 
is  “  charged  ”  in  at  the  top  and  the  cap  fitted  on.  This  cap  connects 
by  an  arm  with  the  worm,  around  whicti  cool  water  is  constantly 
running.  When  the  still  is  filled  and  this  connection  made,  the  fire 
is  applied.  As  the  process  of  distillation  goes  on,  the  distiller  adds 
from  time  to  time  a  little  water  to  prevent  scorching,  and  tries  his 
“  charge  ”  by  inserting  a  rod  in  a  small  hole  in  the  top  of  the  still 
intended  for  that  purpose.  When  the  process  has  reached  a  cer¬ 
tain  point  he  draws  his  fire  and  allows  the  still  to  cool  a  little ;  then 
he  takes  off  the  cap  and  from  the  liquid  mass  inside  skims  off  all  the 
chips  and  bark,  of  which  there  is  always  more  or  less  in  the  gum. 
If  the  .cap  is  taken  off  too  soon,  the  whole  charge  will  take  fire  from 
rapid  oxidation.  When  the  hot  rosin  is  cooled  down,  it  is  drawn 
off  through  a  pipe  at  the  side  of  the  still  near  the  bottom,  and  passes 
through  strainers  into  a  wooden  tank,  from  which  it  is  dipped  into 
barrels.  Upon  the  care  taken  in  straining  the  rosin  depends  much 
of  its  value  in  market ;  hence,  certain  brands  made  by  careful  men 
soon  become  known  and  command  high  prices.  The  spirits,  being 
condensed  in  the  worm,  run  out,  mingled  with  considerable  water, 
into  a  tub,  the  water,  on  account  of  its  greater  specific  gravity,  set¬ 
tling  at  the  bottom.  From  this  tub  the  spirits  are  syphoned  off 
into  well-glued  barrels  for  shipment.  Though  this  whole  opera¬ 
tion  is  one  of  great  simplicity  apparently,  yet  to  insure  a  good 
article  and  a  high  price  much  care  and  strict  attention  is  required 
in  conducting  it.  A  little  carelessness  may  result  in  a  fire  which  * 
will  destroy  in  a  day  two  or  three  years’  profit.  Though  the  dis¬ 
tilling  is  generally  a  separate  business  from  gathering  the  gum,  the 
two  are  sometimes  conducted  jointly. 

The  second  year’s  product,  called  yellow  dip,  seldom  yields  over 
six  gallons  of  spirits  to  two  hundred  and  eighty  pounds  of  crude 
turpentine,  and  from  the  scrape  only  three  or  four  gallons  are  ob¬ 
tained  ;  but  these  two  products  yield  proportionately  larger  quanti¬ 
ties  of  rosin.  Many  slight  improvements  have  been  introduced 
during  the  last  few  years,  which  cheapen  the  cost  of  producing  and 
improve  the  quality  of  rosin ;  one  of  these  is  the  straining  of  the 
rosin  through  beds  of  cotton  lint.  The  quality  of  all  the  grades  is 
better  within  a  recent  period  than  ever  before.  The  margin  of 
profit  in  these  pine  industries  has  hitherto  been  so  small  that  costly 
experiments  have  not  been  tried,  and  steam  has  not  been  success¬ 
fully  used  as  a  heating  agent. 

The  largest  distillery  in  this  country  is  at  Wilmington,  N.  C., 


982 


THE  TITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


and  is  capable  of  managing  over  five  hundred  barrels  daily  of 
gum  turpentine.  Previous  to  1860  many  stills  were  located  at  a 
distance  from  points  of  public  transportation,  and  hauling  became  a 
great  item  of  expense.  Hence  the  spirit  was  sent  to  market,  and 
the  rosin,  not  paying  for  transportation,  was  run  into  pits  or  at  ran¬ 
dom  over  the  surface  of  the  ground,  sometimes  covering  acres  a  foot 
or  two  in  depth.  In  time  this  became  very  hard  from  being  mixed 
with  sand,  and  of  a  light  color  from  oxidation  and  absorption  of 
wrater.  A  part  of  the  Twentieth  Corps  of  General  Sherman’s  army, 
when  on  the  grand  march,  encamped  on  one  of  these  broad,  smooth 
rocks,  as  they  supposed  it  to  be,  and  constructed  a  bridge  upon  a 
creek  near  by.  As  the  camp-fires  glowred  and  crackled,  the  semi¬ 
rock  warmed  and  kindled,  and  soon  both  camp  and  creek  wrere  a 
mass  of  liquid  fire.  Water  only  increased  its  fury,  and  for  once  the 
corps  had  to  back  out  at  a  double-quick,  seeing  bridge  and  all  licked 
up  in  the  seething  mass,  while  the  waters  of  the  creek  flowred  a 
stream  of  living  fire,  and  the  clouds  of  smoke  hung  over  them 
a  vast  black  canopy,  completely  shutting  out  the  light  of  the  moon. 
Some  vTho  read  this  may  remember  the  awful  splendor  added  to  the 
battle  of  Bentonsville  by  the  firing  of  the  extensive  beds  of  rosin  at 
that  place.  It  is  said  that  the  rebels  in  deserting  Wilmington 
burned  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  barrels  of  rosin  to  keep 
the  United  States  from  its  possession.  After  the  close  of  the  war, 
the  high  price  of  rosin  caused  many  of  these  beds  to  be  dug  up,  and 
thus  great  quantities  of  rosin  of  a  very  low  grade  vTere  forced  upon 
flie  market.  This  resulted  in  a  rapid  fall  of  prices  and  a  general  de¬ 
pression  of  the  business,  from  which  it  has  only  this  year  (1871)  in 
a  measure  recovered.  This  season,  the  prices  have  been  at  rates 
highly  remunerative.  The  cost  of  a  still  and  fixtures  varies  from 
one  thousand  to  five  thousand  dollars,  according  to  size ;  a  store  is 
usually  kept  in  connection  w  ith  a  distillery.  The  profits  of  carry¬ 
ing  on  a  distillery  may  easily  be  calculated.  Three  barrejs  of  crude 
turpentine  cost  twelve  dollars  and  yield  tvro  barrels  of  rosin  w^orth 
ten  dollars,  and  about  twenty-two  gallons  of  spirits  wrorth  forty 
cents  a  gallon,  or  eight  dollars  and  eighty  cents,  making  six  dollars 
and  eighty  cents  gross  profit  on  every  barrel. 

Tar  is  produced  by  the  smothered  burning  of  the  trees  no  longer 
valuable  for  turpentine,  of  those  deadened  in  clearing  land  and  from 
stumps  of  trees  cut  down  for  lumber.  The  sap  continuing  to  rise  in 
old  turpentine  trees  oxydizes  near  the  scarified  surface,  and  changes 
the  nature  of  the  wood,  wdiicli  is  called  ligldwood  from  its  readiness 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


983 


in  kindling.  This  also  occurs  in  the  stumps  of  trees  cut  down  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year.  This  wood  ignites  almost  as  readily 
as  gunpowder,  so  highly  charged  is  it  with  pitchy  matter,  which 
greatly  increases  its  weight.  These  trees  or  stumps  are  split  into 
billets  three  or  four  feet  long,  and  about  three  inches  in  diameter. 
In  forming  a  tar-kiln  the  earth  is  scooped  out  of  the  ground,  leav¬ 
ing  a  saucer-shaped  excavation  from  the  centre  of  which  a  tube 
runs  underground  to  the  outside  of  the  rim.  The  billets  of  wood 
are  then  so  placed  as  to  radiate  from  this  centre  and  point  upward, 
each  upper  and  outer  stick  lapping  a  little  over  the  one  below,  so 
that,  when  finished,  the  pile  resembles  a  truncated  cone.  Green 
twigs  and  dirt,  with  logs'  of  wood  as  braces,  are  then  piled  around, 
until  the  pile  resembles  a  perfect  cone  ;  the  kiln  is  then  covered  all 
over  with  dirt,  except  the  extreme  edges,  where  it  is  fired.  As  the 
smothered  heat  extracts  the  tar,  it  trickles  down  to  the  centre  of  the 
pile  and  passes  through  the  pipe  to  the  outside.  Great  care  is  re¬ 
quisite  to  keep  the  flames  from  bursting  out,  and  a  large  kiln  must 
be  watched  night  and  day  for  about  ten  days.  Kilns  vary  in 
size,  yielding  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  barrels  of  tar.  As 
the  wood  generally  used  is  refuse,  and  the  labor  done  in  the  winter 
season  or  at  odd  times,  the  product  of  a  tar-kiln  is  nearly  all  profit. 
No  improvement  on  this  old  style  of  tar-making  has  been  adopted, 
the  value  of  the  product  not- stimulating  advance  in  this  direction. 
In  the  dry  distillation  of  pine  wood,  already  alluded  to,  a  species  of 
tar  is  produced  which  answers  many  purposes,  though  it  more 
nearly  resembles  pitch  than  taf.  Pitch  is  simply  tar  boiled  until 
freed  from  its  volatile  matter,  —  water,  spirit;  and  oil.  Tar  does  not 
harden  when  spread  Upon  a  surface ;  pitch'  hardens,  and  at  the  same 
time  has  great  elasticity.  The  charcoal  made  by  dry  distillation  is 
better  than  that  made  in  the  open-air  kilns.  In  the  days  before  the 
war,  the  burning  of  a  tar-kiln  was  a  frolic  similar  to  corn-huskings 
and  quilting-bees.  Amid  the  dreary  grandeur  of  the  southern  pine 
forests  the  burning  of  a  large  tar-kiln  presents  a  sight  of  great  ex¬ 
citement  and  interest.  The  immense  columns  of  smoke  lazily  float¬ 
ing  away  in  the  damp  air,  now  and  then  a  tongue  of  flame  leaping 
out,  the  quick  rush  of  the  men  to  cover  it  with  dirt,  their  wild,  eager 
cries,  —  amid  the  spectral  shadows  which  on  every  hand  people  the 
mighty  forest  as  with  the  ghosts  of  trees  sacrificed  to  the  com¬ 
mercial  uses  of  mankind  —  all  these  sights  and  sounds  make  this 
winter  frolic  a  festivity  which,  once  enjoyed,  can  never  be  for¬ 
gotten. 


57 


984 


THE  PITCH-PINE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 


In  1860  over  five  millions  of  dollars  were  invested  in  this  busi¬ 
ness,  and  there  is  scarcely  less  than  than  amount  now.  North 
Carolina  then  produced  nearly  one  half  of  all  the  naval  stores 
yielded  by  the  pine  forests  of  the  United  States.  In  1870  she  pro¬ 
duced  three  fifths  of  this  sum-total,  but  this  year  (1871)  the  other 
States  are  increasing  their  yield  while  that  of  North  Carolina  is 
diminished.  In  1868  the  turpentine-producing  States  paid  an 

internal-revenue  tax  of  $402,836.83  on  spirits  of  turpentine  alone, 
after  which  year  the  tax  was  abolished. 

Exports  in  1860:  — 

Spirits  Turpentine . $  1,916,289.00 

Rosin  .  .  1,818,238.00 

Tar  and  Pitch .  180,404.00 

Exports  in  1864  (Spirits  of  Turpentine  and  Tar  were  both  im¬ 

ported)  :  — 

Spirits . $  87,988.00 

Tar .  V, 875.00 

In  1867  the  tide  fully  turned,  and  we  exported  from  New  York :  — 

Spirits . .  $172,223.00 

Rosin . .  1,984,865.00 

Tar  and  Pitch  ......  94,552.00 

In  1870  there  was  exported  :  — 

Spirits  of  Turpentine  ....  16,466  barrels. 

Rosin  .  .  .  .  .  392,649  “ 

Tar  and  Pitch .  13,957  “ 

This  will  be  largely  increased  in  1871,  as  the  prices  are  better  and 
the  production  greater  than  in  former  years. 


VARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 

THE  USE  OF  TARNISH. — THE  SUGGESTION  FOR  ITS  INVENTION.  —  THE  DERIVA¬ 
TION  OF  THE  WORD.  —  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  USE  OF  VARNISH.  —  THE  MODERN 

USE  OF  VARNISH.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  MANUFACTURE. - THE  MATERIALS 

USED. - THE  METHODS  OF  MANUFACTURE. 

The  use  of  varnish,  both  as  a  method  for  beautifying  polished  sur¬ 
faces  and  for  preserving  them,  must  have  always  impressed  mankind 
with  its  advantages  as  much  as  it  does  at  present.  Unquestionably 
the  suggestion  for  deriving  some  such  process  must  have  arisen  from 
the  pleasure  felt  in  the  aspect  and  the  touch  of  the  surfaces  of  many 
natural  objects.  The  savage,  delighted  with  the  beauty  and  the 
feeling  of  a  smooth  reed,  the  surface  of  which  appeared  as  though 
it  was  varnished  even  better  than  we  have  the  means  of  doing  it 
now,  attempted  with  greater  or  less  success  to  give  his  wooden 
weapons  a  similar  surface.  Attracted  also  by  the  sight  of  effects  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  many  natural  gums  as  they  exuded  from  the  trees,  he 
would  try  to  turn  them  to  his  own  uses  ;  and  the  success  which  many 
of  the  semi-civilized  nations  of  the  present  day,  such  as  the  Japa¬ 
nese  and  the  Chinese,  have  attained  in  manufacturing  varnishes 
which  have  all  the  best  qualities  desired  for  such  a  compound,  show 
how  successful  mankind  were  in  their  early  attempts  to  use  the 
natural  products  for  their  own  purposes. 

The  derivation  of  our  word  “  varnish,”  which  in  old  English  was 
“  vernish,”  like  the  French  vernis ,  the  Italian  vernice ,  the  Danish 
fernis ,  the  Swedish  fernissa ,  was  most  probably  from  the  Latin 
vitrinare ,  to  vitrify,  or  to  give  a  smooth  and  polished  surface  like 
glass.  The  evident  similarity  of  the  terms  used  for  varnish  in  the 
various  languages  of  Europe  shows  that  the  art  was  older  than  the 
division  of  those  who  use  them  into  their  present  nationalities ;  and 
that  with  the  Latins  themselves  we  of  the  modern  world  are  usin<r 
modifications  from  a  still  older  stock,  from  the  language  of  our  ances¬ 
tors  who  lived  long  before  the  historic  period,  and  before  the  emi¬ 
gration  commenced  which  settled  over  the  Europe  of  antiquity. 
From  the  earliest  historic  times  the  use  of  varnish  has  been 

(985} 


986 


VARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


known.  Among  the  nations  of  the  East,  in  China  and  Japan,  the 
art  has  been  brought  to  great  perfection,  as  our  term  “japanning” 
shows.  The  Egyptians  understood  it,  and  the  pictures  of  Hercula¬ 
neum  and  Pompeii  have  kept  the  bright  freshness  of  their  colors  in 
consequence  of  having  been  covered  "with  a  kind  of  wax-varnish. 
In  modern  times  the  greater  use  of  furniture  and  interior  decoration, 
with  the  more  general  diffusion  of  comfort  and  luxury,  has  greatly 
increased  the  consumption  of  varnish,  so  that  in  the  United  States 
alone  the  annual  production  is  valued  at  over  four  millions  of  dollars, 
in  producing  which  there  are  probably  at  least  a  hundred  manufac¬ 
tories  engaged. 

The  varieties  of  varnish  also  produced,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  de¬ 
mand  for  its  use  in  the  various  special  branches  of  industry,  are 
much  greater  than  was-  the  case  in  olden  times,  while  chemistry  and 
the  spirit  of  modern  investigation  have  discovered  many  new  ma¬ 
terials  as  suitable  for  this  purpose,  which  were  not  formerly  used  for 
it.  Varnishes  are  in  almost  all  cases  made  by  the  solution  of  resin¬ 
ous  substances  in  some  liquid  which  will  evaporate  in  the  open  air, 
and  thus  leave  the  resinous  substance  deposited  upon  the  surface,  to 
which  the  varnish  is  applied,  covered  by  it  as  a  thin  and  even  coating. 
The  characteristics  of  a  good  varnish  are  that  it  should  remain  bril¬ 
liant  after  the  evaporation  of  the  liquid  medium,  and  present  a  dry 
hard  surface,  instead  of  a  greasy,  soft,  or  tarnished  one;  It  should 
also  adhere  closely  to  the  surface  to  which  it  is  applied,  and  not  be 
liable  to  scale  off  when  it  becomes  dry,  even  after  the  expiration  of 
a  long  time ;  beside  these  qualities,  it  should  become  as  hard  as 
possible  without  becoming  brittle. 

As  solvents  for  the  resinous  gums,  the  chief  substances  used  are 
linseed  oil,  or  turpentine  and  alcohol.  The  resins  are  vegetable  sub¬ 
stances  which  exude  from  trees.  They  are  composed  of  oxygen, 
hydrogen,  and  carbon,  and  are  supposed  to  be  formed  by  the  oxy¬ 
genation  of  the  essential  oils.  The  chief  resins  used  in  making 
varnish  are  copal,  amber,  mastic,  sandaraeli,  lac,  elemi,  dammar, 
benzoin,  animd,  and  caoutchouc.  Besides  these,  gamboge,  dragon’s- 
blood,  aloes,  and  saffron  are  used  as  coloring  matters. 

The  copal  is  obtained  from  Mexico,  India,  and  Africa.  The  trees 
which  yield  it  are  the  Rhus  copallinum  of  Mexico  and  the  Elceocar- 
pus  copalifer  of  India.  In  Guinea  lumps  of  it  are  also  gathered  by 
the  natives  from  the  sands  on  the  coasts,  and  another  fossil  variety, 
called  Higate  resin,  is  found  in  the  blue  clay  near  London,  England, 
and  also  on  the  walls  of  a  trap-dike  at  an  old  lead-mine  in  Nor- 


VARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


987 


thumberland.  This  last  deposit  is  in  flattened  drops.  Fossil  copal 
has  also  been  found  in  the  East  Indies. 

Amber  is  also  a  fossilized  gum,  which  was  furnished  by  the  trees 
of  some  former  geological  epoch.  On  the  Prussian  coast,  near  the 
Baltic,  beds  of  it  are  found,  and  its  collection  gives  the  Prussian 
government  a  revenue  of  about  twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
Gathering  it  upon  the  sea-shore  also  gives  employment  to  a  great 
number  of  people.  This  is  done  after  a  storm,  when  the  swell  of  the 
waves  is  moderate.  The  men  wade  out,  and  gather  in  nets  the  sea¬ 
weed  washed  up  by  the  storm,  and  entangled  in  this  are  found  pieces 
of  amber  of  various  sizes.  In  mining  for  it,  the  amber-bearing  beds 
are  sometimes  found  as  thick  as  two  and  a  half  feet.  The  largest 
piece  of  amber  known  is  in  the  royal  cabinet  at  Berlin,  and  weighs 
eighteen  pounds.  The  value  of  the  pieces  is  not  entirely  proportion¬ 
ate  to  their  size,  but  according  to  their  quality,  transparency,  clear¬ 
ness,  and  so  on. 

Mastic  is  a  gum  furnished  by  a  shrub  growing  upon  the  upper 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  known  botanically  as  the  Pistacia 
lentiscus.  The  name  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word  mastike ,  from 
which  the  English  u  masticate  ”  is  derived,  and  comes  from  the  fact 
that  it  was  formerly,  as  now,  chewed  by  the  natives ;  the  habit  of 
M  chewing  gum  ”  not  being  peculiar  only  to  the  children  of  New 
England.  The  chief  supply  comes  from  the  island  of  Chios. 

Sandarach  is  the  product  of  the  Thuja  articulata ,  a  small  conif¬ 
erous  tree  growing  in  the  north  of  Africa,  and  from  there  the  supply 
is  obtained. 

Lac  is  a  resin  which  exudes  from  the  twigs  and  branches  of  vari¬ 
ous  trees  in  the  East  Indies  when  bitten  by  an  insect  called  the  Coc¬ 
cus  lacca ,  which  swarms  upon  such  trees  as  provide  a  milky  juice. 
When  the  crude  article  broken  from  the  branches  is  sold  with 
the  twigs,  without  undergoing  any  preparation,  it  is  known  as  “  stick 
lac.”  When  stick  lac  is  broken  up,  and  partially  treated  with  water, 
it  is  known  as  “  seed  lac.”  When  melted  into  masses  it  is  known  as 
u  lump  lac.”  Melted  and  strained  through  cloths,  and  allowed  to 
harden  in  thin  sheets,  which  are  then  broken  into  pieces,  it  is 
known  as  shell  lac.  The  best  supplies  are  obtained  from  Siam,  and 
those  next  from  Assam. 

Elemi  is  a  resin  which  is  furnished  by  a  great  variety  of  trees,  in 
various  parts  of  the  world.  That  which  comes  from  Holland  is 
supposed  to  be  furnished  by  the  Canarium  balsamiferum  of  the 
Dutch  possessions  in  Ceylon.  Another  variety  comes  from  Manilla, 


988 


TARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


another  from  the  Philippine  Islands,  another  from  Brazil,  and  still 
another  from  Mexico.  This  resin  is  afforded  to  commerce  in  a  great 
variety  of  shapes,  colors,  and  degrees  of  consistency;  and  as  yet 
but  little  is  known  accurately  of  its  production,  or  the  trees  from 
which  it  is  derived. 

Dammar,  or  damar,  is  a  resin  which  exudes  from  various  trees  in 
the  East  India  Islands  ;  and  in  China  and  Bengal  it  is  used  for 
coating  the  bottoms  of  boats,  and  for  similar  purposes. 

Benzoin  is  a  fragrant  resin  furnished  by  the  Styrcix  benzoin,  a 
tree  which  attains  considerable  size,  and  is  peculiar  to  Bencoolin, 
Batak,  and  Palembang,  territories  in  Sumatra,  and  Brunai,  a  territory 
in  Borneo.  This  tree  is  cultivated  for  its  yield  of  benzoin. 

Anime,  a  resin  which  comes  from  South  America,  is  supposed  to 
be  the  product  of  the  Ilymenoea  courbaril ,  a  tree  native  to  that 
country.  It  is  odorous  and  soft,  and  its  name  is  said  to  be  derived 
from  the  quantities  of  insects  it  generally  contains,  and  which,  hav¬ 
ing  been  attracted  to  it,  have  become  embedded  in  it,  so  that  it  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  alive,  anime ,  with  them.  But  the  anime  of  commerce, 
and  which  is  mostly  used  in  Europe  and  in  this  country,  conies 
from  Zanguebar,  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  and  is  the  hardest  and 
most  expensive  copal  in  the  market.  The  principal  varieties  of 
copal  used  in  the  manufacture  of  varnish  are, —  anime,  Benguela, 
Angola,  and  Accra  from  Africa,  and  Kauri  from  Kew  Zealand. 

Varnishes  are  generally  classified,  according  to  the  solvent  with 
which  they  are  made,  into  ether  varnishes,  spirit  varnishes,  volatile 
oil  varnishes,  and  fixed  oil  varnishes.  Ether  varnishes  dry  so  rap¬ 
idly  that  they  are  hardly  used  at  all.  The  ether  evaporates  so 
quickly  as  to  bubble  under  the  brush.  Spirit  varnishes  are  generally 
made  with  alcohol,  and  are  produced  in  great  variety,  the  receipts 
being  almost  as  numerous  as  the  manufacturers,  the  quantity  and 
number  of  the  ingredients  being  varied  to  suit  the  capricious  vari¬ 
ations  of  the  demand.  Three  ways  for  making  the  solution  are 
used:  the  resins  are  simply  digested,  by  being  mixed  with  the  proper' 
proportions  of  alcohol,  and  exposed  to  the  sun,  or  kept  in  the  shade. 
This  process  is,  however,  too  slow  a  one  to  satisfy  the  exigen¬ 
cies  of  our  modern  industry,  though  it  produces  a  varnish  having 
the  least  amount  of  color.  A  more  rapid  process  is  by  heating  over 
a  water-bath,  but  this  gives  the  varnish  more  color  than  the  first. 
The  third  process  is  heating  the  varnish  over  a  fire,  by  which  the 
color  of  the  resin  is  still  more  changed,  and  the  color  of  the  var¬ 
nishes  made  consequently  still  higher.  As,  however,  this  is  the  most 


VARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


989 


rapid  process,  it  is  generally  employed  for  manufacturing,  when  time 
becomes  an  important  element  in  their  production. 

Oil  of  .turpentine  is  the  volatile  oil  most  generally  used  in 
the  production  of  varnishes,  and  the  chief  varnish  in  which  it  is 
used  is  copal  varnish.  In  the  production  of  spirit  varnishes  the 
methods  of  preparation  and  the  ingredients  are  almost  always  the 
same. 

The  chief  distinction  between  spirit  varnishes  and  those  made  with 
oil  of  turpentine  lies  in  the  fact  that  spirit  varnishes  are  injured  by 
being  kept  a  long  time,  while  those  made  with  oil  of  turpentine  are 
improved  by  keeping,  a  more  intimate  union  taking  place  in  time  be¬ 
tween  the  resins  and  the  oil.  When  a  picture,  for  example,  is  var¬ 
nished  with  a  newly  made  varnish,  a  portion  of  the  oil  leaves  the 
resins  and  combines  with  the  paints ;  but  if  the  varnish  has  been  made 
for  some  six  or  eight  months,  this  effect  is  not  produced.  As  the 
durability  of  the  varnish  is  almost  in  direct  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  fatty  residue  from  the  oil,  any  cause  which  removes  this  will  of 
course  affect  it. 

Fixed  oil  varnishes  are  made  almost  entirely  of  linseed  oil, 
which  is  the  oil  obtained  by  pressure  from  flaxseed.  Poppy  oil  is 
sometimes  used  as  a  substitute,  but  is  most  generally  mixed  with 
a  large  proportion  of  oil  of  turpentine.  The  resins  used  for  the 
making  of  such  varnishes  are  almost  exclusively  the  varieties  of  copal 
and  amber.  As  these  solvents  are  the  slowest  in  drying,  and  leave 
the  largest  amount  of  residue,  the  varnishes  made  in  this  way  are 
the  longest  in  drying,  but  are  the  most  durable ;  and  the  fixed  oil 
varnishes  are  consequently  used  for  all  purposes  where  the  spirit  and 
turpentine  varnishes  are  unsuitable  on  account  of  their  want  of  resist¬ 
ance  to  the  action  of  the  sun’s  light  and  heat,  or  of  exposure  to  the 
weather.  F or  interior  work  they  are  also  the  best,  where  their  color 
is  not  objectionable,  since  they  are  more  durable,  and  can  be  washed 
without  injury;  and  also  as  the  objection  to  their  use  from  the  slow¬ 
ness  with  which  they  dry  can  be  easily  obviated  by  the  use  of  “  dry¬ 
ers,”  —  some  substance  which  will  expedite  their  drying.  For  this 
purpose  oxide  of  lead  is  generally  used. 

As  copal  is  harder  to  dissolve  than  other  resins,  a  different  process 
is  employed  in  making  varnishes  from  it.  It  is  first  melted  over  an 
open  fire,  and,  when  perfectly  liquid,  the  linseed  oil,  heated  to  about 
400°  Fahrenheit,  is  mixed  with  it,  and  then  the  oil  of  turpentine  is 
added.  It  is  also  possible  to  melt  the  copal  in  boiling  oil,  and  then 
bring  the  mixture  to  the  proper  consistency  by  the  addition  of  the 


990 


VARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


oil  of  turpentine,  but  in  this  process  the  oil  is  always  in  a  measure 
burnt,  and  the  varnish  is  more  colored,  and  dries  slower. 

In  the  manufacture,  care  must  be  taken  that  the  resins  are  of  the 
same  fusible  quality,  since  if  a  portion  is  melted,  and  the  heat  be  long 
continued,  the  color  will  be  higher  than  it  should.  The  liquid  copal 
does  not  combine  with  the  oil,  but  simply  mixes  mechanically  with 
it,  having  its  particles  separated,  so  that  it  can  mix  with  the  oil  of 
turpentine,  which  should  be  added  slowly,  so  that  the  mixture  shall 
take  place  by  degrees. 

The  difficulties  in  the  manufacture  of  varnish  are  not  bringing  the 
resins  to  a  perfectly  liquid  condition;  next,  adding  the  oil  either  too 
cold  or  too  rapidly,  so  as  to  cool  the  liquid  resin  too  fast ;  allowing 
the  mixture  to  become  too  cold  before  adding  the  oil  of  turpentine, 
or  adding  this  last  too  rapidly ;  or  having  the  oil  too  hot,  when,  if 
the  resin  has  not  been  heated  long  enough,  a  violent  ebullition  is 
produced,  which  is  dangerous,  as  it  is  apt  to  run  over  into  the  fire, 
and  cause  a  destruction  of  the  entire  building. 

In  the  manufacture  of  varnishes  the  variations  of  the  weather  have 
to  be  observed,  since  when  it  is  damp  they  absorb  sufficient  moisture 
to  greatly  impair  their  transparency. 

Beside  these  staple  kinds  of  varnish,  other  varieties  are  produced, 
which  are  used  for  special  purposes,  but  do  not  enter  sufficiently  into 
the  consumption  to  be  treated  of  here. 

In  the  United  States  the  consumption  of  varnish  is  very  large, 
and  has  greatly  increased  during  the  last  ten  years,  from  the  greater 
number  of  purposes  to  which  it  is  applied,  and  from  the  greater 
increase  of  wealth,  which  enlarges  the  demand  for  the  articles  of 
domestic  luxury.  The  taste,  too,  for  the  use  of  natural  woods  in 
our  houses  and  furniture,  and  the  consequent  discarding  of  the  use 
of  paint,  have  had  much  to  do  with  increasing  the  consumption  of 
varnish. 

Among  the  manufacturers  of  varnish  in  this  country,  the  leading 
house,  at  least  in  the  Northwest,  if  not  in  the  entire  Union,  is  the 
house  of  Messrs.  Berry  Brothers,  in  Detroit,  Michigan.  These 
gentlemen  commenced  the  business  in  1858,  and  were  the  pioneers 
in  that  section  of  country.  At  the  time  they  began,  there  were  only 
two  manufacturers  of  varnish  west  of  New  York.  In  this  business 
the  extent  of  the  operations  of  any  one  house  is  of  necessity  lim¬ 
ited,  on  account  of  the  numbers  engaged  in  the  manufacture,  and 
the  facility  with  which  varnish  can  be  made. 

Messrs.  Berry  Brothers  consume  daily  in  their  business  about 


MANUFACTORY  AND  WAREROOMS  OF  BERRY  BROS.,  DETROIT,  MICH. 


. 


* 

. 


VARNISH,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


993 


eighteen  hundred  pounds  of  gum-copal  and  shellac,  and  eight  hun¬ 
dred  gallons  of  spirits  of  turpentine,  linseed  oil,  and  alcohol,  pro¬ 
ducing,  with  other  ingredients  of  less  consequence,  one  thousand 
gallons  daily  of  varnishes  and  japans,  ranging  in  price  from  eighty 
cents  to  six  dollars  a  gallon.  This  work  is  done  by  seven  men ; 
W’hile  in  the  department  of  their  business  devoted  to  the  packing, 
6ale,  and  shipment  of  their  goods,  seventeen  persons  are  employed. 

The  following  list  of  thirty-six  varieties  of  varnish  and  japan 
produced  by  this  house  will  show  to  how  many  special  uses  var¬ 
nish  is  put,  and  will  indicate  the  increase  of  their  business,  owing 
to  the  established  reputation  of  the  goods  they  make :  Zanzibar 
polishing,  for  pianos,  etc. ;  light  scraping ;  Zanzibar  flowing ;  extra 
flowing ;  number  one  flowing ;  rubbing ;  number  one  turpentine  fur¬ 
niture  ;  number  one  benzine  furniture ;  number  two  turpentine 
furniture ;  number  two  benzine  furniture ;  light  oil  finish ;  dark  oil 
finish ;  white  shellac ;  orange  shellac ;  turpentine  asphaltum ;  ben¬ 
zine;*  turpentine  japan*  benzine  japan ;  furniture  oil;  spirits  shel¬ 
lac  ;  clear  trunk ;  black  trunk ;  number  one  pail  and  tub ;  number 
two  pail  and  tub ;  extra  damar ;  number  one  damar ;  mastic  varnish 
for  pictures ;  zinc  dryer ;  English  elastic  wearing  body  varnish ;  wear¬ 
ing  body ;  light  rubbing  ;  number  one  gearing,  quick  drying ;  num¬ 
ber  one  gearing,  medium  drying ;  number  one  coach,  quick  drying ; 
coach  japan ;  japan,  gold  size. 

*  Asphaltum. 


MANUFACTURE  OF  FLOUR. 


ANALYSIS  OF  A  GRAIN  OF  WHEAT.  —  GLUTEN  THE  NUTRITIOUS  ELEMENT.  — 
WHERE  TIIE  BEST  WHEAT  IS  GROWN.  —  THE  RICHMOND  BRAND  OF  FLOUR.  — 
WHEAT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND,  PENNSYLVANIA,  OHIO,  ETC.  —  THE  ANNUAL  PROD¬ 
UCT. —  THE  EXPORT. - TO  MARKET  AND  MILL.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANU¬ 

FACTURE.  —  SOUND  AND  “  WEEDY  ”  FLOUR.  —  TECHNICAL  TERMS. 

When  a  grain  of  wheat  is  cut  across  the  middle,  and  examined 
under  a  glass,  the  central  parts  are  found  to  be  composed  of  a 
white  substance.  If  the  grain  is  dry,  this  interior  readily  becomes 
a  pearly  powder.  Near  the  outside  of  the  kernel  the  texture  is 
more  compact,  and  at  the  surface  it  becomes  horny.  This  added 
firmness  of  the  grain  is  produced  by  the  increasing  quantity  of 
gluten,  as  the  analysis  advances  from  centre  to  circumference.  It 
is  necessary  to  understand  this  composition  of  wheat  in  order  to 
know  what  makes  the  best  flour,  and  how  the  inferior  grades  of 
the  same  article  are  composed.  It  is  the  gluten  that  gives  flour 
its  strongest  constituents  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  nature  of  gluten  is 
similar  to  that  of  meat  or  cheese,  while  the  nutritive  power  of 
starch  alone  is  no  more  than  that  of  rice.  In  short,  rice  flour  is 
wheat  flour  with  gluten  left  out.  In  wheat  flour  the  proportion 
of  gluten  to  starch  is  as  one  to  five,  and  in  some  cases,  as  one  to 
four.  The  greater  or  less  quantity  of  gluten  in  flour  renders  it 
more  or  less  nutritious  ;  that  is,  the  flour  is  more  or  less  effective 
according  to  its  quantity  of  gluten.  That  wheat  which  is  grown 
in  a  dry  and  clear  atmosphere,  and  on  a  fresh  and  strong  soil, 
contains  the  greatest  quantity  of  gluten.  The  best  of  our  wheats 
are  those  raised  in  California  and  Oregon.  The  summer  of  these 
states  is  long  and  uniform,  and  allows  the  grain  to  ripen  perfectly. 
Such  is  the  freedom  of  these  localities  from  moisture  that  the  grain 
is  left  in  the  field,  piled  in  bags  one  upon  another,  and  covered 
with  a  layer  of  straw,  for  several  months  after  it  is  threshed.  It 
(094) 


MANUFACTURE  OF  FLOUR. 


995 


thus  becomes  perfectly  ripe  and  dry,  and  able  to  bear  transporta¬ 
tion  across  the  equator  without  injury  to  its  quality. 

In  appearance  this  wheat  is  plump,  smooth,  arfd  of  a  pale  amber 
color,  like  that  of  a  delicately  baked  loaf  of  bread.  It  is  sown  in 
the  fall,  about  the  time  of  the  first  hard  frosts.  It  generally 
springs  a  few  inches  above  the  ground,  and  in  that  condition  goes 
through  the  winter,  making  but  little  advance,  and  starting  into 
luxuriant  and  rapid  growth  in  April.  The  wheat  harvest,  in  coun¬ 
tries  where  wheat  is  the  staple,  commences  in  the  middle  of  May 
and  June,  and  lasts  about  thirty  days  before  the  grain  becomes  so 
ripe  as  to  shell  in  handling.  The  chief  characteristic  of  wheat 
that  grows  in  dry  climates  is,  that  the  gluten  becomes  perfectly 
dry  and  hard  ;  that  is,  the  grain  is  thoroughly  ripe,  and  the  glu¬ 
ten,  which  forms  the  sticky  part  of  the  flour,  will  bear  transpor¬ 
tation  to  great  distances,  and  keeping  for  many  months,  yet  be  as 
good  as  it  was  when  first  harvested.  The  Richmond  flours  were 
for  a  long  time  noted  for  this  quality,  and  until  the  great  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  west,  Richmond  was  the  leading  city  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  the  first  grades  of  flour.  Their  wheats  grew  in  West 
Virginia,  East  Tennessee,  Western  North  Carolina,  and  Georgia. 
The  greater  portion  of  Richmond  flour  is  used  in*  Cuba  and  the 
South  American  cities,  because  it  bears  transportation  and  keeps 
in  hot  climates  for  a  year  or  two  without  injury,  while  the  west¬ 
ern  wheats  must  be  kept  cool,  and  should  be  consumed  within  a 
few  months  after  they  are  ground. 

At  present  the  greater  part  of  this  commodity  is  produced  in 
those  states  which  border  the  great  western  rivers.  The  amount 
of  wheat  grown  in  New  England  will  not  bread  its  population  a 
month.  The  western  part  of  New  York  is  a  fine  wheat  locality, 
and  Genesee  flour  long  had  celebrity,  but  so  great  is  the  population 
of  the  Empire  State  that  all  the  wheat  grown  in  it  would  not  feed 
its  population  more  than  half  a  year.  The  State  of  Pennsylvania 
is,  in  this  respect,  a  pattern,  blending  consumption  with  produc¬ 
tion  in  equal  proportion.  The  Keystone  State  supplies  itself  with 
flour,  but  has  no  surplus.  Until  within  a  few  years  Ohio  has  fur¬ 
nished  two  or  three  million  bushels  surplus  ;  but  her  production  has 
fallen  off  very  much,  until  she  consumes  nearly  all  the  wheat 
grown  within  her  limits.  When  we  go  west  of  the  Wabash,  we 
come  to  states  that  produce  a  very  large  surplus.  The  wheat 
crops  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota  frequently  reach  the  im¬ 
mense  product  of  twenty  million  bushels,  and  the  wheat  crop  of 


096 


MANUFACTURE  OF  FLOUR. 


California  ranges  from  eighteen  to  twenty-two  millions.  The  grain 
of  the  Pacific  slope,  after  supplying  its  own  population,  is  almost 
wholly  exported  to  Liverpool,  but  the  grain  of  the  western  states 
is  stored  in  the  great  western  cities  of  Milwaukee,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis,  and  Toledo.  The  handling  of  these  great  quantities  of 
wheat  is  performed  by  means  of  elevators,  which  it  may  be  inter¬ 
esting  and  pertinent  to  describe. 

From  the  field  where  the  wheat  is  threshed  it  is  carried  in  bags 
to  the  nearest  railroad  station,  and  poured  into  cars  made  expressly 
for  transporting  it,  whose  capacity  is  about  three  hundred  bushels 
apiece.  Thence  it  is  rolled  to  the  elevator,  a  building  six  or  seven 
stories  high,  where  it  is  inspected  by  an  officer  appointed  for  the 
purpose,  and  classed  in  its  appropriate  grade.  Of  this  more  here¬ 
after.  The  doors  of  the  cars  are  then  rolled  back,  and  the  wheat 
which  pressed  against  them  falls  into  a  large  hopper  beneath.  Two 
or  three  stout  laborers  with  grain  shovels  step  into  the  car,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  its  contents  are  all  transferred  to  the  hopper  below. 
This  receptacle  has  a  bottom  sloping  to  one  side,  through  which, 
over  a  pulley,  a  large  band  passes,  which  goes  over  another  pulley 
in  the  top  of  an  elevator.  This  band  has  brackets  of  tin  fastened 
on  it  which  contain  about  half  a  bushel  apiece.  As  the  band 
passes  through  the  hopper  these  buckets  fill  themselves,  and  are 
drawn  very  rapidly  up  the  elevator,  discharging  the  grain  into  the 
loft  above  as  fast  as  it  can  be  shovelled  into  the  hopper  from  the 
car.  From  the  buckets  it  passes  into  a  large  receptacle  or  bin, 
which  contains  from  two  to  three  tons.  Here  it  is  weighed,  and 
thence  conducted  through  spouts  to  other  bins,  grades  of  the  same 
kind  being  kept  in  the  same  receptacle.  These  bins  are  twenty  or 
thirty  feet  square  and  fifty  or  sixty  feet  deep.  From  these  bins 
spouts  go  down  to  the  holds  of  vessels  or  to  cars,  and  the  wheat 
descends  with  great  rapidity,  so  that  the  hold  of  a  vessel  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  will  be  filled  in  two  hours. 

As  we  have  remarked,  before  tfie  wheat  is  removed  from  the  car 
in  which  it  is  transported  to  the  elevator,  it  is  inspected  by  the 
proper  officer.  lie  divides  it  into  four  grades.  That  which  is 
sound,  plump,  and  well  cleaned,  goes  into  the  first  grade.  The 
second  grade  is  sound  and  plump,  but  not  so  clean  as  the  first. 
In  the  third  grade  is  classed  wheat  inferior  or  dirty,  but  not  so 
badly  damaged  as  to  render  it  unfit  for  flouring,  nor  weighing  less 
than  fifty-five  pounds.  All  wheat  so  badly  damaged  as,  from  any 
cause,  to  render  it  unfit  for  number  three,  is  put  into  a  fourth  grade, 


MANUFACTURE  OF  FLOUR. 


997 


and  termed  “  rejected. ”  From  the  elevator  the  wheat  is  carried 
by  ship  or  by  rail  to  the  various  establishments  where  it  is  made 
into  flour. 

Most  of  the  southern  wheat  is  brought  to  Richmond  and  Balti¬ 
more,  where  it  is  ground  into  flour.  Along  the  banks  of  the  James 
River  there  are  a  number  of  large  flouring  establishments.  Balti¬ 
more  is  another  large  flour  centre.  About  one  half  of  the  western 
wheat  is  converted  into  flour  near  where  it  grew,  and  much  of  the 
other  half  comes  east  by  lake  and  rail  to  be  ground  at  Toledo, 
Cleveland,  Detroit,  Buffalo,  Ogdensburg,  and  Oswego.  Several 
million  bushels  of  wheat  are  made  into  flour  in  the  cities  along  the 
Erie  Canal,  and  especially  at  Rochester.  For  instance,  in  1869 
Chicago  sent  east  nearly  three  million  barrels  of  flour,  at  the  same 
time  she  shipped  eight  million  bushels  of  wheat  to  Buffalo. 

*  The  development  of  railroads  and  steamboats  has  dispensed 
almost  entirely  with  the  use  of  bags  in  handling  the  wheat  crop. 
The  car  or  vessel  containing  wheat  passes  at  once  to  the  flouring 
mill,  where  the  grain  is  lifted  directly  by  means  of  an  elevator  into 
the  loft  of  the  mill.  From  this  loft  it  is  conducted  through  a  tube 
to  the  spout,  whence  it  pours  into  the  hopper,  where  it  is  ground. 
At  the  end  of  this  spout  is  a  fanning-wheel,  which,  throws  a  strong 
blast  of  air  up  through  the  spout,  thus  permitting  only  the  heavy 
and  sound  grain  to  fall  into  the  hopper.  All  chaff  and  light  grain 
is  blown  up  outside  the  spout  and  falls  on  the  floor.  By  shorten¬ 
ing  this  tube  at  its  lower  section  the  grain  can  be  thoroughly  win¬ 
nowed,  while  by  lengthening  it  the  lighter  grain  will  fall  with  the 
heavy  into  the  hopper. 

The  stones  used  in  grinding  are  called  French  burr  stones, 
though  they  are  found  in  Arkansas,  and  in  other  parts  of  this 
country.  In  some  flouring  mills  steel-faced  stones  are  used,  but 
they  make  a  flour  inferior  to  that  produced  by  the  French  burr. 
From  the  receptacle  into  which  the  flour  falls  from  the  stones  it  is 
carried  at  once  to  the  bolt.  This  is  a  large  cylinder,  usually  eight 
sided,  covered  with  bolting  cloth,  and  made  to  revolve.  It  is  set 
at  an  angle  so  that  at  the  upper  end  of  the  bolt  only  the  finest  of 
the  flour  passes  through  the  cloth.  At  the  middle  more  of  the 
bran  goes  through  with  the  flour,  and  is  therefore  termed  middlings, 
and  at  the  lower  end  of  the  bolt  the  bran  falls  through.  After 
passing  through  the  bolt  the  flour  is  carried  by  small  elevators  into 
the  meal  room,  and  falls  from  quite  a  height  on  a  clean  floor,  where 
it  is  allowed  to  cool.  It  is  then  packed  in  barrels  and  shipped. 


998 


MANUFACTURE  OF  FLOUR. 


One  hundred  and  ninety-six  pounds  is  put  in  each  barrel.  If  the 
flour  is  packed  before  it  has  had  time  to  cool  perfectly  its  quality 
is  materially  injured. 

The  flour  made  from  the  best  California  or  amber  Michigan 
wheat  is  of  a  very  delicate  cream  tint,  just  turned  from  white,  and 
if  pressed  firmly  in  the  hand  will  remain  in  a  ball,  retaining  the 
impress  of  the  fingers.  When  spread  evenly  in  the  hand,  and 
smoothed  with  an  ivory  spatula,  it  presents  a  uniform  and  polished 
surface. 

From  the  mill  the  flour  is  shipped  to  various  points,  where  it  is 
inspected  by  officers  appointed  for  the  purpose.  If  it  is  of  full 
weight,  strictly  sound,  and  free  from  any  and  every  defect  or  fault 
causing  either  smell  or  taste,  it  is  called  “  sound, ”  and  is  branded 
by  the  inspector  according  to  its  grade.  Standard  samples  of 
flour  are  used  for  the  inspector  to  work  to,  and  the  flour  is  brand¬ 
ed  “  extra  ”  and  “  superfine, ”  according  to  its  correspondence  with 
these  samples ;  they  are  in  the  hands  of  the  flour  inspection 
committee,  and  also  with  the  secretary  of  the  board  of  trade. 
These  officers  are  required  to  see  that  the  rules  established  for  the 
inspection  of  flour  are  not  varied  from  by  the  inspector.  Flour 
made  from  wheat  that  has  been  mixed  wdtli  a  noxious  weed,  im¬ 
parting  to  it  an  unpleasant  smell,  is  termed  weedy.  This  weed,  it 
is  supposed,  will  “  cook  out,”  so  as  not  to  be  tasted  in  the  bread  ; 
but  such  flour  is  inferior,  and  can  never  be  formed  into  loaves  of 
first  quality  in  appearance,  nutrition,  or  flavor.  All  flour  not 
“  sound,”  or  “  weedy,”  whether  its  defects  are  derived  from  the 
condition  of  the  wheat,  or  have  originated  in  the  flour,  is  termed 
“  unsound.”  The  inspectors  note  the  character  of  the  unsound¬ 
ness  as  musty,  hard  sour ,  soft  sour,  slightly  unsound,  the  latter  indi¬ 
cating  that,  for  immediate  use,  the  flour  is  but  slightly  depreciated 
in  value.  No  “unsound,”  “weedy,”  or  “  light  weight  ”  flour  can 
be  stencilled  in  any  way  by  the  inspectors.  Success  in  the  flour¬ 
ing  business  depends  on  the  judgment  with  which  purchases  of 
wheat  are  made,  and  the  skill  with  which  low  grades  of  grain  are 
cleaned  and  mixed  with  the  better  sorts  so  as  to  produce  fair  flour. 


SILVER  MINING. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  —  THE  PROSPECTOR.  —  HIS  HAUNTS  IN  AND  AMONG  THE 
ROCKY  MOUNTAINS. — THE  COMSTOCK  MINE  IN  NEVADA.  — THE  GOULD  AND 

CURRY.  —  THE  YELLOW  JACKET.  —  THE  GREAT  YIELD  OF  THESE  MINES. - 

THE  PROCESS  OF  MINING.  —  PRODUCT  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Previous  to  1860  it  would  have  been  improper  to  speak  of  the 
extraction  of  silver  ores  from  veins,  and  the  reduction  of  such 
ores  to  bullion,  as  an  important  industry.  It  was  possible  to  ex¬ 
tract  a  few  ounces  of  silver  from  a  ton  of  almost  any  of  our  galena 
ores.  A  mine  in  Southampton  had  yielded  some  silver  in  combi¬ 
nation  with  lead.  Another  mine  in  Davidson  County,  N.  C.,  had 
been  actively  worked  for  argentiferous  galena.  But  ninety -nine 
silver  dollars  out  of  every  hundred  in  circulation  had  come  from 
Mexico  or  from  Peru.  A  little  silver  had  been  found  in  the  gold 
of  California,  but  so  little  as  to  be  held  as  an  alloy  of  the  more 
precious  metal. 

From  1850  to  1860  the  mountains,  and  gorges,  and  gulches,  and 
flats,  and  sinks  of  that  wild  region  in  the  far  west  were  scrutinized, 
as  no  other  part  of  the  world  ever  was  before,  by  an  army  of 
prospectors.  As  this  remarkable  class  of  men  have  done  so  much, 
and  are  still  so  active  in  developing  the  silver  interest  of  this 
country,  they  deserve  more  than  a  passing  reference.  A  pro¬ 
spector  is  a  quiet,,  silent,  hardy  man,  whose  costume  is  a  flannel 
shirt  and  coarse  pants,  with  the  bottoms  rammed  into  his  boot 
tops.  He  wears  a  revolver  strapped  over  his  hip,  a  knife  in  the 
same  belt,  and  carries  a  pick  across  his  shoulders.  Somewhere 
on  his  person  he  carries  a  little  brass  blowpipe.  When  he  starts 
out,  he  flings  a  fifty-pound  bag  of  flour  across  the  back  of  his  little 
bony,  hardy  mule.  Thus  equipped,  he  is  ready  for  a  journey  of 
a  thousand  miles  over  a  trackless  waste.  No  canon  so  lonely  and 

(999) 


1000 


SILVER  MINING. 


remote  as  to  escape  his  notice,  no  out-crop  of  rock  so  grim  and 
inaccessible  as  to  baffle  his  enterprise.  lie  wanders  from  hill  to 
hill,  and  from  ledge  to  ledge,  picking  out  specimens,  crushing  them 
to  notice  the  lustre  of  the  fracture,  and  melting  a  little  of  the  rock 
on  a  nub  of  charcoal  with  his  blowpipe. 

Long  practice,  and  the  pointing  of  sharpened  faculties  to  one 
and  only  one  end,  makes  him  an  exquisite  judge  in  mineralogy. 
He  knows  nothing  of  trilobite,  and  eocene,  and  lias  ;  but,  from  the 
glitter  on  the  face  of  a  broken  stone,  he  knows  whether  there  is 
silver  in  it,  and  from  blowpipe  analysis  he  ean  tell  about  how  much 
per  ton.  For  nearly  twenty  years  an  army  of  these  indefatigable 
pioneers  has  been  ranging  over  the  grim  and  giant  mountain  ranges 
that  divide  the  Mississippi  Valley  from  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They 
have  wandered  far  south,  following  up  the  Gila  into  grim  wastes 
and  over  the  blazing  sands  of  Arizona.  They  have  scaled  moun¬ 
tain  peak  after  mountain  peak,  till  the  valley  of  the  Saskatchawan, 
wide  and  fair,  lay  spread  before  them.  They  have  drank  water 
that  was  bitter  with  alkali,  and  rode  day  in  and  day  out  across 
saliaras,  penetrating  beyond  the  sinks  of  the  Humboldt,  across 
Promontory  Mountain  to  red  dome  peaks,  past  the  Three  Buttes 
to  where  the  Wasach  peaks  tower  savage  and  snow-clad  over  the 
bitter  waters  and  sage  brush  flats  of  Utah.  When  a  ledge  or  lode 
is  found  to  hold  a  precious  metal,  it  is  traced  as  far  as  the  nature 
of  the  formation  will  permit,  and  the  right  by  discovery  is  set  up 
by  means  of  stakes,  and  the  strip  of  mining  property  thus  rudely 
bounded  is  called  a  claim. 

In  1858-9  a  small  party  of  these  prospectors  worked  up  Six-mile 
Cafion,  in  the  Washoe  country,  on  the  eastern  foot-hills  of  the  Si¬ 
erra.  James  Fennimore,  or  Phinney,  and  Henry  Comstock  filed  a 
claim  to  a  mine  of  rich  silver  sulphurets  mixed  with  free  gold. 
Phinney  sold  out  to  his  partner  for  a  pinch  of  gold  dust,  and  Com¬ 
stock  parted  with  his  interest  soon  after,  but  not  without  giving 
his  name  to  the  most  wonderful  silver  mine  on  the  face  of  this 
planet.  As  soon  as  the  marvellous  wealth  of  this  lode  was  known, 
and  began  to  be  developed,  the  silver  mining  interest  took  form, 
and  became  noteworthy  as  a  source  of  great  national  wealth.  This 
lode  is  situate  in  Storey  County,  Nevada,  twenty-five  miles  from 
the  western  border  of  the  state,  and  twenty  miles  from  a  little 
station  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  at  a  station  called  Reno,  on 
the  Truckee  River.  It  is  found  cropping  out  along  the  eastern 


DISCOVERY  Or  SILVER  IN  PERU.  INTERIOR  OF  A  SILVER  MINE. 


' 


' 

* 


>  ‘  .  v"  ‘  •  * 


* 


■  **  . 


, 


?>- 


i.vaa 


. 

« 


SILVER  MINING. 


1C03 


slope  of  Mount  Davidson,  a  lofty  eminence  in  the  Washoe  range, 
which  forms  a  lower  spur  of  the  main  sierra.  This  range  is  ex¬ 
tremely  dry  and  barren,  containing  but  little  water  or  grass,  and 
at  present  no  timber  at  all,  the  few  scrub  pines  that  straggled  over 
its  rocky  sides  having  been  cut  long  ago. 

A  very  valuable  slice  of  the  Comstock  lode,  by  transfers  in  San 
Francisco,  came  into  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Gould  &  Curry,  men 
of  capital,  who  fell  to  with  great  intelligence  and  vigor,  and  no 
stint  of  means,  to  develop  the  best  silver  mine  in  the  world.  The 
principal  or  mother  vein  of  the  Comstock  ranges  nearly  north  and 
south  ;  its  average  width  is  fifty  feet,  being  in  the  thickest  two 
hundred,  and  at  the  thinnest  twenty  feet,  with  a  tendency  to 
greater  thickness  and  richness  as  the  vein  sinks  in  the  mountain 
side. 

There  is  perhaps  no  instance  so  striking  of  the  promptness  and 
daring  with  which  American  capitalists  launch  their  money  into 
an  enterprise  in  which  they  have  confidence,  as  the  development 
of  this  Comstock  lode.  In  1861  this  lode  was  a  wall  of  black  sul- 
phuret,  bedded  in  primeval  granite  and  quartz,  on  the  steep  slope 
of  a  lonely  and  barren  mountain,  two  hundred  miles  from  roads 
and  shops,  and  wheat  fields  parted  from  them  by  the  gorges  and 
snowy  peaks  of  the  sierra.  Four  years  after  a  city  of  twenty 
thousand  people  was  planted  on  that  wild  declivity,  nearly  two 
and  a  half  millions  in  assessments  had  been  paid  to  develop  the 
mines.  On  the  1st  of  September,  1865,  the  leading  mines  on  the 
lode  had  yielded  as  follows  :  — 

Gould  &  Curry,  ....  $14,000,000 

Ophir,  .  .  .  •  .  .  1,000,000 

Savage, . 3,641,164 

Imperial, .  2,500,000 

Yellow  Jacket,  .  .  .  *  .  1,891,916 

Belcher, .  1,462,005 

Total,  .  .  .  .  .  $30,501,685 

The  total  number  of  tons  extracted  by  Gould  &  Curry  in  these 
four  years  was  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  thousand,  and  the 
bullion  produced  amounted  to  three  hundred  tons.  The  average 
cost  of  taking  the  ore  from  the  mine  was  ten  dollars  per  ton,  and 
the  average  yield  of  all  ores  per  ton  was  fifty  dollars. 

58 


10G4 


SILVER  MINING. 


The  Yellow  Jacket,  a  very  valuable  mine  on  the  same  lode,  made 
the  following  report  for  the  year  ending  July  1,  1866  :  — 


218  tons  first  class  ore  yielded,  per  ton, 
53,30?  “  second 

1,479  “  third 

Average  of  all  ore  worked,  per  ton, 

Gross  product  of  bullion, 


$172.05 

31.00 

3.26 

32.51 

1,690,394 


The  express  company  of  Wells,  Fargo  &  Co.  took  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  Nevada  bullion  to  San  Francisco  between  1861 
and  1865,  and  their  books  show  interesting  figures  :  — 

In  1861  their  receipts  from  Nevada  were  .  $2,275,276 


In  1862 

tt 

ft 

tt 

tt 

• 

tt 

.  6,247,074 

In  1863 

tt 

(t 

tt 

tt 

tt 

.  12,486,238 

In  1864 

It 

it 

tt 

tt 

it 

.  15,795,585 

In  1865 

it 

tt 

tt 

tt 

tt 

.  15,184,877 

In  and  near  Virginia  City,  which  stands  directly  over  the  Com¬ 
stock  lode,  there  were  four  years  ago  sixty-two  mills  for  stamping 
and  amalgamating  ore  ;  they  showed  in  all  twelve  hundred  and 
twenty-six  stamps  and  nine  hundred  and  nineteen  amalgamating 
pans,  and  they  were  working  per  month  fifty-three  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  tons  of  ore. 

The  ore,  as  it  comes  from  the  mine,  is  a  dark,  lustrous  rock, 
showing  some  free  gold  in  pockets ;  but  the  chief  value  is  in  the 
sulphuret,  as  it  is  called.  There  are  black  and  gray  sulphurets  of 
silver,  with  some  free  or  native  silver.  Combined  with  this  ore 
are  some  baser  metals,  as  sulphurets  of  antimony,  lead,  iron,  and 
copper.  By  simply  crushing  and  amalgamating  the  pulp  with 
mercury,  on  an  averago  eighty  per  cent;  of  all  the  precious  metal 
in  the  Comstock  ores  can  be  extracted.  For  the  first  two  or  three 
3rears  after  they  were  opened  the  silver  ores  from  this  ledge  yielded 
from  one  to  three  hundred  dollars  per  ton,  the  average  of  all  worked 
being  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  some  selected  lots 
ranged  from  five  hundred  to  three  thousand  dollars  per  ton.  These 
rich  ores  were  sold  to  San  Francisco  dealers  in  metalliferous  ores, 
and  most  of  them  were  shipped  to  the  great  reduction  works  at 
Swansea,  England. 

The  crushing  and  extraction  of  silver  ores,  as  practised  in  Ne- 


SILVER  MINING. 


100.5 


vada,  Idaho,  and  Montana,  is  not  difficult  or  complicated.  Eighty 
per  cent,  of  these  ores  is  taken  out  by  a  system  not  hard  to  be 
understood;  as  to  the  remaining  twenty  per  cent.,  it  is  not  taken 
out  in  the  vicinity  of  the  mines.  This  leaves  a  vast  accumulation 
of  “  tailings, ”  or  crushed  rock,  in  which  there  is  some  silver,  and 
the  question  whether  it  will  pay  to  get  it  out,  must  depend  on  the 
nearness  and  cheapness  of  fuel,  on  the  skill  that  can  be  commanded 
on  the  spot,  and  on  the  supply  of  richer  ores  available  and  as  yet 
unhandled.  Three  fourths  of  the  precious  metal  is  taken  from  ore 
as  follows  :  — 

The  rock  is  taken  to  stamp  mills,  which  consist  of  iron  cylinders, 
weighing,  say  one  hundred  pounds,  raised  about  a  foot  from  an 
anvil  or  die,  and  allowed  to  fall  on  the  ore  as  it  is  pushed  under 
the  point  where  the  blow  falls.  This  pounding  produces,  after 
some  hours,  a  paste  or  pulp  of  the  ore  as  water  is.  freely  admitted 
into  the  mortar.  Then  the  pulp  flows  to  a  metallic  pan  with 
grooves  in  its  bottom,  which  grooves  are  loaded  with  quicksilver ; 
above  the  grooves  there  is  a  false  bottom  of  iron,  in  ridges  against 
which  the  pulp  is  ground  by  arms  that  revolve  on  an  axis  at  the 
centre.  This  grinding  and  revolving  has  a  tendency  to  bring  every 
part  of  the  pulp  or  argentiferous  mud  in  contact  with  the  mercury. 
The  nature  of  mercury  is  to  attract  or  absorb  the  two  precious 
metals,  thus  forming  an  amalgam  or  mercurial  paste.  Straining 
through  buckskin  parts  the  precious  metals  from  the  mercury,  and 
this  can  be  used  in  the  amalgamating  pans  to  absorb  more  silver 
and  gold.  The  product  obtained  by  straining  is  brittle  and  sand- 
like,  but  heat  melts  it  down  to  a  brick  or  bar  of  bullion  ;  and  the 
Bank  of  California,  and  many  private  bankers,  give  gold  and  silver 
coin  for  these  bricks. 

From  1859  to  1866  the  total  product  of  the  mines  on  the  Com¬ 
stock  lode  was  about  seventy  million  dollars.  This  brilliant  suc¬ 
cess  has  stirred  up  wonderful  enterprise  in  all  parts  of  the  rock 
mountain  and  sierra  region.  It  is  found  that,  while  the  Comstock 
is  the  thickest  and  the  longest  vein  ever  developed,  there  are 
thousands  of  lodes  two  feet  and  three  feet  thick,  and  eighteen 
inches  thick,  that  yield  rich  ores.  The  mountains  of  Colorado  are 
full  of  such  veins.  Idaho  and  Montana  repeat  the  history  of  Ne¬ 
vada  and  Virginia  City  on  a  smaller  scale;  and  of  late  the  Wa¬ 
satch  range,  that  towers  above  Salt  Lake  Valley,  has  been  found 
rich  in  silver-bearing  lodes. 

In  general  the  more  westerly  mines,  as  those  of  Nevada  and 


1006 


SILVER  MINING. 


Idaho,  have  yielded  their  silver  with  least  expense.  The  ores  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  proper  —  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Colorado 
mines  —  are  sufficiently  rich,  but  they  consist  of  a  perplexing 
combination  of  uncommon  and  refractory  metals.  Some  Colorado 
ores  contain,  besides  the  two  precious  metals,  copper,  bismuth, 
nickel,  antimony,  iridium,  rhodium,  lead,  and  tin.  It  requires  six 
or  seven  successive  and  expensive  processes  to  free  the  silver  from 
these  complicated  connections.  But  every  year  our  metallurgists 
are  gaining  ground  in  their  struggle  with  refractory  ores.  For 
example,  the  Cariboo  mines,  in  Colorado,  have  been  so  successfully 
worked  the  past  year  that,  if  the  product  were  equally  divided 
between  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  each  would  have  six 
hundred  dollars.  But  counting  all  the  industry  of  the  hardy  and 
ill-requited  prospectors  described,  and  the  loss  from  valuable  tail¬ 
ings  that  as  yet  we  cannot  economically  save,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  any  industry  gives  such  irregular  and  unsatisfactory  re¬ 
turns  as  silver  mining.  A  few  it  has  made  very  rich,  but  the  many 
it  rewards  poorly,  yet  lures  them  by  deceptive  appearances  to  a 
longer  investment  of  time  and  a  larger  outlay  of  capital. 

Yet  so  extensive  are  the  mineral  lands  of  this  continent,  and  so 

rich  are  many  of  the  ledges  that  are  opened,  that  the  sum  total  of 

silver  bullion,  or  bullion  in  which  silver  is  the  chief  element  of 

value,  sums  up  in  impressive  figures.  There  is  much  discrepancy 

and  difficulty  in  estimating  how  much  may  be  quietly  carried  away 

in  the  purses  of  modest  placer  miners  who  seldom  report  their  luck, 

but  the  opinion  of  those  who  have  the  'best  opportunities  of  know- 

% 

ing  is  that  our  annual  product  is  one  hundred  millions. 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 

THE  MODERN  INCREASE  OF  WEALTH.  —  ITS  CAUSES  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  —  CHANGE 
•  IN  THE  NATURE  OF  WEALTH.  —  SAFES  IN  ANTIQUITY.  —  AMONG  THE  EGYP¬ 
TIANS.  —  THE  GREEKS.  —  THE  ROMANS.  —  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  —  ROB 

roy’s  safe.  — first  importation  of  safes.  — first  fire-proof  safes. — 

VARIOUS  METHODS  PROPOSED.  —  STEAM  SAFES.  —  LOCKS.  —  MODERN  INVEN¬ 
TION  OF.  - LOCK-PICKING  A  STUDY.  —  CHARACTER  OF  AMERICAN  SAFES.  — 

THE  HALL  SAFE  AND  LOCK  COMPANY  OF  CINCINNATI.  —  EXTENT  OF  THEIR 
BUSINESS.  — METHOD  USED  IN  CONSTRUCTING  THEIR  SAFES.  — PUBLIC  AP¬ 
PRECIATION  OF  THEM.  —  BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  OF  MR.  JOSEPH  L.  HALL. 

The  increase  of  wealth,  produced  by  the  industrial  advance  of 
the  present  century,  has  made  its  preservation  a  more  universal 
subject  of  interest  than  ever  before  in  the  world.  While  the 
wealth  of  the  community  has  largely  increased,  the  holders  of  in¬ 
dividual  wealth  have  multiplied  in  a  much  greater  ratio.  The 
greater  opportunities  for  individual  success,  consequent  upon  the 
removal  of  so  many  of  the  old  obstacles  to  individual  exertion, 
together  with  the  new  spirit  of  enterprise  which  has  arisen  as  a 
result  of  the  greater  freedom  of  thought  which  the  speculation  of 
the  last  century  inaugurated,  have  resulted  in  producing  a  more 
general  diffusion  of  riches  than  was  prevalent  a  century  or  two  ago. 

The  rich  men  of  a  century  ago  were  few  in  number,  and  were  gen¬ 
erally  such  from  inheritance,  from  the  workings  of  legislative  in¬ 
junctions,  from  government  patronage,  or  some  similar  cause. 
With  the  large  mass  of  the  community  a  moderate  subsistence, 
gained  by  daily  toil,  was  considered  all  they  could  expect,  and 
any  discontent  with  this  was  repressed  by  the  moralists  as  an  un¬ 
justifiable  discontent  with  the  wise  decrees  of  Providence,  which 
had  given  them  the  dependent  position  they  should  hold. 

To-day,  however,  the  large  majority  of  our  rich  men  have  made 
themselves  so  by  the  exercise  of  enterprise,  foresight,  or  a  wise 

(1007) 


100S 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


comprehension  of  the  opportunities  around  them  ;  while  the  num¬ 
ber  of  these  has  largely  increased,  and  energy,  enterprise,  and  an 
ambition  to  better  one’s  condition  are  the  lessons  taught  by  those 
who  assume  to  teach  the  needed  lessons  of  the  time. 

At  the  same  time,  also,  a  great  change  has  come  over  the  form 
and  the  evidences  of  the  wealth  we  possess.  In  ancient  times  the 
chief  riches,  independently  of  real  estate,  consisted  in  the  accu¬ 
mulation  of  the  precious  metals,  or  of  jewels,  while  in  the  present 
time  these  are  the  smallest  part  of  our  personal  property,  which 
consists  of  paper  representatives  of  value,  stocks,  bonds,  notes 
of  all  kinds.  In  consequence,  formerly  the  transportation  or  stor¬ 
age  of  a  large  amount  of  wealth  was  difficult  and  laborious, 
whereas  now  a  man  can  carry  in  his  pocket  evidences  of  values 
which  formerly  required  a  train  of  wagons  to  move. 

In  Egypt,  at  the  earliest  period  of  history,  the  organization  of 
government  had  attained  a  point  of  perfection  which  made  its 
treasury  an  important  interest.  The  stores  of  money  gathered 
from  the  heavy  taxes  laid  upon  the  industry  of  the  country  were 
carefully  guarded  in  securely-built  treasure-houses,  fastened  with 
locks  of  elaborate  construction. 

Wilkinson,  in  his  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians , 
describes  a  key  made  of  iron  which  he  found  in  the  ruins  of 
Thebes,  and  which  had  a  shank  five  inches  long,  the  handle  being 
made  by  a  loop  at  one  end,  while  the  other  was  turned  at  a  right 
angle,  to  form  the  operative  part  of  the  key,  which  was  furnished 
with  three  teeth,  or  points,  to  fit  into  corresponding  cavities  in  the 
lock.  Other  keys  have  also  been  found  and  described,  from  which  it 
appears  that  the  Egyptians  were  acquainted,  at  this  very  early 
period,  with  some  of  the  principles  which  have  been  supposed  to 
be  distinctive  in  modern  improvements  in  locks  ;  for  example,  that 
of  tumblers,  which  hold  the  bolt  fast  until  they  are  first  moved  by 
the  key. 

In  fact,  rudely  constructed  locks  upon  this  principle  were  also 
in  use  by  many  of  the  nations  in  Europe  during  the  middle  ages, 
though  it  has  only  recently  been  made  use  of  by  our  modem  lock- 
makers. 

In  the  Bible,  in  Judges  iii.  23,  Ehud  is  spoken  of  as  locking  a 
door  with  a  key,  and  in  the  subsequent  verses  the  use  of  another 
key  to  open  the  door  is  mentioned. 

Homer,  in  the  Odyssey,  speaks  of  Penelope  as  opening  a  ward¬ 
robe  with  a  brazen  key,  made  very  crooked,  and  provided  with  a 
handle  of  ivory. 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


1009 


The  discoveries  in  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  have  shown  that, 
among  the  Romans,  locks  of  intricate  workmanship  were  in  ordi¬ 
nary  use,  and  in  Great  Britain  keys  have  been  found  which  dated 
back  to  the  Roman  occupation  of  that  country. 

Among  the  Chinese  lock-making  has  for  a  long  time  been  well 
understood,  and  locks  constructed  upon  the  principle  of  the  famous 
Bramah  lock,  which  was  invented  in  England  in  1784,  have  been 
there  made  of  wood  from  early  times.  In  these  the  tumblers  are 
made  of  different  lengths,  intended  to  fit  exactly  the  sizes  of  the 
wards  in  the  keys. 

During  the  middle  ages  chests  for  the  safe  keeping  of  valu¬ 
ables  were  ordinary  articles  of  furniture  in  houses,  and  were 
made  very  elaborately,  strengthened  with  iron-work  of  various 
kinds,  and  furnished  with  locks  which  were  frequently  decorated 
in  very  artistic  ways.  These  chests,  which  were  really  the  safes 
of  that  time,  were  protected  from  being  broken  open  by  bands  of 
iron.  The  burglar’s  cunning  had  not  at  that  time  reached  the 
perfection  it  now  has,  and  a  modern  "cracksman”  would  laugh 
at  the  provisions  made  then  for  security.  Nor  had  the  burglars 
of  that  time  the  education  in  their  art  which  those  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  time  have,  so  that  doubtless  the  security  was  nearly  satis¬ 
factory. 

The  modern  spirit  of  enterprise  had  not  yet  arisen  to  inaugu¬ 
rate  the  struggle  for  the  mastery  between  the  "  cracksmen  ”  and 
the  safe-inventors,  and  the  contest  was  carried  on  upon  a  different 
plan.  The  wealthy  then  depended  more  upon  the  impregnable 
character  of  their  houses  than  upon  the  strength  of  the  chests 
within  them. 

With  the  advent,  however,  of  the  joint-stock  system,  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  paper  money,  and  the  commencement  of  our  modern 
commercial  activity,  wealth  began  to  assume  a  more  portable  form, 
and  large  values  began  to  be  possible  in  conveniently  small  pack¬ 
ages. 

In  Sir  Walter  Scott’s  Rob  Roy  an  admirable  instance  is  given 
of  the  simplicity  of  methods  used  in  the  rough  and  violent  condi¬ 
tion  of  society  at  that  time,  for  the  protection  of  valuables.  Rob 
Roy  shows  a  leathern  bag,  studded  with  large  headed  nails,  which 
he  had  made  for  the  protection  of  his  treasure.  The  mouth  of  it 
was  secured  with  a  lock,  and  he  was  very  proud  of  a  contrivance 
introduced  into  it,  by  which  a  small  concealed  pistol  would  be 
discharged  at  any  one  who  should  tamper  with  it  irregularly.  It 


1010 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


had  never  occurred  to  him  that  the  bag  itself  could  be  easily  cut 
to  pieces  with  a  sharp  knife,  without  in  any  way  approaching  the 
lock  so  as  to  discharge  the  pistol. 

The  incident,  which  is  said  to  have  been  founded  upon  fact, 
shows  how  little  accurate  study  had  been  given  to  their  specialty 
by  either  the  defenders  or  the  burglars  of  valuables. 

The  oaken  box  defended  by  iron  bars,  which  did  duty  for  our 
present  burglar-proof  safes  during  the  last  century,  began  in  the 
early  part  of  this  to  be  replaced  by  boxes  covered  entirely  with 
iron.  The  Ilall  Safe  and  Lock  Company,  of  Cincinnati,  0.,  have 
a  safe,  formerly  used  by  the  Marietta  Bank,  and  made  in  New 
York  in  1807,  which  is  constructed  of  oak  plank,  two  inches  in 
thickness,  bound  together  by  iron  straps,  and  thickly  studded  with 
small  nails.  It  is  “  secured  ”  by  an  ordinary  hasp  and  padlock. 

About  the  year  1820  attention  was  turned  towards  making  fire¬ 
proof  chests  for  valuables.  With  the  introduction  of  paper  rep¬ 
resentatives  of  wealth,  their  destruction  by  fire  became  possible. 
A  considerable  amount  in  any  of  the  precious  metals,  if  exposed 
to  a  conflagration,  even  though  it  was  melted,  could  be  recovered 
without  great  loss  from  the  ruins,  but  there  was  no  such  opportu¬ 
nity  with  paper. 

The  first  attempts  to  make  fire-proof  safes  appear  to  have  been 
made  in  France.  The  safes  were  made  with  double  walls,  the 
space  between  them  being  filled  with  a  non-conducting  substance, 
a  composition.  The  idea  was  quickly  taken  up  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  1843  the  first  patent  was  issued  to  Daniel  Fitzgerald 
for  making  fire-proof  safes.  This  was  afterwards  assigned  to 
B.  J.  Wilder,  and  the  safes  made  thereunder  are  known  as  the 
“  Wilder  patent.’ ’ 

In  these  the  space  between  the  walls  of  the  safe  was  left  va¬ 
cant,  dependence  being  had  on  the  non-conducting  properties  for 
heat  of  the  air  thus  enclosed  to  preserve  the  contents  of  the  safe 
thus  made.  Other  substances,  which  had  also  a  high  non-conduct¬ 
ing  power  of  heat,  were  proposed  for  the  filling  of  the  space  left 
between  the  walls,  and  numerous  patents  were  granted  for  various 
compounds. 

The  attention  of  inventors  was  the  more  directed  towards  this 
subject  by  the  occurrence  of  extensive  conflagrations,  especially 
that  of  New  York  in  1835.  Asbestos  mixed  with  plaster  of  Paris, 
clay,  alum,  fire-clay,  mica,  and  chalk,  have  each  in  turn  been  used  with 
more  or  less  e fleet,  and  in  turn  proclaimed  as  absolutely  fire-proof. 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


1011 


The  intense  heat,  however,  to  which  safes  are  subjected,  in  many 
of  the  conflagrations,  raising  them  frequently  to  a  bright-red  heat, 
and  sometimes  to  a  white  heat,  showed  that  none  of  these  fillings 
were,  as  they  claimed  to  be,  absolutely  fire-proof. 

Another  plan,  patented  by  Professor  A.  K.  Eaton,  of  New  York, 
consisted  in  using  pure  alumina,  which  he  prepared  by  a  method 
of  his  own  invention,  that  enabled  him  to  obtain  it  cheaply,  or 
mixed  with  fire-clay.  He  also  introduced  the  idea  of  using  steam 
as  a  non-conductor.  Pure  alumina,  he  found,  was  not  as  effective 
in  withstanding  heat  as  some  mixture  in  which  water  was  con¬ 
tained,  either  in  combination  as  a  paste,  or  in  the  form  of  crystal¬ 
lization.  The  theory  of  this  mixture  is,  that  when  the  safe  is 
exposed  to  an  intense  heat,  the  water  in  the  mixture  is  given  out, 
and  being  converted  into  steam,  absorbs  the  heat  and  prevents  it 
from  attacking  ,the  contents  of  the  safe.  Experiments  showed 
that  as  long  as  any  steam  was  produced,  no  excessive  heat  reached 
the  articles  contained  in  the  safe.  The  chief  objection,  however, 
against  the  use  of  safes  thus  constructed,  was  the  dampness 
caused  by  the  mixture,  and  the  mouldiness  to  which  the  contents 
of  the  safe  were  thus  subjected. 

The  protection  against  burglars  is,  However,  in  these  days  the 
most  important  point  in  the  building  of  safes.  While  the  inventors 
of  locks  and,  safes  have  been  engaged  in  devising  new  and  ingen¬ 
ious  methods  of  construction  to  attain  this  end,  the  burglars,  on 
their  part,  have  been  equally  laborious  and  shrewd  in  studying 
new  methods  for  overcoming  the  new  obstacles  offered  to  their 
successful  prosecution  of  their  profession.  The  appliances  of  a 
first-class  burglar  are  not  complete,  at  the  present  day,  unless  he 
has  an  assortment  of  drills  of  all  degrees  of  hardness,  blow-pipes 
for  taking  the  temper  out  of  the  steel  plates,  a  supply  of  powder, 
nitro-glycerine,  and  fuses,  wedges,  files,  and  saws,  together  with 
a  mirror  for  examining  the  interior  of  the  locks,  skeleton  keys, 
and  above  all,  a  thorough  experience  as  a  practical  mechanic,  to¬ 
gether  with  a  full  comprehension  of  the  details  and  the  theory  of 
lock-making. 

During  this  century  great  attention  has  been  given  both  to  lock- 
making  and  lock-picking.  The  first  great  improvement  was  the 
invention  of  the  Bramah  lock,  so  named  from  its  inventor.  This 
lock  abandoned  the  use  of  wards,  and  other  improvements  intro¬ 
duced  into  it  enabled  it  for  a  long  time  to  retain  its  reputation  as 
a  lock  which  could  not  be  picked.  It  was  picked,  however,  in 


1012 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


1851,  by  Mr.  Hobbs,  by  what  is  known  as  the  tentative  process. 
A  lock  of  this  make  had  been  publicly  displayed  for  years  in  the 
window  of  the  office,  with  a  reward  of  two  hundred  pounds  to 
any  one  who  would  pick  it.  In  the  process  Mr.  Hobbs  broke  one 
of  his  instruments,  and  was  therefore  nineteen  hours  in  succeed¬ 
ing,  but  he  afterwards  performed  the  same  feat  three  times  within 
an  hour. 

The  next  important  lock  invented  was  Chubbs’s,  which  was 
produced  in  England  in  1818.  But  this  was  also  picked  by  Mr. 
Hobbs  with  ease.  A  lock  made  by  Mr.  Pyes  was  then,  in  the 
London  Exhibition  of  1851,  offered  by  Mr.  Hobbs,  wlio  challenged 
any  one  to  pick  it.  This  feat  was  accomplished,  though  not  until 
1855,  by  Mr.  Linus  Yale,  Jr.,  of  Philadelphia,  by  what  he  called 
the  impression  process. 

In  1843  Mr.  Linus  Yale,  the  father  of  the  gentleman  last  men¬ 
tioned,  patented  a  lock  which  was  in  its  turn  considered  absolutely 
unpickable,  until  it  was  picked  by  his  son. 

The  interest  thus  excited  in  the  subject  of  safes  and  locks  by 
the  course  of  events,  of  which  we  have  given  this  rapid  sketch, 
has  so  stimulated  the  inventors  of  the  United  States  that  now  the 
safes  and  locks  of  their  manufacture  stand  confessedly  at  the  head 
of  this  industry  In  the  world.  The  testimony  of  Mr.  E.  B.  Deni¬ 
son,  the  celebrated  lock-maker  of  London,  is  conclusive  upon 
this  point.  Speaking  of  them,  he  says  they  are  “  vastly  superior  to 
any  we  have  ever  seen  made  in  England  ;  and  on  the  whole,  the 
United  States  are  evidently  far  ahead  of  us  in  the  manufacture 
of  both  good  and  cheap  locks.” 

Among  the  firms  engaged  in  the  United  States  in  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  burglar  and  fire-proof  safes  and  locks,  the  Hall  Safe  and 
Lock  Company  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  stands  preeminent.  The 
founder  of  this  company,  Mr.  Joseph  L.  Hall,  established  his 
business  in  Cincinnati  in  1848. 

From  the  commencement  success  crowned  his  efforts,  and  now, 
though  the  works  are  producing  from  fifteen  to  twenty  safes  a  day, 
yet  they  are  found  inadequate  to  supply  the  demand  for  them, 
and  are  to  be  greatly  enlarged.  There  is  nothing  strange  in  the 
increase  of  this  demand,  when  it  is  remembered  that  in  the  course 
of  their  business  career  the  Hall  Safe  and  Lock  Company  have 
sold  over  fifty  thousand  of  their  safes,  and  have  yet  to  learn  of 
the  first  instance  in  which  a  safe  of  their  manufacture  has  failed 
to  prove  itself,  when  tested,  absolutely  burglar  or  fire  proof. 


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SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


1015 


The  method  of  construction  used  in  these  safes  makes  them  im¬ 
pregnable  to  any  appliance  in  use  by  the  most  expert  burglars. 
The  doors,  which  are  generally  the  weak  point  of  a  safe,  are  con¬ 
structed  of  plates,  so  dovetailed,  and  fitting  correspondingly  into 
the  jambs,  that  the  wedge,  the  most  effective  implement  used  by 
the  burglar,  is  perfectly  powerless  against  them,  while  the  accu¬ 
racy  with  which  they  fit  offers  no  opportunity  for  any  crevice  into 
which  nitro-glycerine,  or  any  other  explosive  fluid,  can  be  intro¬ 


duced. 

The  body  of  the  safe  being  also  constructed  of  alternate  plates 
of  iron,  welded  iron  and  steel,  carbonized  and  decarbonized  steel 
and  crystal  steel,  fastened  together  by  bolts  from  the  inside, 
effectually  prevents  them  from  being  forced  by  sledge-ham¬ 
mers,  jimmies,  jack-screws,  or  any  other  burglarious  instru¬ 
ment.  Their  fire-proof  qualities  are  also  secured  by  a  filling  of 
Hall’s  patent  concrete,  which  makes  them  absolutely  proof  against 
both  fire  and  damp.  In  addition  to  the  fire-proof  filling,  the  safes 
made  by  this  company  are  provided  with  Hall’s  patent  combina¬ 
tion  locks,  varied  for  each  safe,  many  of  which  are  supplied  with 
an  automatic  rotary  movement,  and  consequently  operated  with¬ 
out  any  arbor  or  spindle  passing  through  the  door  into  the  lock, 
rendering  it  impossible  to  pick  them  by  any  process  yet  in¬ 
vented. 

The  many  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  break  down  the 
reputation  of  these  locks  have  only  served  to  strengthen  the  good 
opinion  in  which  they  are  held  by  those  most  interested,  viz.,  the 
bankers  of  the  country.  The  challenges  and  tests  which  have 
been  made  by  expert  lock-pickers,  as  a  consequence  of  the  supe¬ 
rior  claims  made  for  Hall’s  patent  locks,  partake  more  of  the 
character  of  romance  than  of  a  history  of  mechanics  ;  and  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  here,  that  every  attempt  made  to  pick  or  discredit 
them  has'  signally  failed,  and  that  they  are  to-day  superior  to  all 
other  locks. 

Justly,  therefore,  the  Hall  Safe  and  Lock  Company  claim  that 
they  produce  safes  which  are  absolutely  fire  and  burglar  proof,  and 
their  claim  is  supported  by  numerous  testimonials  from  those  who 
have  used  them,  all  over  the  country.  As,  with  these  merits,  the 
organization  of  their  manufactory  and  the  magnitude  of  their 
operations  enable  them  to  carry  on  their  business  in  the  most 
economical  manner,  they  are  enabled  to  offer  to  the  commercial 
world  the  most  perfect  security  at  the  cheapest  possible  rate, 


1016 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


and  the  favor  with  which  the  public  has  received  their  wares 
shows  that  they  have  done  this  most  effectively. 

Mr.  Joseph  L.  Hall,  before  referred  to  as  the  founder  of  the 
Ilall  Safe  and  Lock  Company  of  Cincinnati,  is  a  representative 
man  among  the  manufacturers  of  the  Great  West.  By  perseverance, 
skill,  and  foresight  he  has,  from  a  small  and  almost  insignificant 
beginning,  built  up  a  business  of  colossal  proportions.  Mr.  Hall 
was  born  in  Salem  County,  N.  J.,  in  1823.  From  there  his 
father  removed  to  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and,  in  1831,  to  Pittsburg, 
Pa.,  where,  in  1846,  he  and  his  father  commenced,  in  a  small  way, 
the  manufacture  of  fire  and  burglar-proof  safes  and  locks.  In 
1848  they  removed  the  business  to  Cincinnati,  and  in  a  few  years 
the  father  relinquished  it  into  the  hands  of  his  son,  who,  associ¬ 
ating  with  himself,  from  time  to  time,  capitalists  to  prosecute  his 
enterprises,  continued  the  business,  building  it  up,  little  by  little, 
until  it  is  now  one  of  the  heaviest  branches  of  Cincinnati’s  exten¬ 
sive  manufactures. 

The  biography  of  Mr.  Hall,  if  fully  written,  would  embrace  a 
history  of  the  rise  of  a  great  branch  of  industry  from  a  small  be¬ 
ginning  until  the  time  when  it  has  reached,  in  the  face  of  opposi¬ 
tion  and  innumerable  difficulties,  a  position  commanding  the  respect 
of  all. 

Mr.  Hall  has  not  attained  the  position  of  a  leading  inventor  and 
manufacturer  without  difficulty  and  labor.  The  ever-increasing  dan¬ 
gers  from  fire,  and  the  growing  skill  and  audacity  of  burglars,  have 
demanded  constant  and  steady  improvements  in  the  construction 
of  fire-proof  safes  and  burglar-proof  bank  locks  and  vaults.  To 
this  end  has  the  labor  of  his  life  been  devoted,  and  as  each  suc¬ 
cessive  improvement  has  been  made  and  introduced  by  him,  it  has 
been  assailed  by  rivals,  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  Ilis  fire¬ 
proof  safes  have  been  subjected  to  the  most  severe  tests  which 
the  ingenuity  of  competitors  could  devise,  and  his  locks  have 
undergone  every  trial  which  is  known  to  experts  and  burglars, 
but  they  have  in  every  instance  vindicated  their  invulnerabil¬ 
ity.  While  Mr.  Hall  has  acted  upon  the  defensive  in  all  these 
trials,  he  has  never  yet  retaliated  by  challenging  the  work  of 
others,  being  content  with  the  success  which  his  own  has  enjoyed. 

Mr.  Hall  is  now  in  the  prime  of  life,  youthful  in  appearance, 
blessed  with  a  strong  constitution,  sanguine  temperament,  and  in¬ 
domitable  perseverance.  Successful  in  business,  he  is  possessed 
of  a  handsome  competence  gained  by  his  own  exertions. 


HALL’S  FIRE  AND  BURGLAR  PROOF  SAFE. 


V 


TRANSPORTING  A  SAFE- 


SAFES  AND  SAFETY  LOCKS. 


1010 


In  1861  the  business  of  Joseph  L.  Hall  &  Co.  had  grown  to  such 
proportions  that  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  incorporate  the  house 
into  a  joint  stock  company,  and  the  same  was  done  under  the 
name  of  the  Hall  Safe  and  Lock  Company,  with  Mr.  Hall  as  presi¬ 
dent  and  treasurer.  Under  his  skilful  management  its  business 
and  reputation  have  been  extended  to  every  city  in  the  Union,  and  to 
many  places  in  Europe,  and  his  name  is  known  as  a  tower  of  strength 
wherever  there  are  valuables  to  be  secured  against  fire  or  burglars. 

In  the  great  fires  which  made  memorable  the  years  1810-71,  in 
Urbana,  and  Chicago,  Ill.,  and  the  many  towns  in  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin  which  were  almost  totally  destroyed  by  fire,  the  safes 
made  under  Mr.  Hall’s  patents  demonstrated  their  inestimable 
qualities.  They  were  proven  to  be  the  only  ones  which  were 
absolutely  secure ;  and  Mr.  Hall’s  name  is  blessed  by  thousands 
who  found,  after  the  fires,  that  all  the  property  they  had  in  the 
world  was  that  which  had  been  preserved  to  them  by  his  safes  —  a  * 
proud,  record  for  any  man,  but  fairly  earned  by  him  in  a  life  of  in¬ 
cessant  study  and  toil. 


RAILROADS. 


INAUGURATION  OF  THE  RAILROAD  ERA.  — THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  RAILROAD.  . — 
THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  RAILROAD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  ORGAN¬ 
IZATION  OF  THE  RAILROAD  IN  EUROPE  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  COMPARED.  — 
THE  BELGIAN  SYSTEM.  —  THE  RAILROAD  SYSTEM  OF  ENGLAND,  AND  ITS  RE¬ 
SULTS.  —  THE  RAILROAD  SYSTEM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  - COMBINATION  VS. 

COMPETITION.  —  CONSOLIDATION  AND  MONOPOLY.  —  GOVERNMENT  LAND 
GRANTS.  —  RAILROAD  FINANCIERING.  — THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RAILROAD. 

t  •  -  -  a  ),.«!«•  -  ■  »  '  . 

Inauguration  of  the  Railroad  Era. 

Though  the  railroad  has  not  been  invented  fifty  years,  and 
though  within  this  short  space  of  time  it  has  become  an  absolute 
necessity  for  the  transaction  of  the  world’s  commerce,  and  one  of 
the  most  important  agencies  in  the  activity  of  our  modern  life,  still 
the  world  at  large  is  hardly  yet  aware  of  its  importance,  of  the 
dangers  with  which  it  threatens  the  modern  democratic  theory  of 
social  organization,  nor  of  the  best  means  which  it  is  necessary  to 
take  in  order  to  avert  these,  and  reduce  this  threatening  master 
of  the  commonwealth  to  its  proper  position  as  a  servant  of  the 
public  interest. 

The  railway  was  not  complete  until  the  idea  of  the  locomotive, 
as  an  agent  for  the  transportation  on  a  level  iron  track,  was  prac* 
tically  realized.  Before  this  was  done,  iron  tramways  had  been 
for  a  long  time  used  in  England  for  facilitating  the  transportation 
of  coal  and  other  heavy  products  in  mining  districts  ;  but  the  cars 
were  all  drawn  by  animal  power.  With  the  invention  of  the  steam 
engine,  it  was  suggested  that  stationary  engines  should  be  used  for 
the  purpose  of  dragging  the  loaded  cars.  With  the  first  suggestion 
of  a  locomotive  engine,  the  idea  was  considered  absurd,  and  there 
were  plenty  of  practical  mechanics,  who,  having  never  seen  such 
an  innovation  upon  the  established  methods  in  practical  use,  were 
zealous  in  demonstrating  by  figures  that  it  was  impossible  to  make 
a  locomotive  engine  which  would  be  able  to  move  itself,  much 
more  to  drag  any  load  after  it.  The  driving-wheels,  they  '  aid, 
(1020) 


RAILROADS. 


1021 


would  simply  slip  over  the  track.  To  the  mind,  however,  of 
George  Stephenson,  a  coal  miner  of  Northumberland,  England, 
where  this  project  for  the  transportation  of  coal  was  then  exciting 
attention,  such  theoretical  objections  did  not  have  sufficient  weight. 
With  a  practical  scepticism  for  all  unverified  hypotheses,  at  least 
in  the  domain  of  mechanics,  he  preferred  to  wait,  before  insisting 
positively  upon  his  opinion,  until  the  facts  in  the  case  were  arrived 
at  by  actual  experiment ;  and  having  by  this  simple  method  dis¬ 
covered  that  a  locomotive  was  competent,  not  only  to  move  itself, 
but  also  to  drag  a  heavy  load,  he  devoted  himself  to  its  practical 
demonstration,  and  thus  earned  for  himself  the  well-deserved  repu¬ 
tation  as  the  originator  of  the  modern  railroad. 

On  the  6th  day  of  October,  1829,  he  drove  his  little  experimen¬ 
tal  locomotive,  “  The  Rocket, ”  from  Manchester  to  Liverpool  and 
back.  This  locomotive  weighed  only  four  tons  and  a  quarter  ; 
but,  besides  showing  it  was  really  a  locomotive  engine,  further 
astonished  those  interested  in  the  experiment  by  travelling  at  the 
rate  of  thirty  miles  an  hour.  It  was  thus  that  the  new  era  of 
transportation  was  inaugurated,  and  mankind  acquired  the  ability  to 
create  an  activity  in  the  circulation  of  the  products  of  industry 
and  for  travel,  which  has  made  possible  the  intensity  of  our  modem 
life,  and  has  done  more  in  forty  years  to  extend  the  feelings  of  mu¬ 
tual  sympathy  among  distant  nations,  and  to  bind  different  peoples  in 
the  bonds  of  friendly  interdependence,  thus  hastening  the  advent 
of  the  era  of  universal  fellowship  and  aid,  than  all  the  forty  centu¬ 
ries  of  the  preceding  historic  times  of  civilization  had  done.  . 

The  Growth  of  the  Railroad. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  results  which  the  railroad  has  reached 
within  the  short  forty  years  of  its  existence,  the  few  following  esti¬ 
mates  are  interesting.  It  has  been  computed  that  in  18*10  there 
were  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  miles  of  railroads 
constructed  in  the  world,  and  that  they  had  cost  on  an  average  about 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  mile  for  their  construction  and 
equipment,  having  thus  led  to  the  creation  of  an  invested  capital 
of  some  twelve  thousand  millions  of  dollars  —  an  amount  of 
wealth  which  can  be  represented  in  figures,  but  which  is  too  vast 
to  be  grasped  by  the  mind  so  as  to  be  clearly  comprehended. 

In  the  United  States,  where  the  railroad  has  become  more  a 
necessary  condition  of  existence  than  in  any  other  country,  with 
the  exception,  perhaps,  of  England,  there  were,  in  18*11,  nearly 


1022 


RAILROADS. 


fifty  thousand  miles  of  railroads  constructed,  and  the  yearly  in¬ 
crease  had  risen  from  an  average  of  five  hundred  miles  yearly  some 
thirty  years  ago,  or  two  thousand  miles  ten  years  ago,  to  twenty 
thousand  miles  in  1871.  This  being  the  estimated  amount  of  miles 
which  were  during  this  year  in  course  of  construction,  and  which 
were  to  cause  the  expenditure  of  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 

The  social,  the  financial,  the  commercial,  and  the  industrial  ef¬ 
fects,  which  are  the  inevitable  results  of  this  new  agent,  may  well 
excite  the  serious  and  careful  attention  of  us  all,  and  must,  of 
course,  alarm  those  who  have  no  method  by  which  to  study  such 
questions. 

The  Introduction  of  the  Railroad  in  the  United  States. 

At  the  same  time  that  Stephenson  was  preparing  his  locomotive 
in  England  for  its  experimental  trip,  this  country  was  agitated 
upon  the  question  of  internal  improvements ;  and  the  Cumberland 
Turnpike  being  then  the  special  application  of  the  principle  which 
was  under  discussion,  the  political  parties  were  vehement  in  their 
declarations  for  and  against  the  proposal  to  aid  its  construc¬ 
tion  by  governmental  assistance.  To  the  debate  upon  this  question 
Henry  Clay,  the  great  advocate  of  the  system  of  internal  improve¬ 
ments,  brought  all  the  force  of  his  eloquence,  and,  by  his  advocacy 
of  this  special  measure,  hoped  to  have  gained  the  eternal  thanks 
of  his  countrymen  ;  but  now  no  one  thinks  of  the  Cumberland 
Turnpike,  for  the  country  has  risen  to  the  necessity  of  railroads  to 
the  Pacific,  and  it  is  not  the  union  of  the  sections  of  the  country 
divided  by  a  range  of  mountains  which  demands  the  attention  of 
Congress,  but  methods  for  uniting  the  East  with  Europe  through 
the  United  States,  and  thus,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  diverting  the  course  of  the  world’s  commerce  and  exchange 
into  a  channel  directly  the  opposite  from  that  it  has  pursued  from 
the  earliest  historic  times. 

The  discussion  concerning  railroads  in  England  had,  however, 
excited  an  interest  in  their  projection  here.  The  tramway  had  been 
tried,  and  roads  had  been  built  at  Quincy,  Mass.,  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  the  blocks  of  granite  from  the  quarries  there,  and  also 
at  Mauch  Chunk,  in  Pennsylvania,  for  the  transportation  of  coal 
from  the  mines.  In  both  of  these  cases,  however,  animals  were 
depended  upon  for  the  motive  power  used  in  the  transportation. 

The  idea  of  a  steam  locomotive  had,  however,  been  suggested, 
and  though  its  practicability  had  not  yet  been  tested,  and  it  was 


RAILROADS. 


1023 


as  yet  considered  merely  as  a  “  splendid  theory,’ ’  still  there  were 
several  persons  in  this  country  who  felt  confident  of  its  eventual 
success. 

The  credit  of  first  introducing  the  use  of  steam  locomotives  has 
been  claimed  for  several  different  railroads  in  this  country,  but  there 
is  no  doubt,  though  it  is  not  generally  known,  that  it  belongs  to  the 
South  Carolina  Railroad,  from  Charleston  to  Hamburg  in  that  state. 
This  fact  appears  in  a  letter,  from  whicl}  the  following  quotation  is 
taken,  written  by  Mr.  B.  J.  Howland,  who  was  formerly  a  resident 
of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  who  was  one  of  the  early  directors  of  the 
road,  and  which  was  printed  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  for 
September  17,  1851.  The  letter  is  dated  at  New  York,  September 
15,  and,  after  alluding  to  some  facts  in  the  history  of  the  South 
Carolina  Railroad,  continues  as  follows  :  “The  facts  I  wish  to  state 
are  four.  First,  that  the  South  Carolina  Railroad,  from  Charleston 
to  Hamburg,  was  the  first  road  that  was  commenced  in  this  coun¬ 
try,  with  a  view  to  using  steam  instead  of  animal  power. 

“Second,  that  the  first  locomotive  engine  ever  built  in  this 
country  was  built  for  and  used  ofi  this  road. 

“Third,  that  it  was  the  first  road  that  carried  the  United  States 
mail. 

“Fourth,  that  when  completed  ready  for  use,  which  was  on  the 
2d  of  October,  1833,  it  was  the  longest  railroad  in  the  world. 

“  The  second  is  the  only  point  upon  which  I  desire  to  make  any 
comment  now,  and  I  do  this  because  this  fact  is  not  generally 
known,  and  when  I  had  occasion,  two  years  since,  to  state  it,  in 
conversation  with  Mr.  Disturnell,  the  great  railroad  compiler,  he 
said  it  could  not  be  so  ;  but  I  satisfied  him,  when  I  got  home,  by 
giving  him  the  same  extract  I  am  about  to  give  you.  This  extract 
is  from  a  report  made  by  Alexander  Black,  commissioner,  to  Elias 
Hovey,  president  of  the  road,  dated  May  1,  1833,  in  which  he 
says,  — 

“  'It  is  known  to  the  board,  but  not  to  the  public  generally,  that 
the  engine  now  called  the  Phoenix  was  formerly  the  Best  Friend. 
It  was  built  according  to  the  plan  and  under  the  personal  direction 
of  our  talented  and  enterprising  citizen,  E.  L.  Miller,  Esq.  Its  per¬ 
formance  was  tested  on  the  9th  of  December ,  1830,  on  which  occa¬ 
sion  it  exhibited  a  power  much  beyond  that  stipulated  for  in  the 
contract.  At  the  time  this  engine  was  engaged,  Mr.  Miller  led  the 
van  among  the  advocates  of  steam  over  horses  or  other  power  for 
railroads.  Public  opinion  was  at  that  time  much  divided  on  the 

59 


1024 


RAILROADS. 


subject.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Company  leaned  in  favor  of 
horse  power.  Nothing  daunted  by  the  weight  of  their  authority, 
Mr.  Miller  persevered,  and  with  an  unyielding  fixedness  of  pur¬ 
pose,  proposed  to  construct  an  engine  on  his  own  personal  respon¬ 
sibility,  equal  to  the  best  then  in  use  in  England.  lie  succeeded  ; 
and  to  him  belongs  the  honor  of  planning  and  constructing  the 
first  locomotive  ever  worked  in  the  United  States.' 

“  My  attention  was  drawn  to  this  subject  by  a  notice  in  Satur¬ 
day's  Bouton  Journal,  which  stated  that  the  first  locomotive  ever 
used  in  the  United  States  is  still  in  good  running  order  on  the  Lit¬ 
tle  Schuylkill  Railroad.  It  was  built  in  Liverpool,  England,  by 
Edward  Bary. 

“  I  am  disposed  to  think  this  statement  is  not  correct,  and  that 
Mr.  Miller’s  engine  was  the  first  used  in  the  country  ;  at  any  rate 
it  was  the  first  ever  built  in  the  country,  so  we  say  and  believe.  I 
think  that  Mr.  Miller’s  engine  was  built  by  the  Messrs.  Kemble,  at 
the  West  Point  Foundery.” 

From  Mr.  Black’s  report  as  commissioner,  which  is  quoted  from 
by  Mr.  Howland  in  the  above  letter,  another  singular  fact  may  be 
culled,  which  is  interesting  as  connected  with  the  early  history  of 
the  use  of  locomotives  in  this  country.  The  “  Best  Friend  ”  was 
accepted  by  the  company,  and  performed  with  entire  success  until 
the  next  summer,  without  a  single  day’s  interruption,  until  “  the 
negro,  who  acted  as  fireman,  being  incommoded  by  the  unpleasant 
noise  of  the  steam  escaping  through  the  safety-valve,  ventured  on 
the  expedient  of  confining  it  by  pressing  the  weight  of  his  body 
on  the  lever-gauge  of  the  safety-valve,  which  experiment  resulted 
in  the  explosion  of  the  boiler.” 

Whether  the  fireman  was  killed  or  not  does  not  appear ;  but  it 
was  singular  that  it  was  a  slave,  who,  from  his  ignorance  of  the 
nature  of  the  engine  he  was  ministering  to,  should  have  caused 
the  first  railroad  explosion  in  the  history  of  the  country,  and  have 
thus  injured  the  machine  which  was  destined  to  be  so  instrumental 
in  producing  the  social  movement  which  led  to  the  emancipation 
of  his  race. 

The  act  of  incorporation  of  the  South  Carolina  Railroad  was 
passed  by  the  Congress  of  the  state  the  30th  of  January,  1828, 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  the  road  was  commenced  in  1830,  and 
finished  in  1833,  while  the  trial  of  the  tl  Best  Friend  ”  was  made 
on  the  9th  oi  December,  1830,  while  the  **  Rocket,”  Stephenson’s 
first  engine,  made  its  experimental  trip  on  the  6th  of  October, 


RAILROADS. 


1025 


1829,  there  being  thus  only  thirteen  months  between  the  inaugura¬ 
tion  of  the  railway  era  of  transportation  in  England  and  the  United 
States. 

The  Organization  of  the  Railroad  in  Europe  and  the  United 

States  compared. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  men  in  Europe  and  this  country, 
who  were  practically  interested  in  the  introduction  of  the  railroad, 
the  importance  of  this  new  method  of  transportation,  and  the  so¬ 
cial  and  industrial  effects  it  was  destined  to  produce,  were  not 
clearly  foreseen.  In  England  and  this  country  its  development 
was  left  entirely  to  private  enterprise,  and  the  protection  of  the 
public  interest  could,  it  was  hoped,  be  safely  left  to  the  action  of 
competition.  In  the  other  countries  of  Europe,  however,  where 
the  democratic  idea  of  social  organization  had  not  yet  reached  so 
fully  that  phase  of  development  where  the  assertion  of  individual 
liberty  of  action  appears  to  be  of  paramount  importance,  as  pre¬ 
paring  men  for  the  liberty  of  self-government,  but  where  the  cen¬ 
tralization  of  monarchical  rule  was  still  strong,  the  governments 
saw  the  necessity  for  controlling  this  new  element  of  social  activ¬ 
ity,  and  therefore  the  railroads  were  not  allowed  to  pass  into  the 
hands  of  private  corporations. 

Most  of  the  governments  being,  however,  financially  incapable 
of  building  the  railroads  as  appendages  to  the  prerogatives  of  the 
crown,  this  want  of  money,  and  the  theory  of  constitutional  mon¬ 
archy  which  the  revolutionary  crisis  of  the  last  century  had  forced 
upon  them,  prevented  them  from  building  the  railroads  themselves  ; 
but  in  granting  to  corporate  companies  the  right  to  construct  them, 
they  accompanied  their  charters  with  certain  restrictions,  and  re¬ 
served  to  the  government  certain  privileges  and  a  right  of  partial 
supervision  over  their  management. 

In  France,  for  example,  the  title  of  the  companies  to  the  rail¬ 
roads  built  by  them  is  limited  to  ninety  years,  while  the  companies 
agree  to  carry  the  mails  free,  and  to  transport  soldiers  and  muni¬ 
tions  of  war,  when  necessary,  at  cheap  rates,  and  also  to  surren¬ 
der  the  road,  with  its  equipment  and  improvements,  into  the  hands 
of  the  government  at  the  expiration  of  their  charter.  Besides 
this,  the  government  also  retains  the  supervision  of  rates  charged 
the  public  for  freight  and  travel,  and  the  right  to  lower  them  should 
the  profits  of  the  company  be  too  great.  Upon  these  terms  the 
government  lent  its  credit  to  the  companies,  and  guaranteed  them 


1023 


RAILROADS. 


that  no  charter  should  be  granted  to  any  other  competing  compa¬ 
nies  whose  lines  should  be  so  situated  as  to  lessen  their  business. 

The  governments  of  Austria,  Prussia,  and  the  other  nations  of 
Europe,  have  made  similar  arrangements  for  the  introduction  of 
the  railroads  in  their  territory,  differing  in  special  details,  but  all 
based  upon  the  same  general  principles.  The  governments  in  all 
cases  reserving  the  right  of  exercising  a  certain  control  over  the 
rates  charged  by  the  roads,  obtaining  certain  privileges,  granting 
the  charters  only  for  a  certain  specified  term  of  years,  after  which 
the  roads  revert  to  the  governments,  lending  the  credit  of  the  gov¬ 
ernments  to  a  certain  amount  to  the  roads  to  aid  in  their  construc¬ 
tion,  and  guaranteeing  to  protect  them  from  competition. 

The  Belgian  System. 

In  Belgium  alone  of  the  continental  nations  was  a  different  poli¬ 
cy  pursued.  King  Leopold,  who  at  that  time  was  on  the  Belgian 
throne,  appears  to  have  been  the  ruler  in  Europe  who  best  com¬ 
prehended  the  exigencies  of  the  new  method  of  transportation, 
and  saw  the  necessity  for  retaining,  by  some  method  of  organiza¬ 
tion,  a  control  over  the  possible  future  power  which  it  might  de¬ 
velop.  The  Belgian  government,  therefore,  proposed  to  construct 
the  railroads,  and  to  operate  them  in  the  public  interest.  Very 
soon,  however,  it  discovered  that  this  was  a  task  greater  than  it 
could  perform  unaided  and  alone.  The  infant  railroad  system  grew 
rapidly  to  such  gigantic  size  that  to  carry  it  taxed  the  financial 
strength  of  the  government  too  severely,  and  very  early  in  its  rail¬ 
road  history  Belgium  was  forced  to  intrust  the  construction  of  a 
portion  of  its  railroads  to  private  enterprise.  In  this  way  a  mixed 
system  of  ownership  has  been  developed  in  Belgium. 

The  government  lines  are  managed  by  a  bureau,  over  which  a 
state  officer  presides,  while  the  private  lines  are  owned  and  man¬ 
aged  by  private  companies,  as  our  railroads  are.  In  1864,  by  con¬ 
solidation  of  the  lines,  the  proportion  between  these  two  systems 
stood  as  follows  :  In  the  whole  country  there  were  some  twelve 
hundred  and  forty  miles  of  railroad,  four  hundred  and  sixty  miles 
of  which  were  either  absolutely  owned  or  controlled  by  the  gov¬ 
ernment,  while  the  seven  hundred  and  eighty  miles  remaining  were 
the  property  of  private  companies.  Though  thus  the  government 
had  the  control  of  only  about  one  third  of  the  railways,  yet  this 
was  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  practically  control  the  whole  system, 
and  cause  them  all  to  be  managed  in  the  interest  of  the  public,  with 


RAILROADS. 


1027 


a  unity  of  method,  upon  a  fixed  set  of  principles,  and  thus  avoid  the 
jarring  of  competition,  with  its  constantly  changing  rates,  and  the  an¬ 
tagonism  which  all  unorganized  competition  of  necessity  produces. 

The  practical  effect  of  this  system  was  thus  stated  by  the  state 
officer  of  the  bureau  in  control  of  the  railways  in  his  report  for 
1866  :  “  The  state  railways  thus  find  themselves  placed  in  constant 
comparison  with  the  railways  worked  by  private  companies,  —  on 
the  one  hand  stimulating  them  to  constant  improvements,  and  on 
the  other  hand  acting  as  a  sort  of  check  against  any  attempt  to 
realize  extravagant  profits  at  the  cost  of  the  public.” 

Nor  was  this  all ;  but  the  government,  becoming  aware  of  the 
importance  which  the  railroad  assumes  in  the  development  of  a 
country’s  industry,  since  it  has  replaced  all  other  methods  of  trans¬ 
portation,  could  afford  to  build  a  road,  or  an  extension  when  need¬ 
ed,  and  not  be  forced  to  depend  upon  an  immediate  return,  and 
thus,  by  putting  the  tariffs  at  reasonable  rates,  wait  to  be  reim¬ 
bursed  until  the  industry  of  the  section  was  established. 

In  1856* an  instance  of  the  wise  method  which  the  Belgian  gov¬ 
ernment  has  pursued  with  its  railway  management  was  afforded. 
In  this  year  it  was  found  that  the  roads  were  losing  money.-  In¬ 
stead,  however,  of  raising  the  rates  in  order  to  increase  the  re¬ 
ceipts,  the  government  lowered  them  considerably,  trusting  that 
the  increased  commercial  activity  which  would  be  thus  brought 
into  being  would  bring  about  the  desired  end.  So  well  did  this 
policy  succeed  that,  in  1861,  a  still  further  reduction  was  made  in 
freights  upon  another  class  of  goods,  bringing  about  the  next  year 
an  increase  of  seventy-two  per  cent,  in  the  receipts. 

The  application  of  this  action,  which  had  been  found  to  produce 
such  advantageous  effects,  both  upon  the  railways  and  upon  the 
industrial  activity  of  the  country,  is  now  the  established  rule  for 
the  management  of  the  railways  in  Belgium,  and  in  1864  it  was 
extended  to  all  classes  of  freight,  except  small  parcels,  such  as  in 
this  country  are  confided  to  the  various  expresses.  From  the  re¬ 
port  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Works,  for  1864,  the  following  ex¬ 
tract  is  conclusive  as  to  the  beneficial  effects  of  this  policy  upon 
the  industry  of  the  country.  The  report  says,  “  In  eight  years, 
between  1856  and  1864,  the  charges  on  goods  have  been  lowered 
on  an  average  by  twenty-eight  per  cent.  The  public  have  sent 
2,106,000  tons  more  goods,  while  they  have  actually  saved  more 
than  $4,000,000  on  the  cost  of  carriage,  and  the  public  treasury 
has  earned  an  increased  net  profit  of  $1,150,000.” 


1028 


RAILROADS. 


Since  the  date  of  this  report  a  still  further  reduction  has  been 
made  in  the  tariff  of  freight  charges,  with  the  result  of  increasing 
the  amount  transported,  in  1864,  to  6,533,000  tons  from  4,479,000 
tons  in  1863. 

Encouraged  by  these  results,  in  1865  the  government  applied 
the  same  principle  to  the  charges  for  passengers.  A  running  scale 
of  fares  was  introduced,  diminishing  in  proportion  to  the  distance 
travelled  over  twenty-two  miles.  Up  to  this  distance  the  old 
rates,  varying  from  1.2  to  2.5  cents  a  mile,  were  retained,  and 
above  this  distance  they  decreased  rapidly,  so  that  a  ticket  for  a 
distance  over  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  miles  was  as  low  as  a  cent 
a  mile  for  the  first  class,  and  seven  mills  a  mile  for  the  second 
class.  The  result  of  this  was,  that  the  travel  for  distances  where 
the  fare  had  not  been  reduced  did  not  increase  ;  for  those  where 
the  reduction  had  been  small  the  increase  was  small,  while  for 
those  over  forty-six  miles,  where  the  reduction  was  considerable, 
the  travel  nearly  doubled. 

The  result,  therefore,  in  Belgium  of  this  system  has  been  admi¬ 
rable.  The  railroads  are  managed  in  the  interest  of  the  collective 
public,  instead  of  being  privileged  corporations,  intent  merely  upon 
increasing  their  private  gains.  •  The  roads  owned  by  the  state  keep 
the  privately  owned  roads  in  order,  preventing  them  from  taking 
advantage  of  their  facilities  for  transportation  to  overtax  the  pub¬ 
lic,  while  the  profit  made  by  the  state  roads  helps  to  pay  the  taxes 
of  the  people  required  for  the  support  of  the  government.  Be¬ 
sides  this,  there  is  harmony  in  the  place  of  discord,  unity  fnstead 
of  competition,  and  in  the  railroad  business  security  takes  the 
place  of  speculation,  and  confidence  that  of  mistrust,  while  the 
entire  influence  of  the  railroads  promotes  the  order,  stability,  and 
regularity  which  are  so  desirable  in  the  operations  of  social  and 
industrial  life. 

The  Railroad  System  of  England,  and  its  Results. 

In  England  the  introduction  of  the  railroad  was  left  to  the  action 
of  private  enterprise,  and  it  was  confidently  hoped  that  the  best 
interests  of  the  public,  for  the  cheapness  of  transportation,  would 
be  best  gained  by  opening  the  field,  in  the  widest  way,  to  the  freest 
competition.  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  in  his  prime  then,  and  with  a 
lull  conviction  of  the  accurate  working  of  the  laws  of  supply  and 
demand,  believed  that  by  their  operation  alone  could  the  best  re¬ 
sults  be  obtained  from  the  introduction  of  this  new  method  of 
transportation. 


RAILROADS. 


1029 


He  did  not  see,  and  there  were  but  few  at  the  time  who  did  see, 
—  the  railroad  was  then  too  new  for  the  data  to  have  been  gath¬ 
ered,  from  which  alone  a  reliable  opinion  could  be  formed,  —  that 
the  railroad  is  essentially  and  by  its  very  nature  a  branch  of  the 
public  interest,  in  which  competition  is  impossible;  and  that  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand  cannot  have  the  conditions  of  freedom 
which  are  absolutely  necessary  for  its  working.  Every  man  who 
wants  to  use  a  railroad  cannot  build  one  for  himself.  A  railroad  is 
a  public  necessity  ;  the  very  existence  of  many  branches  of  indus¬ 
try  are  absolutely  dependent  upon  it ;  and  the  stability  and  order, 
the  security  and  regularity  of  commercial  transactions,  which  are 
so  dependent  upon  the  ready  circulation  of  the  products  of  indus¬ 
try,  could  no  more  be  intrusted  to  the  selfish  competition  of  pri¬ 
vate  parties  than  the  coining  of  money,  the  circulation  of  the 
measure  of  values,  could  be  trusted  to  the  same  class  of 
persons. 

The  result  soon  showed  this  to  be  the  case.  Railroads  were 
projected,  not  because  they  were  needed,  or  not  for  the  purpose 
of  developing  the  resources  of  certain  sections  of  the  country,  but 
solely  as  a  speculation  upon  the  fears  of  competition  of  other  lines 
already  established.  An  era  of  speculation  set  in,  and  money  was 
squandered  with  the  profuseness  of  folly.  Parliament  began  to 
legislate  with  an  intelligence  and  an  effect  similar  to  that  displayed 
by  our  own  Congress  during  the  gold  speculations  of  the  last  war, 
when,  by  legislative  enactment,  it  was  attempted  to  regulate  the 
price  of  gold.  The  rates  to  be  charged  for  freight  and  passage 
were  so  involved  in  the  complicated  verbiage  of  innumerable  acts 
of  Parliament  that  it  was  about  as  impossible  to  arrive  at  a  clear 
understanding  of  what  it  was  necessary  to  charge,  as  it  is  to  arrive 
at  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  provisions  of  our  own  tariff. 
There  was  competition  among  rival  lines,  until  they  combined  to¬ 
gether  against  the  public  ;  and  this  simple  panacea  for  their  own 
ills  the  managers  soon  showed  a  wonderful  astuteness  in  discover¬ 
ing.  The  rudiments  of  the  art  of  stock  watering  were  invented. 
The  virtue  of  fictitious  dividends  was  made  clearly  apparent. 
The  value  of  the  stock  of  any  railroad  was  a  question  to  be  de¬ 
cided,  not  by  calculation  of  receipts  and  expenditures,  but  from 
the  quotations  of  the  stock  board,  where  gambling,  and  not  indus¬ 
try,  is  the  recognized  business  of  life. 

With  all  this,  to  be  sure,  the  roads  were  built  and  operated,  and 
this  benefit  the  public  obtained  ;  but  there  was  no  unity  of  pur- 


1030 


RAILROADS. 


pose,  and  no  certainty  of  dependence  to  be  put  upon  their  action. 
The  constant  fluctuation  in  the  tariff  of  their  charges,  according  as 
competition  or  combination  ruled  the  day,  destroyed  all  possibility 
of  precision,  and  forced  all  the  industry  which  depended  upon 
them  for  transportation  to  become  more  or  less  a  gambling  occu¬ 
pation.  The  reckless  and  loose  manner  in  which  things  were  done 
appeared  recently  in  the  discrepancy  between  the  accounts  of  Sir 
Morton  Peto  and  the  London,  Chatham,  and  Dover  Railway.  Sir 
Morton  claimed  that  the  railroad  owed  his  house  some  six  millions 
of  pounds,  while  the  railroad  claimed  that  the  house  owed  it  some 
two  millions  of  pounds.  These  amounts,  taken  from  memory,  may 
vary  from  the  fact  a  million  or  two  of  pounds,  but  in  such  a  case 
entire  accuracy  is  of  small  value. 

The  result  finally  came.  A  commercial  crisis,  a  railroad  crash, 
and  now  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  entire  railway  system  of  Eng¬ 
land  is  bankrupt,  while  the  necessity  that  Parliament  should,  as 
it  has  been  suggested,  take  the  management  of  all  the  railroads  in 
England  into  its  own  hands,  in  order  to  save  to  the  stockholders 
what  fragments  of  their  investments  may  remain,  is  steadily  be¬ 
coming  more  and  more  apparent.  The  injury  and  disaster  which 
has  been  wrought  in  England  among  the  honest  and  bona  fide  hold¬ 
ers  of  the  stock  of  the  railroads,  who  had  frequently  invested  their 
entire  means  in  these  companies,  seduced  into  doing  so  by  their 
confidence  in  the  list  of  directors,  is  frightful  to  contemplate,  and 
suggests  how  futile  it  is  to  trust  to  the  integrity  or  capacity  of  an 
irresponsible  body  of  directors,  and  how  incompetent  such  a  set 
of  persons  is  to  manage,  with  even  ordinary  financial  intelli¬ 
gence,  so  important  a  branch  of  the  public  interests,  upon  which 
the  well-being  of  society  so  greatly  depends. 

Legislation  in  such  matters  is  as  futile  as  to  blow  against  the 
wind.  Men  are  the  result  of  their  conditions  ;  and  what  is  wanted 
is  some  new  method  for  the  organization  of  the  administration  of 
such  important  public  interests  as  the  railway  has  become,  upon  . 
entirely  new  principles,  than  simply  those  which  have  been  found 
so  utterly  worthless  to  secure  stability  and  security  in  the  com¬ 
petitive  organization  of  the  railways  in  England. 

The  Railroad  System  in  the  United  States. 

In  the  United  States,  however,  the  railroad  era  has  displayed  a 
vigor  oi  development  as  far  surpassing  that  of  any  other  country 
as  the  industrial  activity  of  the  people  is  pre-eminent  among  the 


RAILROADS. 


1031 


\ 

nations.  The  peculiarities  of  our  social  and  political  organization 
have  also  developed  peculiarities  and  methods  which  are  entirely 
our  own.  Here,  as  in  England,  individual  enterprise  and  the  vir¬ 
tues  of  competition  were  trusted  as  competent  to  introduce  the 
railroad,  and  protect  the  public  interest. 

When  the  railroad  was,  first  introduced  into  the  United  States, 
there  was  not  the  knowledge  or  the  experience  in  the  world  to 
thoroughly  comprehend  the  nature  of  the  influence  it  was  destined 
to  have,  or  to  forecast  its  future.  Politics  had  hardly  yet  become 
a  science,  while  the  method  for  the  study  of  social  questions  had 
not  yet  been  arrived  at.  Neither  analysis,  synthesis,  or  com¬ 
parison,  the  only  means  by  which  any  positive  conceptions  of  social 
questions,  or  the  requirements  of  social  organization  can  be  ar¬ 
rived  at,  could  be  applied  to  its  consideration.  The  data  for  anal¬ 
ysis  had  yet  to  be  gathered  by  experience  ;  synthesis,  for  the 
same  reason,  was  powerless  to  act,  while  comparison  was  equally 
incompetent  from  the  want  of  materials  to  compare.  Had  we  been 
able  to  foresee  that  this  new  method  of  transportation  was  destined 
to  replace  substantially  all  others  in  use  up  to  the  time  of  its  in¬ 
troduction,  and  that  a  new  era  of  industrial  and  commercial  activ¬ 
ity  would  be  founded  upon  it,  more  different  from  that  it  should 
replace  than  the  social  organization  of  a  pastoral  people  differs 
from  that  of  a  savage  tribe,  who  have  not  yet  learned  to  domesti¬ 
cate  any  animals,  or  use  their  muscular  strength  for  their  own  pur¬ 
poses,  the  importance  of  so  organizing,  a  control  of  it  that  it  should 
be  made  the  obedient  agent  of  the  public,  instead  of  the  tyrannical 
master,  would  have  been  clearly  seen. 

But  so  little  were  the  politics  of  that  time  guided  by  a  scientific 
method,  and  so  entirely  were  its  issues  those  of  mere  party,  rarely, 
if  ever,  rising  to  the  plane  of  universal  principles,  that,  though  the 
whole  country  was  agitated  upon  the  question  of  internal  improve¬ 
ments,  the  railroad  was  allowed  to  enter  in  and  usurp  the  place  of 
the  roads  then  engaging  public  attention,  without  its  being  sug¬ 
gested  that  it  was  a  method  of  transportation  much  more  worthy 
of  the  study  of  the  people,  since  it  was  much  more  capable  of 
subserving  their  needs. 

This  was  the  first  mistake  made  with  the  railroad.  The  lines 
should  have  been  built  by  the  same  system  as  that  used  with  the 
ordinary  roads  and  turnpikes.  They  should  have  been  considered 
public  property,  and,  as  public  improvements,  have  been  built  and 
operated  in  the  public  interest.  But  it  is  now  too  late  to  bewail 


1032 


RAILROADS. 


concerning  what  should  have  been,  nor  is  it  an  American  charac¬ 
teristic  to  thus  waste  the  time.  The  chief  point  of  interest  is  to 
obtain  a  clear  idea  of  what  is  the  present  condition  of  affairs,  and 
the  best  method  for  remedying  the  effects  of  our  mistakes. 

Combination  vs.  Competition. 

Every  one  who  is  dependent  upon  a  railroad,  —  and  we  are  each 
of  us  in  this  condition, — either  actually  for  our  own  travel,  or  proxi- 
mately  for  the  transportation  of  the  industrial  products  which  we 
consume,  has  an  instance  furnished  him  of  how  futile  was  the  ex¬ 
pectation  that  competition  among  the  various  railways  would  pro¬ 
duce  cheap  fares.  The  physical  condition  of  the  United  States 
prevented  many  attempts  at  competition.  In  a  thickly  settled 
country  like  Europe,  divided  into  small  states,  and  with  important 
cities  separated  by  short  distances,  there  is  room,  perhaps,  for 
competing  lines  ;  but  even  in  the  oldest  settled  portions  of  this 
country  the  important  cities  are  widely  distant,  and  therefore  it 
requires  so  large  an  expenditure  to  connect  them  by  a  railroad  that 
competing  lines  are  almost  impossible.  On  the  other  hand,  also, 
at  the  time  of  the  introduction  of  the  railroad,  the  westward 
movement  of  emigration  was  gathering  strength,  and  quickly  rec¬ 
ognized  in  the  railroad  its  most  powerful  ally.  Railroads  in 
Europe  are  built  to  connect  centres  of  population  ;  but  in  the 
west  the  railroad  itself  builds  the  cities.  Pushing  boldly  out  into 
the  wilderness,  along  its  iron  track  villages,  towns,  and  cities 
spring  into  existence,  and  are  strung  together  into  a  consistent 
whole  by  its  lines  of  rails,  as  beads  are  upon  a  silken  thread. 

Competition,  in  such  circumstances,  is  impossible ;  and  very  soon 
after  the  commencement  of  the  railroad  era  the  process  of  combina¬ 
tion  began,  and  has  finally  produced  the  present  era  of  consolida¬ 
tion.  Elsewhere  in  this  work  we  have  already  seen,  with  steam 
navigation,  how  prompt  its  introducers  were  to  see  the  greater  ad¬ 
vantage  to  themselves  of  combination  against  the  public,  and  thus 
to  create  monopolies  in  their  own  favor.  The  railroad  was  equally 
prompt  in  attempting  the  same  thing,  and  from  its  more  fortunate 
conditions  has  uniformly,  so  far,  been  successful.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say,  that  in  the  railroad  history  of  this  country,  the  pub¬ 
lic  has  never,  for  a  period  of  twelve  consecutive  months,  been  the 
g’ainer  from  railroad  competition. 

1  here  have  been  quarrels  and  jealousies  between  rival  boards  of 
directors,  as  in  the  feudal  times  there  was  open  warfare  between 


RAILROADS. 


1033 


rival  barons,  who,  from  their  strongholds,  dominating  the  highways 
of  that  time,  levied  their  tax  upon  the  public  traffic  passing  that  way. 
But  then,  as  now,  these  jealousies  were  personal,  and  were  always 
promptly  forgotten  when  the  industrious  public  tried  to  take  advan¬ 
tage  of  them  for  its  own  benefit ;  and  the  enemies  combined  in 
friendly  leagues  against  their  common  victims,  and  sought  to  reim¬ 
burse  themselves  for  their  losses  by  further  exactions. 

'  It  is,  and  always  has  been,  easier  for  the  few  than  for  the  many 
to  combine.  They  can  the  more  readily  see  the  common  purpose 
which  they  have  in  view,  and  more  promptly  decide  upon  the  best 
means  at  hand  for  attaining  it.  The  feudal  barons  held  their  pos¬ 
session  of  the  roads  for  traffic,  and  dominated  the  industry  of  their 
times  chiefly  by  means  of  this.  They  had  the  single  purpose  of 
maintaining  their  possession  of  this  means  for  gaining  wealth. 
But  it  was  a  long  and  a  slow  process  to  combine  the  seemingly 
varied  interests  of  the  industry  of  that  time.  It  required  the  cul¬ 
ture  of  generations  before  the  people  became  aware  of  their  rights 
to  freedom  of  circulation,  and  conscious  of  the  best  methods  for 
obtaining  them.  With  the  increasing  knowledge  gained  by  expe¬ 
rience,  however,  they  came  to  question  the  claims  of  their  heredi¬ 
tary  rulers,  and  to  find  that  the  source  of  their  power  lay  only  in 
their  own  submission  to  their  rule.  The  peasant,  whose  ancestors 
had  paid  without  question  for  generations  the  taxes  imposed  by 
the  lord  for  the  right  of  transit  over  the  road  that  their  labor  had 
constructed,  came  finally  to  question  its  necessity,  and  the  over¬ 
throw  of  feudalism  was  at  hand. 

History  repeats  itself.  With  every  generation  a  new  position  in 
the  march  of  human  progress  towards  the  attainment  of  the  best 
conditions  for  development  of  our  faculties  is  reached,  and  with 
these  new  conditions,  new  social  methods  and  new  forces  are  in¬ 
troduced  into  social  questions ;  yet  human  nature  remains  the 
same,  and  the  principles  underlying  the  phenomena  of  social  prog¬ 
ress  are  constant.  It  is  only  their  application  that  varies  from 
age  to  age,  and  the  wisdom  of  a  generation  is  shown  in  the  wise 
application  it  makes  of  the  lessons  learned  from  the  experience  of 
the  past,  to  the  new  combination  of  circumstances  in  which  it 
finds  itself  placed. 

As  far  as  competition  has  existed,  its  effects  have  been  far  from 
desirable  for  industry.  Stability  and  regularity  are  required  for 
all  industrial  interests*.  The  ability  to  forecast  the  future,  and 
count  with  certainty  upon  the  conditions,  is  absolutely  necessary 


1034 


RAILROADS. 


in  this  modern  era.  The  farmer  who  raises  a  crop  becomes  dis¬ 
couraged,  if,  when  he  is  ready  to  send  it  to  market,  he  finds  the 
freights  consume  all  his  profits.  In  the  year  1869,  during  the  great 
railway  contest  between  the  New  York  Central  and  the  Erie, 
freights  between  New  York  and  Chicago  fluctuated  from  five  to 
thirty-seven  dollars  and  sixty  cents  a  ton,  and  between  New  York 
and  St.  Louis  from  seven  to  forty-six  dollars  a  ton.  While  such  a 
condition  of  things  reduces  all  commerce  between  the  chief  cen¬ 
tres  of  trade  to  mere  gambling,  with  the  demoralization  which 
gambling  necessarily  produces,  the  country  lying  along  the  lines 
suffers  even  more  severely  than  the  centres.  The  following  ex¬ 
tract  from  a  paper,  entitled  Transportation  as  a  Science,  read  be¬ 
fore  the  American  Social  Science  Association  in  New  York,  in 
October,  1869,  by  Joseph  D.  Potts,  the  president  of  the  Empire 
Transportation  Company,  shows  conclusively  the  effects  of  railroad 
competition  upon  the  local  trade  :  — 

“  Usually  competing  lines,  while  they  seek  the  same  large  cen¬ 
tres  of  commerce,  reach  them  through  different  districts.  This 
confines  their  competition  to  the  trade  of  such  centres,  while  the 
traffic  of  the  country  peculiar  to  each  line  is  not  only  uncompeted 
for,  but  subject  to  an  extra  and  often  oppressive  tax,  whereby  to 
restore  the  revenue  depletions  each  road  suffers  in  its  violent 
struggles  with  the  others  for  jointly  accessible  business.  The 
ability  to  unjustly  burden  uncompetitive  or  local  trade,  supplies 
transporters  with  strength  to -wage  prolonged  contests  for  other 
tonnage  at  less  than  cost  of  transport ;  and  this  wretched  warfare, 
indirectly  ruinous  to  the  local  business  it  overtaxes,  is  of  little 
real  benefit  to  the  property  battled,  for  as,  sooner  or  later,  truce 
is  declared,  and  if  the  truce  becomes  a  permanent  peace,  competi¬ 
tion  ceases  ;  while,  if  but  a  temporary  measure,  it  is  presently 
broken,  but  only  to  be  renewed  ;  then  renewed  only  to  be  broken  ; 
while  the  tax  on  trade  fluctuates  with  the  shattering  or  mainte¬ 
nance  of  covenants,  until  commerce  is  harassed,  and  dazed,  and 
partially  prostrated  by  its  wild,  illogical,  and  ruinous  charges.” 

Consolidation  and  Monopoly. 

Tp  those  who  are  interested  in  the  democratic  revolution  of  so- 
eiety,  the  history  of  railroad  consolidation  and  monopoly  is  full  of 
interest.  The  promptness  with  which  this  new  agent  of  social 
activity  has  been  seized  by  a  certain  class*  of  men,  and  organized 
by  them  into  a  power  more  potent  for  their  own  domination  than 


RAILROADS. 


1035 


royalty  lias  ever  been,  except  in  a  few  cases,  should  well  excite 
the  fears  of  those  who  have  no  method  to  pursue  in  the  study  of 
the  social  destiny  of  mankind. 

Here  in  the  United  States  the  political  equality  of  our  relations 
has  offered,  in  the  railroad,  a  field  for  the  exercise  of  that  kind  of 
power  which  has  a  peculiar  charm  to  men  who  have  been  bred  in 
a  commercial  era  and  in  a  republican  government.  Great  phy^si- 
cal  strength,  personal  daring,  and  the  excitement  of  war  were  the 
objects  desired  and  sought  for  by  the  rulers  of  feudal  times.  In 
an  aristocratically  constituted  society,  high  social  rank,  with  the 
social  and  political  power  it  brings,  are  the  objects  men  of  this 
kind  seek  to  gain.  But  in  a  democracy,  and  in  a  commercial  age, 
the  peculiar  power  which  the  control  of  capital  gives,  the  influence 
which  the  management  of  a  gigantic  and  well-organized  industrial 
enterprise  affords  to  its  directors,  form  at  once  the  incentives  and 
the  rewards  for  a  life  spent  in  labor  and  scheming.  The  excite¬ 
ments  of  the  stock  exchange,  the  contests  of  speculation,  the  vic¬ 
tories  of  finance,  the  applause,  the  envy,  and  the  deferential  ad¬ 
miration  of  their  fellows,  are  the  ambitions  which  excite  to  action 
a  class  of  men  who,  in  other  ages,  in  other  social  conditions,  would 
have  gone  on  a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land,  would  have  risked  their 
fortunes  and  their  lives  in  a  political  intrigue,  or  have  devoted  all 
their  energies  to  the  organization  of  some  vast  scheme  for  the 
mental,  spiritual,  or  political  enthralment  of  their  contemporaries. 

The  history  of  the  railroad  in  the  United  States  affords  numer¬ 
ous  instance  of  the  truth  of  this.  The  railway  monopoly  of  New 
Jersey  has  for  years  held  the  political  and  financial  control  of  that 
state,  and  levied  an  onerous  tax  upon  all  travel  between  the  east  and 
south.  There  is  no  question  that  the  monopoly  of  the  Camden 
and  Amboy  Railroad  has  cost  the  state  yearly  more  than  the  entire 
capital  stock  of  that  railroad  in  retarding  its  agricultural,  indus¬ 
trial,  and  educational  advance.  As  long  ago  as  1848  Mr.  Henry 
C.  Carey  showed  this  most  conclusively  in  a  series  of  letters,  in 
which,  from  careful  statistical  studies,  he  proved  this  fact.  And 
yet,  though  this  railroad  paid  for  its  monopoly  only  about  one  half 
of  the  taxation  of  the  state,  amounting,  in  1870,  to  about  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  yet  the  inhabitants  of  the  state  have 
yearly  submitted  to  this  penny  wise  and  pound  foolish  policy. 

Nor  is  New  Jersey  alone  in  her  railroad  subjection.  In  Penn¬ 
sylvania  the  combined  monopolies  of  the  mining  and  railroad  inter¬ 
ests  not  only  control  the  legislative  action  of  the  state,  but  form 


1036 


RAILROADS. 


the  chief  influence  which  has  so  moulded  the  national  administra¬ 
tion  as  to  lay  a  heavy  duty  upon  every  pound  of  iron  and  coal 
consumed  in  the  country.  It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  esti¬ 
mate  the  yearly  cost  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  of  the  tax 
thus  levied  upon  them  for  the  benefit  of  these  monopolies. 

Maryland,  Massachusetts,  and  various  other  states,  east  and 
west,  find  themselves  to-day  seemingly  powerless  in  the  grasp  of 
railroad  corporations  their  charters  have  called  into  being.  With 
the  growth  of  the  principle  of  consolidation  the  evil  is  increasing, 
and  the  domination  of  the  railroad  is  becoming  national  in  its  ex¬ 
tent.  Already  the  railway  has  stretched  across  the  continent,  and 
the  directest  patli  for  the  trade  between  the  East  and  Europe  lies 
through  the  United  States.  The  history  of  the  struggle  between 
rival  corporations  to  obtain  the  control  of  this  trade  would  occupy 
us  too  long  here,  and  is  so  recent  that  it  needs  be  only  mentioned. 

Government  Land  Grants. 

Though  the  railways  in  the  United  States  theoretically  depend 
upon  private  enterprise  for  their  introduction,  yet  many  of  them 
have  been  aided  with  grants  from  the  various  states,  either  of 
money  or  credit.  With  the  building  of  the  Illinois  Central,  a  com¬ 
mencement  was  made  in  the  system  of  land  grants,  which  has 
reached  such  gigantic  proportions  as  to  excite  alarm. 

In  this  way  millions  and  millions  of  acres  have  passed  under  the 
control  of  the  railroads,  who  thus  are  not  only  the  holders  of  the 
means  of  communication,  but  of  the  land  itself.  The  operation, 
as  first  presented  by  the  railroad,  had  a  certain  air  of  being  a 
legitimate  business  transaction.  The  land  was  wild,  and  the  rail¬ 
road  proposed,  by  the  building  of  its  line,  to  bring  it  into  the  mar¬ 
ket  for  settlement,  and  therefore  proposed  that  the  government 
should  give  away  a  title  to  the  alternate  sections  along  the  line  on 
condition  that  the  road  should  be  built,  and  that  the  increased 
value  of  the  remainder  caused  by  the  road  would  reimburse  the 
government  for  that  it  gave  away.  In  this  view  of  the  case  such 
grants  are  in  principle  simply  a  commission  paid  an  agent  for  mak¬ 
ing  a  sale. 

I  hat  upon  even  this  view  of  the  case,  the  commission  paid  was 
too  high,  is  shown  from  the  enormous  increase  of  the  business,  and 
the  eagerness  with  which  railroads  are  projected,  chiefly  for  the 
purpose  of  thus  getting  possession  of  the  land.  During  the  con¬ 
gressional  session  of  1869  and  1870,  schemes  of  projected  railways 


LAYING  THE  TRACK  OF  THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD 


t 


CROSSING  THE  PLAINS  BEFORE  THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  WAS  BUILT, 


RAILROADS. 


1039 


were  presented  to  Congress,  asking  for  appropriations  of  over  two 
hundred  millions  of  acres. 

But  to  take  a  broader  view  of  the  subject.  All  history  teaches 
that  the  possession  of  the  land  secures  the  control  of  the  legisla¬ 
tion,  nor  can  the  democratic  character  of  our  institutions  make  the 
United  States  an  exception  to  this  rule.  The  chief  chance  for  the 
continuance  of  our  republican  government  lies  in  the  fact  that 
ninety-nine  hundredths  of  our  population  are  landowners.  The 
west  has  heretofore  offered  abundant  opportunities  for  those  who 
could  not  hope  elsewhere  to  obtain  possession  of  the  land  they 
lived  on  to  gratify  this  desire  ;  so  that  there  has  been  in  this  coun¬ 
try  no  possibility  of  there  being  a  body  of  landholders  as  a  distinct 
class  from  the  rest  of  the  population,  and  who,  thus  easily  united 
by  their  mutual  interest,  should  control  the  legislation  to  suit  their 
own  purposes,  regardless  of  the  welfare  of  the  community.  When, 
therefore,  the  railroads  of  the  west,  in  addition  to  controlling  the 
means  of  transportation,  come  to  own  a  sufficient  proportion  of 
the  land  itself  to  control  the  legislation,  —  and  this  is  threatening  as 
no  very  remote  probability,  —  the  danger  of  our  republican  institu¬ 
tions  becomes  immediate  and  serious.  The  despotism  of  feudalism 
depended  for  its  support  upon  the  sword  ;  but  in  the  modern  con¬ 
dition  of  society,  legislation,  financial  methods,  and  the  control  of 
these  are  more  efficient  aids  of  despotism  than  the  sword  has  ever 
been,  since  these  influences  are  more  subtle  and  more  crushing 
than  the  sword. 

Railroad  Financiering. 

With  the  vast  expenditures  of  money  required  for  the  construc¬ 
tion  of  the  railroads,  new  financial  methods  became  necessary,  and 
in  no  department  of  industrial  activity  has  greater  ingenuity  and 
fertility  of  invention  been  displayed  than  that  developed  by  the 
railway  financiers.  The  original  subscriptions  to  the  stock  have 
only  in  rare  instances  been  sufficient  to  construct  the  road,  and  the 
deficiency  has  been  supplemented  with  bonds  of  every  conceivable 
kind  and  description.  In  the  press  of  the  claims  thus  created,  the 
original  stockholders  have  generally  found  their  investment  a  per¬ 
petual  one,  without  interest ;  but  the  roads  have  somehow  been 
built,  and  this  practical  benefit  secured  to  the  public,  even  though 
it  may  have  been  at  the  cost  of  loss  to  individuals. 

With  the  era  of  consolidation  has  arisen  the  practice  of  stock¬ 
watering.  The  mysteries  of  this  system  of  financial  engineering 
are  almost  too  complicated  and  marvellous  to  be  within  the  com- 


1040 


RAILROADS. 


prehension  of  any  but  those  who  are  practically  within  the  magic 
“ring”  which  performs  its  wonders.  Many  of  the  roads  which 
have  been  thus  consolidated  have  never  paid  any  dividends,  and  in 
the  ordinary  judgment  of  industrial  operations  would  be  classed  as 
commercial  failures  ;  but  subjected  to  this  process  they  have  be¬ 
come  instinct  with  financial  life  and  activity,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  wealth  which  the  directors  display. 

The  history  of  the  various  companies  which  have  been  consoli¬ 
dated  into  the  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Clricago  Railroad,  will 
give  an  idea  of  the  methods  pursued  in  stock-watering.  The  pro¬ 
cess  of  watering  was  early  commenced  by  this  road  as  a  method 
of  raising  money  at  an  enormous  discount.  The  transaction  was 
simply  selling  a  certificate  of  a  certain  amount  of  stock  for  much 
less  than  it  represented  on  its  face,  and  has  been  thus  described  : 
“  The  stock  subscriptions,  which  were  paid  in  cash  into  the  treas¬ 
ury  of  the  company,  were  very  small,  amounting  perhaps  in  all  to 
less  than  three  per  cent,  on  the  final  cost  of  building  and  equipping 
the  road.  The  stock  subscriptions  were  paid  for  mostly  in  uncul¬ 
tivated  lands,  farms,  town  lots,  and  labor  upon  the  road.”  “  Of  the 
eighteen  million  six  hundred  and  sixty-three  thousand  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  seventy-six  dollars,  now  representing'  the  cost  of  the  road 
and  equipment,  etc.,  the  shareholders  contributed  in  cash  only 
about  ten  per  cent.,  or  less  than  two  million  dollars;  and  their 
contributions  in  cash,  bonds,  notes,  lands,  and  personal  property, 
labor,  etc.,  amounted  to  something  less  than  four  million  dollars,  or 
rather  more  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  present  cost  of  the  work. 
The  difference  between  this  sum  and  the  capital  stock,  as  now 
shown  by  the  books  of  the  company,  is  made  up  of  dividends 
which  were  paid  in  slock  ;  interest  on  stock,  paid  in  stock  ;  premi¬ 
um  on  stock,  allowed  to  stockholders  at  the  time  of  consolidation, 
which  was  paid  in  stock ;  and  a  balance  of  stock  still  held  by  the 
trustees.” 

In  18GG  the  Fort  Wayne  Railroad  commenced  to  pay  dividends, 
and  in  18*0  the  stock  capital  stood  at  eleven  million  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  with  a  debt  of  thirteen  million  six  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  dollars,  being  some  one  million  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  more  than  the  cost  on  the  books.  This  year  a  lease  of  the  en¬ 
tire  property  was  made  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  and 
the  stockholders  had  their  option  between  dividends  of  twelve  per 
cent,  on  the  stock  then  in  existence,  or  seven  per  cent,  on  a  pro¬ 
portionately  increased  amount.  They  chose  the  latter,’  and  the 


RAILROADS. 


1041 


eleven  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  became  nineteen  mil¬ 
lion  seven  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand  dollars,  and  the  road, 
which  was  claimed  to  have  cost  twenty-four  million  dollars,  was 
represented  by  a  capital  of  thirty-three  million  four  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  dollars,  bearing  seven  per  cent  interest. 

This  single  transaction,  among  the  innumerable  ones  which  have 
taken  place  among  the  railroads  which  have  passed  through  the 
process  of  consolidation,  sufficiently  represents  the  nature  of  stock¬ 
watering.  When  it  is  remembered  that  by  similar  transactions  the 
fictitious  capital  in  the  country  has  been  increased  by  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars,  and  that  the  interest  upon  this  is  a  direct  charge 
upon  the  industry  of  the  country,  the  subject  is  seen  to  be  one  of 
very  serious  interest,  and  one  which  must  press  in  the  immediate 
future  for  settlement. 

The  Future  of  the  Railroad. 

From  what  has  been  already  said,  it  is  evident  that  the  proper 
organization  of  our  railroad  system  is  one  of  the  most  important 
subjects  now  pressing  for  solution.  In  the  legislature  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts  this  subject  has  occupied  attention  during  three  or  four 
sessions,  and  it  has  been  proposed  by  the  Board  of  Railroad  Com¬ 
missioners,  in  their  report  for  1871,  that  an  attempt  should  be 
made  by  the  state  to  introduce  the  Belgian  system. 

In  Illinois,  by  the  constitution  of  1870,  accepted  by  that  state, 
provisions  have  been  introduced  forbidding  the  creation  of  any 
corporations  by  special  laws  ;  forbidding  consolidations  ;  providing 
that  railways  shall  hereafter  be  considered  “  public  highways,  and 
shall  be  free  to  all  persons  for  the  transportation  of  their  property 
thereon,  under  such  regulations  as  may  be  prescribed  by  law. 
And  the  General  Assembly  shall,  from  time  to  time,  pass  laws 
establishing  reasonable  maximum  rates  of  charges ;  ”  that  all  fic¬ 
titious  increase  of  the  capital  stock  or  indebtedness  shall  be  void  ; 
and  that  extortion  in  the  rates  shall  be  prevented,  if  necessary,  by 
forfeiture  of  the  property  and  franchises  of  the  roads  guilty  of  it. 

Whether  legislation  of  this  kind  is  competent  to  deal  with  the 
abuses  of  the  railroad  system  remains  yet  to  be  seen.  At  least, 
however,  it  is  a  cheering  sign  that  the  public  interest  is  becoming 
roused  upon  this  subject. 

Another  plan  proposed,  by  which  the  railroads  shall  be  operated 
in  the  public  interest,  was  offered  to  the  Common  Council  of  Bos¬ 
ton,  Mass.,  by  the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  and  is  well  worth  the  at- 

60 


1042 


RAILROADS. 


tention  of  the  public.  The  possible  cheapness  of  railroad  trans¬ 
portation  is  a  subject  but  very  little  understood  by  people  gen¬ 
erally.  A  similar  remark  might  be  made  in  regard  to  most 
articles  of  manufacture  as  well,  especially  when  controlled  by 
monopolists.  Cooperation  reduces  cost  wonderfully  ;  and  absolute 
monopoly  is  a  pet  of  condensed  “  cooperation  ”  in  its  results. 
They  see  in  the  railroad  only  a  great  industrial  undertaking, 
requiring  so  large  a  capital  for  its  construction  and  working  ex¬ 
penses  as  to  be  beyond  their  individual  resources.  *  There  are 
secrets  in  every  business  ;  and  the  railroad  managers,  understand¬ 
ing  this  fact,  are  very  chary  of  giving  such  statements  of  their 
expenditures  and  receipts  as  shall  be  clearly  and  easily  understood. 
With  the  advent  of  stock-watering  the  subject  is  still  further  com¬ 
plicated.  In  consequence,  therefore,  it  is  almost  impossible,  from 
the  confused  and  garbled  financial  statements  put  forth  by  the  various 
railroad  corporations,  to  get  a  clear  understanding  of  what  is  really 
the  cost  of  the  transportation  of  a  ton  of  freight  any  certain  distance. 

Fortunately,  though,  we  have  this  information  prepared  for  us  in 
a  report  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  in  London,  England,  for  1863. 
This  report  was  made  up  from  the  returns  handed  in  to  the  British 
Parliament  from  all  the  railroads  in  that  kingdom,  and  can  conse¬ 
quently  be  relied  upon  for  its  truthfulness  and  accuracy.  From 
the  remarks  of  Mr.  Quincy,  before  the  Common  Council  of  Boston, 
we  give  the  following  extracts  :  — 

u  The  following  estimates  of  the  English  Board  of  Trade  are 
made  upon  the  principle  that  the  ordinary  current  expenses  of  the 
establishment  are  paid,  the  railway  kept  in  a  state  of  efficient  re¬ 
pair  by  the  substitution  of  new  rails  and  sleepers  for  old  ones,  and 
all  other  work  of  a  similar  kind  which  may  be  necessary,  such  as 
keeping  the  rolling  stock,  engines,  wagons,  carriages,  and  tracks 
in  order,  replacing  them  by  new  ones  when  necessary.  All  this 
outlay  is  comprised  in  working  expenses.  The  average  expendi¬ 
ture  per  train  per  mile,  taking  all  the  railways  in  the  United  King¬ 
dom,  has,  according  to  the  reports  of  the  Board  of  Trade  for  the 
year  1863,  been  two  shillings  and  seven  pence  (sixty-two  cents) 
But  it  is  necessary  to  note  the  different  items  which  go  to  form  the 
whole,  and  this  we  are  able  to  do  from  the  data  furnished  by  the 
companies,  and  reproduced  by  the  Board  of  Trade. 

“  It  is  to  be  observed  that  this  average  expenditure  per  train 
per  mile  includes  goods,  coal  and  other  mineral  trains,  conveying 
two  or  three  hundred  tons  each,  as  well  as  passengers. 


RAILROADS. 


1043 


“  Average  Cost  of  Conveying  a  Train  a  Mile. 

*  s.  d.  cents. 

Maintenance  of  way  and  works  , . 0  54  11 

Locomotive  power  . . 0  9  18 

Repairs,  and  renewal  of  carriages  and  wagons . 0  2\  5 

General  traffic  charges . 0  9  18 

Rates  and  taxes  l4cL,  government  duty  Id . *.  .  .  0  24  5 

Compensation  for  personal  injury  and  loss  of  goods  ...  0  04  1 

Legal  and  parliamentary  expenses . 0  04  1 

Miscellaneous  working  expenses  not  included  in  the  above  0  2*4 

2  7  or  63 

“  The  first  three  items,  amounting  to  one  shilling  four  and  three 
fourths  pence,  or  thirty-three  cents,  are  direct.  They  are  the  actual 
expenses  incurred  in  the  conveyance  of  each  train.  The  others, 
amounting  to  one  shilling  two  and  one  fourth  pence,  or  twenty- 
nine  cents,  embrace  the  general  expenditure  of  the  establishments, 
which  must  be  paid  whether  the  train  runs  or  not. 

Let  us  assume  for  a  moment  that  the  average  prices  per  train 
in  England  are  applicable  to  this  country,  —  and  it  is  for  those  op¬ 
posed  to  the  project  to  show  how  they  differ,  —  and  see  what  the 
result  would  be. 

“  So  much  for  English  experience.  The  presidents  of  railroads 
in  America  seem  to  find  it  as  difficult  as  the  managers  in  England 
to  ascertain  the  expense  per  mile  per  ton.  And,  as  we  are  in¬ 
formed  by  one  of  them,  that  they  . never  divide  expenses,  except  in 
their  '  report  to  the  legislature,  which  is  made  up  arbitrarily  the 
best  way  we  can/  no  satisfactory  result  can  be  obtained  from  them. 

“  I  cannot  conclude  without  a  further  quotation  from  Mr.  Galt ; 
he  says,  ‘  The  policy  hitherto  acted  upon  by  railway  directors, 
and  considering  them  as  traders,  —  not  an  unfair  one,  —  has  been 
to  keep  the  public  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  internal  working 
of  our  railway  system,  so  far  as  regards  the  extremely  low  rate  at 
which  passengers  and  goods  can  be  conveyed  on  railways.  ‘When 
the  public  come  to  know  that  a  passenger  can  be  conveyed  one  hun¬ 
dred  miles  for  twopence  half  penny,  or  five  cents,  for  which  he  is 
charged  eight  shillings  and  fourpence,  or  two  dollars,  and  that  a 
ton  of  CQal  can  be  brought  from  the  North  of  England  for  about  a 
shilling  (twenty-eight  cents),  the  cost  being  there  six  or  seven 
shillings,  and  the  price  in  London  four  or  five  times  that  sum,  it 
requires  no  prophet  to  foretell  that  the  days  of  railway  monopoly 
in  private  bauds  will,  in  this  country  (England),  soon  be  num¬ 
bered/  ” 


1044 


RAILROADS. 


If  these  facts  become  generally  known,  there  is  no  question 
that,  in  the  United  States,  the  people  will  soon  arrange  that  the 
control  of  the  railroads  shall  be  taken  from  irresponsible  parties, 
whose  interests  are  adverse  to  the  public,  and  so  organized  that 
the  transportation  shall  be  managed,  in  Mr.  Quincy’s  words,  “by  the 
people,  for  the  people.”  With  the  cheaper  methods  of  construc¬ 
tion  necessary  in  building  the  narrow  gauge  railways,  which  are 
spoken  of  elsewhere  in  this  volume,  the  expenses,  of  railways 
would  be  even  less  than  the  figures  given  in  the  above  estimate. 

In  the  limits  of  an  article  like  the  present,  it  is  manifestly  im¬ 
possible  to  enter  fully  into  all  the  historic  and  industrial  details  of 
the  railway  ;  and  the  object  with  which  this  has  been  written  was, 
therefore,  to  furnish  suggestions  of  the  tendency  of  the  railroad 
system  in  the  United  States,  and  of  the  knowledge  the  world  is 
gaining  from  its  experience,  by  which  this  new  agency,  which 
threatens  to  rule  the  industry  of  the  country,  may  be  converted 
into  its  obedient  servant.  To  bring  about  this  most  desirable  con¬ 
summation,  it  is  only  necessary  that  the  people  firmly  resolve  it, 
and  wisely  order  it. 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


THE  CONSTITUENTS  OF  BRASS.  —  THE  USE  OF  BRASS  IN  ANTIQUITY.  —  SCI¬ 
ENTIFIC  METALLURGY.  —  TIIE  ROLLING  MILL.  —  THE  CHIEF  SEAT  OF  BRASS 
MAKING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  SCOVILL  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

- ITS  HISTORY  AND  PRESENT  POSITION.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  BRASS  MANU- 

'  FACTURE.  —  ROLLING.  —  ANNEALING.  -  STRIPPING.  —  THE  SCOVILL  MANU¬ 

FACTURING  COMPANY’S  NEW  PROCESSES  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  PLATING.  — 
OF  THEIR  FACTURES  FROM  BRASS. 

Brass  is  an  alloy  of  copper  and  zinc,  in  proportions  commonly 
of  about  two  of  the  former  to  one  of  the  latter.  It  has  been  long 
known  to  the  world  and  highly  prized  for  its  ductility,  tenacity, 
beautiful  color,  and  other  desirable  qualities.  Among  the  ancients 
its  market  value  was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  silver.  The  ancients 
supposed  it  to  be  not  an  alloy,  but  a  pure  metal.  It  first  became 
known  to  them  through  the  somewhat  singular  discovery  of  a  mine 
containing  both  copper  ore  and  that  ore  of  zinc  known  as  lapis  cala- 
minaris,  or  calamine  stone.  On  fusing  these  ores  the  product  was 
found  to  be,  unlike  other  copper,  of  a  yellow  color,  and  they  called 
it  “yellow  copper/7  a  name  still  given  to  it  by  the  French. 

In  the  course  of  time  it  was  found  that  the  cause  of  the  yellow 
hue  was  the  calamine ;  and  calamine,  being  found  in  other  localities, 
was  accordingly  used  to  make  brass,  although  the  fact  that  cala¬ 
mine  was  itself  metallic  was  unsuspected.  It  was  thought  to  be 
simply  a  stone  with  a  wonderful  property  of  turning  copper  into 
a  metal  resembling  gold,  and  the  philosophers  of  that  day,  think¬ 
ing  that  if  they  could  only  hit  upon  the  right  stone,  they  could  turn 
copper  into  real  gold,  searched  vainly  during  all  their  lives  for  the 
“  philosopher’s  stone/7  which  was  to  effect  the  wonderful  trans¬ 
formation. 

Pliny  speaks  of  the  use  of  brass  soon  after  the  foundation  of 
Rome,  and  states  that  the  workers  in  it  were  formed  by  Numa, 
the  successor  of  Romulus,  into  a  kind  of  guild,  or  community. 

(1045) 


1046 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


The  early  historians  of  Rome  had  not,  however,  any  positive 
method  in  their  historical  studies,  and  depended  so  entirely  upon 
mere  tradition  that  their  statements  have  no  value  for  accuracy. 
Lucretius  states  that  the  use  of  brass  was,  however,  before  that 
of  iron.  The  term  he  uses,  which  we  translate  brass,  is  ces, 
which  is  unquestionably  translated  more  correctly  brass,  or  some 
alloy  of  the  metals,  than  copper.  From  the  manner  of  making 
brass  practised  in  antiquity,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  use  of 
this  alloy  was  quite  common  before  the  process  was  known  of  ex¬ 
tracting  any  of  the  metals  from  their  ores.  In  making  brass  the 
original  discovery  was  for  a  long  time  repeated,  the  zinc  ores 
were  mixed  with  the  copper  found  in  a  native  state,  and  being 
heated  together  with  charcoal,  the  zinc  was  absorbed  by  the  cop¬ 
per  without  appearing  at  all  in  its  pure  condition. 

We  know  that  the  Egyptians,  as  also  the  native  Peruvians,  made 
an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin.  Utensils  of  theirs  have  been  found, 
which,  upon  analysis,  proved  this  fact.  The  specimens  of  ancient 
European  utensils,  which  are  made  of  brass,  or  copper  alloyed  with 
zinc,  are  said  to  date  first  from  about  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era. 

The  method  of  making  brass  by  fusing  copper  with  calamine  was 
practised  throughout  Europe  until  the  close  of  the  last  century ; 
but,  as  zinc  ore  of  course  varied  in  richness,  and'  the  science  of 
analytical  chemistry  was  undeveloped,  it  was  impossible  by  this 
process  to  attain  satisfactory  results  with  anything  like  that  cer¬ 
tainty  which  the  modern  method  of  mixing  definite  proportions  of 
metallic  copper  and  metallic  zinc  permits.  It  was  frequently  neces¬ 
sary  for  them  to  re-melt  their  brass  several  times,  adding  cala¬ 
mine  or  copper  as  the  case  required,  until  finally  they  hit  upon  the 
right  mixture.  Modern  science  has  changed  all  this.  The  brass 
caster  of  to-day  mixes  his  alloys  with  scientific  accuracy,  and  pro¬ 
duces  at  will  brass  of  every  variety,  suited  to  the  manifold  pur¬ 
poses  to  which  it  is  applied. 

One  of  the  chief  improvements  made  in  the  process  of  working 
metals  in  modern  times  is  the  introduction  of  the  rolling  and  slit¬ 
ting  mill,  and  the  use  of  brass  has  been  largely  increased  by  the 
ability  thus  obtained  of  working  it  expeditiously  and  cheaply.  The 
old  process  of  working  metals  was  almost  entirely  by  hand  ;  the 
metal  was  hammered  out  from  the  ingots  into  the  forms  required, 
or  else  cast  when  melted,  and  afterwards  finished  by  hand.  One 
of  the  first  mentions  of  a  rolling  and  slitting  mill  occurs  in  a  work 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


1047 


written  by  John  Houghton,  F.  R.  S.,  published  in  1697,  and  enti¬ 
tled  Husbandry  and  Trade  Improved.  In  this  work  the  author 
describes  some  of  the  new  processes  introduced  during  his  time  in 
the  working  of  iron,  and  mentions  rolling  and  slitting  mills  as  a 
new  invention.  At  Middleboro’,  in  Massachusetts,  where  iron 
works  were  established  very  early  for  the  purpose  of  working  the 
bog  iron  ore  gathered  in  the  sedimentary  deposits  of  the  numerous 
small  ponds  common  in  that  vicinity,  the  first  rolling  and  slitting 
mill  in  New  England,  and  probably  in  the  United  States,  was 
erected,  though  the  precise  date  of  its  erection  is  not  given. 

In  1750  a  report  was  presented  to  the  British  Parliament  upon 
the  condition  of  the  iron  trade,  and  the  state  of  its  manufacture  in 
America.  From  this  it  appeared  'that  at  this  date  there  were 
two  rolling  and  slitting  mills  in  operation  in  Middleboro’,  one  in 
Hanover,  and  another  in  Milton,  these  three  towns  being  in  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts.  These  mills  were  chiefly  used  in  rolling 
nail  rods,  from  which  spikes  and  nails  were  made  by  hand.  This 
report  was  made  the  basis  for  an  act  of  Parliament  for  encouraging 
the  importation  from  America  into  England  of  pig  and  bar  iron, 
and  prohibiting  the  erection  of  any  slitting  or  rolling  mills,  plating 
forges,  or  steel  furnaces.  This  was  one  of  the  instances  of  the 
ignorant  policy  with  which  the  “mother  country”  sought  to  re¬ 
press  the  development  of  the  colonies,  and  the  accumulated  force 
of  which  finally  led  to  the  rupture  which  secured  the  independence 
of  this  country.  Like  most  unwise  legislation  of  this  kind,  its 
effect  was  rather  to  stimulate  than  repress  the  introduction  of 
such  enterprises,  and  with  the  advent  of  the  revolution,  rolling 
and  slitting  mills  became  quite  common  throughout  the  colonies, 
and  to-day  the  rolling  mills  of  the  United  States  will  compare  in 
efficiency  with  those  of  any  other  country. 

The  city7,  of  Waterbury,  Conn.,  is  the  chief  seat  of  the  brass-making 
industry  in  the  LTnited  States,  where  it  now  employs  thousands  of 
hands  and  millions  of  capital.  The  first  brass  rolling  was  begun 
about  the  year  1802,  in  Waterbury,  by  the  firm  of  Abel  Porter 
&  Co.,  who  wore  makers  of  gilt  buttons,  and  rolled  the  brass  for 
their  own  use.  They  had  their  ingots  of  brass  partially  rolled  at 
an  iron  rolling-mill  at  Bradleyville,  near  Litchfield,  and  then  fin¬ 
ished  the  rolling  themselves,  on  rolls  measuring  only  two  inches 
across  the  face,  driven  by  horse  power.  In  1806  they  sold  Out  to 
Frederick  Leavenworth,  David  Ilayden,  and  J.  M.  L.  Scovill,  who, 
under  the  name  of  Leavenworth,  Hayden  &  Scovill,  continued  the 


1043 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


business  until  the  year  1827,  when  the  first  two  partners  sold  their 
interest  to  William  II.  Scovill,  and  the  name  of  the  firm  became 
J.  M.  L.  &  W.  II.  Scovill.  Soon  afterwards  their  factory  was 
burned,  but  was  soon  rebuilt,  and  the  business  continued  under  that 
name  until  1850,  when  the  Messrs  Scovill,  vitk  otnei  gentlemen, 
organized  a  joinc-stocK  corporation  nndei  the  name  of  the  Scovill 
Manulacturing  Company,  witn  a  capital  of  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  which  has  since  been  largely  increased. 

Their  business  has  continued  to  grow  steadily  ever  since  its  be¬ 
ginning,  and  many  new  branches  of  manufacture  have  been  added. 
Besides  sheet  brass,  and  German  silver  in  all  its  varieties,  they  also 
make  gilt  and  covered  buttons,  brass  hinges,  coal-oil  burners  and 
lamps,  brass  thimbles,  and  a  'variety  of  other  small  articles  of 
brass.  They  also  make  sheet  metal  plated  with  gold,  silver,  or 
platinum,  which  is  used  extensively  for  the  manufacture  of  coach 
lamps,  carriage  and  harness  trimmings,  etc. 

Their  works  at  Waterbury  are  very  large,  the  buildings  ex¬ 
tending  in  one  line  nearly  a  thousand  feet,  being  for  the  most 
part  three  stories  in  height,  and  all  built  of  brick.  They  have  fine 
water  power  with  a  fall  of  thirty-six  feet,  operating  one  large  over¬ 
shot  wheel  and  two  turbines.  In  addition  to  these  they  have  an 
engine  of  one  hundred  horse  power. 

Besides  their  works  in  Waterbury,  they  have  a  large  factory  in 
New  Ilaven,  where  they  make  brass  clocks  and  photograph  cases 
and  trimmings,  and  one  in  New  York  for  photographic  apparatus, 
such  as  cameras,  etc.  They  have  depots  for  sales  in  Federal 
Street,  Boston,  and  in  Beekman  Street,  New  York,  where  they 
sell  articles  of  their  own  manufacture,  and  also,  at  the  latter  place, 
deal  in  photographic  materials,  many  of  which  they  manufacture, 
although  the  metallic  plates,  once  largely  used,  are  now  superseded 
by  other  substances.  They  are  the  largest  dealers  in  the  country 
in  photographic  materials. 

In  all  their  various  departments,  they  have  in  their  employ 
many  men  of  life-long  experience  in  the  business,  who  entered 
their  service  as  boys  thirty  or  forty,  and  in  some  cases  nearly  fifty, 
years  ago  ;  and  this,  in  so  difficult  a  business  as  brass-making  and 
brass-working,  is  a  consideration  of  greatest  importance. 

The  process  of  manufacture  may  be  thus  described  :  After  weigh¬ 
ing  out  the  proportions  of  the  metals,  they  are  melted  in  crucibles, 
holding  one  hundred  or  more  pounds,  in  the  furnace.  The  fiuid 
metal  is  then  poured  into  cast-iron  moulds,  made  of  the  finest  qual- 


WORKS  OF  THE  SCOVILL  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY,  WATERBURY,  CONN. 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


1051 


ity  of  iron,  and  thus  the  brass  ingots  are  formed.  The  moulds 
for  some  castings,  are  covered  with  the  best  sperm  oil.  If  prop¬ 
erly  managed,  a  crucible  will  last  through  thirty  or  forty  melt¬ 
ings  of  brass ;  for  German  silver  they  will  last  for  about  twenty 
or  thirty  times  casting.  These  crucibles  are  made  of  plumbago. 
The  very  best  quality  of  Lehigh  coal  is  used  for  melting  brass, 
no  other  coal  doing  as  well.  The  ingots  are  from  six  to  fourteen 
inches  wide,  and  from  one  to  five  feet  long.  They  are  usually  one 
inch  thick,  and  weigh  about  one  pound  to  three  cubic  inches. 

The  casters  of  the  Scovill  Manufacturing  Company  have  been 
in  the  business  for  periods  varying  from  twenty-five  to  thirty 
years,  and  the  skill  required  in  this  department  insures  a  good 
caster  a  position  for  a  lifetime.  Skill,  usefulness,  and  energy  are 
absolute  requisites  to  make  a  good  caster.  A  certain  heat,  which 
is  tested  by  the  eye,  but  cannot  be  measured  by  the  thermometer, 
indicates  when  the  metal  is  ready  to  “turn  off”  for  casting. 
The  wages  of  a  good  caster  range  from  one  hundred  to  two 
hundred  dollars  a  month. 

These  slabs,  or  ingots,  as  they  are  generally  called,  are  then 
trimmed  by  cutting  off  with  a  huge  pair  of  shears  weighing  sev¬ 
eral  tons  the  geats  (pronounced  gets),  or  rough  portions  formed  in 
casting  by  the  mouth  of  the  mould. 

The  bars  are  then  passed  to  the  rolls,  which  are  of  chilled  iron, 
twenty  inches  in  diameter  and  three  feet  long,  and  are  reduced  by 
degrees  to  the  required  thickness.  All  brass  is  rolled  cold.  It 
can  only  be  reduced  a  little  in  thickness  at  one  rolling.  After  pass¬ 
ing  through  the  rolls  once  it  becomes  hard  and  brittle,  and  before  it 
can  be  reduced  further  must  be  annealed.  The  annealing  is  done 
in  furnaces  called  muffles,  which  are  shaped  somewhat  like  ovens, 
15X30  feet  in  width  and  length.  Each  time  after  annealing,  the 
metal  has  to  be  cleared  of  the  smoke  and  oxide  consequent  upon 
its  exposure  to  the  fire,  and  this  is  done  by  immersing  it  for  a  time 
in  a  bath  of  sulphuric  acid. 

At  different  stages  in  the  rolling  the  surface  of  the  metal  is 
carefully  scraped  with  steel  scrapers,  —  or,  as  they  are  technically 
called,  scratchers,  —  in  order  to  remove  all  dirt,  and  disclose  any 
flaws  that  may  exist.  If  flaws  are  found  too  deep  to  be  re¬ 
moved  by  the  scratchers,  the  bar  of  metal  is  rejected  and  sent  to 
the  casters  to  be  re-melted.  The  temper  of  brass  depends  mainly 
on  the  manner  of  rolling;  the  color,  ductility,  etc.,  upon  the  pro¬ 
portions  of  its  ingredients.  Lead,  tin,  and  antimony  are  some- 


1052 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


times  added  in  small  quantities  to  produce  brass  of  a  quality 
suited  to  peculiar  work.  A  machine  operating  a  knife,  or  scratch¬ 
es  by  a  cam  motion,  is  used  for  the  scraping.  The  plate,  placed 
upon  a  movable  bed,  under  the  control  of  the  workman,  is  passed 
under  the  knife.  This  is  a  new  device  in  the  operation  of  this 
part  of  the  process. 

The  process  of  rolling  affects  the  “  temper  ”  of  the  sheet  up  to 
the  point  where  it  begins  to  decompose  the  particles,  or  cause 
them  to  spread.  The  more  the  brass  is  rolled,  the  harder  it  be¬ 
comes.  The  superintendent  of  the  rolling  process  must  know  the 
composition  of  the  material,  and  the  temper  which  is  required  in 
order  to  perform  the  work  as  desired,  and  consequently  needs  great 
experience  in  order  to  be  competent  in  his  office.  The  “  rollers” 
in  this  establishment  are  “life-long”  fixtures  in  their  positions, 
some  of  them  having  held  them  twenty-five  years  or  more. 

The  cinders  and  waste  of  the  fires  are  all  put  into  a  heavy 
crusher  and  reduced  to  a  powder.  The  coarser  particles  of  metal 
are  then  extracted  by  a  sieve,  by  washing  in  troughs  with  a  stream 
of  running  water.  The  finer  ores  are  extracted  by  other  pro¬ 
cesses.  Thousands  of  dollars’  worth  of  metal  are  thus  saved 
annually,,  which  was  formerly  thrown  away.  The  scrapings  of 
the  ingots  and  the  scraps  of  the  sheets  from  which  articles  have 
been  cut,  are,  before  being  re-melted,  pressed  together  under  an 
hydraulic  press,  which  forces  them  into  an  almost  solid  lump, 
in  order  to  prevent  oxidation  during  the  process  of  fusion.  The 
greatest  pains  are  taken  in  mixing,  annealing,  and  rolling,  in  order 
to  suit  the  requirements  of  the  special  purposes  to  which  the 
brass  is  to  be  applied. 

German  silver,  which  is  an  alloy  of  copper,  zinc,  and  nickel,  is  cast 
and  rolled  in  the  same  manner  as  sheet  brass,  but  is  a  more  difficult 
metal  to  work,  and  requires  greater  care  and  skill.  When  the  sheet 
of  brass  or  German  silver  comes  from  the  sulphuric  acid  bath,  it  is, 
of  course,  wet,  and  needs  drying.  Formerly  this  was  done  by  hand  ; 
but  now  it  is  performed  by  forcing  it  through  a  bed  of  sawdust, 
under  and  over  rollers  which  are  covered  with  a  soft  cloth.  By 
this  process  the  sheet  is  made  perfectly  dry,  while  the  machine 
does  the  work  of  some  twenty  men.  When  sheets  of  certain 
width  are  required,  if  the  sheet  is  thick  enough,  it  is  sawed  into 
proper  sizes ;  or,  if  thin  enough,  it  is  “slitted.”  In  the  process 
of  rolling,  whale  oil  and  lard  are  constantly  used. 

Besides  the  manufacture  of  brass’,  the  Scovill  Manufacturing 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


1053 


Company  engage  also  in  the-production  of  sheet  metal  plated  with 
silver,  gold,  and  platinum.  The  processes  are  somewhat  simi¬ 
lar  to  those  we  have  described  in  working  brass.  The  ingots  are 
rolled  out  under  steel  and  cast-iron  rollers,  having  first  been 
plated.  The  silver  is  laid  upon  the  copper,  and  pressed  upon  it 
cold.  The  process  by  which  this  plating  is  done  is  the  invention 
of  a  Parisian,  Mr.  Eugene  Martin,  who  has  been  with  the  Scovill 
Manufacturing  Company  for  twelve  years.  This  invention  is  the 
result  of  fifteen  years’  study  and  experiment  upon  his  part.  The 
copper  plate  is  first  made  smooth  and  bright  by  scraping,  and  then 
the  annealed  plate  of  silver,  very  thin,  is  laid  upon  it,  and  made 
to  cohere  by  a  chemical  process  which  is  the  secret  of  the  inventor. 
The  two  plates  are  then  drawn  out  under  rollers  to  the  required 
thinness.  This  process  does  not  require  the  metal  to.be  heated, 
and  it  is  worked  cold. 

Mr.  Martin  has  also  a  process  for  plating  white  metal  used  for 
screw  heads  and  similar  purposes,  which  will  not  tarnish.  The  metal 
in  this  process  is  also  worked  cold.  By  this  process  Mr.  Martin  is 
also  enabled  to  plate  sheets  of  metal  two  feet  square,  which  by  the 
ordinary  methods  of  plating  is  impossible.  Where  silver,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  is  used  for  plating  copper,  it  is  impracticable  to  have  the 
bar  of  copper  at  first  over  two  and  a  quarter  inches  wide,  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  difficulty  of  diffusing  the  solder  over  a  wider  surface, 
the  danger  being  that,  the  solder  not  being  evenly  spread  over  the 
plate,  the  plate  will  blister  under  the  rolling  process.  By  Mr. 
Martin’s  process  brass  is  plated,  a  result  which  can  be  reached  by 
no  other  method,  since  the  brass  could  not  stand  the  heating  and 
rolling  operations,  but  would  crack  under  them. 

The  stripping  process,  by  which  the  gold  and  silver  plating  is 
removed  from  the  scraps,  which  are  to  be  used  again,  is  done  by 
a  preparation  of  sulphuric  acid.  The  scraps  are  laid  into  pots 
filled  with  acid,  and  are  allowed  to  remain  there  from  ten  to  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  acid  and  the 
character  of  the  metal.  Gold  and  silver  being  thus  equally  treat¬ 
ed,  these  metals  precipitate  themselves  to  the  bottom  of  the  pots. 
Mr.  Martin  has  also  made  various  important  discoveries  concern¬ 
ing  stripping. 

The  cones  and  other  parts  for  lamps  arc  struck  up  in  dies. 
Trunk  checks,  with  the  names  of  the  various  railroads,  are  cut 
here.  Tubes  for  gas-burners  are  also  made  here.  After  one  oper¬ 
ation  of  stamping  or  drawing,  articles  made  of  brass,  must  be  an- 


1054 


ROLLED  SHEET  BRASS. 


nealed  before  undergoing  a  second  one.  Thimbles  are  drawn  out 
by  dies  from  flat  pieces  of  metal,  and  undergo  four  “  drops  ”  before 
they  are  sufficiently  drawn  or  shaped.  In  the  manufacture  of  the 
brass  portions  of  lamps,  not  less  than  six  differently  tempered 
kinds  of  brass  must  be  used.  The  brass  for  the  springs  of  the 
chimney  must  be  of  one  kind,  that  of  the  ratchets  to  pull  up  the 
wick  of  another,  and  so  on.  The  thimbles  are  burnished  on  spin¬ 
dles  revolving  fourteen  thousand  times  a  minute.  The  joints  of 
brass  hinges  are  turned  by  a  patented  machine  of  very  ingenious 
construction.  Brass  buttons  of  all  kinds,  for  naval,  military,  po¬ 
lice,  and  other  purposes,  are  made  here.  The  chasing  of  gilt 
buttons  was  first  done  by  the  Scovill  Manufacturing  Company. 

From  the  mention  above  of  a  few  of  the  articles  made  by  the 
Scovill  Manufacturing  Company  an  idea  can  be  formed  of  the 
amount  and  complication  of  the  business  they  do  ;  but  the  organi¬ 
zation  of  the  various  departments  is  such  that  they  all  proceed 
with  regularity  and  order.  A  good  evidence  of  the  principles 
upon  which  the  business  is  conducted,  is  given  in  the  fact  that  the 
majority  of  those  employed  by  the  company  have  remained  with 
them  for  periods  ranging  from  twenty  to  thirty  years. 

The  history  of  the  brass  business  in  Waterbury  does  as  much 
credit  to  our  Yankee  force  and  enterprise  as  that  of  any  manu¬ 
facturing  interest  in  America.  Within  the  memory  of  living 
men  the  little  village  of  Waterbury  has  been  a  by-word  for  its 
poverty.  Now  it  is  the  fifth  city  in  the  state.  The  change  is  due 
to  no  natural  advantages,  but  solely  to  the  energy  and  enterprise 
of  a  few  sturdy  men,  who,  with  scanty  means,  engaged  in  a  busi¬ 
ness  new  to  themselves  and  to  this  country,  and  by  their  own 
personal  ingenuity  and  industry,  aided  by  judicious  protection, 
without  which  they  could  have  accomplished  nothing,  made  it 
successful.  To  those  men  Waterbury  owes  everything,  and  prom¬ 
inent  among  them  were  J.  M.  L.  &  W.  II.  Scovill,  the  founders 
of  the  Scovill  Manufacturing  Company. 


•7(\ 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


A  TEST  OF  COMPARATIVE  CIVILIZATION.  —  THE  NEEDS  OF  MODERN  COMMERCE 
FOR  HOISTING  MACHINES.  —  THE  EARLIEST  HOISTING  MACHINES.  —  THE 
SKILL  OF  THE  ANCIENTS  IN  CONSTRUCTING  MACHINES.  —  THE  ENGINEERS 

OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. -  THE  PORTERS  OF  LONDON.  —  THE  IMPROVEMENT 

IN  HOISTING  APPARATUS.  —  AN  AXIOM  IN  MECHANICS.  —  THE  PECULIAR 
CONDITIONS  OF  HOISTING  MACHINERY.  —  THE  HOISTING  APPARATUS  MADE 
BY  OTIS  BROTHERS  AND  CO.  —  THE  METHOD  OF  ITS  CONSTRUCTION.  —  ITS 
SAFETY  APPLIANCES. — A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THEM. — THEIR  PASSENGER  ELE¬ 
VATORS.  —  WHERE  SPECIMENS  CAN  BE  SEEN. 

In  the  modern  world  a  test  of  the  comparative  civilization  of 
various  societies  is  best  found  in  the  appliances  by  which  the 
necessity  for  expending  muscular  energy,  in  performing  the  work 
required,  is  dispensed  with  by  the  substitution  of  other  methods 
for  utilizing  the  forces  of  nature.  With  the  increased  activ¬ 
ity  of  our  modern  commercial  life,  the  handling  necessary  in 
the  distribution  of  the  products  of  industry  has  become  a  sub¬ 
ject  of  paramount  importance.  A  moment’s  consideration  of 
the  immense  quantities  of  flour,  corn,  cotton,  sugar,  and  various 
other  articles  which  have  every  year  to  be  stored  in  order  to  main¬ 
tain  a  sufficient  supply  for  consumption  until  the  advent  of  the 
succeeding  season  matures  a  fresh  supply,  will  make  it  apparent 
how  dependent  we  are  daily  upon  the  safety  and  efficiency  of  the 
machinery  devoted  to  this  purpose.  The  increasing  compactness 
of  our  cities  has  also  introduced  the  necessity  for  higher  buildings 
than  were  usual  even  fifty  years  ago,  and  with  our  hotels  and  large 
public  buildings  reaching  up  to  five  and  six  stories,  an  elevator 
which  removes  the  task  of  climbing  up  long  flights  of  stairs  has 
become  a  necessity. 

The  earliest  hoisting  machinery  used  by  men  was,  unquestionably, 
a  simple  pulley,  a  rope  passed  over  a  round  pole,  or  some  other 
equally  primitive  arrangement.  The  ancients,  however,  acquired 
Considerable  skill  in  constructing  machinery  for  raising  heavy 

(1055) 


1056 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


weights,  such  as  the  ponderous  stones  used  in  their  architecture, 
and  which  they  frequently  raised  to  very  considerable  heights.  In 
Europe,  also,  at  the  period  of  the  revival  of  learning,  great  atten¬ 
tion  was  given  by  the  distinguished  architects  and  engineers  who 
flourished  at  that  period  to  the  construction  of  machines  for  han¬ 
dling  great  weights,  and  entire  buildings  were  raised  and  moved  by 
them.  Da  Vinci,  Bramante,  Michael  Angelo,  and  other  artists  and 
architects,  obtained  not  a  small  part  of  their  reputation  from  their 
skill  as  practical  engineers,  and  inventors  of  machines  for  per¬ 
forming  such  tasks. 

But  such  works  were  not  of  the  character  of  the  hoisting  ma¬ 
chinery  of  to-day,  nor  were  they  devoted  to  the  same  purposes. 
The  motive  force  applied  to  them  was  chiefly  muscular  energy, 
while  they  in  no  way  contributed  to  lessen  the  task  of  handling 
the  various  burdens,  the  hoisting  and  transference  of  which  be¬ 
come  necessary  in  the  daily  business  transactions  of  any  city.  In 
the  application  of  machinery  to  dispense  with  muscular  energy  as 
far  as  possible  in  this  department  of  commerce,  the  United  States 
is  preeminent.  In  the  business  streets  of  Londoo,  one  of  the 
tourist’s  sights  is  the  porters  who  carry  on  their  backs  barrels 
of  flour  and  other  materials  which  are  to  be  moved.  Furnished 
with  a  kind  of  gigantic  collar,  the  front  of  which  rests  against  their 
foreheads,  while  the  other  end  rests  on  their  backs,  forming,  as 
they  stoop  forward,  a  sort  of  platform  for  the  reception  of  a  bar¬ 
rel  of  flour,  long  lines  of  them  may  be  seen  thus  transferring 
cargoes  to  the  upper  floors  of  the  huge  storehouses.  Such  a  sight 
is  hardly  to  be  seen  in  a  city  of  the  United  States.  Human  beings 
are  held  at  too  high  a  rate  to  be  made  mere  machines  of,  and  the 
American  quickly  uses  his  brains  in  devising  some  mechanism 
which  shall  free  him  from  the  need  of  straining  his  back. 

With  the  introduction  of  hoisting  machineiy,  the  same  course 
of  improvement  has  been  gone  through,  which,  in  the  consideration 
of  various  branches  of  industry  treated  of  elsewhere  in  this  work, 
we  have  found  was  necessary  for  the  attainment  of  perfection.  It 
was  necessary  that  experiments  should  be  made  in  order  that  suffi¬ 
cient  data  might  be  attained  to  arrive  at  a  scientific  conception  of 
what  was  needed  in  a  perfect  hoisting  machine,  and  thus  to  me¬ 
thodically  design  a  machine  which  should  fulfil  the  requirements. 

The  first  necessity  was  evidently  that  the  machinery  should  be 
safe.  It  is  an  axiom  in  practical  mechanics  that  every  working 
machine  must  wear  out.  The  very  laws  by  which  its  efficiency  is 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


1057 


obtained  require  this.  The  ordinary  processes  by  which  power  is 
communicated  to  and  exerted  b^ the  machine  render  its  continued 
existence  and  operation  a  course  of  gradual  weakening.  Though 
this  is  not  immediately  perceptible,  yet  from  any  logical  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  subject  it  will  be  manifest  that  it  is  so.  With 
a  hoisting  apparatus  worked  by  ropes,  each  time  that  it  is  used 
must,  of  course,  diminish  the  strength  of  the  ropes,  and  bring  ap¬ 
proximately  nearer  the  time  when  the  weakest  spot,  which  meas¬ 
ures  the  strength  of  the  whole  rope,  and  lurks  hidden  somewhere 
in  its  length,  will  yield,  and  bring  disaster,  and  possibly  death,  to 
those  using  the  machine. 

Nor  can  this  period,  which  must  come,  since  it  is  as  inevitable 
as  fate,  be  more  than  deferred  by  increasing  the  size  of  the  ropes, 
or  by  doubling  their  number.  The  fatal  moment  is  thus  merely 
put  off  to  a  later  day.  From  the  very  conditions  in  which  hoist¬ 
ing  machinery  is  intended  to  work,  this  moment  when  the  inevita¬ 
ble  disintegration  of  the  working  parts  brings  about  their  rupture, 
is  more  to  be  feared  than  in  almost  any  other  mechanical  combina¬ 
tion.  A  machine  which  is  applied  to  the  performance  of  any  cer¬ 
tain  work,  breaks,  and  becomes  incompetent  to  perform  its  task. 
The  result  in  this  case  is  only  that  the  work  remains  unperformed. 
Such  a  contingency  may  be  productive  of  very  considerable  an¬ 
noyance,  of  loss  of  time  and  money,  and,  in  some  cases,  by  pecu¬ 
liar  combinations  of  circumstances,  it  may  result  in  an  accident 
productive  of  damage  and  loss  of  life.  But  with  hoisting  ma¬ 
chinery,  the  advent  of  the  fatal  moment  when,  while  doing  its 
work,  the  disintegration  of  its  parts  renders  it  incompetent  to 
continue  its  operation,  introduces  a  new  combination  of  circum¬ 
stances,  by  which  disaster  and  probable  destruction  of  life  appear 
inevitable.  The  work  of  a  hoisting  machine  is  overcoming  the 
power  of  gravity,  and  as  soon  as  the  machine  becomes  incompe¬ 
tent  to  this  end,  instantly  gravity  asserts  itself,  and  the  load 
descends  with  rapidly  accelerated  force  to  the  earth  again,  bearing 
all  obstructions  before  it,  and  frequently  resulting  in  terrible  dis¬ 
aster  and  loss  of  life. 

In  order,  therefore,  to  construct  a  hoisting  apparatus  which 
should  be  safe,  an  entirely  new  method  must  be  followed  in  which, 
to  secure  immunity  from  accidents,  reliance  was  not  placed  upon 
any  of  the  working  parts  of  the  machinery,  but  upon  entirely  in¬ 
dependent  appliances,  brought  into  action  upon  the  occurrence  of 
an  accident,  in  order  to  prevent  any  disastrous  results  arising  from 


1058 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


it.  By  such  a  purely  scientific  conception  and  development  of  the 
required  improvements  in  hoisting1  machinery,  security  in  its  use, 
and  immunity  from  accidents  arising  from  disintegration  of  the 
working  parts,  are  made  as  nearly  absolute  as  possible.  This  sci¬ 
entific  conception  has  been  developed,  and  forms  the  distinctive 
feature  of  the  hoisting  apparatus  built  by  “  Otis  Brothers  &  Co.” 

In  their  elevators  for  factories,  for  use  in  hotels,  or  for  other 
purposes,  dependence  for  safety  from  accidents  is  not  placed  upon 
the  working  parts  of  the  machinery,  but  upon  special  safety  appli¬ 
ances,  devoted  only  to  this  end,  which,  being  brought  into  opera¬ 
tion  only  when  necessity  occurs  for  their  use,  are  exempt  from  the 
disintegration  and  weakening  incident  to  the  working  parts  of  all 
machinery  in  constant  use,  and  are  consequently  always  ready  to 
perform  the  part  assigned  them  whenever  occasion  requires. 

The  machines  now  manufactured  by  Messrs.  Otis  Brothers  &  Co. 
have  been  perfected  by  a  course  of  study  and  experiment  devoted 
especially  to  the  single  object  of  the  highest  efficiency  and  the  most 
perfect  security  in  the  design  and  construction  of  hoisting  ma¬ 
chinery.  The  fact  that  some  two  thousand  of  them  are  now  in  use, 
scattered  all  over  the  country,  and  that  they  have  so  proven  them¬ 
selves  efficacious  and  safe,  that  the  demand  for  them  is  constantly 
increasing,  demonstrates  that  the  manufacturers  are  right  in  claim¬ 
ing  for  them  a  superiority  in  their  qualities  which  is  not  far  from 
absolute  perfection. 

Their  hoisting  platforms  and  cars  will  not  fall  down  should  the 
rope  break,  nor  back  down  rapidly  should  the  working  parts  be¬ 
come  injured  by  any  accident,  nor  is  their  machinery  liable  to 
become  deranged  and  inoperative  when  wanted.  Their  long 
experience  as  manufacturers  has  shown  that,  on  the  average, 
less  than  one  machine  in  ten  of  their  construction  requires  any 
repair  before  it  has  been  in  active  operation  five  years ;  and,  as  a  rule, 
they  generally  run  ten  years  before  it  is  necessary  to  stop  and 
overhaul  them.  This  admirable  result  is  obtained  by  the  extreme 
care  exercised  in  their  construction.  All  the  material  used  is 
carefully  selected  from  the  best,  nor  is  any  poor  workmanship 
permitted,  so  that  the  parts  work  together  evenly,  without  any 
interference.  This  result  is  the  better  obtained  by  the  organ¬ 
ization  of  Messrs.  Otis  Brothers  &  Co.’s  works,  at  which  the 
machinery  for  every  use  of  the  hoisting  elevators  is  built  entire, 
and  tested  before  it  is  considered  complete  ;  and  thus  careful  su¬ 
pervision  is  exercised  over  the  construction  of  every  part,  with  the 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


1059 


further  advantage  that,  when  repairs  are  needed,  the  required  part 
can  be  furnished  without  delay  or  trouble,  and  the  machines  guar¬ 
anteed  from  all  imperfections  of  material  or  workmanship. 

In  constructing  these  hoisting  machines,  the  chief  consideration 
kept  in  view  has  been  safety  ;  and  this  is  more  especially  necessary 
in  their  application  as  passenger  elevators  for  hotels,  large  manu¬ 
factories,  and  public  buildings  of  various  kinds.  The  car,  or  plat¬ 
form,  the  lifting  gear,  and  the  engines  which  furnish  the  motive 
power,  are  all  considered  as  component  parts  of  the  machine,  and 
thus  greater  safety,  facility,  and  economy  in  their  manufacture  and 
use  have  been  obtained.  The  engines  are  provided  with  double 
cylinders,  and  are  reversible.  Both  cylinders  are  connected  with 
a  single  shaft,  with  cranks  set  at  right  angles,  thus  avoiding  all 
chance  of  stopping  upon  dead  centres.  The  steam  passes  from 
the  cylinders  by  a  single  valve,  which  is  so  arranged  as  by  a 
simple  movement  to  reverse  or  check  the  current.  The  same 
movement  which  shuts  off  the  steam  closes  the  exhaust  orifice,  so 
that  further  motion  of  the  engine  is  impossible,  thus  placing  the 
car  under  absolute  control,  both  in  its  upward  and  downward 
movements,  so  long  as  the  gearings  remain  intact.  By  an  ar¬ 
rangement  of  the  reversing  valve,  its  opening  is  graduated  to  suit 
the  changed  relation  and  action  of  the  loading  on  the  downward 
trip,  and  any  excessive  rapidity  of  motion  is  thus  prevented. 

The  brakes  are  so  arranged  as  to  be  brought  into  action  and  re¬ 
leased  with  the  starting  and  stopping  of  the  engine,  so  that  they 
do  not  act  while  the  car  is  in  motion,  but  hold  it  immovable  when 
required.  The  engines  give  a  motion  to  the  car  varying  from  fifty 
to  two  hundred  feet  a  minute,  the  rate  being  always  under  the  im¬ 
mediate  control  of  the  operator.  The  energy  of  the  engine  is 
communicated  to  the  machinery  by  a  belt,  by  which  the  noise  and 
jar  of  rapidly-working  gearing  is  avoided.  The  other  gearings 
used  are  so  accurately  adjusted  that  the  machinery  works  noise¬ 
lessly  and  without  any  jarring,  A  11  stop  motion  ”  is  introduced 
into  the  mechanism  of  the  engine,  by  which,  after  the  winding 
drum  has  made  the  number  of  revolutions  requisite  for  carry¬ 
ing  the  car  to  the  extremity  of  its  trip,  the  steam  is  shut  off* 
automatically,  and  it  is  impossible  to  start  the  engine  again  ex¬ 
cept  in  the  opposite  direction.  This  improvement  is  designed  to 
prevent  the  crash,  which  may  at  any  time  occur,  from  the  break¬ 
ing  of  the  hand  rope,  in  hoisting  machines  unprovided  with  such 
an  automatically  working  device. 

61 


1060 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


The  running  gear  and  guides  by  which  the  car  is  kept  in  place 
consist  of  rubber-faced  wheels,  acting  upon  planed  iron  guides,  so 
that  perfect  freedom  from  rattling  or  jar  is  secured.  The  safety 
appliances  by  which  the  car  is  secured  in  the  event  of  the  rope 
breaking,  from  the  inevitable  disintegration  to  which  it  is  sub¬ 
jected  by  use,  are  various,  and  are  applied  always  in  duplicate, 
each  set  being  entirely  independent  of  the  other  in  every  particu¬ 
lar,  and  capable  alone  of  sustaining  the  entire  weight  of  the  car, 
together  with  its  load.  The  first  of  these  safety  appliances  con¬ 
sists  of  heavy  iron  pawls,  combined  with  powerful  steel  springs, 
and  other  suitable  mechanism  for  forcing  the  pawls  into  contact 
with  the  safety  ratchets,  in  case  the  lifting  rope  should  break. 
The  safety  ratchets  are  of  iron,  very  heavy,  and  having  the  strong¬ 
est  possible  form.  They  rise  from  the  ground,  and  extend  to  the 
highest  point  to  which  the  car  is  to  rise.  Together  with  the  pawls 
they  have  a  peculiar  conformation,  which  insures  the  perfect  lock¬ 
ing  together  of  the  two  immediately  following  the  slightest  con¬ 
tact  at  the  points,  and  renders  their  separation  impossible,  except 
by  the  lifting  rope,  when  properly  in  order,  and  thus  absolutely 
prevents  the  falling  of  the  car,  should  the  lifting  rope  break,  a 
greater  distance  than  that  which  separates  the  cogs  of  the  ratchets, 
being  three  inches. 

The  safety  drum  is  another  safety  device  which  guards  against 
accidents  arising  from  some  derangement  in  the  machinery,  or 
some  obstruction  in  the  hatclnvay,  whereby  the  ropes  may  be  un¬ 
coiled  from  the  main  drum  of  the  engine  while  the  car  remains 
temporarily  lodged  at  a  greater  or  less  distance  from  the  bottom. 
It  is  also  a  perfect  safeguard  against  the  too  rapid  descent  of  the 
car  in  case  the  belt,  or  any  part  of  the  gearing  connected  with 
the  engine,  should  give  way,  or  if  run  too  fast  by  the  carelessness 
of  the  operator.  The  safety  drum  takes  the  place  of  the  ordinary 
sheave-wheels,  and  acts  as  the  medium  through  which  motion  is 
communicated  from  the  engine  to  the  car.  All  ropes  connecting 
from  the  engine  to  the  car  are  arranged  to  act  upon  this  drum,  in 
such  a  manner  that  any  derangement  in  their  bearings,  or  change 
in  their  action,  or  increase  of  their  motion  beyond  that  prescribed 
as  the  regular  working  rate,  will  immediately  bring  into  action 
two  powerful  brakes,  and  thus  instantly  stop  the  entire  apparatus. 

The  special  arrangement  by  which  this  effect  is  produced  is  such 
as  could  hardly  be  made  plain  enough  here  without  a  series  of 
illustrations  and  an  amount  of  description  which  our  limited  space 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


1061 


will  not  allow.  In  practice,  it  has,  however,  been  proved  that  the 
immediate  effect  of  the  breaking  of  any  one  of  the  several  ropes 
used  in  making  the  different  connections  of  the  apparatus,  is  to 
lock  the  car  securely  to  the  ratchets,  by  the  instantaneous  action 
of  one  or  both  of  the  safety  fixtures,  while,  at  the  same  time,  one 
or  both  of  the  brakes  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  safety  drum, 
and-  the  car  is  thus  doubly  prevented  from  falling. 

The  ropes  used  in  the  construction  of  these  hoisting  apparatus 
are  all  made  of  the  best  steel,  and  each  of  them  is  capable  of  sus¬ 
taining  ten  times  the  weight  which  can  ever  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  it.  In  the  works  of  the  Messrs.  Otis  Brothers  &  Co.,  not  only 
is  all  the  machinery  of  their  apparatus  made,  but  also  the  cars  used 
in  the  elevators.  In  the  construction  of  these  the  same  consum- 


MANUFACTORY  OF  HOISTING  MACHINERY,  YONKERS,  N.  Y. 


mate  care  is  taken,  and  strength,  with  a  luxury  of  tasteful  deco¬ 
ration,  is  a  characteristic  of  their  passenger  elevators.  An  examina¬ 
tion  of  this  modern  convenience  in  use  at  the  St.  Nicholas  Hotel,  at 
Arnold,  Constable  &  Co’s,  N.  York;  at  Congress  Hall,  Saratoga  ;  the 
Galt  House,  Louisville ;  the  Maxwell  House,  Nashville ;  the  St. 
Charles  Hotel,  New  Orleans  ;  and  the  Occidental  Hotel,  San  Fran¬ 
cisco,  and  as  specimens,  among  the  other  numerous  ones  they  have 
built,  will  show  conclusively  the  merit  of  their  work,  and  exhibit 
the  reasons  for  the  reputation  they  have  gained. 

The  works  of  Messrs.  Otis  Brothers  &  Co.,  at  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  — 
a  large  and  attractive  brick  building,  —  occupy  the  corner  of 
Wells  Avenue  and  Atherton  Street,  with  a  frontage  of  two  hun- 


10G2 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


dred  feet  on  each.  The  first  and  second  floors  on  Wells  Avenue 
are  devoted  to  machine  and  finishing  shops,  the  third  floor  to  stor¬ 
age  of  patterns,  finished  parts,  etc.,  and  a  large  water  tank  from 
which  there  are  hose  connections  to  the  whole  building.  On 
Atherton  Street  are  the  cabinet  and  finishing  shops,  and  painting, 
polishing,  and  varnishing  rooms,  etc.  In  the  rear  are  the  heating 
chambers  for  seasoning  timber,  the  carpenter  shop,  and  the  lumber 
yard.  Here,  under  ground,  are  water  cisterns  for  ordinary  use, 
and,  in  case  of  fire,  kept  constantly  full.  The  basement  story  is 
occupied  by  the  boiler  and  engine  room,  blacksmith  shop,  store¬ 
room,  and  vaults  containing  hundreds  of  tons  of  forge  and  furnace 
coals.  Throughout,  order  reigns  supreme.  The  exquisite  judg¬ 
ment  and  skill  with  which  means  are  adapted  to  ends,  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  manner  in  which  power  is  distributed  from  the 
engine  to  the  atmospheric  hammer  and  bolt  tools  in  the  blacksmith 
shop,  to  the  planers  and  saws  in  the  carpenter  shop,  to  the  pow¬ 
erful  lathes,  planers,  and  bolt  cutters  in  the  machine  shop,  and  the 
safety  hoistcr.  The  gliding,  horizontal  motion  of  the  engine,  quiet 
as  the  action  of  a  pair  of  human  lungs  in  perfect  repose,  is  com¬ 
municated  through  perfectly-turned  and  adjusted  shafting,  by 
snugly-fitting  belts  and  self-oiling  pulleys,  to  the  perfectly  working 
machines,  with  such  absolute  certainty  and  ease  that  no  power  is 
lost.  Everything  denotes  that  here,  at  least,  is  one  shop  where 
there  is  a  place  for  everything  and  everything  in  its  place.  Every 
man  has  his  especial  duty,  and  is  doing  it.  The  work  goes  on 
from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  night  with  two  entire  sets  of 
hands,  working  day  and  night,  yet  there  is  no  jar,  no  perceptible* 
friction,  no  confusion,  or  disorder.  No  one  need  wonder  that, 
from  such  a  perfectly  appointed  shop,  are  turned  out  such  perfectly 
appointed  machines.  Here  is  no  mushroom  growth  ;  the  business 
has  developed  by  natural  and  perfectly  healthy  processes,  from  the 
small  beginning  under  the  elder  Otis  some  twenty  years  ago,  into 
an  incorporated  company  with  ample  means.  A  visitor  to  these 
works  sees  no  finished  hoisters  waiting  customers  ;  all  are  sold 
long  before  they  are  finished,  and  Messrs.  Otis  Brothers  &  Co. 
now  find  themselves  confronted  by  the  necessity  of  at  least  doubling 
their  productive  capacity.  By  careful,  prudent  management,  and 
watchful  supervision  of  all  the  details  of  their  business,  and  manu¬ 
facturing  all  parts  of  their  hoisting  machinery  and  cars  in  their 
own  works,  they  aim  to  reduce  the  cost  of  production  to  the  mini¬ 
mum,  and  being  content  with  very  moderate  profits,  are  deter- 


HOISTING  MACHINERY. 


10C3 


mined  to  merit  a  continuance  of  public  favor  and  patronage.  They 
are  prepared  to  meet  and  provide  for  any  demand  for  their  incon¬ 
testably  safe  and  superior  hoisting  machinery. 

The  grand  edifice  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company, 
348  Broadway  (and  in  which  is  situated  the  chief  office  of  Messrs. 
Otis  Brothers  &  Co.,  while  they  have  another  office  at  the  factory 
in  Yonkers),  is  supplied  with  a  beautiful  model  of  their  passenger 
elevator,  kept  in  constant  operation  during  business  hours,  and 
subject  to  the  inspection  of  strangers  to  the  city,  as  well  as  resi¬ 
dents,  at  all  times  —  a  practical  illustration  of  the' perfection  of 
Messrs.  Otis  Brothers  &  Co/s  work. 


LEAD  AND  ZINC. 

THE  GREAT  LEAD  REGION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  “  GALENA,"’  OR  LEAD 
ORE.  —  “  FLOAT  MINERAL.”  —  PIG  LEAD.  —  PROCESS  OF  WORKING  THE  ORE.  — 
PRODUCT  OF  TIIE  DUBUQUE  MINERAL  REGION.  —  THE  USES  OF  LEAD.  — LEAD 
PIPE,  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE.  —  SHOT.  —  WHITE  LEAD.  —  ZINC  AS  A  PIGMENT. 
—  ITS  VARIOUS  USES. 

The  great  lead  mines  of  the  United  States  are  what  are  called 
the  “  Upper  Mines, ”  on  each  side  of  the  Mississippi  River,  in  North¬ 
western  Illinois,  South-western  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa,  and  the 
“  Lower  Mines,”  found  chiefly  south  of  the  Missouri  River,  in  the 
State  of  Missouri.  The  Upper  Mines  were  discovered  by  La  Sueur, 
in  1700,  and  were  worked  from  H88  to  1809  by  Julien  Dubuque,  a 
French  miner,  who  owned  the  tract  of  land  upon  which  the  city  in 
Iowa  bearing  his  name  now  stands.  When  the  United  States 
acquired  possession  of  this  region,  leases  were  authorized  of  the 
mineral  lands,  but  none  were  issued  till  1822,  and  very  little  min¬ 
ing  done  till  1826.  In  1839  Dr.  D.  I).  Owen  was  appointed  by  the 
government  to  make  a  geological  survey  of  this  whole  district  for 
the  purpose  of  designating  the  mineral  lands  to  be  reserved  from 
sale. 

But  the  leasing  system  and  the  collection  of  rents  were  found 
to  be  attended  with  so  many  difficulties  that,  in  1844,  the  mineral 
lands  were  entered  for  sale.  Dr.  Owen  reports  the  lead  region 
as  covering  sixty-two  townships  in  Wisconsin,  ten  in  the  north¬ 
west  corner  of  Illinois,  and  eight  in  Iowa,  extending,  at  the  ex¬ 
treme  limit,  twelve  miles  west  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  bounded 
by  the  Wisconsin  River  on  the  north,  by  the  Apple  River  in  Illinois 
on  the  south,  and  on  the  east  by  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Peca- 
tonika.  The  rock  in  which  the  lead  veins  occur  is  termed  11  galena 
limestone,”  and  is  a  formation  entirely  western,  not  being  recog¬ 
nized  east  of  \\  isconsin.  Its  position  in  the  geological  column  is 
(1064) 


LEAD  AND  ZINC. 


1065 


between  the  Hudson  River  group  and  the  Trenton  limestone,  with 
the  upper  layers  of  which  the  lower  layers  of  galena  limestone 
alternate. 

The  galena,  or  lead  ore,  is  of  a  lustrous-black  color,  and  breaks 
easily,  with  a  cubical  fracture.  It  is  found  in  small  quantities  at 
the  surface  in  the  clay  of  the  fields  and  forests,  and  is  called  by 
the  miners  “float  mineral. ”  These  are  indications  of  a  crevice  or 
wall  of  galena  beneath.  These  walls  are  of  various  widths,  often 
not  more  than  a  foot ;  but  such  narrow  crevices  are  often  parted 
from  each  other  by  only  a  narrow  film  of  rock.  The  crevices  of 
mineral  often  expand  into  pockets  or  chimneys,  where  the  ore  is 
in  considerable  masses  and  in  great  purity.  In  other  diggings  the 
lead  is  in  flat  deposits  or  sheets,  so  that  a  removal  of  the  surface 
rock  discloses  an  immense  sheet  or  expanse  of  ore.  One  at  Mills 
Lode  was  found  twenty  feet  across,  and  from*  two  to  three  feet 
thick,  of  solid  galena.  Over  a  million  pounds  were  taken  from  it, 
leaving  large  masses  still  in  sight. 

Pig  lead  is  obtained  from  galena,  by  roasting  in  a  furnace  not 
unlike  a  limekiln,  using  half  a  ton  of  charcoal  to  a  ton  of  ore. 
The  fire  is  lighted  after  the  furnace  is  charged.  In  half  an  hour 
the  mass  becomes  red  hot,  and  the  materials  begin  to  flow.  The 
working  doors  are  then  opened,  and  the  charge  pushed  back  .and 
spread  ;  quicklime  is  thrown  over  the  surface,  the  effect  of  which 
is  to  dry  up  the  slag  and  preserve  the  metal  from  oxidation.  The 
fire  is  kept  hot,  with  occasional  alternations  of  cooling,  for  about 
four  and  a  half  hours,  when  the  tap  at  the  bottom  of  the  furnace 
is  opened,  and  the  lead  pours  out  with  the  slag.  But  the  latter  is 
pushed  back,  and  the  clear  lead  runs  into  the  grooves  carved  for 
it  in  moist  sand,  and  thus  forms  pigs  or  bars.  In  general  five  thou¬ 
sand  pounds  of  galena  yields  three  thousand  of  pig  lead,  much 
being  left  in  the  slag. 

The  quantities  of  lead  melted  in  the  Dubuque  mineral  region  is 
large,  but  varies  much  according  to  the  attractions  of  other  fields 
of  industry.  In  the  year  1846  the  quantity  of  American  lead  sold 
in  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans  was  about  fifty-five  million  pounds. 
In  1858  the  quantity  was  twenty-one  million  pounds,  and  the  }^ear 
previous  only  fourteen  million.  The  war  discouraged  this  industry, 
as  also  the  more  enticing  mineral  fields  of  the  far  west,  which  at¬ 
tracted,  and  still  attract,  the  mining  population.  We  import  two 
or  three  times  as  much  lead  as  we  produce,  the  mines  of  England 
and  of  Spain  furnishing  us  great  quantities. 


10G6 


LEAD  AND  ZINC. 


The  chief  use  we  make  of  lead  is  in  the  form  of  tubes,  for  water 
and  other  fluids.  Some  is  rolled  in  sheets,  for  use  on  roofs  in  cap¬ 
ping1  sharp  corners,  and  much  is  melted  and  run  into  shot,  or 
moulded  into  bullets.  The  amount  of  heat  required  to  make  lead 
a  fluid  is  moderate,  and  the  process  of  rolling  lead  into  sheets  is 
quite  simple.  The  iron  cylinders,  through  which  a  mass  of  lead 
not  quite  at  a  melting  heat  is  made  to  pass,  are  geared  and  fitted 
with  a  screw,  that  permits  their  distance  apart  to  be  diminished  as 
the  lead  becomes  flatter  from  frequent  pressure  between  them.  In 
passing  through  from  two  to  four  hundred  times,  the  length  may 
be  increased  from  six  feet  to  four  hundred.  When  the  sheets  be¬ 
come  too  long,  they  are  cut,  and  the  parts  are  rolled  down  to  the 
required  thinness. 

Lead  pipe  is  made  in  two  ways.  A  short,  thick  cylinder  is  first 
cast  of  the  exact  bore  required,  and  then  drawn  between  suitable 
rolls,  a  long  steel  mandrel  being  kept  in  the  portion  passing 
through  the  rolls. 

In  the  second  method  a  hydrostatic  press  forces  the  melted  lead 
through  dies  of  the  required  size.  The  piston  passes  through  a 
press  under  the  floor,  entering  a  strong,  upright  metallic  cylinder. 
This  is  filled  with  lead,  as  required  by  a  spout  in  the  top,  and  the 
spout  is  then  closely  shut.  Surrounding  the  cylinder  is  an  annular 
receptacle  for  live  coals,  which  keeps  the  lead  within  the  cylinder 
at  a  melting  heat.  A  steel  die,  of  the  required  diameter  for  the 
outside  of  the  pipe,  is  connected  with  the  top  of  the  cylinder,  and 
through  the  centre  of  this  die  passes  from  the  centre  of  the  piston 
below  the  mandrel,  which  determines  the  size  of  the  bore.  As  the 
piston  is  driven  upward,  the  lead  in  the  cylinder  is  forced  into  the 
annular  space  between  the  fixed  collar  or  die  and  the  mandrel,  and 
emerging  above,  cools  in  form  of  a  finished  pipe,  and  is  coiled  on 
a  drum  suspended  above  the  apparatus. 

Shot  is  made  of  an  alloy  of  lead  with  arsenic.  Hard  lead  re¬ 
quires  about  ten  parts  or  more  in  one  thousand.  Two  or  three 
tons  of  lead  are  melted  in  a  pot,  and  this  is  surrounded  with  a  cir¬ 
cle  of  ashes  or  pulverized  charcoal,  into  the  middle  of  which  the 
arsenic  is  introduced  and  stirred  in.  The  pot  is  then  covered  and 
left  several  hours,  when  the  arsenic  is  found  combined  with  the 
lead.  It  is  then  tested,  and  when  the  proportions  of  arsenic  and 
lead  are  found  to  be  just  right,  the  melted  mass  is  run  into  bars, 
and  taken  to  the  top  of  the  tower,  where  it  is  again  melted  and 
run  through  colanders.  These  are  hollow,  hemispherical  iron  disks, 


LEAD  AND  ZINC. 


1067 


or  rectangular  flat  sheets,  pierced  with  holes  of  uniform  size. 
These  holes  vary  from  one  thirtieth  to  one  three  hundred  and 
sixtieth  of  an  inch  ;  but  the  shot  is  always  of  greater  diameter 
than  the  holes  through  which  it  ran.  A  thin  coating  of  the  oxide 
of  lead  is  kept  over  the  colanders  to  hasten  the  cooling  process. 
The  shot  fall  through  quite  a  height  into  a  basin  of  cold  water, 
from  which  they  are  taken,  dried,  and  assorted.  This  is  done  by 
putting  them  in  a  revolving  copper  cylinder,  slightly  inclined  and 
perforated.  They  are  then  placed  in  a  revolving  cylinder,  partly 
filled  with  pulverized  graphite,  which  polishes  them  to  perfect 
smoothness.  From  this  they  are  taken  to  the  top  of  an  inclined 
plane,  and  rolled  down.  Those  which  are  truly  spherical  go  to  the 
bottom,  while  the  imperfect  ones  roll  off  at  the  sides.  Shot  towers 
are  of  different  heights,  according  to  the  size  of  shot  required. 
The  smaller  shot  can  be  made  at  the  height  of  one  hundred  feet, 
but  for  the  larger  size  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  are  required. 
The  highest  shot  tower  in  the  world  is  at  Villach,  in  Carinthia,  and 
has  an  altitude  of  two  hundred  and  forty-nine  feet. 

A  process  has  recently  been  patented  in  the  United  States  by 
which  shot  is  made  at  a  low  elevation,  by  forcing  a  strong  current 
of  air  upon  it  as  it  falls  into  the  water. 

Another  important  use  to  which  lead  is  put  is  the  preparation 
of  oxide  of  lead,  or  white  lead,  as  a  pigment.  In  this  branch  of 
the  lead  industry  this  country  takes  a  prominent  and  probably  the 
leading  position,  as  the  practice  of  painting  our  dwelling-houses  is 
more  common  than  in  any  other  country.  The  making  of  white 
lead  is  described  in  the  chapter  on  Paints. 

Zinc  is  a  whitish  metal,  resembling  lead  and  tin,  harder  than  the 
former,  and  not  so  hard  or  so  brilliant  as  the  latter.  When  cold 
it  is  brittle,  but  heated  beyond  two  hundred  and  twelve  de¬ 
grees  it  becomes  ductile  and  malleable.  The  three  chief  uses  of 
zinc  are,  first,  rolled  in  sheets  for  roofing,  lining  tubs  and  tanks, 
and  protecting  wrnoden  surfaces  from  the  heat  of  stoves  and  fur¬ 
naces  ;  second,  as  a  chemical  solution  in  galvanizing  iron  ;  and 
third,  converted  by  heat  into  a  white,  feathery  powder,  it  is  col¬ 
lected  in  flannel  bags,  compressed,  and  ground  in  linseed  oil,  mak¬ 
ing  a  brilliant  white  paint.  Of  zinc  used  in  this  country  in  a 
metallic  form,  the  greater  part  is  of  foreign  production. 

The  development  of  the  zinc  interest  in  this  country  is  of  recent 
origin,  and,  though  inconsiderable  in  the  production  of  sheet  zinc 
and  spelter, — the  chief  furnace  yielding  about  three  thousand  tons 


10G8 


LEAD  AND  ZINC. 


annually,  — the  amount  of  zinc-white,  or  flocculcnt  oxide  of  zinc, 
%  ground  in  oil  and  sold  as  a  pigment,  is  large,  and  increasing  every 
year.  The  very  best  snow-white  zinc,  of  which  small  quantities 
are  used  in  the  inside  finish  of  the  best  buildings,  is  produced  in 
France  by  the  Gombustion  of  sheet  zinc.  The  American  zinc 
paints  are  made  from  the  ore,  and  from  certain  of  our  ores  pig¬ 
ments  of  great  beauty  and  lustre  are  manufactured  ;  but  the  im¬ 
purities  in  some  ores  are  such  that  the  product  is  in  no  respect 
superior  to  common  wdiite  lead. 

When  used  in  the  manufacture  of  pigments,  the  zinc  ore  is 
ground  fine,  and  mixed  with  half  its  bulk  of  fine  anthracite.  This 
mixture  is  thrown  upon  a  burning  mass  of  coal,  and  fanned  by  a 
blower  sending  a  blast  through  the  perforations  of  the  grate  of  the 
furnace.  As  the  products  of  combustion  rise,  a  current  of  air  is 
thrown  into  the  chimney,  and  the  zinc  burns  with  a  clear,  blue 
flame,  sending  up  the  oxide  in  fine,  white  powder.  This  is  car¬ 
ried  up  into  a  large  cast-iron  receiver,  and  thence  driven  forward, 
growing  cooler  and  depositing  the  larger  and  darker  particles,  till 
the  finest  of  it  is  gathered  in  rows  of  flannel  bags.  From  these 
flannel  bags  the  snowy  powder  is  rattled  down  and  removed  at  the 
bottom.  It  is  then  compressed,  or  wadded  together,  and  taken  to 
paint  mills,  where  it  is  ground  in  linseed  oil.  As  a  paint,  zinc  is 
superior  to  lead  in  whiteness,  and  in  the  power  of  resisting  dis¬ 
coloration  from  gases,  and  when  properly  condensed  before  grind¬ 
ing  in  oil,  it  may  be  made  to  have  as  much  body  or  covering  prop¬ 
erty,  and  is  to  be  preferred  to  lead,  as  being  less  costly,  and  be¬ 
cause  it  resists  the  darkening  effects  of  illuminating  gas. 

From  a  mine  in  North  Carolina,  near  Springfield,  an  ore  is  taken 
in  which  zinc,  lead,  and  silver  are  blended  in  a  remarkable  way. 
When  roasted,  the  Bartlett  ore  gives  off  a  floss,  or  lustrous-white 
powder,  of  great  fineness  and  brilliancy.  Ground  in  oil,  the  Bart¬ 
lett  paint  is  produced,  which  keeps  its  body  and  lustre  in  any  ex¬ 
posure,  and  bids  fair  to  win  its  way  to  the  first  rank  as  a  pigment. 
As  yet  the  supply  of  ore  has  not  been  found  sufficient;  but  other 
veins  of  this  remarkable  union  of  argentiferous  galena  with  zinc 
occur  in  other  parts  of  that  state,  and  the  quantity  of  this  beauti¬ 
ful  pigment  ground  each  year  constantly  increases.  The  peculiar 
value  of  this  ore  has  given  an  impetus  to  the  development  of  the 
numerous  mines  of  zinc  known  to  exist  in  the  southern  spurs  of 
the  Appalachian  range. 


SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS. 


THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  THE  NAIL.  —  THE  DERIVATION  OP  THE  WORD.  —  THE  USE 

OF  THE  NAIL  IN  ANTIQUITY.  - A  COMPARISON  OF  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN 

HOUSES.  —  THE  NAIL  AS  A  TEST  OF  CIVILIZATION.  —  VULCAN  AND  VENUS  IN 
MODERN  TIMES.  —  THE  HAND  MANUFACTURE  OF  NAILS.  —  THE  FIRST  ENGLISH 
MACHINE  FOR  THEIR  PRODUCTION.  —  FISHER  AMES  ON  THE  HOME  MANU¬ 
FACTURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — ALEXANDER  HAMILTON’S  REPORT.  — 
THE  INDUSTRIAL  POLICY  OF  ENGLAND  TO  THE  COLONIES.  —  THE  FIRST 
MACHINE-MADE  NAILS  AND  TACKS.  —  OTHER  INVENTIONS  OF  THE  SAME 
KIND.  —  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  FIRM  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY  IN  THIS  IN¬ 
DUSTRY. —  A  DESCRIPTION  OF  THEIR  WORKS.  —  THE  MORAL  EFFECT  UPON 
INDUSTRY  OF  ITS  SURROUNDINGS.  —  THE  INCREASING  CULTURE  OF  LABOR.  — 
THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THIS  ENTERPRISE.  —  ITS  PRESENT  MANAGEMENT. 

The  antiquity  of  the  nail  is  proved  as  conclusively  by  the  deri¬ 
vation  of  the  word  as  if  we  had  either  the  articles  themselves, 
preserved  from  an  antiquity  dating  far  behind  the  settlement  of 
Europe  by  the  nations  now  found  there,  or  a  record  of  equal  an¬ 
tiquity  either  in  books  or  other  competent  monuments.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  ndjel,  the  Old  German  nagal,  the  Danish  nagle,  and 
other  European  terms  for  the  same  instrument,  in  their  evident 
phonetic  relation  to  the  Sanscrit  word  nakha,  show  that  the 
nations  of  Europe  brought  with  them  the  knowledge  of  the  nail, 
as  they  brought  the  term  for  expressing  it,  from  the  distant  home 
where  they  were  in  the  early  past  united  as  one  people. 

As  it  is'  from  the  study  of  such  simple  words,  descriptive  of  the 
daily  wants  of  life,  that  modern  philology  has  been  enabled  to 
reconstruct  much  of  the  past  history  of  mankind  upon  this  planet, 
so  is  it  with  the  nail  itself.  Its  abundance  and  its  cheapness  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  many  of  the  arts  and  luxuries  of  modern  civiliza¬ 
tion,  and  the  student  of  social  science  may  find  the  investigation 
of  its  history  and  use  as  valuable  for  a  knowledge  of  the  growth 
of  progress,  as  the  philologist  has  found  in  the  study  of  the  words 

(1069) 


1070 


SMALL  KAILS  AND  TACKS. 


used  to  express  it,  suggestions  for  the  history  of  races  otherwise 
unknown. 

While  a  pastoral  people  retain  their  custom  of  living  in  tents, 
made  either  from  skins,  or  cloths,  or  branches,  they  must  mani¬ 
festly  have  but  little  need  of  nails  for  the  construction  of  their 
houses  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  from  the  want  of  this  simple  ap¬ 
pliance,  must  be  dependent  for  their  furniture  upon  such  simple 
make-shifts  as  can  be  improvised  without  their  use.  Even  the 
houses  of  the  nations  of  antiquity,  who  had  arrived  at  a  position 
of  great  development  in  many  of  the  arts,  were  singularly  devoid 
of  furniture,  when  contrasted  with  even  the  humblest  cottage  of 
the  present  day.  One  of  the  reasons  why  brick  and  stone  were 
so  frequently  used  in  antiquity  was  the  inability  of  the  industry 
of  that  time  to  furnish  the  nails  necessary  for  easy  working 
in  wood. 

In  Carthage,  during  its  proudest  days,  the  houses  above  the  first 
story,  were  generally  built  of  puddled  clay.  A  modern  balloon 
frame  house,  put  together  with  studs  only  two  by  four  inches,  but 
so  tied  and  strengthened  by-scientific  methods  of  construction,  that 
every  nail  holds  to  its  utmost  strength,  so  that  the  entire  structure 
will  blow  over  before  blowing  to  pieces,  is  an  evidence  of  greater 
constructive  skill  and  experience  than  many  an  ancient  ruin  of 
stone,  over  which  the  sentimental  tourist  goes  into  raptures. 

The  distinction,  however,  between  the  houses  of  the  ancients 
and  those  of  the  moderns,  is  more  strikingly  seen  in  the  decora¬ 
tions  of  the  interior,  in  the  various  appliances  for  ease,  comfort, 
and  simple  decoration,  which  the.  abundance  and  cheapness  of  nails 
make  possible  now,  but  which  all  the  wealth  of  imperial  Rome, 
lavished  upon  the  palace  of  the  C«sars,  could  not  compass. 

In  modern  times,  also,  the  furniture  of  our  houses  has  undergone 
a  similar  change  in  its  character.  The  solid  high-backed  chairs  of 
our  ancestors,  with  the  ponderous  tables  and  high  sideboards,  are 
now  replaced  with  lighter  articles  of  more  graceful  forms,  as  the 
balloon  frame  has  replaced  the  soljd  timber  frames  of  our  fore¬ 
fathers,  in  which  so  much  wood  was  wasted,  without  the  advantage 
of  proportionally  more  strength.  The  nail  has  replaced  the  mortise 
and  tenon,  and  economy  of  material,  as  well  as  economy  of  force, 
is  the  end  we  now  seek  to  attain  in  our  building,  as  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  life. 

As  a  test  of  the  comparative  advance  of  different  peoples  in  the 
race  of  civilization,  with  its  consequent  diffusion  of  comforts  and 


SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS. 


1071 


luxuries,  their  use  of  nails,  and  especially  of  small  nails,  might  be 
used  with  advantage.  In  their  house  building,  boat  building,  ship 
building  ;  in  their  furniture,  their  upholstering,  their  decoration ; 
in  the  countless  utensils  of  domestic  and  agricultural  industry,  and 
in  a  thousand  other  specialties,  the  use  of  the  nail  is  indispensable  ; 
and  before  industry  could  supply  these,  their  existence  was  im¬ 
possible. 

In  fact,  had  not  mankind  outgrown  the  tendency  which  has 
everywhere  characterized  the  infancy  of  nations  to  personify  their 
gods,  and  ascribe  to  divinities  the  beneficent  establishment  of  their 
industries,  as  well  as  the  advent  of  their  misfortunes,  Yulcan  to¬ 
day  would  be  more  fitly  represented  as  engaged  in  forging  nails, 
than  in  manufacturing  thunderbolts  ;  while  Venus  herself  would 
be  much  more  attractively  employed  in  persuading  him  to  invent 
a  tack  or  a  brad,  as  a  gift  for  some  of  her  favorites  upon  the  earth, 
than  in  getting  him  to  make  a  suit  of  invulnerable  armor,  or  a 
sword  which  should  never  become  dull. 

That  the  ancients,  however,  had  no  such  legend  to  account  for 
their  possession  of  the  nail,  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  process 
of  its  manufacture  was  so  simple  that  they  could  understand  it. 
It  was  only  the  processes  which  they  could  not  comprehend,  on 
account  of  their  complexity,  which  they  felt  obliged  to  account 
for  upon  some  theory  of  divine  assistance. 

The  suggestion  of  the  nail  was  offered  to  mankind  by  Nature 
herself.  The  uncivilized  man  of  early  times,  as  the  savage  does 
to-day,  found  in  the  thorn  an  instrument  better  fitted  for  his  use  in 
attaching  things  together  than  anything  he  could  make  himself. 
With  his  increasing  ability,  however,  to  fashion  to  his  own  uses 
the  natural  materials  he  found  about  him,  he  would  soon  replace 
the  thorn  with  pins  of  wood ;  and,  as  the  use  of  iron  is  known  to 
have  been  reached  at  a  very  early  period, — so  early,  in  fact,  that 
all  record  of  it  is  lost,  nails  must  have  been  very  soon  made  from 
this  material,  since  its  strength,  its  hardness,  and  its  ductility 
make  it  peculiarly  fitted  for  this  purpose. 

Among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  and  those  of  modern  times, 
until  quite  recently,  the  manufacture  of  nails  was  entirely  a  hand 
process,  each  nail  being  hammered  out  upon  an  anvil. 

In  the  modern  history  of  the  civilized  world,  England  early 
assumed  the  lead  in  the  manufactory  of  nails.  Their  consumption 
was  great  enough  to  make  their  production  one  of  the  chief  in¬ 
dustries  of  that  country,  as  many  as  sixty  thousand  persons 


» 


1072 


SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS. 


having  been  estimated  to  be  employed  in  this  single  branch  of 
manufacture  in  and  about  the  single  city  of  Birmingham,  which 
was  the  chief  seat  of  this  industry. 

Though  the  process  was  almost  entirely  by  hand  until  within 
this  century,  yet  in  1618  a  patent  was  granted  in  England,  as 
appears  from  the  records  of  the  patent  office,  to  Clement  Daw- 
berry,  for  “  an  engine  worked  by  wrater,  for  cutting  iron  into 
small  bars  or  rods,  for  making  nail^,”  Other  machines  were  sub¬ 
sequently  invented  for  drawing  the  iron  rods,  or  forging  them  into 
the  shapes  in  which  they  come  into  the  hands  of  the  nail-maker. 
At  his  hands  the  nail  was  fashioned  with  a  hammer  from  the  end 
of  the  nail  rod,  heated  in  the  fire  to  redness,  and  then,  being  cut 
from  the  rod  with  a  chisel,  the  head  was  formed  with  the  hammer 
also,  the  nail  being  placed  in  the  “  bore,”  which  was  a  piece  of 
iron,  with  a  steel  knob  at  each  end,  perforated  to  the  size  of  the 
shank  of  the  nail,  and  countersunk  to  correspond  with  the  head. 

At  about  1790  the  first  machine  intended  to  do  away  with  hand 

labor  in  the  manufacture  of  nails  was  patented  ;  it  was,  however, 

simply  intended  to  use  hammers,  driven  by  water  or  some  other 

power,  for  the  purpose  of  working  the  nails  in  the  same  manner 
« 

that  they  were  worked  by  hand. 

In  1790,  however,  a  machine  patented  by  Thomas  Clifford  was 
designed  to  introduce  a  new  method.  lie  used  two  iron  rollers, 
faced  with  steel,  into  which  were  sunk  impressions  the  shape  of 
the  nails  to  be  made.  One  half  of  the  form  of  the  nail  was  in 
each  roller,  and  these  forms  were  arranged  in  lines  running  round 
the  rollers,  so  that  a  bar  of  iron  placed  between  the  rollers  was 
squeezed  into  a  line  of  nails,  the  head  of  one  being  slightly  con¬ 
nected  with  the  end  of  another.  The  nails  were  afterwards  sepa¬ 
rated  with  shears.  lie  also  proposed,  by  placing  the  lines  of  these 
forms  close  together,  to  convert,  by  the  same  process,  a  sheet  of 
iron  into  nails. 

It  was  also  attempted  about  this  time  to  make  nails  by  casting 
them  ;  but  as  they  were  found,  by  experiment,  to  be  too  brittle 
for  any  practical  use,  this  method  was  abandoned.  The  nails 
made  by  all  of  these  processes  were  still  very  dear,  and  in 
America,  where  wood,  especially  in  the  early  times  of  the  settle¬ 
ment  of  the  country,  was  chiefly  used  as  the  material  for  house¬ 
building,  the  attention  of  inventive  men  was  early  directed  to 
methods  of  cheapening  their  production. 

The  first  nails  made  in  the  United  States  were  manufactured  by 


SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS. 


1073' 


the  hand  process  in  use  in  England.  In  the  colonial  times  the 
manufacture  was  carried  on  as  described  by  Fisher  Ames,  of  Mas¬ 
sachusetts,  in  a  speech  made  before  Congress  in  1789,  when  it  was 
proposed  to  put  a  duty  of  a  cent  a  pound  upon  all  imported  spikes, 
nails,  tacks,  and  brads,  in  order  to  foster  this  industry.  During 
the  debate  Mr.  Ames  said,  “  This  manufacture,  with  very  little 
encouragement,  has  grown  up  remarkably.  It  has  become  com¬ 
mon  for  the  country  people  in  Massachusetts  to  erect  small  forges 
in  their  chimney  corners,  and  in  winter  and  in  evenings  when 
little  other  work  can  be  done,  great  quantities  of  nails  are  made, 
even  by  children.  These  people  take  the  rod  iron  of  the  merchant 
and  return  him  the  nails;  and,  in  consequence  of  this  easy  mode 
of  barter,  the  manufacture  is  prodigiously  great.  These  advan¬ 
tages  are  not  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  people  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts:  The  business  might  be  prosecuted  in  a  similar  manner 
in  every  state  exerting  equal  industry.” 

In  Alexander  Hamilton’s  report,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
in  1791,  in  speaking  of  the  consumption  of  iron,  he  says  that  the 
United  States  already  supplied,  in  a  great  measure,  their  demand 
for  spikes  and  nails,  and  were  able  to  do  so  entirely.  This  in¬ 
crease  of  this  branch  of  manufacture  had  been  brought  about 
despite  the  action  of  the  English  government ;  the  policy  of 
which,  during  the  entire  colonial  period,  had  been  calculated  to 
make  the  colonies  entirely  dependent  upon  the  mother  country  for 
all  the  manufactured  articles  they  consumed.  As  an  expression 
of  what  the  English  government  desired,  Lord  North,  during  the 
discontent  just  prior  to  the  revolution,  declared  that  the  colonies 
should  not  be  allowed  to  make  even  a  nail  for  their  own  use. 

This  short-sighted  and  selfish  policy  having  led  to  the  discon¬ 
tent  which  finally  culminated  in  the  struggle  for  independence, 
caused  a  spirit  of  resistance  among  the  colonies,  and  led  to  the 
quite  general  formation  of  leagues,  the  members  of  which  pledged 
themselves  to  use  no  imported  articles,  but  to  depend  entirely 
upon  those  manufactured  at  home.  The  result  of  this  condition 
of  things  was,  of  course,  to  increase  the  demand  for  home-made 
nails,  among  other  things,  and  to  stimulate  the  inventive  genius 
of  the  country  in  the  production  of  new  methods  for  increasing 
and  cheapening  their  manufacture. 

About  1776,  Jeremiah  Wilkinson,  of  Cumberland,  Rhode  Island, 
who  was  engaged  in  manufacturing  hand  cards,  used  in  preparing 
wool  for  spinning,  found  the  price  of  the  tacks  used  in  their 


1074 


SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS. 


manufacture  so  high,  owing  to  the  war  of  the  revolution,  which 
was  then  raging,  and  to  the  time  and  labor  necessary  to  produce 
them  by  the  hand  process  then  in  use,  invented  a  way  of  making 
tacks  by  cutting  them  from  a  piece  of  sheet-iron  with  a  pair  of 
shears,  and  then  heading  them  in  a  vice.  This  process  he  after¬ 
wards  adapted  to  making  cut  nails,  and  he  is,  consequently,  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  the  person  who  first  produced  nails'  in  this  way. 

A  machine  for  cutting  and  heading  nails,  invented  about  1190 
by  Jacob  Perkins,  of  Newburyport,*  who  wTas  one  of  the  most 
active  pioneers  in  the  army  of  American  inventors,  "was  first  used 
at  Amesbury.  It  was  patented  January  16,  1795,  and  is  said  to 
have  been  able  to  turn  out  10,000  nails  a  day. 

Ezekiel  Reed,  of  Bridgewater,  invented,  about  1786,  a  machine 
for  cutting  tacks  and  nails,  which,  being  improved,  was  used  at 
Abington,  making  in  1815  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  tacks. 

Jesse  Reed,  a  son  of  the  preceding,  patented,  in  1807,  a  ma¬ 
chine  for  making  and  heading  tacks  at  one  operation,  at  the  rate 
of  sixty  thousand  a  day. 

In  1789  Samuel  Briggs,  of  Philadelphia,  memorialized  the  State 
Legislature  and  the  General  Congress  on  the  subject  of  a  machine 
for  making  nails,  screws,  and  gimlets,  and  deposited  with  them,  in 
a  sealed  box,  a  model  of  his  nail  machine,  subject  to  their  order. 
In  August,  1797,  he,  with  his  son,  received  the  first  patent  for  a 
nail-making  machine  issued  by  the  United  States. 

The  second  one  was  granted  in  February,  1794,  to  Thomas  Per¬ 
kins,  of  Philadelphia. 

David  Fulsom,  also,  in  1789,  petitioned  the  legislature  to  pro¬ 
tect  his  invention  for  cutting  nails  without  drawing. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  about  the  same  time  inventions  for  manu¬ 
facturing  nails  were  made  by  various  persons,  in  different  parts 
of  the  country ;  and  it  is  still  a  somewhat  disputed  point  to  whom 
the  credit  of  absolute  priority  is  due. 

The  business,  however,  having  been  thus  established,  in  1817  a 
patent  was  granted  to  Samuel  Rogers  and  Thomas  Blanchard,  of 
Boston,  Mass.  This  machine,  known  as  the  Blanchard  machine, 
has,  with  Reed’s,  above  mentioned,  superseded  all  others.  Impor¬ 
tant  as  has  been  its  influence  upon  the  large  industry  of  nail- 
making,  yet  the  patent  was  sold  to  a  company  for  ordy  five  thou¬ 
sand  dollars. 

The  representative  firm,  in  the  present  day,  of  the  manufacture 
of  tacks  and  small  nails  is  that  of  Messrs.  A.  Field  &  Sons,  at 


SMALL  KAILS  AKD  TACKS. 


1077 


Taunton,  Mass.  In  this  manufactory  over  three  hundred  opera¬ 
tives  are  employed,  and  about  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  ma¬ 
chines  of  the  Blanchard  and  Reed  patterns,  with  an  important  im¬ 
provement  patented  by  Mr.  William  H.  Field. 

The  buildings  are  over  seven  hundred  feet  long,  and  in  their 
architectural  finish,  together  with  their  inside  decoration,  and  the 
order,  neatness,  and  propriety  of  their  arrangement,  are  at  once 
models  of  industrial  economy,  and  also  a  constant  school  for  the 
culture  of  those  who  are  engaged  there. 

In  common  with  every  other  variety  of  organized  life,  men  and 
women  are  the  results  of  their  surrounding  conditions ;  and  this 
truth,  which  is  too  often  neglected  in  the  arrangement  and  pro¬ 
priety  of  our  industrial  enterprises,  is  here  fully  exemplified.  The 
moral  influences  of  neatness,  propriety,  and  order  are  seen  at  a 
glance  in  the  character  and  deportment  of  the  numerous  women 
and  children  who  are  here  usefully  employed. 

In  the  gradual  advance  of  industry,  from  the  ergastula,  or  slave 
pens  of  Rome,  through  the  modified  forms  of  villainage  and  serf¬ 
dom  in  Europe,  to  that  of  citizenship  in  this  county,  with  each 
step  in  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  labor,  the  organiza¬ 
tion  of  society  has  been  found  to  become  more  stable,  and  prop¬ 
erty  to  become  more  secure,  in  proportion  as  the  material  welfare 
of  all  classes  has  been  increased. 

The  machinery  used  in  Messrs.  Fields’  establishment  is  mostly 
manufactured  by  the  company  from  their  own  patterns,  and  under 
their  own  inspection,  so  as  to  secure  the  best.  The  range  of  their 
manufacture  includes  about  a  thousand  varieties  of  small  nails  and 
tacks,  which  are  made  of  iron,  zinc,  copper,  steel,  and,  in  fact, 
from  every  variety  of  material  used  for  this  purpose.  Over  thirty- 
five  millions  of  nails  and  tacks  are  made  here  daily,  and,  on  an 
average,  about  two  hundred  boxes,  or  other  packages,  of  nails  and 
tacks,  weighing,  in  the  aggregate,  between  nine  and  ten  tons,  are 
daily  sent  out  for  distribution  over  the  markets  of  the  world. 

Much  credit  in  the  organization  of  this  vast  industry  is  due  to 
Mr.  Elijah  S.  Caswell,  for  the  mechanical  skill  which,  during  the 
thirty  years  he  has  been  at  the  head  of  the  cutting  department, 
he  has  brought  to  bear  in  perfecting  the  machinery  used.  The 
visitor  to  this  establishment  will  be,  perhaps,  most  astonished  at 
seeing  in  the  cutting  room  the  array  of  machines,  which,  for  com¬ 
pactness,  and  the  amount  of  work  they  perform,  are  probably 
excelled  nowhere  in  the  United  States.  Each  machine  cuts  and 
62 


1078 


SMALL  NAILS  AND  TACKS. 


heads  fifteen  thousand  nails  or  tacks  an  hour.  Shoe  nails  are  cut 
at  the  rate  of  fifteen  hundred  to  three  thousand  a  minute.  Here 
are  made,  also,  the  famous  chisel-pointed  nails,  used  in  boat  build¬ 
ing-,  and  which  are  made  by  no  other  tack  manufacturer.  In  the 
packing  room  is  an  admirably  designed  label  diagram,  showing  at 
a  glance  in  what  drawer  any  desired  one  of  the  hundred  and 
twenty  varieties  of  labels  used  can  be  found. 

The  extent  of  the  business  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  these 
labels  are  provided  by  the  two  tons  at  a  time.  The  leather-headed 
tacks,  intended  specially  for  use  in  putting  down  carpets,  have 
also  here  a  complete  department  for  their  manufactory.  The 
scraps  of  leather  from  shoe  manufactories  are  gathered  here  from 
far  and  near,  and  by  machinery  fashioned  into  the  caps  for  tacks, 
which  are  at  the  same  time  driven  through  them.  A  girl  oper¬ 
ating  one  of  these  machines  can  leather  120,000  tacks  in  a  day. 

This  establishment  was  founded  by  Albert  Field,  who  died  in 
1869,  at  the  age  of  73.  The  success  he  met  with  is  a  proof  of 
his  business  capacity  and  his  talent  for  industrial  organization  ; 
while  the  affectionate  regard  in  which  he  was  held  by  those  whom 
he  employed,  and  the  confidence  and  respect  he  acquired  in  the 
community,  are  evidences  of  his  high  character.  The  business  is 
now  carried  on  as  a  chartered  corporation  retaining  the  old  firm 
name,  and  under  the  direct  management  of  Mr.  George  A.  Field, 
president  of  the  corporation,  the  oldest  son  of  Mr.  Albert  Field, 
and  who  was  practically  engaged  in  the  business  with  his  father 
for  nearly  forty  years,  and  of  Mr.  N.  Bradford  Dean,  treasurer  of 
the  corporation,  who  has  been  for  nearly  twenty  years  connected 
with  the  house.  Mr.  Charles  II.  Field,  also  another  son  of  Mr. 
Albert  Field,  is  one  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  corporation. 
Mr.  Leander  Soule,  a  practical  tack-maker  and  able  manager,  is 
superintendent  of  the  establishment.  Mr.  Otis  Allen,  who  has 
had  the  direct  charge  of  the  packing  and  shipping  department  for 
over  forty  years,  should  not  be  forgotten  in  these  notes,  he  having, 
by  his  peculiar  talent  in  systematizing  business,  and  by  economical 
management,  added  largely  to  the  effective  force  of  the  establish¬ 
ment.  With  a  management  like  this,  and  ambitious  to  be  excelled 
by  none,  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  the  tacks  of  A.  Field  A  Sons 
are  to  be  found  in  nearly  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


THE  MODERN  ORIGIN  OF  BANKS.  —  MAN  AN  EXCHANGING  ANIMAL.  —  BANKING 
IN  ANTIQUITY.  —  THE  NECESSITY  FOR  A  POPULAR  UNDERSTANDING  OF  FI¬ 
NANCIAL  SUBJECTS.  —  THE  MATERIAL  QUESTIONS.  —  THE  FIRST  BANK  ES¬ 
TABLISHED. —  THE  CAUSES  WHICH  LED  TO  ITS  FORMATION.  —  THE  CAMERA 
DEGL’  IMPRESTITI.  —  THE  BANK  OF  GENEVA.  —  OTHER  BANKS.  —  THE  BANK 
OF  ENGLAND.  — THE  ROYAL  EXCHANGER.  —  MICHAEL  GODFREY.  —  THE  FIRST 
CHARTER  OF  THE  BANK  OF  ENGLAND.  —  JOINT-STOCK  BANKS.  —  SPECIE¬ 
PAYING  BANKS.  —  BANKING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  BANK  OF  NORTH 
AMERICA.  —  THE  BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  NEW  YORK  BANKING 
SYSTEM.  —  THE  NATIONAL  BANKS.  —  THEIR  USEFULNESS.  —  THE  PRESENT 
NECESSITY  FOR  A  CHANGE. 

The  practice  of  banking  and  the  establishment  of  banks  belong 
entirely  to  the  modern  world.  The  nations  of  antiquity  knew 
nothing  about  such  practices.  The  passage  in  the  parable  of  the 
slothful  servant,  “  Thou  oughtest  to  have  put  my  money  to  the 
exchangers,  and  then  at  my  coming  I  should  have  received  mine 
own  with  usury, ”  shows  that  the  payment  of  interest  was  in  use 
at  that  day,  while  Christ’s  attack  upon  the  money  changers  in  the 
Temple  suggests  how  the  business  was  then  carried  on.  Of  course, 
as  man  stands  preeminently  among  the  rest  of  the  organic  world 
as  an  exchanging  animal,  trade  and  barter  were  probably  among 
the  first  methods  introduced  in  pre-historic  times  as  a  means  for 
gratifying  the  desires  of  the  men  of  that  period. 

Among  the  Egyptians,  from  whom  the  Hebrews  unquestionably 
derived  many  of  their  arts  and  customs,  there  must  have  existed 
an  industrial  society  which  had  reached  quite  a  degree  of  devel¬ 
opment.  The  government,  like  all  governments  in  an  early  stage 
of  the  development  of  popular  freedom,  had  organized  an  effective 
and  oppressive  system  of  taxation.  For  meeting  the  necessary 
expenses  of  building  such  enormous  architectural  monuments  as 
still  exist  in  Egypt,  vast  sums  of  money  must  have  been  collected 
and  disbursed,  even  though  the  work  was  performed  by  slaves, 

(1079) 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1080 


Anything,  however,  rC“?mblin2  our  modern  systfm  of  finance>  was 
entirely  unknown  to  them  ;  or,  rather,  tim  £crms  from 

which,  by  the  experience  of  successive  generations,  have  been  de¬ 
veloped  the  financial  and  commercial  methods  now  in  use,  were  all 
that  they  possessed.  Their  money  consisted  entirely  of  coinage, 
and  their  only  method  of  keeping  it  wTas  by  carefully  guarding  it 
in  strongly  built  depositories. 

It  was  the  same  with  all  the  other  nations  of  antiquity.  In 
Rome,  with  all  the  luxury  which  the  resources  of  the  world  poured 
into  her  lap,  the  convenience  and  cheapness  of  the  modern  com¬ 
mercial  methods  were  entirely  unknown.  The  money,  for  exam¬ 
ple,  with  which  the  Roman  legions  were  paid,  accompanied  the 
army,  and  consisted  of  a  store  of  gold  and  silver  coins,  which  had 
to  be  carefully  guarded,  and  was  most  difficult  of  transportation. 
Although  within  the  present  century  the  application  of  the  new 
scientific  method  of  study  to  the  records  of  antiquity,  has,  in  the 
hands  of  Niebuhr,  Grote,  and  others  of  the  same  school,  greatly 
increased  our  knowledge  of  the  political  significance  of  much  of 
the  history  of  those  times,  arid  has  corrected  a  great  deal  that 
formerly  passed  as  history,  while  the  study  of  such  subjects  was 
pursued  without  method,  and  always  in  the  interest  of  the  rulers, 
still  there  is  a  great  deal  in  the  manners,  customs,  and  methods  of 
the  daily  life  of  the  people  which  has  not  been  as  yet  made  clear 
to  the  comprehension  of  the  modern  world  by  careful  coordination 
of  the  hints  and  suggestions  which  exist  for  such  studies  in  the 
literature  of  the  nations  of  that  time. 

Especially  is  this  so  with  the  financial  customs  of  the  ancients  ; 
how  they  gained,  and  kept,  or  used  their  money,  and  the  effect 
which  the  want  of  our  modern  methods  in  these  matters  had  upon 
the  general  intelligence  and  political  independence  of  the  people 
are  still  subjects  of  inquiry.  It  is  difficult  for  us  now  to  conceive  the 
possibility  of  a  large,  cultivated,  and  industrial  population  existing 
without  a  bank,  and  much  of  the  political  subserviency  of  ancient 
times  was  caused  by  the  very  want  of  independence  which  such 
a  state  of  things  made  necessary.  The  understanding  and  control 
of  the  medium  of  exchange  are  as  important  for  the  freedom  of 
daily  life  as  the  comprehension  and  control  of  political  subjects 
are  to  political  independence,  and,  perhaps,  even  more  so,  since  a 
financial  despotism  is  more  constant  and  subtle  in  its  action  than 
political  tyranny,  and  enters  more  completely  into  all  the  daily ‘re¬ 
lations  of  life.  It  is,  therefore,  but  natural  that,  in  the  modern 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1081 


world,  and  especially  in  this  country,  the  course  of  social  revolu¬ 
tion  has  reached  the  stage  in  which  the  material  questions  have 
become  the  most  important.  By  the  possession  of  the  right  of 
suffrage  the  people  have  gained  the  right  to  take  an  interest  in  po¬ 
litical  matters,  and  control  their  organization  in  accordance  with 
the  best  interests  of  their  own  morality  and  well-being.  It  is, 
therefore,  strictly  in  the  line  of  progress  that  the  material  ques¬ 
tions  should  be  subjected  to  the  same  process  ;  and  among  them 
there  is  not  one  which  is  of  more  importance  than  that  of  banks 
and  banking. 

The  first  bank  established  in  the  modern  civilized  world  was  the 
bank  at  Venice,  which  was  founded  in  -1157.  According  to  some 
authorities  it  was  founded  in  consequence  of  a  loan  which  the  state 
had  felt  the  necessity  of  raising  in  order  to  carry  on  a  war  with 
the  Greek  empire  in  1156-71.  According  to  other  accounts  it  was 
founded  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the .  new  condition  of  things 
caused  by  the  crusades.  The  armies  which  swarmed  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  to  the  East  required  some  new  commercial  method 
for  making  use  of  the  money  they  needed  for  their  expenses. 
Whichever  account  is  correct,  there  is  no  question  but  that,  at  first, 
it  was  simply  a  bank  of  deposit.  Persons  having  money  could  place 
it  in  the  hands  of  the  bank  and  feel  secure  of  its  safety,  while 
they  were  also  able  to  have  it  transferred  to  the  account  of  some 
one  else  upon  the  books  of  the  bank,  the  n*oney  in  such  cases  re¬ 
maining  in  the  possession  of  the  bank.  Slight  as  this  conven¬ 
ience  appears  to  us  now,  yet  it  was  unquestionably  a  considerable 
advance  upon  those  which  were  in  use  at  the  time  of  the  bank’s 
foundation.  Subsequently  this  bank  introduced  the  custom  of 
transferring  its  deposits  by  drafts  drawn  by  their  owners. 

The  Bank  of  Venice  was  not,  however,  entirely  a  new  creation 
(human  institutions  are  never  formed  in  that  way),  but  was 
a  modification  of  the  conditions  previously  existing,  to  suit  the 
new  exigencies  of  the  new  conditions.  It  was  a  step  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  progress,  a  further  differentiation  in  the  growth  of  social 
organization.  To  meet  the  expenses  of  the  state,  contributions 
had  been  levied  upon  the  most  wealthy  of  its  inhabitants,  and  a 
chamber  of  lenders  ( Camera  degV  imprestiti)  had  been  established 
for  the  purpose  of  managing  the  funds  thus  collected,  and  of  pay¬ 
ing  the  guaranteed  interest  of  four  per  cent,  to  the  lenders.  From 
these  creditors  of  the  state  was  subsequently  incorporated  a  com¬ 
pany  for  the  management  of  their  mutual  interests,  and  from  this 


1082 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


the  Bank  of  Venice  was  formed.  This  bank  was  consequently 
an  incorporated  body  of  creditors  of  the  state,  to  whom  the  state 
gave  certain  privileges  in  compensation  for  withholding  their 
money.  The  public  debt  was  made  transferable  on  the  books  of 
the  bank  in  the  same  manner  as  is  now  done  with  those  of  many 
states,  or  with  the  stock  of  incorporated  companies.  One  of  its 
chief  privileges  consisted  in  the  obligation  placed  by  the  state 
upon  the  merchants,  to  get  their  contracts,  and  draw  their  bills  in 
bank  money  instead  of  in  the  current  money  of  the  city.  The 
Bank  of  Venice  was,  therefore,  essentially  a  bank  of  deposit,  and 
not  of  issue,  and  this  character  it  retained  during  the  six  centuries 
of  its  existence,  until  it  was  suppressed  in  1797,  when  the  armies 
of  revolutionary  France  obtained  possession  of  the  city. 

The  slowness  with  which  new  methods  of  social  organization 
were  accepted  and  introduced  in  Europe  during  this  period,  owing 
to  the  moral  stagnation  of  the  times  consequent  upon  the  isolation 
and  jealousy  of  the  various  communities,  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  over  two  hundred  years  intervened  from  the  establishment 
of  the  Bank  of  Venice  to  the  next  institution  of  a  similar  kind. 
The  second  bank  in  Europe  was  the  Bank  of  Geneva,  which  was 
founded  in  1345.  The  Bank  of  Geneva  was  projected  in  1345, 
but  did  not  go  into  practical  operation  until  1407.  The  Bank  of 
Barcelona  was  established  in  1401,  and  bills  of  exchange  are  said 
to  have  been  first  negotiated  here.  The  Bank  of  Amsterdam  was 
formed  in  1009,  as  a  bank  of  deposit  and  test  for  gold,  the  exten¬ 
sive  commerce  of  that  city  at  this  time  having  made  it  commer¬ 
cially  necessary  to  have  some  place  in  which  the  gold  coinage  of 
the  various  nations  could  be  tested,  and  their  value  reduced  to  a 
common  standard.  In  1619  the  Bank  of  Hamburg  was  founded 
for  performing  the  same  office  for  the  silver  coinage  circulating  in 
commerce.  The  profits  of  this  bank  were  made  by  its  charge  of 
one  half  of  one  per  cent,  for  testing  the  money  deposited  with  it, 
and  keeping  it,  subject  to  the  owner’s  order. 

The  banking  history  of  England  is,  however,  of  most  importance 
here,  as  having  had  the  most  influence  upon  our  own  institutions 
of  this  kind.  The  practice  of  banking  was  unquestionably  intro¬ 
duced  into  England  by  the  Italian  merchants,  who  were  acquainted 
with  the  method  of  the  art  in  use  in  Venice,  and  who  settled  in 
London  in  considerable  numbers  about  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth 
century,  and  who,  most  probably,  soon  entered  into  relations  with 
the  Jews  and  the  goldsmiths,  who  were  at  that  time  the  chief 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1083 


money-lenders  in  England,  and  even  now  have  not  entirely  lost 
their  traditional  claim  to  this  occupation. 

Stow,  in  his  Survey  of  the  Cities  of  London  and  Westminster, 
published  in  1598,  says,  “  Then  have  ye  Lombard  Street,  so  called 
of  the  Longobards  and  other  merchants ;  strangers  of  diverse  na¬ 
tions  assembling  there  twice  every  day.  Of  what  original,  or 
continuance,  I  have  not  read  of  record,  more  than  that  Eduard 
the  Second,  in  the  twelfth  of  his  reign,  confirmed  a  messuage, 
some  time  belonging  to  Robert  Turke,  abutting  on  Lombard  Street 
toward  the  south,  and  toward  Cornhill  on  the  north,  for  the  mer¬ 
chants  of  Florence,  which  proveth  the  street  to  have  had  the 
name  of  Lombard  Street  before  the  reign  of  Eduard  the  Second. ” 
This  same  locality  has  remained  the  financial  centre  of  London 
until  this  day,  and  the  proximity  of  the  Bank  of  England,  the 
Exchange,  and  the  various  offices  of  the  other  joint-stock  banks 
and  private  bankers  and  brokers,  which  cluster  here  as  thickly  as 
bees  in  a  swarm,  make  the  value  of  the  land  dearer,  it  is  estimat¬ 
ed,  than  any  other  piece  of  the  same  size  on  the  earth. 

The  early  prejudice  in  England  against  the  business  of  banking 
and  dealing  in  money  is  shown  in  the  following  extract  from  Ar¬ 
nold’s  Chronicle,  as  occurring  in  the  year  1218  :  “  All  the  gold¬ 
smiths  of  London,  with  all  those  that  kept  the  Change,  and  many 
other  men  of  the  city,  were  arrested  and  taken  for  buying  of  plates 
of  silver,  and  for  change  of  great  money  for  small  money,  which 
were  indicted  by  the  wards  of  the  city  ;  and  on  Monday  next  after 
the  Epiphany,  the  justices  sitting  at  the  Guildhall  to  make  deliv¬ 
erance,  that  is  to  say,  Sir  Stephen  of  Pencestre,  Sir  John  of  Cob- 
ham,  and  other  with  that  these  last  pleased  to  associate  to  them, 
and  there  were  pre-judged,  and  drawn,  and  hanged  three  English 
Christian  men,  and  two  hundred  fourscore  and  twelve  English 
Jews.” 

The  business  of  dealing  in  money  was,  in  those  “  good  old 
times,”  it  is  seen,  not  without  other  dangers  than  those  which  ac¬ 
company  it  in  these  days ;  and  it  is  singular  to  see  the  preposter¬ 
ous  legislation  by  which,  during  the  whole  of  the  middle  ages,  it 
was  supposed  that  this  necessary  business  of  society  could  be  con¬ 
trolled  or  repressed.  During  this  time  the  chief  trade  in  money, 
which  was  all  in  coin,  was  in  the  hands  of  a  number  of  persons 
called  the  royal  exchangers.  Severe  laws  were  made  against  the 
exportation  of  English  coin,  and  Erasmus  gives  an  account  of  the 
annoyance  he  was  put  to  on  arriving  penniless  on  the  continent 


1084 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


from  a  trip  to  England,  the  custom-house  officials  at  his  departure 
from  that  country  having  robbed  him,  both  actually  and  legally, 
of  every  penny  in  his  possession.  At  the  same  time,  also,  ex¬ 
changing  the  money  of  the  realm  for  foreign  coin,  or  for  bullion, 
was  held  to  be  a  special  royal  prerogative,  worthy  to  be  classed 
as  a  “  flower  of  the  crown  ;  ”  and  an  important  official,  known  as 
the  king’s  exchanger,  was  alone  entitled  to  exchange  the  coinage 
of  the  realm  with  merchant  strangers  for  those  of  their  respective 
countries,  and  to  supply  those  leaving  the  country,  whether  stran¬ 
gers  or  natives,  with  such  foreign  money  as  they  might  desire  to 
carry  with  them. 

The  house  in  which  this  business  was  carried  on  was  called  the 
Exchange,  and  from  this  our  name  for  similar  establishments  is  de¬ 
rived.  This  prerogative  of  the  crown  remained  in  force  until  the 
reign  of  Henry  Y1I.,  when  it  fell  into  disuse,  but  was  revived  by 
Charles  I.,  who,  in  1627,  issued  a  proclamation  asserting  that  no 
person,  of  whatever  quality,  trade,  or  profession,  had  a  right  to 
meddle  with  the  exchange  of  moneys  without  a  special  license  from 
the  crown.  At  the  same  time  this  king  appointed  the  Earl  of  Hol¬ 
land  to  the  sole  office  of  “  changer,  exchanger,  and  outchanger.” 
In  answer  to  the  dissatisfaction  which  this  appointment  caused, 
especially  in  the  city  of  London,  a  pamphlet  was  published  the 
next  year  by  the  king’s  authority,  entitled  Cambrium  Regius,  or 
the  Office  of  Ilis  Majesty's  Exchange  Royal.  In  this  it  was  stated 
that  this  office  had  been  in  existence  without  dispute  from  the 
reign  of  Henry  I.  until  that  of  Henry  VI II.,  when  it  ceased  be¬ 
cause  the  coinage  of  the  realm  had  been  so  debased  that  it  was 
not  possible  to  exchange  it. 

The  difficulty  which  mankind  have  created  for  themselves  to  re¬ 
tard  their  liberty  of  development  in  social  evolution  will  be  made 
even  more  apparent  when  it  is  remembered  that  this  debasement 
of  the  coinage  was  also  one  of  the  acts  of  the  royal  prerogative, 
and  was,  perhaps,  a  worse  infringement  upon  the  rights  of 
the  subject  than  even  the  above-mentioned  one.  The  era,  how¬ 
ever,  was  approaching  when  the  principle  of  popular  freedom  as¬ 
serted  itself  in  the  commonwealth,  and  Charles,  by  still  further 
exercise  of  his  prerogative,  continued  to  gather  the  fuel  for  the 
conflagration  which  then  burst  out.  Finding  that  it  was  the  cus¬ 
tom  of  the  goldsmiths  of  London,  who  were  then  the  chief  money¬ 
changers  of  that  metropolis,  to  deposit  their  money  with  the  Mas¬ 
ter  of  the  Mint  in  the  Tower,  Charles  I.  took  advantage  of  this  cir- 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1085 


cumstance  to  seize,  just  before  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
about  two  hundred  thousand  pounds,  calling  it  a  loan.  An  act  of 
the  same  kind  was  performed  later  by  Charles  II.,  by  borrowing  in 
the  same  manner  one  million  three  hundred  and  twenty-eight  thou¬ 
sand  five  hundred  and  sixty-two  pounds,  which  the  holders  had 
deposited  in  the  exchequer  for  security. 

These  assertions  of  the  royal  prerogative  tended  to  increase  the 
business  of  private  banking,  which  was  carried  on  by  the  corpora¬ 
tion  of  goldsmiths  ;  and,  as  a  contemporary  pamphlet  has  it,  “  the 
goldsmiths  began  to  receive  the  rents  of  gentlemen’s  estates  re¬ 
mitted  to  town,  and  to  allow  them  and  others  who  put  cash  into 
their  hands  some  interest  for  it.”  Money  thus  received  was  gen¬ 
erally  acknowledged  by -the  goldsmiths  in  a  receipt,  which  was 
transferable,  and  thus  can  be  considered  as  the  representatives 
for  that  time  of  the  modern  bank  note. 

In  1694  the  Bank  of  England  was  established.  The  originator 
of  the  idea  of  this  bank  was  William  Paterson,  a  Scotchman,  who 
seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  a  very  comprehensive  mind,  and  not 
to  have  been  comprehended  by  his  contemporaries.  He  was  asso¬ 
ciated  in  the  direction  at  the  first,  but  soon  left  it.  The  subject 
of  a  bank  had  been  before  discussed  in  England,  during  the  Com¬ 
monwealth,  and  at  the  first  council  of  trade  which  met  at  Mercer’s 
Hall,  after  the  restoration,  a  proposition  was  brought  forward  for 
“  the  establishment  of  banks  and  Lombards  among  us,  as  in  Hol¬ 
land.”  When  Paterson  therefore  proposed  his  plan,  it  was  imme¬ 
diately  accepted. 

The  bank  was  started  with  a  capital  of  one  million  two  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  pounds,  which  was  to  be  lent  to  the  govern¬ 
ment,  which,  in  return,  guaranteed  an  annual  payment  of  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds,  or  eight  per  cent,  on  the  investment, 
and  four  thousand  pounds  a  year  for  the  expenses  of  the  manage¬ 
ment.  The  entire  stock  was  subscribed  in  less  than  ten  days. 

The  best  evidence  of  the  condition  of  the  general  intelligence 
concerning  financial  matters  and  methods  in  England  at  this  time 
will  be  found  in  the  following  extracts  from  a  pamphlet  of  the  time, 
written  in  answer  to  some  objections  which  had  been  brought 
agains^  the  bank  and  against  its  influence.  This  pamphlet  was 
published  about  1694,  and  was  written  by  Michael  Godfrey,  the 
deputy  governor  of  the  bank.  It  has  been  reprinted  in  the  Som¬ 
ers  collection  with  the  title  A  Short  Account  of  the  Bank  of  Eng¬ 
land.  The  author  states  that  his  object  is  to  prove  11  that  the 


J 


1086  BANKS  AND  BANKING. 

bank,  notwithstanding  all  the  cavils  which  the  wit  and  malice 
of  its  opponents  had  raised,  is  one  of  the  best  establishments 
that  ever  was  made  for  the  good  of  the  kingdom.”  As  one 
of  the  peculiar  advantages  brought  about  by  the  bank,  he  notices 
“  the  ease  and  security  of  the  great  receipts  and  payments  of 
money  which  are  made  by  the  bank,  where  people’s  cash  is  kept 
as  it  is  at  the  goldsmith’s,”  and  he  reminds  his  readers  “how 
much  money  has  been  lost  in  England  by  the  goldsmiths  and  scriv¬ 
eners  breaking,  which  in  about  thirty  years  past  cannot  amount  to 
so  little  as  betwixt  two  and  three  millions,  all  which  might  have 
been  prevented  had  a  bank  been  sooner  established.  Beside  pro¬ 
viding  this  security,”  he  continued,  “the  bank  being  thus  useful 
to  the  publick,  extends  itself  likewise  to  accommodate  all  private 
men’s  occasions,  for  they  lend  money  on  mortgages  and  real  secu¬ 
rities  at  live  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  their  very  publishing  they  would 
do  it  has  given  a  check  to  the  raising  the  interest  on  them  from 
five  to  six  per  cent,  per  annum  as  was  attempted  ;  and  if  the  titles 
of  land  were  made  more  secure  money  would  be  lent  thereon  at 
four  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  in  time  of  peace  at  three  per  cent, 
per  annum.  Foreign  bills  of  exchange  are  discounted  at  four  and 
one  half  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  inland  bills  and  notes  for  debts 
at  six  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  those  who  keep  their  cash  in  the 
bank  have  the  one  discounted  at  three  per  cent,  per  annum,  for 
which  most  goldsmiths  used  to  take  nine  or  ten  per  cent,  per  an¬ 
num.  And  money  is  lent  on  pawns  of  commodities  which  are  not 
perishable  at  five  per  cent,  per  anuum,  for  which  some,  in  their 
necessities,  have  paid  more  than  double  as  much  to  the  ruine  of 
many  great  traders.” 

Another  still  greater  benefit  which  the  author  predicts  for  the 
bank  is,  that  “  the  bank,  beside  the  raising  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand  pounds  towards  the  charge  of  the  war,  cheaper  than  it 
could  otherwise  have  been  done,  and,  like  the  other  public  funds, 
tying  the  people  faster  to  the  government,  will  infallibly  lower  the 
interest  of  money  as  well  on  publick  as  private  securities.  And 
the  lowering  of  interest,  besides  the  encouragement  it  will  be  to 
industrj’'  and  improvements,  will,  by  a  natural  consequence,  raise 
the  value  of  land.”  ^ 

The  chief  objections  raised  to  the  establishment  of  the  Bank  of 
England  at  this  time  were  based  upon  political  reasons,  and  were 
made  by  the  conservative  tory  interest  of  the  period.  The  bank 
was  a  whig  measure,  and  was  supported  by  the  new  administra- 


/ 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1087 


tion,  to  which  it  brought  most  opportune  and  welcome  financial 
aid.  In  the  history  of  the  progressive  steps  made  by  our  own 
banking  system  towards  a  more  democratic  and  universal  charac¬ 
ter,  we  shall  find  the  same  political  reasons  lying  at  the  basis  of 
many  of  the  obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  its  success.  It  is  rare 
that  men  have  any  method  for  testing  their  opinions  upon  such 
matters,  or  that  they  look  to  principles,  instead  of  party  interests,  in 
judging  of  them.  The  history  of  the  Bank  of  England  is  also  of 
great  value  for  reading  the  history  of  our  own,  since  it  shows 
that,  while  Mr.  Godfrey  was  right  in  the  advantages  he  claimed 
for  the  bank,  yet  the  bank  itself  came  to  be  the  chief  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  a  further  extension  of  the  advantages  of  banks,  de¬ 
manded  by  the  increased  activity  and  knowledge  of  the  people, 
and,  as  with  our  own  banks,  was  blind  enough  to  its  own  interest 
to  suppose  that  they  were  best  subserved  by  an  obstinate  adher¬ 
ence  to  measures  the  utility  and  value  of  which  had  long  passed 
away,  instead  of  advancing  with  the  tide  of  public  opinion  to¬ 
wards  the  universal  spread  of  financial  freedom.  So  certainly  and 
surely  do  all  monopolies  in  the  financial,  as  well  as  in  the  polit¬ 
ical  and  moral  worlds,  tend  to  injure  their  possessors  by  contract¬ 
ing  their  vision,  and  disenabling  them  to  take  a  generous  and 
large-hearted  view  of  things  outside  of  the  petty  circle  of  their 
own  small  interest,  as  well  as  wrong  the  public  by  depriving  them 
of  the  use  of  their  own  powers,  and  compelling  them  to  rely  upon 
substitutes  which,  from  the  Very  nature  of  the  case,  must  be  in¬ 
adequate  to  the  desired  end. 

By  its  first  and  original  charter  the  Bank  of  England  was  lim¬ 
ited  in  its  privileges  ;  nor  did  its  terms  forbid  the  formation  of 
any  other  banks,  either  of  deposit  or  issue.  Its  success  led  to  the 
inauguration  of  a  series  of  schemes,  one  of  which  was  a  “  Land 
Bank,”  intended  to  advance  money  upon  landed  estates.  There 
was  not,  however,  at  the  time  a  sufficient  demand  for  its  services 
to  make  it  successful,  and  the  bank  failed  after  a  short  existence. 
Another  scheme  was  the  “  Charitable  Corporation  Fund.”  It  was 
started  in  1105  with  the  object  of  encouraging  commerce  and  in¬ 
dustry,  by  taking  money  on  deposit  from  the  upper  as  well  as  the 
middle  and  lower  classes  of  society  —  becoming,  in  fact,  a  sort  of 
savings  bank,  and  lending  the  funds  it  gathered  to  small  traders 
and  manufacturers,  somewhat  after  the  st}de  common  then  and 
since  in  Scotland.  It  was  at  first  so  successful  that  its  directors 
soon  proposed  to  increase  its  capital,  and  subscriptions  were  flow- 


1088 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


ing  in  enthusiastically,  when,  all  at  once,  it  was  discovered  that 
the  bank  was  insolvent.  The  directors  had  swindled  the  stock¬ 
holders,  falsified  the  accounts,  and  made  away  with  nearly  half  a 
million  of  pounds.  The  governmental  inquiry  organized  in  re¬ 
sponse  to  the  public  discontent  caused  by  this  and  similar  proceed¬ 
ings,  had  for  some  time  a  great  influence  in  destroying  all  confi¬ 
dence  in  the  s}7stem  of  joint-stock  banks. 

In  the  year  1708  the  Bank  of  England,  which,  though  a  private 
concern,  had  sufficient  connection  with  the  state  to  wear  a  charac¬ 
ter  as  a  government  institution,  obtained,  besides  its  other  privi¬ 
leges,  the  passage  of  an  act  forbidding  the  formation  of  any  other 
banks  with  more  than  six  partners.  In  one  of  the  clauses  of  this 
act  it  was  provided  that  “  during  the  continuance  of  the  governor 
and  company  of  the  Bank  of  England,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for 
any  body,  politic  or  corporate,  united,  or  to  be  united,  other  than 
the  governor  and  company  of  the  Bank  of  England,  or  for  other 
persons  whatsoever,  united  or  to  be  united,  in  covenants  or  part¬ 
nerships,  exceeding  the  number  of  six  persons,  in  this  part  of 
Great  Britain  called  England,  to  borrow,  owe,  or  take  up  any  sum 
or  sums  of  money  in  their  bills  or  notes  payable  on  demand,  or  at 
any  less  time  than  six  months  from  the  borrowing  thereof.”  This 
clause  put  a  stop  to  the  further  introduction  of  the  joint-stock 
system  of  banks  in  England  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years, 
and  against  its  repeal  the  influence  of  the  Bank  of  England  was 
strenuously  and  constantly  thrown  with  success.  It  will  appear, 
perhaps,  singular  to  those  whose  studies  of  such  matters  have  not 
destroyed  all  the  novelty  of  any  new  instance  showing  how  prone 
men  are  to  accept  statements  upon  trust,  and  how  rare  is  the  men¬ 
tal  habit  which  demands  and  seeks  proof  before  accepting  an  opin¬ 
ion, —  it  will  appear  singular  that,  though  the  entire  mercantile 
interests  of  Great  Britain  felt  the  necessity  for  a  more  general  dif¬ 
fusion  of  banking  facilities,  and  the  folly  of  intrusting  so  vast  and 
complicated  interests  to  the  control  of  a  single  irresponsible  insti¬ 
tution,  yet  no  one  during  all  this  time  found  out  that  the  terms  of 
the  act  under  which  the  bank  claimed  and  upheld  its  monopoly, 
were  as  incompetent  for  this  end  as  most  of  the  legal  verbiage  of 
•  legislative  enactments  is  for  the  purposes  they  are  intended  to 
perform. 

The  tendency  of  monopolies,  -also,  to  blind  their  possessors  to 
their  own  best  interests,  is  shown  in  the  course  constantly  pursued 
by  the  bank  itself.  No  measure  has  been  productive  of  more  le- 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1080 


gitimate  advantage  to  it  in  its  own  peculiar  sphere  of  interests 
than  the  establishment  of  other  joint-stock  banks,  since  by  their 
means  the  financial,  the  commercial,  and  the  industrial  activities  of 
England  have  been  greatly  stimulated,  and  it  is  to  the  healthy  con¬ 
dition  cf  tBesC  activities  that  all  legitimate  banking  institutions  owe 
their  own  financial  activity,  ^nce  a  bank  is  not  an  institution  with 
interests  apart  from  the  general  well-being  of  society,  but  is  one 
of  the  complex  series  of  organizations  III  which  the  morality,  the 
knowledge,  and  the  activity  of  the  times  are  expressed. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  first  banks  established  were  really  specie¬ 
paying  banks.  They  were  dealers  in  money  when  the  only  money 
in  circulation  was  metallic,  and  were  consequently  specie-paying 
banks  from  the  necessities  of  the  situation.  A  people,  however, 
who  depend  only  on  a  metallic  currency  for  the  transaction  of  their 
commercial  affairs,  cannot  have  arrived  at  any  advanced  stage  of 
commercial  or  industrial  -development.  The  world  might  as  soon 
attempt  to  confine  itself  to  the  old  roads,  the  foot  messengers, 
and  the  other  appliances  formerly  in  use  to  supply  the  needs  for 
the  circulation  of  its  industrial  products  and  its  intelligence,  as  to 
confine  its  monetary  circulation  to  that  of  gold  and  silver.  Yet 
the  Bank  of  England  still  keeps  up  the  tradition  that  it  is-a  specie¬ 
paying  bank,  and  Sir  Robert  Peeks  famous  bank  restriction  act  of 
1844,  by  which  the  circulation  of  the  bank’s  notes  was  limited  to 
a  certain  accordance  with  the  reserve  of  coin  kept  in  its  vaults,  is 
still  unrepealed.  And  this,  too,  notwithstanding  that  the  best  po¬ 
litical  thinkers  of  England  have,  time  and  time  again,  shown  the 
folly  of  this  measure,  and  though  the  bank  itself  has  on  several 
occasions  been  forced  to  suspend  specie  payments,  and  apply  to 
Parliament  for  permission  to  take  this  course,  and  though  at  no 
time  in  its  history  has  it  ever  had  the  gold  which  would  have  been 
necessary  to  pay  the  possible  demands  upon  it.  In  1857,  one  of 
the  occasions  when  the  bank  suspended,  the  gold  and  silver  coin 
in  its  vaults  amounted  to  £504,443,  its  reserve  of  notes  to 
£957,450,  while  its  liabilities  reached  the  sum  of  £19,103,078. 

Various  attempts  to  remove  the  monopoly  of  the  Bank  of  Eng¬ 
land  were  made  during  its  continuance,  and  the  dissensions  con¬ 
cerning  it  served  to  increase  the  knowledge  of  the  public  concerning 
the  mysteries  of  finance.  In  1797,  during  the  continuance  of  one 
of  the  periods  while  the  bank  had  suspended  specie  payments,  Sir 
William  Pulteney  introduced  a  -  bill  into  the  House  of  Commons 
providing  for  the  erection  of  a  new  bank  in  case  “  the  Bank  of 


1090 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


England  did  not  pay  in  specie  on  or  before  the  2dth  of  June, 
1797.”  In  urging  his  bill  he  gave  a  detailed  history  of  the  bank, 
pointing  out  the  mischief  produced  by  monopoly,  and  urging  that 
it  was  nothing  but  a  premium  for  indolence  and  neglect,  and  pro¬ 
ductive  of  endless  mischief  to  the  trade  and  com^011^  ot  the 
country.  By  the  force  of  his  reputation  however,  Mr.  Pitt,  hav¬ 
ing  spoken* very  strongly  in  favor  of  the  bank  monopoly,  retained  it. 

Three  years  afterwards  the  subject  was  brought  up  again  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  was  again  lost,  the  bank  having  bribed 
the  support  of  the  government  by  an  offer  to  lend,  without  inter¬ 
est,  three  millions  of  pounds  to  the  government  on  the  security  of 
exchequer  bills.  This  course  was  again  successful,  and  Parlia¬ 
ment  renewed  the  bank’s  monopoly  from  1813,  when  it  would  have 
expired  by  its  own  limitation,  to  1833. 

In  1820  a  bill  was  brought  before  the  House  of  Lords,  which 
had  been  passed  by  the  Commons,  permitting  joint-stock  banks  in 
England,  “  except  in  London,  and  within  a  distance  of  sixty-five 
miles  thereof.”  The  prime  minister,  the  Earl  of  Liverpool,  on  this 
occasion  spoke  as  follows  :  “  The  present  system  of  law  as  to 
banks  must  now  be  altered,  in  one  way  or  another.  It  is  the  most 
absurd,  the  most  inefficient  legislation  ;  it  has  not  one  recommen¬ 
dation  to  stand  upon.  The  present  system  is  one  of  the  fullest 
liberty  as  to  what  is  rotten  and  bad,  but  of  the  most  complete 
restriction  as  to  all  that  is  good.  By  it  a  cobbler  or  a  cheese¬ 
monger  may  issue  his  notes  without  any  proof  of  his  ability  to 
meet  them,  and  unrestricted  by  any  check  whatever,  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  more  than  six  persons,  however  respectable,  are 
not  permitted  to  become  partners  in  a  bank  with  whose  notes  the 
whole  business  of  the  country  might  be  transacted.  Altogether, 
the  whole  system  is  so  absurd,  both  in  theory  and  practice,  that  it 
would  not  appear  to  deserve  the  slightest  support  if  it  was  atten¬ 
tively  considered  even  for  a  single  moment.” 

The  only  result,  however,  of  this  consideration  of  the  subject 
by  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  hereditary  legislators  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  was  granting  the  privilege  of  forming  joint-stock  banks  to  the 
country,  but  limiting  London  and  a  circle  of  sixty-five  miles  around 
it  as  a  preserve  for  the  Bank  of  England  to  hunt  its  financial  game. 
In  1830  another  strong  effort  was  made  to  remove  this  sixty-five 
miles  clause,  when  it  was  discovered  by  Mr.  James  William  Gilbert, 
the  subsequent  founder  of  the  London  and  Westminster  Bank,  that 
the  act  did  not  provide  against  the  establishment  of  banks  of 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1091 


deposit ;  and  the  correctness  of  his  opinion  being  substantiated  by 
the  opinions  of  the  law  officers  of  the  crown,  the  London  and 
Westminster  Bank  went  into  operation  in  1834,  despite  the  frantic 
efforts  of  the  Bank  of  England  to  preserve  its  monopoly. 

From  that  time  to  this  the  tendency  of  the  English  banking  sys¬ 
tem  has  been  towards  freeing  banking  from  the  absurd  restrictions 
which  were  placed  upon  it  before  the  advent  of  the  causes  which 
have  so  increased  the  activity  of  our  modern  social  and  industrial 
life.  Many  of  these  measures,  though  as  necessary  at  the  times 
they  were  passed  as  swaddling  clothes  are  to  an  infant  in  the  arms, 
are  now  become  as  unsuitable  for  the  wants  of  the  modern  world 
as  this  childish  fashion  of  clothing  would  be  for  a  grown  and  active 
man.  The  traditional  confidence  in  the  stability  of  a  metallic  cur¬ 
rency,  despite  the  experience  of  the  world  to  the  contrary,  is  as 
firmly  displayed  in  the  banking  and  financial  policy  of  the  English 
bankers  as  the  traditional  reverence  for  the  divine  rights  of  royal 
legitimacy  is  still  the  characteristic  of  the  political  faith  of  the 
average  monarchist. 

At  the  settlement  of  this  country  the  colonists  brought  over  with 
them  the  financial  theories  and  practices  which  prevailed  at  the  time 
in  the  mother  country.  One  of  the  chief  difficulties  they  met  with  in 
organizing  and  increasing  their  industry  was  the  want  of  money. 
As  has  been  seen  elsewhere  in  this  work,  very  soon  after  the  set¬ 
tlement  of  Massachusetts  various  substitutes  for  a  metallic  cur¬ 
rency  were  used,  while  in  Virginia  the  circulating  medium  was 
tobacco.  The  history  of  the  progress  of  the  financial  methods 
used  up  to  the  revolution,  and  during  that  contest,  is  most  sug¬ 
gestive  for  the  right  comprehension  of  our  national  development, 
but  there  is  not  the  space  to  pursue  it  here.  At  the  end  of  the 
revolution  the  country  had,  by  the  continuous  strain  upon  its  re¬ 
sources  of  an  eight  years’  war,  been  almost  entirely  drained  of  its 
wealth.  To  carry  on  the  contest,  the  issues  of  continental  currency 
had  reached  the  enormous  sum,  for  those  times,  of  three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  and  this,  by  its  continued  depreciation,  was 
practically  worthless  as  a  circulating  medium. 

In  1181  Robert  Morris,  who  had  done  such  substantial  service 
in  the  financial  administration  during  the  revolution,  proposed  a 
plan  for  a  national  bank,  which  was  incorporated  under  the  title 
of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  and  went  into  operation  in  1182, 
with  a  capital  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  In  1190  Alex¬ 
ander  Ilamilton  proposed  a  plan  for  the  Bank  of  the  United 


1092 


BASKS  ANt>  BANKING. 


States,  and  in  1791,  the  act  of  incorporation  being*  passed 
by  Congress,  the  bank  accepted  the  charter  granted,  and  went  into 
operation  with  a  capital  of  ten  million  dollars,  and  continued  in 
active  existence  until  1811,  when,  by  the  limitations  of  its  charter, 
the  time  for  its  existence  having  ceased,  it  wound  up  its  affairs, 
and  ended  its  corporate  life. 

In  1814  another  national  bank  was  proposed,  but  the  next  year, 
the  bill  for  its  incorporation  having  passed  Congress,  was  vetoed 
by  President  Madison.  In  1816,  the  measure  having  again  passed, 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  with  a  capital  of  thirty-five  million 
dollars,  went  into  operation  in  1817.  The  management  of  this 
institution,  copied  too  much  from  that  of  the  Bank  of  England, 
having  created  great  discontent  by  the  aid  it  afforded  to  specula¬ 
tion,  and  to  certain  classes,  instead  of  to  the  general  industry  of 
the  country,  President  Jackson,  in  1832,  refused  to  sign  the  bill 
granting  its  continuance,  and  in  1836  it  ceased  to  exist  as  a  gov¬ 
ernment  institution  by  the  limitations  of  its  charter.  The  State 
of  Pennsylvania  having,  however,  granted  it  a  charter,  the  bank 
continued,  under  a  different  character,  but  with  the  same  name, 
until  1839,  when  it  suspended,  having  exhausted,  by  the  injudicious 
management  of  its  directors,  the  whole  of  the  stockholders’  sub¬ 
scriptions.  This  was  the  second  and  last  suspension  of  the  bank, 
it  having  incurred  this  misfortune  once  before,  in  1837,  when,  from 
one  of  the  commercial  crises  to  which  the  country  has  seemed  to 
be  periodically  subject  heretofore,  it,  in  common  with  all  the  other 
banks  then  existing  in  the  country,  had  suspended  payment. 

The  first  bank  established  in  Boston  was  instituted  in  1784,  and 
in  1799  the  first  bank  was  opened  in  New  York.  In  1829  the  safety 
fund  system  was  inaugurated  in  New  York  State,  as  a  protection  for 
the  safety  of  the  holders  of  the  bank  notes  issued  by  the  banks  of  that 
state,  but  was  abandoned  after  a  while,  on  account  of  its  having 
been  found  insufficient  in  a  crisis  during  which  ten  banks  failed. 
The  necessity,  however,  for  an  improved  organization  of  the  bank¬ 
ing  system,  by  which  the  interests  of  the  public  should  be  guar¬ 
anteed  from  the  swindling  schemes  of  the  various  banks  which 
might  be  under  the  control  of  unscrupulous  men,  and  to  change 
the  character  of  them  all  from  being  irresponsible  to  the  public, 
and  introduce  security  into  the  business,  became  yearly  more  and 
more  apparent,  as  the  increased  industrial  activity  of  the  country 
demanded  greater  banking  facilities.  The  result  of  the  knowledge 
gained  by  experience,  and  by  the  general  discussion  of  the  whole 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1093 


matter,  led  finally,  in  New  York,  to  the  passage,  in  1839,  of  free 
banking  laws,  in  which  any  persons  desirous  of  so  doing  could 
engage  in  the  business  of  banking,  but  were  required  to  guarantee 
the  safety  of  the  bank  notes  they  issued,  by  the  deposit  with  the 
comptroller  of  the  state  of  a  sufficient  amount  of  securities  to 
meet  all  their  bills,  should  they  fail,  from  injudicious  speculation, 
or  from  any  other  cause. 

In  1840  the  law  was  revised,  giving  the  banks  the  right  to  de¬ 
posit  with  the  comptroller,  as  security  for  the  redemption  of  their 
bills,  either  United  States  bonds  or  those  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  or  bonds  and  mortgages  upon  real  estate  in  New  York  State. 
By  this  simple  arrangement  perfect  security  was  given  the  holders 
of  the  notes  issued  by  banks  in  New  York  State,  and  they  circu¬ 
lated  at  par  all  over  the  state,  and  elsewhere  in  the  country  where 
the  system  was  understood.  No  New  York  State  bank  had  the 
right  to  issue  bills  unless  they  were  countersigned  and  stamped  by 
the  comptroller,  who  would  thus  give  currency  to  no  more  bills 
than  were  made  safe  by  the  deposit  in  his  hands  of  securities  to  the 
.  amount  so  issued.  The  saving  to  the  public  was,  of  course?  great, 
not  only  in  the  surety  thus  given  that  no  bills  were  issued 
which  were  not  guaranteed  for  payment,  and  also  by  the  fact  that 
such  bills  circulated  without  discount. 

The  banking  system  of  the  rest  of  the  country  was  at  this  time  in 
a  sad  state  of  confusion.  Banks  were  everywhere  established  upon 
insufficient  capital,  frequently  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  issue 
as  many  notes  as  possible  and  then  fail.  The  discount  which  pre¬ 
vailed  on  bank  notes  at  times,  even  in  the  towns  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  bank,  and  in  all  cases  in  different  states,  was  a  most  serious 
charge  upon  the  industry  of  the  country.  Not  unfrequently  this 
discount  amounted  to  as  much  as  ten  per  cent.,  and  enterprises, 
such  as  newspapers,  which  received  remittances  of  money  from 
various  parts  of  the  country,  were  obliged  to  consider  this  amount 
as  the  average  of  their  loss  from  remittances  on  account  of  the 
discount  for  converting  bills  thus  received  into  bankable  money, 
and  from  the  bills  they  received  which  became  worthless  on  their 
hands  from  the  failure  of  the  banks  before  they  were  redeemed. 
So  thoroughly  disorganized  was  the  banking  system  of  the  states, 
that  issuing  lists  of  the  worthless  bills  became  a  regular  and  im¬ 
portant  business. 

In  Massachusetts,  a  system  intended  to  afford  security  to  the 
holders  of  the  bills  issued  by  the  banks  of  that  state,  had  been  put 

63 


1094 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


in  operation.  The  bills  of  the  country  banks  were  redeemed  in 
Boston  by  the  Suffolk  Bank,  thus  acting  as  the  agent  of  those 
country  banks  which  kept  deposited  in  its  hands  the  securities  re¬ 
quired  for  the  redemption  of  their  issues.  This  system  was  a  good 
one,  but  for  efficacy  was  not  equal  to  that  adopted  by  New  York 
State. 

Another  improvement  in  the  banking  system,  though  intended 
chiefly  to  facilitate  the  business  of  the  banks  themselves,  was  the 
clearing-house,  which  was  established  in  New  York  city  in  1853. 
Previously  to  this  each  bank  kept  a  messenger,  whose  daily  task 
was  collecting  from  the  various  other  banks  of  the  city  the  checks 
against  them  which  came  into  its  possession  by  the  transactions 
of  business.  The  clearing-house  is  a  place  of  meeting  where  these 
messengers  attend  every  morning,  and  the  balances  only  of  ac¬ 
counts  between  the  banks  are  settled.  It  frequently  happens  that 
accounts  amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars  are  thus  settled  in 
an  hour  with  the  actual  transfer  of  a  few  hundreds  of  dollars.  The 
economy  of  time,  and  the  greater  simplicity  and  regularity  which 
the  introduction  of  this  system  has  introduced,  make  it  one  of  the 
most  noticeable  reforms  in  the  banking  system  which  has  been  re¬ 
cently  brought  about,  and  it  is  singular  that  a  similar  system  of 
organization  has  not  been  introduced  into  many  other  branches  of 
our  industrial  activity  where  it  is  equally  needed,  and  where  it 
would  be  equally  competent  to  simplify  the  present  complexity  of 
details,  and  introduce  a  great  economy  in  the  present  wasteful  ex¬ 
penditure  of  time  and  energy  necessary  for  the  transaction  of  the 
needed  exchanges. 

With  the  advent  of  the  late  civil  war  the  expenditures  of  the 
government  necessarily  assumed  a  magnitude  which  so  disorgan¬ 
ized  the  working  of  our  finances  that  some  decided  change  became 
necessary.  Fortunately  the  idea  of  forming,  not  a  single  gigantic 
national  bank,  but  a  series  of  national  banks,  which  should  intro¬ 
duce  a  uniformity  of  system  into  our  banking  operations,  and  com¬ 
bine  the  energies  of  the  people  in  support  of  the  government,  was 
entertained  by  the  heads  of  the  administration,  and  to  Salmon  P. 
Chase,  who  then  held  the  position  of  secretary  of  the  treasury,  the 
country  is  indebted  for  the  introduction  of  our  present  banking 
system.  This  innovation  was  simply  the  extension,  all  over  the 
country,  of  the  system  which  had  for  years  prevailed  in  New  York 
State.  The  national  banks  invested  their  capitals  in  the  bonds  of 
the  government,  and  by  the  deposit  of  these  in  the  hands  of  the 


. 


, 


■ 


■ 

•  {  •  ■ 

. 


. 

— -J 

. 


* 


.  •  . .  ♦  *  •  •  ' 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


1097 


treasury,  received  a  proportionate  amount  of  their  value  in  notes, 
countersigned  and  issued  by  the  department,*  and  thus  provided 
for  the  public  circulation  an  issue  which  was  guaranteed  by  the 
credit  of  the  national  government,  in  the  support  of  which  the  col¬ 
lective  wealth  of  the  nation  was  engaged. 

The  unity  and  uniformity  of  the  currency,  together  with  its  sta¬ 
bility  which  have  thus  been  secured,  make  this  banking  reform  of 
perhaps  equal  value  with  the  abolition  of  slavery,  produced  also 
by  the  war.  A  national  bank  bill  now  circulates,  without  question, 
and  at  par,  from  Maine  to  Oregon,  and  the  industry  of  the  coun¬ 
try  is  no  longer  subject  to  the  annoyance  and  loss  which  were 
formerly  the  inevitable  accompaniments  of  the  insecure,  unstable, 
and  irresponsible  currency  furnished  by  the  banks  of  ten  years 
ago.  Such  a  reform  as  this  is  one  of  the  most  influential  in  pro¬ 
ducing  the  unity  of  our  national  life,  and  a  coherence  of  organiza¬ 
tion  in  the  formerly  divided  and  isolated  portions  of  the  country, 
and  is  thus  entirely  in  accordance  with  the  new  era  of  the  world, 
which  tends  towards  introducing  union  and  the  mutual  sympathy 
of  a  common  destiny  among  mankind  in  the  place  of  the  jealousies 
and  isolations  which  have  hitherto  marked  the  progress  of  human¬ 
ity  upon  this  planet. 

But  while  we  thus  recognize  the  benefits  of  the  national  bank 
system,  and  fully  accord  to  it  all  the  merits  it  deserves,  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that,  like  all  other  reforms  in  social  and 
industrial  organization,  it  but  prepared  the  way  for  another  step. 
At  the  date  of  their  formation  the  national  banks  were  an  im¬ 
portant  improvement  in  our  financial  system,  but  the  necessity  for 
them  has  passed.  They  have  fulfilled  their  functiop,  and  are  now 
an  obstacle  instead  of  an  aid  to  our  further  national  progress  in 
financial  organization,  and  must,  in  turn,  give  place  before  the  in¬ 
creasing  knowledge  of  the  people  to  a  better,  because  more  simple 
and  economical,  method  for  providing  the  circulation  needed  for 
the  activity  of  our  industrial  life. 

Elsewhere  in  this  volume,  in  the  article  upon  the  Treasury,  will 
be  found  an  account  of  the  methods  proposed  for  providing  a  cur¬ 
rency  which-  shall  not  cost  the  public,  as  that  now  furnished  by  the 
national  banks,  the  thirty  millions  of  dollars  a  year  interest  upon 
the  bonds  by  which  it  is  secured.  Furnishing  a  currency  is  the 
natural  function  of  a  government,  and  delegating  this  function  to 
the  national  banks  is  a  mistake  in  the  organization  of  a  financial 
system  akin  to  the  want  of  simplicity  in  a  machine.  The  condi- 


1098 


BANKS  AND  BANKING. 


tion  of  tilings  at  the  time  of  the  war  rendered  it  necessary,  but  the 
necessity  has  now  passed. 

Against  this  proposed  change  the  national  banks  of  course  pro¬ 
test.  To  do  this  is  but  natural,  and  in  so  doing  they  do  not  vary 
from  the  course  pursued  by  all  monopolies,  to  whom  the  pro¬ 
posal  for  their  removal  by  the  substitution  of  a  greater  simplicity 
of  organization  seems  always  to  be  an  error.  But  against  the 
wish  of  the  people,  when,  with  a  better  comprehension  of  their 
needs,  and  a  wiser  understanding  of  the  proper  means  to  take  for 
attaining  the  organization  that  shall  best  satisfy  them,  they  deter¬ 
mine  upon  the  change,  all  monopolies  are  helpless  to  resist ;  and 
vast  as  is  the  power  the  national  banks  now  wield,  and  well  or¬ 
ganized  as  is  their  opposition  to  the  abrogation  of  their  monopoly, 
there  is  but  little  doubt  that  it  will  be  made,  and  that  it  will  be 
as  much  for  their  own  interest,  in  their  legitimate  banking  busi¬ 
ness,  as  the  advent  of  a  similar  democratic  change  has  been  found 
with  the  Bank  of  England,  for  its  pecuniary  benefit. 


FURNITURE. 


ANCIENT  EGYPTIAN  AND  ASSYRIAN  FURNITURE.  —  CABINET-MAKING  AMONG  THB 
GREEKS  AND  ROMANS.  — FORTUNES  ABSORBED  IN  FURNITURE.  — DECLINE  IN 

THE  MANUFACTURE.  — THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  -  ECCLESIASTICAL,  OR  DECORATED 

GOTHIC  STYLE.  — OLD-TIME  FURNITURE  IN  ENGLAND.  —  REVIVAL  OF  THE  MAN¬ 
UFACTURE.  -  FURNITURE  IN  FRANCE.  —  THE  ROYAL  MANUFACTORY.  — LOUIS 

QUATORZE  STYLE.  —  INTRODUCTION  OF  MAHOGANY  IN  ENGLAND.  —  VENEERS. 

—  FRENCH  FASHIONS  IN  FURNITURE.  —  CABINET-MAKING  IN  THE  COLONIES.  — 
ECONOMICAL  STYLES.  —  MAHOGANY  AND  ROSEWOOD  —  USE  OF  NATIVE  WOODS. 

—  BLACK  WALNUT.  —  IMPORTED  FURNITURE.  —  RAGE  FOR  OLD  STYLES.  —  IM¬ 
ITATIONS. —  CHAIR-MAKING.  — CONVICTS  AS  CHAIR-MAKERS.  — OFFICE  AND 
SCHOOL  FURNITURE.  —  DINING-ROOM  AND  CHAMBER  SETS.  —  EXTENT  OF  THE 
INDUSTRY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  term  “  furniture, 77  which  means  nearly  every  article  and 
utensil  of  household  use,  is  so  comprehensive  that  it  includes  many 
things  which  have  been  described  in  detail  elsewhere  in  this  vol¬ 
ume.  The  present  article  proposes  to  give  a  general  description 
of  what  is  sometimes  called  “  cabinet  ware/7  and  some  account  of 
the  progress  of  this  branch  of  manufacture  in  the  United  States. 

Household  furniture,  of  a  rude  description,  dates  back  to  the 
time  when  men  began  to  build  houses  to  live  in.  The  monuments 
which  remain  in  Egypt  and  Assyria  give  abundant  representations 
of  the  conveniences  of  ancient  households  in  those  countries ;  and 
in  times  which  antedate  all  written  history,  if  the  king  had  his 
throne  the  subject  had  his  chair.  It  is  known,  too,  that  the  an¬ 
cient  Egyptians  had  in  their  houses,  not  only  such  articles  of  use 
as  tables,  chairs,  and  couches,  but  that  in  the  residences  of  the 
rich,  these  pieces  of  furniture  were  made  of  the  rarest  woods,  with 
costly  carvings,  and  inlaid  work  of  gold  and  ivory.  Their 
apartments  were  hung  with  elaborately-wrought  tapestries,  and 
similar  woven  work  covered  tl^e  seats,  and  backs  of  chairs,  and  set¬ 
tees.'  What  we  know  now  as  the  “  camp  chair/7  in  which  the 
seat  of  cloth,  carpeting,  or  leather  permits  the  folding  up  of  this 

(1099) 


1100 


FURNITURE. 


piece  of  furniture,  is  only  a  revival  of  a  style  which  was  common 
as  long  ago  as  men  used  the  skins  of  animals  for  chair  seats.  Our 
cane-seat  chairs  are  an  adaptation  from  the  times  w^hen  strips  of 
leather  were  interlaced  for  the  same  purpose.  Long  before  the 
days  of  the  first  Pharaoh  the  Egyptians  had  carved  couches,  bed¬ 
steads  of  iron,  and,  it  is  believed,  of  bronze.  Carpets  were  on 
the  floors  of  the  wealthy.  They  had  metal  mirrors,  and  a  great 
profusion  of  kitchen  utensils,  and  dishes  of  all  sorts  for  the  table. 

The  Assyrians  were  not  at  all  behind  the  Egyptians  in  the  pro¬ 
fusion,  convenience,  ornamentation,  and  elegance  of  their  house¬ 
hold  furniture,  and  from  them,  through  the  Asiatic  Ionians,  the 
Greeks  derived  the  art  of  furniture-making.  From  the  Athenians 
the  Romans  took  their  first  lessons,  and  soon  wonderfully  elabo¬ 
rated  the  art.  The  couches  upon  which  the  old  Romans  reposed 
at  table  were  often  iidaid  with  silver,  gold,  ivory,  tortoise-shell, 
and  precious  woods,  with  carved  ivory  or  metal  feet ;  and  the  fur¬ 
niture  of  a  rich  man’s  house  represented  in  itself  an  enormous  for¬ 
tune.  The  discoveries  of  actual  furniture  at  Pompei  show  what 
was  considered  essential  to  a  luxurious  Roman  household  centuries 
ago. 

The  art  of  making  elaborate  furniture  seems  to  have  been  lost, 
or  the  changes  in  civilization  and  in  individual  fortunes  destroyed 
the  demand,  for,  from  the  year  500,  for  a  thousand  years,  there  is 
scarcely  anything  to  indicate  the  prevailing  style  of  furniture,  ex¬ 
cepting  what  is  shown  in  illuminated  manuscripts,  as  representa¬ 
tions  of  what  was  used  in  the  churches  and  monasteries.  Un¬ 
doubtedly  the  ecclesiastical,  or  decorated  Gothic,  was  the  style  for 
some  centuries  in  the  houses  of  the  wealthy,  as  it  was  in  the 
cathedrals,  convents,  monasteries,  and  public  buildings.  The  com¬ 
mon  people  of  Europe,  no  doubt,  were  content  with  the  rudest 
stools,  tables,  and  bedsteads.  Up  to  the  fifteenth  century,  in  Eng¬ 
land  the  household  furniture  was  of  the  roughest  and  most  cum¬ 
brous  description.  The  heavy  chairs,  backed  benches,  or  “  set¬ 
tles,  ”  were  generally  fixtures  to  the  floor  or  against  the  wall,  and 
in  old  baronial  halls  the  tables  were  often  plain  boards,  resting 
upon  trestles.  From  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  a  marked  im¬ 
provement  for  several  years,  both  in  the  construction  and  conven¬ 
ience  of  articles  for  household  use.  Fires  were  no  longer  built  on 
the  hearth,  but  the  logs  were  pilrd  up  on  andirons.  The  orna¬ 
mented  furniture,  long  in  use  on  the  continent,  was  to  some  extent 
copied  in  England.  Clocks  and  musical  instruments  began  to  ap- 


FURNITURE. 


1101 


pear  in  houses.  Tapestries,  panellings,  carved  bedsteads,  chairs, 
chests,  and  cabinets  were  introduced  ;  but  for  many  years  the 
amount  of  furniture,  even  in  the  houses  of  the  wealthiest  people, 
was  very  scanty.  It  is  somewhat  singular  that  in  the  much- 
boasted  Elizabethan  era,  when  literature,  and,  to  some  extent,  even 
art  flourished,  furniture-making  degenerated  ;  and  the  remains  from 
that  period  show  clumsy,  uncouth  articles,  devoid  of  taste,  and 
oftentimes  positively  inelegant. 

The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  in  France,  gave  an  impulse  to  house 
decoration,  which  brought  cabinet-making  well  within  the  domain 
of  real  art.  Colbert,  his  minister,  assembled  in  Paris  the  best 
cabinet-makers  in  Europe,  and  the  work  from  the  royal  manufacto¬ 
ry  speedily  obtained  a  great  celebrity.  The  famous  “  buhl  work,” 
which  really  was  a  revival  of  a  style  known  to  the  Romans  centu¬ 
ries  before,  and  which  consisted  of  inlayings  of  shell,  porcelain, 
enamel,  ivory,  gold,  silver,  and  bronze,  owes  its  perfection  and 
popularity  to  the  French  royal  manufactory.  In  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV. ’s  successor,  Louis  XV.,  the  work  was  still  carried  on, 
and  some  advance  in  the  art  was  made,  though  pieces  of  furniture 
made  in  the  previous  reign  still  command,  when  at  rare  inter¬ 
vals  a  choice  specimen  is  offered  for  sale,  the  almost  fabulous 
prices  which  attach  to  the  rarest  works  of  the  old  painters.  This 
era  in  French  furniture-making  founded  a  style  which  is  still  popu¬ 
lar  abroad,  and  which  prevails  in  the  United  States  to  an  even 
greater  extent,  perhaps,  than  in  Europe. 

In  England,  under  the  reign  of  William  III.,  the  use  of  native 
woods,  like  oak  and  chestnut,  began  to  give  way  to  mahogany,  and 
the  sombre  character  of  this  wood  seems  to  have  inspired  the 
heavy,  inelegant  designs  which  distinguished  the  furniture  of  Eng¬ 
land  for  a  long  period,  and  which  came  to  the  colonies  in  this 
country  with  the  earliest  settlers.  Indeed,  it  is  only  within  a  few 
years  that  mahogany  has  been  superseded  by  other  more  appropri¬ 
ate  and  even  richer  woods.  The  chief  charm  of  mahogany  must 
have  been  in  its  cost ;  but  the  rich  old  solid  furniture  was  rare, 
while  everywhere  in  England  and  America  there  was  an  abundance 
of  veneered  abominations,  in  the  form  of  “  mahogany  ”  cabinets, 
secretaries,  desks,  tables,  chairs,  bureaus,  piano-cases,  etc.,  and  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  this  style  of  showy,  but  cheap,  atid 
probably  veneered,  furniture,  still  prevails,  and  is  even  popular,  to 
the  exclusion  of  really  richer  furniture,  solidly  made  from  less  ex¬ 
pensive  native  and  foreign  woods. 


1102 


FURNITURE. 


Since  the  foundation  of  the  royal  manufactory  in  Paris,  France, 
without  doubt,  stands  at  the  head  of  all  nations  in  furniture-making, 
and  in  furnishing  furniture  models  and  fashions  for  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Since  Louis  XIV.,  every  monarch  in  France  has  encour¬ 
aged  the  art,  and  what  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  Louis  Qua- 
torze  style,  is  the  prevailing  one  still  among  people  of  taste  every- 
.  where.  Very  great  advances  have  also  been  made  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  in  England  in  the  present  century. 

Some  of  the  furniture  brought  over  by  the  settlers  at  James¬ 
town  and  at  Plymouth  is  still  extant ;  indeed,  if  the  “  Mayflower  ” 
brought  over  all  the  old  chests,  bedsteads,  chairs,  and  bureaus, 
which  are  said  to  have  come  over  in  that  vessel,  she  must  have 
been  as  large  as  the  “  Great  Eastern. ”  For  the  first  few  years 
after  the  settlement  of  the  country  all  the  best  furniture  —  gener¬ 
ally  of  mahogany,  though  sometimes  of  oak  —  was  imported. 
Among  the  first  pieces  of  furniture  made  in  this  country  were 
such  economical  devices  as  seats  that  could  be  turned  into  tables, 
and  tables  hinged  against  the  wall,  so  that,  when  not  in  use,  they 
could  be  turned  down,  thus  giving  more  room  in  an  apartment ; 
and  the  same  economizing  of  space  suggested  the  once  very  com¬ 
mon  dining  table,  with  leaves  turning  down  —  a  style  nearly 
superseded  at  present  by  oval  tables,  in  which  leaves  can  be  in¬ 
serted  to  lengthen  the  table  for  the  number  of  guests  who  are  to 
sit  at  it.  After  a  while  our  West  India  trade  led  to  the  importa¬ 
tion  of  mahogany,  which  was  worked  up  solidly,  or  in  veneers, 
into  high-backed,  uncomfortable  chairs,  tall,  four-feet  bedsteads, 
huge  bureaus  and  sideboards,  which  were  enormous  closets  for  the 
storage  of  plate,  dishes,  and  wines.  Then  came  rosewood,  from 
the  West  Indies  and  South  America  ;  and  with  those  who  could 
afford  to  purchase  it,  furniture  made  from  this  beautiful  material 
speedily  became  popular. 

For  more  common  furniture,  oak,  pine,  cherry,  maple,  and  chest¬ 
nut  were,  and  still  are,  freely  used.  Of  late  years  black  walnut, 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  native  woods,  has  become  almost 
universal  for  the  highest-priced,  as  well  as  the  cheaper,  styles  of 
furniture.  This  wood  is  worked  easily  into  the  most  elaborate 
forms  and  exquisite  carvings,  and  the  finer  specimens  of  cabinet 
ware  are  finished  by  oiling,  instead  of  varnishing,  the  oil  bringing 
out  the  rich  grain  of  the  wood,  which  grows  darker  and  hand¬ 
somer  by  age.  Chestnut  is  also  much  used  for  dining-room  and 
chamber  sets,  and  the  material  is  beautiful,  as  well  as  cheap  and 
abundant. 


FURNITURE. 


1103 


For  wealthy  people  in  the  large  cities,  like  New  York,  Philadel-  ' 
pliia,  and  Boston,  a  great  deal  of  costly  foreign  furniture  is  im¬ 
ported,  and  foreign  styles  are  adopted  by  many  of  our  manufac¬ 
turers.  -In  certain  specialties,  however,  such  as  office  and  school 
furniture,  and  in  chair-making,  the  American  cabinet-makers  sur¬ 
pass  all  others.  Chairs,  made  from  maple,  beech,  and  other  native 
woods,  with  India  rattan  split  and  woven  seats,  almost  the  entire 
process  being  conducted  by  steam-propelled  machinery,  are  made 
by  thousands  of  dozens  in  several  large  manufactories,  and  are 
distributed,  not  only  throughout  the  United  States,  but  by  expor¬ 
tation  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  This  branch  of  manufacture  is 
carried  on  by  contract  in  several  of  the  prisons  and  penal  estab¬ 
lishments  in  the  country,  and  it  is  a  very  important  American 
industry. 

Yery  beautiful  enamelled  furniture,  especially  for  chamber  sets, 
is  extensively  manufactured.  The  rage  for  old  furniture  not  only 
occasions  a  demand,  at  most  extravagant  prices,  for  genuine  articles 
of  undoubted  antiquity,  but  has  led  to  a  revival  of  some  old  styles, 
and  to  very  successful  imitations.  Probably  the  black  walnut  work 
of  the  United  States  cabinet-makers  is  not  surpassed  in  beauty  of 
designs  and  perfection  of  finish  elsewhere  in  the  world,  and  at 
present  furniture  from  this  wood  seems  to  be  the  prevailing  style. 

Cabinet-making  is  extensively  carried  on  in  every  important  city 
in  the  United  States,  and  some  of  the  larger  establishments  employ 
from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand  men,  and  work  up  from  four  mil¬ 
lions  to  eight  millions  of  feet  of  lumber  every  year. 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


TIJE  PROGRESS  OF  3IODERN  GENIUS  IN  MECHANICAL  PURSUITS.  —  CHEMISTRY 
PRACTICALLY  APPLIED  TO  AGRICULTURE  OF  LATE  DATE. - A  TRIUMPH  GRAND¬ 
ER  TIIAN  THAT  OF  MECIIANIC8. - BARREN  SAND-FIELDS  MADE  TO  BLOSSOM  AS 

THE  ROSE.  — A  GRATIFYING  SPECTACLE. - PROFESSOR  EBEN  N.  HORSFORD  AND 

MR.  GEORGE  F.  WILSON,  AND  THEIR  GREAT  WORK. - THE  SAND-PLAINS  OF 

SEEKONK.  —  THE  RUMFORD  CHEMICAL  WORKS  NEAR  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I.,  AND 

THEIR  VARIED  AND  IMPORTANT  PRODUCTIONS.  -  WILSON’S  AMMONIATED 

SUPERPHOSPHATE  OF  LIME,  AND  THE  MAGNIFICENT  RE8ULTS  OF  ITS  USE. - 

HORSFORD’S  CREAM  OF  TARTAR. - THE  GREAT  FERTILIZED  FARM  BELONGING 

TO  THE  RUMFORD  CHEMICAL  WORKS. - SUGGESTIONS  TO  T1IE  PURCHASER  OF 

FERTILIZERS. 

Modern  progress  in  tlie  invention  and  construction  of  machinery 
for  the  saving  of  manual  labor  in  the  accomplishment  of  purposes 
which  man’s  advance  in  science  and  art  has  made  necessary  to  his 
happiness,  marks  a  wide  difference  between  the  present  status  of 
the  race  and  that  which  it  occupied  only  a  few  hundred  years  ago. 

We  know  of  nothing  that  the  ancients  accomplished  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind  which  will  bear  a  comparison  with  the  results 
attained  from  the  labors  of  Watt  and  Fulton,  and  Franklin  and 
Morse,  and  Stephenson  and  Bessemer,  and  many  others,  their  con¬ 
temporaries.  Of  not  less  value  to  the  world,  though  less  apparent, 
perhaps,  have  been  the  labors  of  those  who  have  chosen  to  toil  in 
the  field  of  chemistry.  Who  can  estimate  the  value  of  the  dis¬ 
coveries  which  gave  powder,  and  the  acids,  and  the  alkalies,  and  the 
metals,  and  a  knowledge  of  their  compounds  to  man? 

But  when  we  compare  the  knowledge  which  the  ancients,  whose 
history  has  been  familiar  to  us,  possessed,  concerning  the  means  of 
maintaining  and  increasing  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  so  as  to  make  it 
keep  pace  with  the  increasing  demands  made  upon  it  by  an  ever- 
increasing  population,  with  what  is  now  known  on  that  subject,  a 
still  more  marked  difference  between  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
becomes  apparent. 

Grand  as  the  mighty  workshops  of  the  nation  are,  —  the  stupen¬ 
dous  steam-engine  factories,  the  palatial  manufactories  of  cloths, 
(1104) 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


1105 


the  immense  machine- works,  the  vast  warehouses  teeming  with  the 
triumphs  of  mechanical  labor,  and  the  railways  with  their  immense 
burdens  of  freight  moved  by  gigantic  engines, — grand  as  all  these 
are,  and  more,  they  are  practically  of  trivial  importance  compared 
with  the  great  life  of  a  nation  which  lies  in  the  warming  bosom  of 
its  soil,  out  of  which  the  means  of  its  existence  must  come ;  for  if 
this  be  barren,  the  nation  must  crumble  to  decay,  its  workshops 
tumble  to  the  ground,  and  the  very  railways  and  highways  grow 
up  with  weeds.  Human  life  depends  upon  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
and  they  are  the  result  of  man’s  knowledge  and  skill,  and  long 
labor,  watchfulness,  and  tender,  weary  care.  When  one  beholds 
fields,  where  but  yesterday  was  barren  sand,  yielding  at  best  only 
the  lowest  species  of  cold  moss,  made  rich,  not  by  the  adventi¬ 
tious  aid  of  manures  speculatively  scattered  upon  them,  but  by  the 
regular  processes  of  science  and  art,  beginning  with  an  intelligent 
conception  of  what  is  needed,  and  step  by  step  proceeding  to  its 
accomplishment  without  hesitation,  speculation,  or  doubt,  with  sub¬ 
lime  trust  in  the  forces  of  nature,  then  is  it  that  the  mind  rises  to 
the  lofty  conception  of  things  grander  than  mere  mechanic  art,  how¬ 
ever  great,  has  accomplished. 

One  of  the  most  gratifying  scenes  to  be  witnessed  in  all  the  wide 
world  is  presented  to-day  upon  the  once  barren  portion  of  that  dis¬ 
trict  of  uninviting  lands  known  as  Seekonk  Plains,  situated  about 
three  miles  east  from  the  city  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  where  Pro¬ 
fessor  Eben  N.  Horsford  and  Mr.  George  F.  Wilson  have  not  only 
founded  one  of  the  largest  chemical  establishments  in  the  world, 
but  have  made  the  once  parched  and  barren  fields  of  sand  teem 
with  richest  grains  and  smile  with  the  most  luxuriant  grasses. 
Throughout  the  whole  land  the  writer  has  seen  no  spectacle  equal 
to  this,  the  result  of  man’s  working  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
nature.  Here  are  situated  the  chief  of  the  famous  “  Rumford 
Chemical  Works,”  which  manufacture  Horsford’s  Cream  of  Tartar, 
Horsford’s  Bread  Preparations,  Yeast  Powders,  Bluing  and*  Black¬ 
ing,  Bone  Coal,  Paper-makers’  Colors,  mineral  acids,  mordants  of- 
tin  and  iron,  and  fertilizers  for  grain  and  tobacco,  or  Wilson’s 
Ammoniated  Superphosphate  of  Lime  and  Wilson’s  Tobacco- 
Grower.  But  before  entering  into  detail  upon  the  manufactures 
of  these  great  works,  let  us  dwell  for  a  time  upon  the  men  who 
have  established  them. 

In  January,  1855,  Messrs.  Horsford  and  Wilson  entered  into 
partnership  for  a  purpose  which  is  best  expressed,  perhaps,  in  one 


1106 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


clause  of  their  agreement  made  at  that  time,  and  which  is  some¬ 
what  quaint  for  these  modern  days,  and  well  worthy  of  record 
here.  This  clause  declares  their  purpose  to  be  that  of  “  build¬ 
ing  up  a  chemical  manufacturing  establishment  of  respectability 
and  permanency,  such  as  shall  be  an  honor  to  ourselves  and  our 
children,  and  a  credit  to  the  community  in  which  it  is  located, 
and  which  shall  afford  us  a  means  of  reasonable  support.”  Prob¬ 
ably  these  earnest  gentlemen  had  only  a  faint  conception  of  the 
grandeur  to  which  their  talents  and  energy  would  elevate  their  en¬ 
terprise  within  the  space  of  a  few  short  years.  Mr.  Ilorsford  was 
then  Rumford  Professor  in  Harvard  University,  having  before  been 
Principal  of  a  female  academy  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  his  native  State, 
and  having  also  studied  for  several  years  in  Germany  under  Baron 
Liebig,  the  great  chemist  and  naturalist.  In  honor  of  this  Pro¬ 
fessorship  and  of  its  founder,  Count  Rumford,  the  works  took  their 
name.  On  his  return  from  Germany,  the  Hon.  Abbot  Lawrence 
was  induced  by  his  influence  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  “Law¬ 
rence  Scientific  School,”  a  department  in  Harvard  University  de¬ 
voted  to  instruction  in  the  application  of  Science  to  Art.  Por 
nearly  twenty  years  he  filled  the  chair  of  chemistry  in  this  institu¬ 
tion,  and  during  that  time  it  enjoyed  a  reputation  and  success 
scarcely  equalled  since  his  resignation  of  the  post.  Mr.  Wilson  is  a 
native  of  Uxbridge,  Massachusetts,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of  Roger 
Wilson,  who  left  Scrooby,  England,  with  the  Pilgrims  in  their 
migration  to  Leyden.  Roger  Wilson  undoubtedly  transmitted 
much  of  his  sterling  intelligence  and  force  of  character  to  his 
descendants,  Mr.  George  F.  Wilson  bearing  in  his  person  the 
evidences  of  a  robust  and  unconquerable  stock.  Roger  Wilson 
was  a  silk  and  linen  draper,  a  man  of  wealth,  and  wTas  the  bonds¬ 
man  for  the  only  men  among  the  Pilgrims  who  ever  obtained  the 
freedom  of  the  city  of  Leyden,  —  Governor  Bradford,  Isaac  Aller- 
ton,  and  Deggory  Priest ;  and  it  is  recorded  that  the  fitting  out  of 
the  Mayflower  was  greatly  due  to  his  liberality  and  enterprise. 

Mr.  Geo.  F.  Wilson  was  reared  upon  a  farm,  and  learned  how  to 
perform  well  every  part  of  farm  work ;  but  his  leisure  was  devoted 
to  useful  reading  and  study. 

At  the  age  of  seventeen  it  was  decided  that  “  George  should 
learn  some  trade,”  and  he  selected  that  of  wool  sorting  and  stapling. 
When  asked  why  he  chose  that,  his  reply  was,  “  That  kind  of  work 
cannot  be  done  in  the  night,  and  I  shall  have  all  the  evenings 
for  study.”  They  were  not  misimproved.  The  justice  of  the 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


1107 


father  required  of  the  son,  not  only  a  strict  account  of  his  earnings, 
but,  excepting  what  was  expended  for  clothing,  the  earnings  also. 
Yet  books  must  be  had,  and  they  were  earned  by  extra  labor,  and 
mastered  by  extraordinary  care  and  study. 

At  the  end  of  an  apprenticeship  of  three  years,  he  was  not  only 
master ^f  his  trade,  but  of  every  machine  in  the  mill,  —  drawings  of 
which  he  made,  — -  and  he  left  his  employers,  receiving  from  them 
their  recommendations  and  a  valuable  testimonial  for  faithful  ser¬ 
vices,  and  entered,  for  the  purpose  of  training  and  discipline,  upon 
a  course  of  alternate  study  and  labor. 

In  1844,  he  established  the  Chicago  Academy,  of  which  he  was 
Principal,  opening  it  with  three  pupils,  and  leaving  it,  in  a  little  less 
than  four  years,  with  two  hundred  and  twenty-five,  and  many  ap¬ 
plicants  in  advance  for  admission.  While  thus  engaged,  he  made 
several  important  discoveries  in  illumination  and  concerning  the 
effect  of  heat  upon  oils  susceptible  of  use  for  that  purpose.  He 
was  not  unmindful  of  the  probable  future  of  Chicago,  and  did  much 
by  his  collection  of  statistics,  by  his  writings,  and  by  personal  effort, 
towards  securing  the  commencement  of  her  first  railroad.  Con¬ 
sidering  it  time  to  engage  in  business  pursuits,  he  sold  out  his  school 
and  valuable  chemical  and  philosophical  apparatus,  and  turned  his 
face  eastward,  to  the  field  of  manufactures. 

After  filling  several  important  business  positions  in  the  service 
of  others,  his  studies  having  led  him  to  a  love  for  chemistry,  he 
proposed,  in  1854,  to  Professor  Horsford,  the  formation  of  the  copart¬ 
nership  to  which  we  have  before  alluded,  which  being  accepted  he 
commenced  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  at  Pleasant  Y alley,  Rhode 
Island. 

These  two  able  and  scientific  men  thus  coming  together  have 
wrought  out  for  the  world  and  for  themselves  problems  in  practical 
science  and  art  hardly  equalled  by  the  studies  and  labors  of  any 
other  two  men  to  be  found  in  the  whole  world. 

In  1858  the  Works,  the**  considerable,  were  removed  from  Pleas¬ 
ant  Valley  to  what  is  now  known  as  East  Providence,  Rhode  Island, 
but  which  was  then  Seekonk,  in  Massachusetts.  Prosecutions  were 
foolishly  carried  on  by  some  of  the  inhabitants  against  the  Works 
as  a  nuisance,  but  these  were  eventually  ended  by  the  settlement 
of  the  boundary  line  between  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island, 
which  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  friends  had  vigorously  pushed  on  to  its 
issue,  and  by  which  the  westerly  portion  of  Seekonk,  on  which  are 
situated  the  Rumford  Chemical  Works,  became  a  part  of  Rhode 


1108 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


Island.  Thus  were  the  complaints  under  the  Massachusetts  law 
quashed,  and  Rhode  Island  gained  one  of  the  most  important  of  her 
manufactories,  while  she  has  nothing  of  which  she  may  more  prop¬ 
erly  boast  as  more  valuable  to  the  well-being  of  the  race  in  general. 
Before  Mr.  Wilson  entered  upon  Seekonk  Plains  they  were  a  syno- 
nyme,  and  had  been  for  generations,  for  barrenness.  A  ^oodly 
portion  of  some  eight  hundred  acres  now  owned  by  the  Krtmford 
Chemical  Works  is  very  prolific,  the  result  of  judicious  cultivation 
and  of  the  liberal  use  of  the  fertilizer  known  in  the  market  as  Wil¬ 
son’s  Ammoniated  Superphosphate  of  Lime,  made  at  the  “River¬ 
side  Works”  of  this  company,  founded  in  1863, 'where  the  primary 
processes  in  the  manufacture  of  cream  of  tartar  are  also  conducted. 
At  these  Works  the  visitor  may,  early  in  the  season,  see  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars’  worth  of  this  unequalled  fertilizer  in  one  vast  pile, 
destined  to  be  sent  to  various  parts  of  the  country  to  work  its 
miracles  in  the  promotion  of  vegetation. 

When  Mr.  Wilson  first  removed  to  Seekonk  Plains  they  pre¬ 
sented  to  an  ordinary  observer  few  or  no  attractions  for  any  pur¬ 
pose  whatever.  But  his  eye  saw  in  the  barren  waste  cheap  build¬ 
ing-sites  and  rich  gardens,  busy  commerce  in  idle  wharf-sites, 
rapid  and  cheap  transportation  in  a  railroad  then  but  half  occu¬ 
pied,  ample  power  and  wealth  in  an  abundance  of  pure  water, 
(the  latter  a  consideration  of  no  little  importance  to  the  Works  he 
had  determined  to  build,)  and  last,  but  not  least,  health  in  the  pure 
atmosphere  of  the  elevated  plain. 

His  first  purchases  of  land  were  made  for  twenty  dollars  an  acre. 
The  last  purchase  of  adjoining  barren  lands  was  made  at  two  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  an  acre,  so  greatly  had  the  proximity  of  the  Chemical 
Works  increased  their  value.  Thus  the  progressive  efforts  of 
Messrs.  Ilorsford  and  Wilson  in  the  line  of  human  advancement 
have  promoted  the  welfare  of  those  by  whom  they  were  at  first 
prosecuted,  and  the  bread  which  they  cast  upon  the  waters  has 
returned  tenfold  by  the  increased  valu(^of  their  lands. 

Here  the  farmer,  desiring  to  increase  the  fertility  of  his  soil, 
has  but  to  look  about  him  at  the  results  produced  and  the  profits 
reaped  by  the  use  of  a  thoroughly  tested  and  conscientiously  made 
fertilizer,  to  bo  convinced  that  the  worst  acre  of  ground  upon  the 
earth,  if  it  be  not  of.  solid  rock,  may  be  made  as  prolific  as  the 
richest  acre  of  prairie  land.  Here  also  he  may  see  some  of  the 
best  cattle  and  sheep  to  be  found  in  the  country  fed  upon  the  crops 
now  grown  upon  these  once  barren  plains.  Mr.  Wilson  may  well 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


1109 


take  great  pride  in  his  stock,  though,  to  use  his  own  expression,  “  he 
has  but  just  begun  to  improve  it,”  for  they  are  the  offspring  of  the 
best  imported  as  well  as  domestic  breeds.  A  visit  to  Seekonk  Plains 
and  the  Rumford  Chemical  W orks’  farm  is  well  worth  the  while  of 
the  traveller  from  any  quarter  of  the  globe,  especially  if  he  takes  de¬ 
light  in  the  triumphs  of  genius  and  skill  over  the  perversities  or 
ruggedness  of  Nature. 

In  New  England  he  would.be  called  a  large  farmer.  From  the 
following,  some  idea  of  his  farming  operations  may  be  obtained. 
Number  of  acres  this  year  in  corn,  35 ;  in  potatoes,  40 ;  in  barley, 
14;  in  rye,  32;  in  oats,  32;  millet,  45.  In  soiling  crops,  10;  in  car¬ 
rots,  beets,  and  turnips,  10.  Fall  seeding  to  grass,  90.  In  grass, 
175;  number  of  acres  under  cultivation,  500,  —  including  the  j>as- 
tures. 

The  Works  and  farms  employ  thirty  horses  and  thirty-six  oxen, 
and  keep  one  hundred  and  fifty  hogs  and  fifty  head  of  young  cattle. 
Fifty  cows  are  milked,  and  the  milk  is  converted  into  butter  and 
cheese  in  one  of  the  best  of  dairy-houses,  provided  with  steam- 
power  and  hot  and  cold  water.  Twenty-five  thousand  pounds  of 
pork  and  eighteen  thousand  pounds  of  beef,  of  his  own  raising,  will 
be  slaughtered  in  his  own  slaughter-house  this  year.  Nearly  all 
of  this  produce  is  readily  sold .  to  the  employees  of  the  com¬ 
pany. 

To  secure  and  store  these  crops,  thirteen  hundred  feet  in  .length 
of  barns  and  cribs,  and  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  of  sheds,  have 
been  provided.  The  grain  is  threshed  and  fodder  cut  with  steam- 
power,  and  the  food  for  both  cattle  and  swine  is  cooked  by  steam, 
and  in  the  boiler-house  is  a  steam  fire-pump  and  hose,  capable  of 
throwing  water  over  many  of  the  farm  buildings. 

The  principal  manufacture  at  the  Rumford  Works,  so  distin¬ 
guished  from  the  Riverside  W orks,  is  that  of  pulverulent  phosphoric 
acid,  commonly  known  as  “  Horsford’s  Cream  of  Tartar,”  for  bread¬ 
raising.  In  the  invention  of  this  chemical,  the  main  desire  was  to 
avoid  all  fermentation,  and  to  give  to  bread  made  of  bolted  flour  a 
deficient  ingredient  which  would  add  to  the  nutritious  quality  of 
the  bread. 

Of  all  the  salts  taking  part  in  vital  processes,  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  are  the  phosphates.  They  enter  into  the  composition  of  the 
bones,  the  muscles,  the  nerves,  the  brain,  and  indeed  of  every  higher 
tissue ;  and  wherever  an  important  function  is  to  be  performed 
there  Nature  has  supplied  a  store  of  phosphates.  They  are  present 


1110 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


in  all  substantial  food.  The  medical  faculty  are  now  paying  great 
attention  to  preparations  of  phosphatic  salts ;  and  for  debility,  and 
especially  for  diseases  of  the  brain,  they  are  constantly  administered. 
The  whole  tone  of  the  system  is  lowered  by  a  diet  deficient  in  the 
phosphates,  and  is  raised  by  food  containing  a  large  proportion  of 
them.  As  is  well  known,  in  the  preparation  of  superfine  flour  the 
normal  quantity  of  the  phosphates  is  largely  decreased  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  fine  bolting,  the  bran  containing  weight  for  weight  more 
than  fourteen  times  as  much  phosphoric  acid  as  the  superfine  flour. 
In  this  way  the  flour  is  deprived  of  one  of  its  most  important  ele¬ 
ments.  In  order  to  secure  the  phosphates,  it  is  recommended  by 
physicians  that  unbolted  or  Graham  flour  be  used,  but  unfortunately 
it  soon  becomes  sour ;  and  to  dyspeptics  the  superfine  flour  is  pro¬ 
hibited  If,  then,  we  can  get  back  the  phosphates  which  have  been 
so  uselessly  thrown  away,  we  shall  be  doing  a  service  to  the  general 
health.  This  is  precisely  what  this  manufacture  does,  as  will  be 
seen  by  following  one  of  the  processes. 

The  raw  material  is  secured  by  agents  all  through  the  United 
States,  who  buy  the  beef-bones  which  until  within  a  few  years,  as  a 
rule,  have  been  wasted.  These  bones  are  distilled  in  closed  iron  re¬ 
torts.  The  coal  is  ground  and  bolted.  The  coarser  sorts  are  sold  to 
the  sugar-refiners.  From  the  next  two  sizes  acid  phosphate  of  lime 
is  extracted  for  the  manufacture  of  cream  of  tartar,  and  the  finest  is 
used  for  making  superphosphate  of  lime.  The  coal  employed  in  the 
manufacture  of  cream  of  tartar  is  subjected  to  another  burning  in 
an  oven,  into  which  air  is  admitted,  and,  after  being  cooled,  is 
combined  with  sulphuric  acid,  and  stirred  by  machinery  for  eigh¬ 
teen  hours,  until  the  bone  coal  is  thoroughly  dissolved.  The  mix¬ 
ture  is  then  drawn  off  and  leached  through  thick  felt,  the  acid 
phosphate  of  lime  coming  out  a  colorless  fluid,  the  residuum,  phos- 
pho-sulphate  of  lime,  being  used  with  soft  bones  in  making  super¬ 
phosphate.  The  acid  phosphate  is  evaporated  in  porcelain-lined 
iron  kettles,  the  process  occupying  from  seven  to  nine  hours.  It  is 
then  poured  into  vats,  and  when  cooled  it  is  of  the  consistency  of 
cheese.  It  is  now  mixed  with  pure  starch.  This  mixing  is  first 
done  in  the  vats,  and  then  it  is  run  through  granite  rollers  for  more 
perfect  comminution  and  combination.  Then  it  is  taken  to  the 
drying-floor  and  spread,  and  allowed  to  remain  from  eight  to  ten 
days,  when  it  is  again  subjected  to  heat,  the  more  perfectly  to  dry 
it.  Again  it  is  ground,  bolted,  and  put  in  packages  for  market. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  use  of  this  article  in  making  bread  supplies 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES, 


1111 


to  a  certain  extent  the  phosphates  lost  in  the  excessive  bolting  of 
our  superfine  flour. 

The  buildings  at  Riverside  are,  first,— 

One  where  the  bones  are  burned  •  .  125  x  45  feet 

Storehouse .  132  x  64  “ 

Storehouse  and  cooper’s  shop  .  .  ,  85  x  30  “ 

Superphosphate-of-lime  building  .  .  120  x  50  “ 

Store  shed.  .  .  .  .  .  .  175x16  “ 

Slaughter-house  .  .  .  .  .  30x16  “ 

One  in  process  of  erection  .  .  .  120  x  80  “ 

in  which  is  to  be  manufactured  nitric  and  muriatic  add  and  tin 


crystals. 


RIVERSIDE. 


The  buildings  at  the  Rumford  Works  are, — 

One  . .  220  x  40  feet 

One  .......  172  x  40  “ 

One . .  153  x  40  “ 


in  which  the  different  processes  of  manufacture  are  carried  on ; 


Freight  house  .  .  .  .  .  .  135  x  26  feet 

Storehouse  and  blacksmith’s  shop  ,  •  180  x  20  u 

Store  shed  .  .  * .  100  x  20  “ 

Office  and  store  ,  .  .  :  .  .  55  x  25  “ 

Barn . .  .  36  x  32  “ 

Barn  .  •  ......  •  105  x  36  “ 

Carriage  and  wagon  house  and  shed  .  ,  150  x  25  “ 

64  - - 


1112 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


and  dwelling-house,  —  the  whole  closely  occupying  an  area  of  nearly 
eight  acres.  To  accommodate  the  business,  two  switches  have  been 
constructed  from  the  Boston  and  Providence 'Railroad,  and  another 
is  building  for  the  use  of  the  new  and  large  buildings  which  are 
needed. 


RUMFORD. 


At  the  Riverside  Works  a  steam-engine  of  forty  horse-power  is  in 
use,  and  fifty  men  are  employed ;  at  Rumford  three  engines  having 
sixty  horse-power  are  used,  and  eighty  men  are  employed.  Both 
works  give  employment,  in  addition,  to  forty  mechanics,  and  on  the 
farm  there  are  forty  laborers,  and  more  are  engaged  during  the  sum¬ 
mer.  The  preparation  of  the  cream  of  tartar  for  market  is  done  in 
Providence,  where  the  company  occupy  a  large  building  64  x  64 
feet,  of  four  stories,  Nos.  58,  59,  60,  on  South  Water  Street.  Here 
are  employed  forty-five  girls  and  eight  men.  To  do  the  printing 
necessary  for  the  business,  three  printing-presses  are  used,  one  of 
them  the  largest  single-cylinder  press  in  the  State.  The  printing 
would  cost  at  regular  rates  some  twenty  thousand  dollars  annually. 
This  department  of  the  business  will  soon  be  removed  to  the  Rum¬ 
ford  Works. 

The  quantity  of  the  several  productions  yearly  made  is  nearly  as 
follows :  — 

Cream  of  Tartar .  1,200,000  lbs. 

Superphosphate  of  Lime  .  .  .  3,000,000  “ 

Tobacco-Grower  .  .  .  .  #  1,000,000  u 

Bone  Coal . t  3,150,000  u 

Sulphate  of  Ammonia  .  •  .  •  300,000  u 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


1113 


Antichloride  of  Lime  .....  200,000  lbs. 

Nitric  Acid  ......  350,000  “ 

Muriatic  Acid  .  .  .  .  ,  .  400,000  “ 

and  the  quantity  of  Oil  of  Vitriol  consumed  in  the  works  is  not 
far  from  1,500,000  lbs. 

One  of  the  most  rapidly  increasing  and  important  of  their  pro¬ 
ductions  is  “  Horsford’s  Acid  Phosphate  ”  (medicinal)  for  the  cure 
of  diseases  of  the  brain  and  nervous  sj^stem,  for  dyspepsia  or  indi¬ 
gestion,  and  urinary  difficulties.  Many  of  the  leading  physicians  of 
the  land  have  given  it  their  unqualified  approval. 

Mr.  Wilson  for  twenty  years  past  <has  been  more  or  less  persist¬ 
ently  engaged  in  the  attempt  to  make  a  good  black  writing  and 
eopying  ink,  and,  having  succeeded  to  his  satisfaction,  has  erected 
apparatus  and  machinery  for  making  one  thousand  gallons  per  day. 
He  makes  the  best  boot  and  shoe  .blacking  and  puts  it  in  the  best 
box  (both  covered  by  patents)  to  be  found  in  the  country.  It  is 
his  aim  that  every  article,  however  unimportant,  made  in  the  works, 
shall  be  of  the  very  best  quality,  'so  that  the  brand  of  the  works 
will  be  the  only  guaranty  of  excellence  which  the  consumers  will 
ask  for. 

In  this  view  he  is  fully  sustained  by  his  partner,  Professor  Hors- 
ford,  who,  though  not  actively  engaged  at  the  Works,  is  frilly  alive 
to  their  interests  and  welfare. 

But  to  return  to  Seekonk  Plains.  The  reader  has  seen  what 
marvels  the  genius  of  scientific  men  is  competent  to  accomplish; 
but  when  Mr.  Wilson  had  raised  large  crops  of  grass  and  corn, 
it  was  said  “  well  he  might,  he  had  a  mine  of  manure  in  superphos¬ 
phate  which  he  could  apply  without  regard  to  cost.”  Now  the  fact 
is  that  his  farms  are  platted  into  lots,  and  with  every  lot  a  correct 
account  is  kept,  and  to  every  lot  is  charged  the  labor,  the  manure, 
and  fertilizers  put  thereon,  at  the  market  price,  thus  showing  the 
gain  or  loss  in  the  operation  performed  on  it.  The  same  is  true  of 
every  article  made  in  the  works.  Every  department  is  under  the 
charge  of  a  competent  foreman,  who  is  held  accountable  for  the 
prompt  discharge  of  the  duty  assigned  to  him.  But  we  do  not 
propose  to  go  into  further  detail,  and  we  have  alluded  to  the  success 
of  the  farm  because  the  latter  serves  as  a  wondrous  exemplification 
of  the  value  of  the  fertilizers  made  by  the  Rumford  Chemical 
Works.  We  ought  not  to  leave  this  part  of  our  subject  without 
apprising  our  readers  that  many  fertilizers  which  are  nearly  worth- 


1114 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


less,  containing  but  a  small  portion  of  ammonia  and  superphosphate 
of  lime,  are  placed  by  unscrupulous  manufacturers  upon  the  market. 
And  though  we  would  avoid,  in  a  work  of  this  kind  anything  bear¬ 
ing  the  semblance  of  prejudiced  praise  or  selfishly  interested  esteem, 
we  deem  it  not  unfitting  to  say  that  so  great  was  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  writer  on  paying  a  personal  visit  to  the  Rumford  Chemical 
Works,  studying  the  processes  there  conducted,  and  looking  over  the 
rich  acres  there  produced  from  the  barren  plains  by  the  use  of  the 
fertilizers  made  by  these  Works,  that  he  felt  it  a  duty  to  the  reader, 
and  so  made  special  remarks  in  his  “notes”  taken  on  the  occasion 
in  question,  to  say  to  him,  that,  in  order  to  avoid  all  jmssibility  of 
being  defrauded  in  the  purchase  of  his  fertilizers,  he  should  take 
care  to  first  try  the  Ammoniated  Superphosphate  of  Lime  made 
by  the  Rumford  Chemical  Works  before  purchasing  other  produc¬ 
tions,  however  well  recommended.  For  the  cause  of  real  science, 
and  with  benevolent  respect  for  the  farmer  or  other  reader  who 
seeks  to  inform  and  benefit  himself  through  the  pages  of  this  work, 
we  could  hardly  avoid  adding  the  above  caution. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  their  other  manufactures,  and  no  better 
evidence  of  the  truthfulness  of  the  remark  can  be  called  for  than 
the  facts,  that,  notwithstanding  the  extraordinary  growth  of  the 
Works  from  a  beginning  so  small  that  one  horse  and  wagon  could 
do  all  their  transportation,  they  have  never  been  able  to  keep  pace 
with  the  demand  for  their  productions,  and  that  their  fires  since 
1854,  the  commencement  of  the  business,  have  never  been  out. 

We  have  thus  far  spoken  of  the  farms  and  of  the  Chemical 
Works  proper,  but  they  are  by  no  means  the  only  business  Mr. 
Wilson  has  in  hand. 

In  1863,  he  accidentally  discovered  several  large  deposits  of  peat, 
and  finding  they  could  be  drained,  he  at  once  set  about  their  pos¬ 
session.  This  was  accomplished  after  two  years  of  patient  waiting, 
and  after  four  separate  purchases  of  land  amounting  together  to 
more  than  three  hundred  acres.  lie  immediately  dug  what  some 
persons  called  a  “  Dutch  Gap  Canal,”  drained  the  bog  seventeen  feet 
deep,  and  now  quietly  takes  out  the  peat,  while  they  “gape”  in 
astonishment  to  see  how  easily  it  is  done.  There  are  not  less  than 
150,000  cords  of  peat  in  the  deposits,  and  what  is  sold  brings  two 
dollars  per  cord  in  the  bog. 

With  machines  for  its  manufacture,  driven  by  steam-power,  there 
is  annually  produced  several  hundred  tons  of  fuel,  which  is  consumed 
in  the  Works,  being  worth  more,  for  some  purposes,  than  coal  at  the 


CHEMICAL  MANUFACTURES. 


1115 


same  price  per  ton.  The  peat  is  carried  to  and  around  the  drying 
ground  from  the  machines  on  a  narrow-gauge  railroad,  (in  which 
Mr.  Wilson  is  a  firm  believer,)  the  first*  constructed  in  New  Eng¬ 
land. 

Before  and  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  down  to  1836, 
■when  anthracite  coal  took  the  place  of  charcoal  in  smclting-fur- 
naces,  the  best  quality  of  iron  was  made  from  Rhode  Island  iron 
ores. 

Six  months  ago,  an  iron-founder  from  Pennsylvania  laid  before 
Mr.  Wilson  some  new  plans  for  making  iron  from  these  ores,  and 
for  its  subsequent  conversion  into  steel  and  steel  rails. 

A  careful  investigation  convinced  him  that  the  processes  were 
worthy  of  trial.  The  next  day  he  selected  a  site  upon  tide-water, 
easily  accessible  by  railroad,  bought  it,  built  the  works,  and  at  this 
writing,  less  than  six  months  from  his  introduction  to  the  inventor, 
he  has  steam  up  in  the  boilers,  and  fires  in  both  furnaces  prepara¬ 
tory  to  charging  them  with  the  ores. 

A  few  weeks  will  decide  the  success  of  the  plans.  If  successful, 
there  will  be  no  want  of  capital  to  enlarge,  to  any  extent,  the  enter¬ 
prise. 

He  also  has  a  manufactory  in  Providence,  which  will,  erelong, 
be  removed  to  East  Providence,  where  the  best  spinning-rings, 
ring-travellers,  belt-fasteners,  spindle-bolsters,  and  spindle-steps, 
and  creel-steps,  now  in  use,  and  which  are  rapidly  superseding  all 
others,  are  made. 

Should  Mr.  Wilson’s  life  and  health  be  continued,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  place  he  has  chosen  for  his  home  will  well  deserve 
the  name  already  given  to  it,  for  the  future,  by  an  old  friend  of  his, 
(Harvey  Chace),  the  Clyde  of  America . 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


TIIE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  POST  OFFICE.  —  TIIE  NEEDS  IT  IS  INTENDED  TO  MEET. 
—  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  POST.  — THE  ROMAN  SYSTEM.  — THE  IDEA  OF  A  PUB¬ 
LIC  POST  PECULIARLY  MODERN.  —  CHARLEMAGNE’S  POST.  —  THE  POST  IN 
FRANCE.  —  IN  ENGLAND.  —  THE  MODERN  SYSTEM  INTRODUCED  IN  TYROL.  — 
THE  FIRST  REGULAR  MAIL  BETWEEN  LONDON  AND  EDINBURGH.  —  JOHN  PAL¬ 
MER  AND  HIS  IMPROVEMENT.  —  ROWLAND  HILL  AND  THE  IDEA  OF  CHEAP 
POSTAGE.  — MONEY  ORDER  SYSTEM.  —  POST  OFFICE  SAVINGS  BANKS.  —  IN¬ 
VIOLABILITY  OF  THE  MAILS. -  THE  POST  OFFICE  AMONG  THE  COLONIES.  — 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  POST  MASTER.  —  THE  FORMER  RATES  OF  POSTAGE.  — 
SUGGESTIONS  FOR  TIIE  FUTURE  OF  THE  POST  OFFICE. 

Among  the  various  public  organizations,  which  in  our  modern 
civilization  serve  to  express  and  to  increase  the  activity  of  our 
social  and  industrial  life,  the  post  office  holds  a  most  prominent 
position.  It  serves  to  bring  those  who  are  divided  into  easy  and 
reliable  communication  ;  it  gives  a  voice  to  the  body  politic  ;  it 
serves  for  the  ready  transmission  of  intelligence,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  effective  agencies  in  producing  the  sentiment  of  unity  and 
mutual  sympathy,  which,  as  a  result  of  our  common  social  nature, 
always  springs  up  between  men  who  meet  and  commune  together, 
freed  from  the  artificial  isolations  of  convention  or  prejudice, 
upon  the  universal  plane  of  their  common  humanity. 

A\  ith  the  invention  of  the  art  of  writing,  as  a  means  of  commu¬ 
nication  with  each  other,  men,  of  course,  felt  the  need  of  some 
method  for  sending  their  letters  to  their  destination  ;  and  among 
the  Assyrians  and  Persians,  from  the  earliest  times  of  their  history, 
we  find  that  these  governments  had  organized  a  system  for  the 
dissemination  of  their  edicts  and  orders  to  the  subordinate  officers 
in  distant  parts  of  their  empires  by  messengers,  who  were  sta¬ 
tioned  a  day’s  journey  from  each  other.  Among  the  Romans  gov¬ 
ernment  despatches  were  sent  by  horsemen,  mounted  on  swift 
horses  ;  and  the  extent  of  the  Roman  Empire  made  the  system  of 
the  post  for  this  purpose  an  important  public  necessity,  and  was 
(1116) 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


1117 


one  of  the  chief  causes  which  led  to  the  improvement  of  the  roads, 
and  the  construction  of  the  level  and  solid  highways,  which  are 
still  the  envy  and  admiration  of  the  moderns  in  many  parts  of 
Europe.  The  regularity  and  safety  with  which  the  government 
despatches  from  Rome  were  sent  to  their  various  destinations,  led 
soon  to  the  use  of  the  public  messengers  by  private  persons,  who 
could  obtain  the  opportunity  to  send  their  letters  to  personal  friends 
by  this  means.  Though  letters  were  frequently  so  sent  by  persons 
in  authority,  or  connected  in  some  way  with  the  government,  yet, 
in  the  modern  acceptation  of  the  word,  there  was  in  the  Roman 
Empire  nothing  like  our  present  post  office,  or  public  post,  by 
which  letters  are  received  from  any  one  desirous  of  sending  them, 
and  for  a  small  charge  distributed  all  over  the  country. 

The  first  introduction  of  this  great  convenience  to  the  public  be¬ 
longs  to  the  modern  world,  and  is  said  to  have  been  organized  by 
Charlemagne,  who  instituted  a  regular  post  in  his  dominions  for 
both  letters  and  small  parcels.  With  the  dissolution  of  his  empire, 
after  his  death,  the  system  fell  into  disuse.  It  required  at  that 
time  the  strong  rule  of  such  an  autocrat  as  Charlemagne  to  intro¬ 
duce  and  maintain  it,  and  the  disintegration,  after  his  death,  of  the 
empire  he  had  formed,  with  the  consequent  retrogression  into  the 
isolation  and  darkness  of  the  middle  ages,  destroyed  the  general 
demand,  and  the  ability  to  make  use  of  such  a  measure  for  social 
organization. 

In  1464  Louis  XI.  stationed  posts,  four  miles,  apart,  over  France 
for  the  transmission  of  despatches  from  the  government.  In  Eng¬ 
land,  during  the  thirteenth  century,  a  somewhat  similar  arrange¬ 
ment  was  made  for  the  same  purpose,  the  messengers  of  which 
were  called  nuncii.  But  the  inefficacy  of  this  organization  to  meet 
the  public  need,  even  at  that  time,  for  the  convenience  of  a  post 
office,  was  shown  by  the  fact,  that  the  butchers  and  drovers,  who, 
in  quest  of  a  market  for  their  stock,  were  accustomed  to  wander 
periodically  through  the  country,  were,  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  the  chief  dependence  of  the  public  for  the  distribution  of 
private  letters  in  England,  and  that  private  letters  were  not  carried 
in  the  public  mail  until  the  sixteenth  century. 

Upon  the  continent,  as  early  as  the  eleventh  century,  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Paris,  to  which  hundreds  of  young  men  gathered  yearly 
from  all  parts  of  Europe  to  obtain  the  education  there  offered,  had 
established  a  kind  of  post  by  which  they  could  communicate  with 
their  homes,  and  receive,  through  trustworthy  messengers,  the  re- 


1118 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


mittances  of  money  which  they  needed  for  their  support.  Nono 
of  these  various  attempts  can,  however,  be  considered  as  instances 
of  the  establishment  of  a  public  post,  which  was  open  to  all  the 
public,  and  performed  its  functions  with  despatch  and  regularity, 
though  the  needs  they  were  intended  to  supply  showed  that 
there  was  a  demand  for  some  postal  system,  and  they  all  aided  in 
increasing  the  demand  for  some  method  to  subserve  the  increasing 
desire  for  intercommunication,  which  is  so  distinguishing  a  sign  of 
an  advancing  social  organization.  The  first  arrangement  made  in 
Europe,  which  can  be  called  a  public  post,  was  instituted  in  1516, 
by  Roger,  Count  of  Thurn  and  Taxis,  who  established,  in  Tyrol,  a 
post  by  which  letters  were  transmitted  regularly  between  Germany 
and  Italy.  The  relations  between  these  two  countries  were  very 
intimate  at  this  time,  and  the  profits  of  this  enterprise  were  so 
large  that  they  formed  an  important  part  of  the  royal  revenue,  and 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  successors  of  Count  Roger  until  the 
fall  of  the  German  Empire,  and,  in  a  measure,  this  private  mo¬ 
nopoly  of  the  public  post  is  still  held  as  a  family  possession  by  the 
descendants  of  its  originator. 

In  1524  the  French  post  first  carried  other  letters  than  those 
written  by  the  king  or  by  members  of  the  nobility.  In  England, 
James  I.  established  the  first  post  which  ran  regularly  between 
London  and  Edinburgh,  the  capitals  of  England  and  Scotland. 

The  speed  with  which  they  travelled  may  be  estimated  from  the 
fact  that  it  required  six  days  to  go  and  return  —  three  days  from 
one  point  to  the  other.  In  1644  the  first  weekly  post  was  estab¬ 
lished  to  all  parts  of  England,  from  London. 

In  1784  the  rapidity  with  which  the  mails  were  disseminated  was 
greatly  increased  by  the  introduction  of  swift  mail-coaches.  Their 
average  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour  was  considered  at  the  time  won¬ 
derful.  The  method  in  use  for  the  transmission  of  the  mails,  be¬ 
fore  this  reform  was  introduced,  will  be  best  shown  by  an  extract 
from  the  memoir  submitted  to  Mr.  Pitt,  in  1783,  by  John  Palmer, 
with  whom  the  idea  of  the  improved  system  originated.  “  The 
post  at  present,”  he  writes,  “  instead  of  being  the  swiftest,  is  al¬ 
most  the  slowest  conveyance  in  this  country  ;  and  though,  from 
the  great  improvements  in  our  roads,  other  carriers  have  propor¬ 
tionately  mended  their  speed,  the  post  is  as  slow  as  ever.  It  is 
likewise  very  unsafe,  as  the  frequent  robberies  of  it  testify;  and  to 
awfid  a  loss  of  this  nature,  people  generally  cut  bank  bills,  or  bills 
at  sight,  in  two,  and  send  the  parts  by  different  posts.  The  post- 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


1119 


master  general  lately  advertised  directions  to  the  public  how  to 
divide  a  bill  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent  its  being  of  any  use  to 
the  robber.  Rewards  have  also  been  frequently  offered  by  him  for 
the  best  constructed  mail-cart,  or  some  plan  to  prevent  the  fre¬ 
quent  robbery  of  the  mail,  but  without  effect.  Indeed,  it  is  at 
present  generally  intrusted  to  some  idle  boy,  without  character, 
mounted  on  a  worn-out  hack,  and  who,  so  far  from  being  able  to 
defend  himself,  or  escape  from  a  robber,  is  much  more  likely  to  be 
in  league  with  him.” 

When  it  is  remembered  that  at  this  time  —  less  than  a  hundred 
years  ago  —  the  mail  out  of  London,  containing  the  letters  of  the 
merchants  and  bankers  of  that  metropolis,  consisting  often  of  en¬ 
closures  of  hundreds  of  thousands,  if  not  of  millions  of  pounds, 
was  daily  intrusted  to  these  post-boys,  who  carried  them  in  bags 
slung  over  their  horses  necks,  some  estimate  can  be  formed  of  the 
advance  ia  this  department  of  social  organization  which  has  been 
made  during  the  existence  of  three  generations.  The  chief  mail 
at  this  time  left  London  at  midnight ;  an  arrangement  which,  in  the 
unlighted  condition  of  the  roads,  was  not  calculated  to  increase 
the  safety  of  the  mail. 

In  1837  Rowland  Hill,  who  has  justly  earned  his  reputation  as  a 
benefactor  of  the  race,  proposed  the  system  of  cheap  and  uniform 
postage  which  now  prevails  in  England.  Despite  the  ridicule  and 
incredulity  with  which  the  suggestion  was  at  first  received,  he 
persevered,  and  in  1839  the  proposition  was  accepted  by  Par¬ 
liament,  and  went  into  operation  in  1840.  At  first,  as  previously, 
the  postage  was  all  prepaid  in  money,  but  soon  after  the  use  of 
stamps  was  introduced. 

The  English  government,"  at  a  very  early  period  of  the  cheap 
postage  era,  introduced  the  money-order  system,  which  had  before 
prevailed  in  Germany.  By  this  means  money  can  be  sent  in  post- 
office  orders,  without  any  fear  of  loss,  and  at  a  very  reasonable 
charge.  The  great  convenience  introduced  by  this  measure,  for 
the  safe  transmission  of  money  in  small  quantities,  was,  about  ten 
years  after,  supplemented  by  the  still  greater  convenience  of  mak¬ 
ing  the  post  office  a  savings  bank,  conducted  by  the  government, 
in  which  every  office  throughout  the  country  was  a  place  to  receive 
deposits.  The  advantages  of  this  system,  which  are  equally  great 
for  the  public  and  the  government,  were  immediately  recognized, 
and  made  the  English  post  office  one  of  the  most  useful  public  in¬ 
stitutions  in  the  civilized  world,  and  expressive  of  a  more  ad- 


1120 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


vanced  condition  of  social  organization  than  that  of  any  Oth  er 
country.  The  economy  of  means  with  which  it  is  carried  on  is 
not  the  least  of  its  claims  to  consideration  ;  the  force  required  for 
performing  the  duties  of  the  post  office,  before  it  was  introduced, 
being  quite  competent  for  the  transaction  of  this  new  duty,  with 
perhaps  the  addition  of  only  a  few  extra  clerks  in  some  of  the 
large  towns.  All  throughout  the  country  the  village  postmasters, 
who  usually  devote  their  entire  time  to  the  duties  of  their  office, 
can  easily,  without  finding  themselves  overtaxed,  receive  the  mon¬ 
ey  that  is  offered  on  deposit,  and  enter  it  in  the  depositor’s  pass¬ 
book. 

The  organization  of  the  system  is  complete.  The  government 
pays  interest  upon  the  money  thus  deposited  ;  that  is,  it  does  what 
the  ordinary  savings  banks  do  with  the  money  intrusted  to  them  ; 
it  simply  purchases  its  own  bonds  with  it,  and  can  afford  to  pay 
the  depositors  a  better  rate  than  the  savings  bank  which  makes 
the  same  investment  of  the  funds  thus  collected,  because  the  gov¬ 
ernment,  being  under  no  extra  charge  for  doing  this  work,  is  not 
obliged  to  deduct  any  percentage  of  the  interest  to  pay  its  own 
expenses.  Besides,  too,  the  money  of  the  depositors,  which  is 
thus  invested  by  the  government  in  its  own  bonds,  is  safe  beyond 
peradventure  ;  and  that  this  fact  is  sufficiently  evident  to  the  de¬ 
positors  for  them  to  appreciate  it,  is  shown  by  the  thousands  of 
them  who  have  yearly,  since  the  adoption  of  this  method,  trans¬ 
ferred  their  money  from  the  savings  banks  to  the  government, 
while,  by  the  last  report,  there  had  been  found  only  one  depositor 
with  the  government  who  had  transferred  his  money  to  the  savings 
bank. 

Another  immense  advantage  which  this  general  system  of  the 
government  offers  the  depositors,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  universal¬ 
ity  of  the  post  office,  and  its  unity  of  management,  enables  the 
government,  without  extra  expense,  to  receive  money  at  any  office, 
and  carry  it  to  the  credit  of  an  account  kept  in  any  other  office. 
Thus  a  depositor,  who  is  travelling  upon  business,  or  for  any  other 
purpose,  can  deposit  in  any  town  where  he  may  be  any  money  he 
may  collect,  and  have  it  carried  to  his  credit  in  his  home  office, 
thus  saving  the  risk  of  carrying  it  upon  his  person.  In  the  same 
way  also  any  depositor  in  a  distant  town  can  draw  money  from  his 
deposit  in  his  home  office.  In  such  cases  the  office  reserves  the 
privilege  of  waiting  until,  by  telegraph  or  by  mail,  it  can  be  as¬ 
sured  from  the  home  office  that  there  is  such  a  deposit ;  but  in 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


1121 


practice,  as  all  the  transactions  are  entered  in  the  depositor’s  pass¬ 
book,  the  production  of  this  is  in  general  considered  sufficient  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  correctness  of  the  application,  and  it  is  paid  immedi¬ 
ately  in  cash.  No  savings  bank,  and  no  private  or  corporate  bank, 
can  offer  such  advantages,  since  the  charge  they  must  make  for 
such  transfers,  as  it  is  a  part  of  the  legitimate  business  by  which 
they  live,  the  government,  on  account  of  its  universality,  can 
forego,  since  it  is  for  its  interest  only  to  increase  the  amounts  de-  * 
posited  with  it  by  offering  every  possible  advantage  to  the  depos¬ 
itors. 

In  France,  before  1*791,  the  operation  of  the  post  was  farmed 
out  to  the  highest  bidder ;  but  in  that  year  the  government  took 
its  management,  and  organized  the  system  which  has  prevailed  up 
to  this  time.  In  France,  and  most  of  the  other  countries  of 
Europe  wdiich  are  despotically  managed  in  the  interest  of  the 
rulers,  the  government  uses  its  control  of  the  post  office  as  a  means 
of  espionage  over  its  subjects,  and  does  not  hesitate  to  tamper 
with  the  letters  intrusted  to  it  for  transmission.  The  sentiment  of 
honesty,  which  would  as  soon  justify  the  picking  of  another’s 
pocket  as  the  opening  of  his  letters,  is  peculiarly  the  outgrowth 
of  political  freedom,  and  its  strength  serves  to  mark  quite  accu¬ 
rately  the  advance  of  a  people  in  the  course  of  democratic  evolu¬ 
tion  which  characterizes  the  present  era  of  civilization,  and  the 
inviolability  of  the  mails  is  as  important  a  right  of  the  people  as 
that  of  habeas  corpus,  freedom  from  illegal  arrest,  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  or  any  other  of  the  safeguards  from  despotism. 

In  the  colonial  history  of  the  United  States,  the  first  post  was 
projected  in  1692,  but  did  not  go  into  operation  until  1710.  The 
thinly  settled  condition  of  the  country,  and  the  distance  which 
separated  the  scattered  towns  along  the  coast,  prevented  the 
speedy  growth  of  the  post  office.  The  social,  as  the  industrial 
life  of  that  time,  did  not  demand  the  regularity  and  speed  of  the 
present  day.  In  1753  Benjamin  Franklin  was  appointed  by  the 
English  government  postmaster  general  of  the  colonies,  and,  in 
1760,  astonished  the  people  by  proposing  to  run  a  mail  coach  from 
Boston  to  Philadelphia  each  week,  starting  one  from  each  place. 

Franklin  held  this  position,  and,  by  his  practical  talent  for  organ¬ 
ization,  did  much  to  bind  the  colonists  together  by  introducing 
regularity  in  the  mail  service,  until  his  removal  by  the  British  gov¬ 
ernment  in  1774,  on  account  of  the  leading  position  he  took  in  the 
exciting  times  which  led  to  the  Revolution. 


1122 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


In  1789  the  control  of  the  post  office  was  given  by  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  to  Congress,  who  thus,  as  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
have  the  regulation  of  this  important  branch  of  the  public  service. 
This  is  as  it  should  be,  and  is  in  itself  an  evidence  that  the  post 
office  is  not  a  privilege  granted  by  some  ruler  to  his  grateful  sub¬ 
jects,  but  a  system  organized  by  the  people,  through  their  agents, 
to  whom  they  have  delegated  this  authority  for  the  transaction 
*of  such  portions  of  their  business  as  they  think  it  best  to  intrust 
to  it.  The  tendency  there  always  is  in  those  who  have  not  ar¬ 
rived  at  the  largest  culture,  but  who  are  placed  in  positions  of 
greater  or  less  authority,  to  consider  themselves  masters,  instead 
of  servants  or  agents,  has  not  been  backward  in  expressing  itself 
in  this  country  in  the  post  office,  as  it  is  also  too  generally  dis¬ 
played  even  in  Congress  itself,  and  in  fact  throughout  the  whole 
nati  o  n  al  ad  mi  n i  strati  o  n . 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  themselves  hardly  yet  con¬ 
scious  of  their  power,  and  that  the  government  obtains  its  authori¬ 
ty  from  them,  and  is  itself  their  servant.  The  traditions  also  of 
all  other  governments  in  the  civilized  world,  and  their  influence  as 
far  as  it  is  exercised  in  their  official  relations  with  our  own,  and  in 
the  personal  relations  of  its  representatives  at  Washington  with 
the  heads  of  our  departments,  tend  to  foster  the  autocratic  spirit, 
instead  of  the  democratic  one,  and  to  render  the  department  often 
overbearing  in  its  relations  with  the  public,  and  much  more 
prone  to  command  than  to  obey.  Evidences  of  this  must  have 
been  made  plain  to  every  one  who  has  in  any  way  been  brought  into 
such  relations  with  those  holding  responsible  positions  as  would 
give  an  opportunity  for  its  display  ;  but  with  the  increase  of  pub¬ 
lic  culture  the  material  is  preparing  for  remedying  this  ;  and  the 
various  departments  of  the  government  will  be  forced  into  the 
practical  recognition  that  the  reason  for  their  existence  lies  only 
in  the  performance  of  their  functions. 

In  1790  there  were  only  seventy-five  post  offices  in  the  whole 
country,  while,  up  to  1816,  the  rates  of  postage  were  as  follows: 
For  any  distance  under  forty  miles,  eight  cents  ;  under  ninety,  ten 
cents  ;  under  one  hundred  and  fifty,  twelve  and  a  half  cents.  In 
1816  a  considerable  change  was  made,  placing  the  rates  for  dis¬ 
tances  under  thirty  miles  at  six  and  a  quarter  cents  ;  under  eighty 
at  ten  cents  ;  and  over  four  hundred  miles  at  twenty-five  cents, 
and  these  rates  were  quadrupled  upon  letters  which  weighed  an 
ounce.  I  nder  these  rates  of  postage,  up  to  1837,  the  expenses  of 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


1123 


the  post  office  were  greater  than  the  receipts,  leaving  a  deficit 
every  year  to  be  made  up  from  the  public  treasury.  In  1845  the 
rates  were  again  reduced  to  five  cents  for  all  distances  under  three 
hundred  miles,  and  ten  cents  for  all  greater  distances.  In  1852  a 
further  change  was  made,  putting  the  postage  at  ten  cents  lipon 
all  unpaid  letters  for  distances  under  three  thousand  miles,  and  in 
this  same  year  the  sale  of  postage  stamps  and  stamped  envelopes 
was  begun.  In  1855  the  charge  for  letters  was  placed  at  three 
cents  for  all  distances  under  three  thousand  miles,  and  ten  cents 
for  any  greater  distance,  at  which  they  have  remained  since. 
From  the  report  of  the  department  for  1810,  it  appears  that  the 
number  of  mail  routes  is  8861,  traversing  annually  91,024,996 
miles,  at  a  cost  of  $10,884,653. 

.  The  value  and  importance  of  the  post  office,  as  a  disseminator 
of  intelligence,  and  its  worth  in  stimulating  the  activity  of  the 
social  and  industrial  life  of  the  nation,  is  fully  recognized  by  the 
public,  but  not  as  fully  by  the  department  itself.  The  tendency 
of  official  personages  to  consider,  in  all  questions  of  public  admin¬ 
istration,  that  they  are  conferring  a  favor  upon  the  public  by  the 
performance  of  the  duties  of  their  office,  and  that  the  public  has 
no  further  rights  than  they  may  graciously  grant,  has  been  shown 
chiefly  in  the  spirit  of  the  decisions  made  by  the  department  upon 
various  matters  where  the  wording  of  the  acts  of  Congress  has  been, 
as  is  too  frequently  the  case,  so  ambiguous  as  to  be  confusing 
instead  of  distinct.  A  single  instance  will  be  sufficient.  By 
the  act,  author’s  manuscript  was  transmitted  through  the  mail  at 
the  rates  of  printed  matter.  This  privilege,  which  was  no  appre¬ 
ciable  loss  to  the  post  office  department,  was  of  considerable  value 
to  the  writers  of  the  country,  who,  as  a  rule,  are  not  over  rich, 
while  to  the  public,  in  so  far  as  it  aided  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
country,  it  was  a  matter  of  very  considerable  importance.  This 
right,  however,  having  been  questioned,  the  department  decided 
against  it,  showing,  by  the  spirit  of  the  decision,  that  the  receipts 
of  the  post  office  were,  in  its  opinion,  a  more  important  matter  to 
be  considered  than  the  interest  of  the  public.  This  appeared  the 
more  so  from  the  fact  that,  though  ambiguous  in  part,  the  wording 
of  the  act  plainly  indicated  that  the  intention  of  Congress  was  to 
give  the  authors  this  right,  since  its  importance  for  its  effects  upon 
the  activity  of  the  country’s  literature  was  evidently  the  chief 
motive  for  its  passage. 

The  experience  in  Europe  of  the  advantage  to  the  post  office  of 


1124 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


the  government  control  of  the  railways  has  been  shown  in  the  arti¬ 
cle  upon  Railroads,  and  is  a  subject  which  is  naturally  exciting 
attention,  both  in  England  and  this  coutry,  among  those  who  are 
interested  in  the  study  of  social  organization.  With  the  trans¬ 
mission  and  the  distribution  of  the  mails,  it  has  also  been  sug¬ 
gested  that  the  post  office  should  join  that  of  the  carrying  of 
small  parcels,  thus  removing  from  the  hands  of  the  express,  which 
has  monopolized  it,  this  absolutely  necessary  convenience  of  our 
modern  life.  For  this  the  present  organization  of  the  post  office, 
with  but  a  slight  increase  of  force,  is  quite  competent,  and  the 
benefit  to  the  public  would  be  great. 

The  success  which  has  attended  the  introduction  of  the  money- 
order  system,  which  was  a  few  years  ago  imitated  from  that  of 
England,  makes  it  more  singular  that  the  system  by  which  each 
post  office  is  made  also  a  savings  bank,  which  has  met  with  such 
great  success  in  England,  has  not  before  this  been  also  imitated  in 
this  country.  The  wide  extent  of  our  territory  makes  it  peculiarly 
fitted  for  the  introduction  of  this  reform.  At  present  the  majority 
of  the  villages  are  wanting  in  any  institution  where  the  savings  of 
the  people  can  be  readily  deposited,  and  kept  until  needed  for  use  ; 
and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  one  of  the  results  of  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  this  system  would  be  to  absorb  the  savings  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  which  now  lie  idle  for  want  of  some  handy  place  in  which  to 
place  them,  and  that  the  amount  which  would  thus  be  gathered  in 
the  hands  of  the  government  for  investment  in  its  bonds  would 
amount  soon  to  scores  of  millions  of  dollars,  thus  practically  fund¬ 
ing  that  portion  of  our  national  debt. 

In  October,  1871,  the  inauguration  of  the  extension  of  the  money- 
order  system  to  foreign  countries  took  place,  with  the  arrangement 
by  which  Great  Britain  and  Switzerland,  with  the  United  States, 
introduced  an  international  post  office  money-order  bureau.  The 
convenience  of  this  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  It  is  now,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  possible  to  transmit, 
through  the  post  office  and  at  a  slight  charge,  small  sums  of  money 
to  these  foreign  countries.  Great  as  have  been  the  changes  intro¬ 
duced  in  our  modern  times  in  the  methods  of  commerce  and  trans¬ 
portation,  yet  there  is  none  which  is  more  pregnant  with  beneficent 
results  than  this,  which  appears  to  have  excited  so  little  attention. 
It  is,  however,  the  germ  from  which  in  the  future  the  system  of 
the  world’s  exchange  will  be  organized  in  the  interest  of  its  indus¬ 
try,  and  the  importance  of  this  will  be  clearly  seen  when  it  is 


THE  POST  OFFICE. 


1125 


remembered  that  the  charge  levied  heretofore  by  the  money¬ 
changers  of  the  world,  in  the  various  centres  of  exchange,  has 
made  the  wealth  of  all  the  cities  of  the  past,  which  have  risen 
with  the  changing  course  of  trade.  Nor  is  it  rash  to  predict  that 
in  the  future,  by  an  extension  of  the  method  thus  inaugurated, 
the  world's  exchange  will  be  settled  as  easily  and  as  cheaply  as 
the  balances  of  the  banks  of  any  commercial  city  are  in  the  clear¬ 
ing-house,  and,  by  an  analogous  process,  in  a  world’s  clearing¬ 
house.  In  the  organization  of  the  world’s  industry,  the  necessity 
for  some  such  result  is  becoming  daily  more  and  more  apparent. 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


THE  GREAT  TRIUMPH  OP  THE  THREAD-MAKER’S  ART.  —  INCOMPREHENSIBLE 
FIGURES.  —  THE  DISTAFF  —  THE  OLD  SPINNING-WHEEL  IN  THE  TIME  OF  HENRY 
VIII. —  SCIENCE  IN  INDIA. —  THE  REIGN  OF  THE  SPINNING-WHEEL  FOR  TWO  HUND¬ 
RED  YEARS  IN  ENGLAND.  —  THE  INVENTION  OF  JAMES  HARGREAVES,  1765.  — 
RICHARD  ARKWRIGHT.  —  SKETCH  OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  COTTON  MANU¬ 
FACTURE  IN  THE  COLONIES  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES.  -  ELI  WHITNEY’S  IN¬ 
FLUENCE  UPON  THE  BUSINESS.  -  OF  THE  DISTINGUISHED  SAMUEL  SLATER. 

-  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  COTTON  THREAD.  —  THE  WILLI M ANTIC  LINEN 

COMPANY,  OF  WILLIM ANTIC,  CONN.,  THE  LEADING  THREAD-MAKERS  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  FOREIGN  THREAD-MAKERS  FINALLY  SURPASSED.  — 
THE  BEST  COTTON  THREAD  IN  THE  WORLD  MADE  HERE.  —  THE  POPULAR 
SIX-CORD  THREAD  FOR  SEWING-MACHINE  USE.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANU¬ 
FACTURE  OUTLINED.  —  SKETCH  OF  THE  RISE  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COM¬ 
PANY. —  ITS  VAST  FACTORIES.  — ITS  UNRIVALLED  PRODUCTIONS.  —  OF  THE 
LATE  MR.  LAWSON  C.  IVES.  — MR.  AUSTIN  DUNHAM.  —  SCIENTIFIC  MECHANICS 
IN  CHARGE  OF  THE  VARIOUS  DEPARTMENTS. 

Perhaps  the  modern  triumph  of  no  art  is  more  marked  than  that 
of  the  making  of  thread  now,  over  those  days  when  the  fibres  of 
the  material  of  which  it  was  to  be  constructed  were  carded,  and 
placed  upon  a  distaff  held  under  one  arm,  were  drawn  out  by  the 
thumb  and  fingers  of  the  operator’s  free  hand,  and  twisted  into 
yarn  of  the  size  desired  ;  while  in  these  times  the  manufacture  of 
perfect  six-cord  cotton  thread  requires  that  the  fibres  of  a  certain 
quantity  of  cotton  (sa}r  thirty-seven  ounces,  for  example,  or  enough 
to  constitute  a  “lap”)  undergo,  from  the  time  they  are  taken  from 
the  bale  to  completion,  sundry  operations  in  which  they  are 
"doubled”  (as  the  technical  phrase  is)  or  inter-combined  over 
twenty  billions  of  times  !  It  is  impossible  for  the  mind  to  com¬ 
prehend  so  vast  a  number,  to  count  which,  at  the  rate  of  two  hun¬ 
dred  a  minute,  would  occupy  over  a  hundred  and  ninety-six  years, 
day  and  night,  without  ceasing.  Yet  in  order  to  produce  a  per¬ 
fect  six-cord  thread  no  less  “  doubling  ”  .will  suffice.  A  six-cord 

thread  could  be  made,  and  is  manufactured,  with  less  than  500,000 
(1126) 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


1127 


11  doublings  ;  ”  and  the  writer  knows  of  but  one  mill  in  the  United 
States  which  expends  a  larger  amount  of  labor  on  its  thread  than 
indicated  by  the  latter  figures.  But  the  skilful  mechanic  knows 
that  every  doubling  which  the  cotton  receives  in  its  progress  from 
the  pickers  to  the  final  spooling  adds  to  its  value  ;  and  the  con¬ 
scientious  manufacturer  will  withhold  nothing  of  value  to  his  thread 
from  the  consumer. 

History  is  silent  as  to  the  birth  of  the  distaff,  but  it  was  proba¬ 
bly  one  of  the  earliest  inventions  of  man,  and,  as  an  emblem  of 
woman’s  domestic  slavery,  is  found  pictured  upon  the  very  earliest 
historic  monuments.  The  housewife  of  to-day,  though  a  slave  in 
many  things  which  still  remain  to  be  reformed,  owes  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  genius  and  enterprise  which  have  emancipated  her 
from  the  distaff  and  the  spinning-wheel,  and  which  place  in  her  lap 
for  use,  at  barely  a  nominal  cost,  a  thread  the  equal  of  which  in 
practical  value  could  not  have  been  made  by  hand  by  the  continu¬ 
ous  and  united  labor  of  her  ancestors  in  line  from  a  thousand  years 
back. 

The  progress  from  the  distaff  to  the  mule  (German  miihle,  mill) 
or  mule-jenny,  with  its  improvements  of  to-day,  has  been  slow  in¬ 
deed.  The  spinning-wheel  succeeding  the  distaff  was  unknown 
in  England  until  some  time  during  the  reign  of  that  admirer  of 
woman,  Henry  VIII.  (1509-47),  when  it  was  imported  into  that 
land  from  India,  the  country  which  has  supplied  so  much  of  wealth 
to  Western  Europe,  both  physical  and  mental.  •  The  spindle,  caused 
to  revolve  at  high  speed  by  the  wheel,  twisted  the  material  to  be 
spun,  in  place  of  the  human  fingers  with  the  distaff.  It  is  but  a 
generation  ago  that  in  New  England,  and  throughout  the  country, 
a  spinning-wheel  was  to  be  found  in  nearly  every  house,  for  the 
spinning  of  woollen  yarn,  and  flax,  and  linen  thread,  and  some¬ 
times  cotton  thread,  although  at  that  time  cotton  thread  was  large¬ 
ly  manufactured  in  England  and  the  United  States.  One  reason 
for  the  continuance  of  the  household  manufacture  to  that  date  was 
the  fact  that  the  early  machinery  of  the  factories  did  its  work  in¬ 
completely,  leaving  the  yarn  or  thread  irregular,  and  it  may  prop¬ 
erly  be  said  that  perfectly  operating  thread  machinery  has  not 
been  achieved  till  within  the  last  five  years. 

For  over  two  hundred  years  after  the  introduction  of  the  spin¬ 
ning-wheel  into  England  it  remained  the  chief  means  of  manufac¬ 
turing  yarn  and  thread  ;  but  about  the  year  1765  James  Hargreaves, 
of  Lancashire,  England,  invented  the  spinning-jenny,  in  which  the 

60 


1128 


SrOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


single  spindle  of  the  old  spinning-wheel  was  supplemented  with 
seven  more,  making  eight  spindles,  and  the  framework  turns  over 
on  its  side.  The  yarn,  as  it  was  twisted  on  the  several  spindles, 
passed  through  a  wooden  clasp,  held  in  one  hand  by  the  operator. 
Eventually  seventy-two  more  spindles  were  added  to  these,  and 
the  jenny  became  a  very  important  mechanical  force,  and  the  now 
formidable  Hargreaves  was  driven  from  his  home  by  his  competing 
brethren,  who,  at  Nottingham,  erected  a  small  factory  to  spin 
yarns  in  by  his  machines,  and  was  conducting  business  there,  when, 
in  1168,  Richard  Arkwright,  of  Preston,  Lancashire,  conceived  the 
notion  of  spinning  by  rollers,  by  drawing  out  the  “slivers,”  or 
rolls,  as  they  came  from  the  cards,  and  by  a  slight  tension  elon¬ 
gating  and  strengthening  the  fibres.  Eventually  Arkwright  found 
capitalists  who  looked  favorably  upon  his  conception,  and  a  skilled 
mechanic,  in  a  Mr.  Strutt,  of  Nottingham,  to  perfect  his  crude 
mechanical  devices,  and  finally  a  machine  driven  by  the  power  of 
a  horse  was  achieved,  and  in  1111  (just  a  hundred  years  ago)  a 
mill  driven  by  water  power  was  established  at  Cromford,  Derby¬ 
shire.  From  that  time  on  spinning  machinery  slowly  grew  in 
favor,  and  in  ten  years  from  that  time  Arkwright  was  giving  em¬ 
ployment  to  some  five  thousand  people  in  his  mills,  and  had  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  afterwards  vast  fortune. 

But  in  1119  Samuel  Crompton,  of  Bolton,  England,  invented  a 
machine  which  combined  the  advantages  of  Hargreaves’  jenny 
and  Arkwright1  s  rollers,  and  was  called  the  “  mule-jenny  ”  (mill- 
engine)  or  mule.  The  spindles  were  attached  to  a  carriage  which 
was  run  back  and  forth  a  short  distance  on  wheels,  drawing  out 
and  stretching  the  “roving”  (roll  or  “sliver”  of  wool,  cotton, 
etc.),  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  spun  or  twisted  into  yarn  or 
thread.  Crompton’s  machines,  though  as  originally  constructed 
carrying  but  twenty  or  thirty  spindles,  were  eventually  enlarged, 
and  made  with  twenty-two  hundred  spindles  each,  kept  in  opera¬ 
tion  by  one  person  —  a  vast  triumph  over  the  old  spinning-wheel. 
At  the  present  time  some  thirty  millions  of  spindles  are  running 
in  Great  Britain,  ten  millions  in  the  United  States,  and  seven  mil¬ 
lions  in  France,  for  spinning  cotton  alone. 

The  invention  in  1793,  by  Eli  Whitney,  of  the  cotton-gin,  by 
which  the  seed  of  the  cotton  is  easily  separated  from  the  fibre, 
stimulated  the  growth  of  cotton  to  feed  the  new  spinning-ma¬ 
chines.  (Before  that  time  the  separating  of  the  seed  from  a  pound 
of  the  fibre  was  a  day’s  work  for  a  field  hand  ;  and  it  may  be  re- 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


1129 


marked  here  that,  probably,  Whitney’s  genius  in  mechanics  result¬ 
ed  in  as  much  evil,  by  incidentally  prolonging  the  chattel  slavery 
of  the  black  race  in  this  country,  as  it  did  good  in  supplying  the 
world  with  a  cheap  fabric  for  clothing.) 

About  1786  two  Scotchmen  —  Alexander  and  Robert  Barr  — 
constructed,  at  East  Bridgewater,  Mass.,  the  first  machines  for 
carding,  roving,  and  spinning  ever  made  in  the  United  States. 
The  state,  by  a  grant  of  two  hundred  pounds  in  1789,  encouraged 
the  enterprise.  In  Beverly,  Mass.,  a  company  for  the  manufacture 
of  cotton  goods  commenced  operations  in  1787,  spending  some 
four  thousand  pounds,  and  finally  receiving  a  grant  from  the 
state  of  one  thousand  pounds,  by  the  aid  of  which  they  succeed¬ 
ed  in  establishing  themselves.  But  their  machinery  was  very  im¬ 
perfect.  At  Providence,  R.  I.,  another  company  was  formed  in 
1788,  and  went  into  operation  with  poor  machinery,  mostly  fashioned 
after  that  of  the  Barrs,  and  that  in  use  by  the  Beverly  company. 
At  this  time  it  was  impossible  in  this  country  to  obtain  plans 
of  the  Arkwright  machinery,  the  English  government  forbidding 
such  plans  to  pass  through  the  custom-house,  and  jealously  guard¬ 
ing  the  interests  of  its  own  manufacturers. 

But  in  1789  Samuel  Slater,  a  young  man  of  only  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  but  having  had  seven  years’  experience  in  the  cot¬ 
ton  mills  of  Derbyshire,  arrived  in  New  York  with  the  intention 
of  establishing  the  manufacture  in  this  country  by  the  processes 
of  Arkwright,  of  which  he  thoroughly  informed  himself,  and  plans 
of  which  a  retentive  memory  of  mechanical  matters  enabled  him 
to  bring  hither  in  a  manner  inscrutable  to  the  custom-house  officials. 
Early  in  1790  he  went  to  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  entered  into  an 
arrangement  with  manufacturers  there  to  construct  for  them  the 
Arkwright  machinery.  In  a  year  from  that  time  it  was  demon¬ 
strated  that  a  year  more  would  suffice  for  the  erection  of  mills  and 
machinery  enough  to  supply  the  entire  country  with  yarn.  With 
others,  Slater  erected  a  small  mill  at  Pawtucket,  in  1793,  in  which 
seventy  spindles  were  at  first  operated.  The  capacity  of  the  mill 
was  soon  after  much  increased.  From  this  beginning  other  mills 
were  erected  in  various  places  in  Rhode  Island,  and  eventually  in 
Massachusetts  —  in  1813  there  being  built  at  Waltham,  Mass.,  a 
mill  which  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  one  in  the  world 
which  combined  all  the  requisites  for  making  finished  cloth  from 
the  raw  cotton.  In  1822  the  first  cotton  mill  in  Lowell,  Mass., 
was  erected. 


1130 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


But  we  have  not  space  in  this  article  to  narrate  the  progress 
of  cotton  manufacture  in  this  country,  step  by  step,  to  the  present 
time.  Of  the  gigantic  proportions  of  the  cotton  interest,  embra¬ 
cing  the  cultivation  of  the  cotton  plant  and  the  spinning  of  the 
fibres  of  its  flowers  into  threads,  and  weaving  them  into  cloth, 
vari-colored  by  the  dyer’s  art,  and  now  made  by  him  more  beauti¬ 
ful  in  hue  than  was  ever  silk  touched  by  the  magic  hand  of  the 
Tyrians,  the  general  reader  is  fully  aware. 

The  manufacture  of  cotton  thread  is  now  very  extensive  in  the 
United  States,  and  in  the  art  of  making  it,  is  better  understood  to¬ 
day  in  this  country  than  in  Europe,  and  a  good  portion  of  the  thread 
made  here  is  preferable,  especially  for  use  in  sewing-machines,  to 
the  best  imported.  Yet  till  within  a  year  or  two  sundry  manu¬ 
facturers  in  the  United  States,  deferring  to  the  popular  prejudice 
in  favor  of  the  best  imported  thread,  caused  their  own  thread  to 
be  stamped  like  the  foreign  thread,  and  put  up  in  thoroughly  sol¬ 
dered  leaden  boxes,  as  do  the  foreign  manufacturers  for  export  — 
(in  order  to  protect  it  against  moisture  in  its  imaginary  transit 
over  the  Atlantic  Ocean!)  —  and  this  practice  is  still  pursued  by 
one  extensive  manufactory  of  thread.  But  more  perfect  pro¬ 
cesses  of  manufacture  having  been  discovered,  have  enabled  the 
leading  cotton-thread  manufacturers  of  the  United  States,  the 
Willimantic  Linen  Company,  of  Willimantic,  Conn.,  within  the  last 
five  years,  not  only  to  modify,  but  to  almost  abolish,  the  prejudice 
in  favor  of  the  foreign  cotton  thread  by  the  production  of  a  great¬ 
ly  superior  article.  These  processes  being  under  the  exclusive 
control  of  tins  company,  have  secured  for  its  thread  a  perfection 
which  can  be  justly  claimed  for  no  other  thread  made  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  placing  the  company  quite  beyond  the  sphere  of 
competition  with  both  foreign  and  domestic  manufacturers.  This 
fact  may  properly  be  styled  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  which 
American  inventive  genius,  skill,  and  labor  in  any  line  of  art  have 
achieved  over  the  productions  of  foreign  talent  and  enterprise,  and 
it  gives  the  Willimantic  Linen  Company  not  only  the  preeminent 
place  among  cotton  thread  makers,  but  a  position  in  the  front  rank 
of  American  manufacturers. 

The  making  of  cotton  thread  through  the  various  processes, 
from  the  pickers  on  till  the  yarn  is  reached,  consists  in  little  more 
than  the  due  selection  of  the  filaments,  and  their  proper  combina¬ 
tion  in  a  vastly  attenuated  form  ;  but  the  processes  are  delicate, 
requiring  the  greatest  scientific  precision  in  machinery,  and  in  the 


MANUFACTORY  OF  THE  WILLIMANTIC  LINEN  CO.,  WILLIMANTIC,  CONN. 


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SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


1133 


Willimantic  Linen  Company’s  establishment,  so  much  more  nu¬ 
merous ‘and  extended  are  these  than  in  any  other,  that,  whereas 
the  yarn  is  reached  in  other  mills  after  the  filaments  have  under¬ 
gone  “  doubling  ”  or  re-combinations  less  than  four  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  times,  in  the  Willimantic  Linen  Company’s  works  the  yarn  is 
not  considered  complete  until  its  filaments  have  passed  through 
over  seven  billions  of  “  doublings  ”  (its  six-cord  thread  being 
completed  only  after  over  twenty  billions  of  “  doublings,”  as  referred 
to  in  the  first  paragraph  of  this  article).  But  all  this  labor  is 
necessary  to  the  production  of  the  perfect  six-cord  thread,  flexi¬ 
bility,  strength,  and  perfect  smoothness  being  the  chief  requisites 
of  a  good  thread. 

The  mode  of  making  thread  may  be  but  little  more  than  intima¬ 
ted,  rather  than  described  to  the  general  reader,  without  diagrams 
of  the  intricate  machinery  used.  The  cotton,  as  taken  from  the 
bale,  somewhat  combined  with  dirt,  and  not  fully  free  from  seeds, 
is,  in  the  quantity  of  about  thirty-seven  ounces  at  a  time,  placed 
in  a  “  picker,”  so-called,  to  render  it  free  of  seeds  and  foreign 
substances.  In  this  machine  are  sundry  “  beaters”  or  cylin¬ 
ders,  provided  with  iron  teeth,  and  running  at  the  rate  of  twen¬ 
ty-two  hundred  revolutions  a  minute,  through  which  the  cot¬ 
ton  is  passed,  coming  out  a  clean  “  lap  ”  of  about  an  inch  in 
thickness  and  a  yard  wide.  Three  of  these  laps  are  together 
passed  through  another  picker,  and,  combined,  are  taken  to  the 
“  breaker  cards,”  whence  the  whole  comes  forth  in  the  shape  of  a 
long  soft  rope  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  called  a  “  sliver  draw¬ 
ing,”  which  is  taken  to  a  “lap  winder,”  and  is  made  into  a  lap 
again.  This  is  taken  to  another  section  of  cards,  called  “  finish¬ 
ers,”  where  it  is  further  advanced  towards  perfection  into  a  sliver 
drawing  again.  Several  of  these  machines  are  in  line,  and  their 
products  are  run  together  into  “  railways,”  which  compress  the 
several  “drawings”  into  one  “sliver,”  which  is  deposited  in  a 
cylindrical  “can,”  the  contents  of  which  are  taken  to  a  “lap- 
winder”  in  which  a  number  of  “  slivers”  are  made  into  what  is 
called  a  “  comber  lap.”  This  machine  is  a  very  ingenious  device. 
This  “  comber  lap  ”  is  then  taken  to  another  “  lap  machine,”  and, 
united  with  other  laps,  is  made  into  a  lap  of  finer  character,  which 
latter  is  taken  »to  a  “combing  machine,”  a  beautiful  piece  of  deft 
mechanism  of  French  invention,  where  a  certain  per  cent,  of  the 
shorter  fibres  are  eliminated  from  the  “  lap.”  The  longer  fibres 
being  freed  from  the  shorter,  the  better  portion  is  taken  to  a 


1134 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


“  drawing  frame, ”  where  it  passes  through  three  processes,  out  of 
which  it  comes  as  a  very  smooth  and  even  “  sliver,”  which  is 
passed  on  to  a  machine  called  a  “  slubber,”  where  it  is  turned  into 
“roving”  (a  slightly  twisted  roll),  and  is  run  upon  bobbins,  when 
it  is  ready  for  the  “first  intermediate  fly  frames,”  so-called,  on 
which  it  is  drawn  down  more  fine  ;  then  taken  to  the  “  second  in¬ 
termediate  ”  fly-frames,  where  it  undergoes  further  attenuation, 
and  is  then  placed  in  a  “jack  frame,”  where  a  fine  “roving”  is 
made  of  it  for  spinning,  it  being  then  called  “  No.  26,  hank 
roving.” 

The  number  of  times  in  which  the  filaments  of  cotton  up  to  this 
point  have  been  “  doubled  ”  (or  combined,  adjusted  and  re-adjust¬ 
ed  as  to  each  other),  in  their  sinuous  passage  through  the  multi¬ 
fold  parts  of  the  various  machines  to  which  they  have  been  subjected, 
is  1,725,235,200  !  —  all  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the 
thread  which  is  to  be  made  from  it  more  “level  and  uniform,”  as 
the  technical  phrase  is.  The  carding-room  of  the  Willimantic 
Linen  Company,  wherein  the  various  processes  we  have  described 
are  conducted,  is  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Andrew  Hammond, 
a  man  of  that  order  to  whom  the  nation  and  civilization  at  large 
owe  more  than  to  any  other  body  —  the  accomplished  and  ingen¬ 
ious  mechanics. 

Much  depends  upon  the  state  of  the  atmosphere  in  the  making 
of  cotton  thread  :  sometimes  it  is  too  dry.  It  has  been  always 
claimed  by  the  English  manufacturers  that  good  thread  could 
not  be  made  in  this  country  on  account  of  the  dryness  of  our 
climate  ;  but  Yankee  genius  has  devised  a  plan,  which  is  in  oper¬ 
ation  in  the  Willimantic  Linen  Company’s  mills,  by  which  a  mois¬ 
ture  is  imparted  to  the  air  which  is  preferable  to  the  natural 
humidity  of  the  English  atmosphere,  because  it  is  under  perfect 
control. 

From  the  carding-room  the  “roving”*  upon  bobbins  is  passed 
on  to  the  “  mule-room,”  so  called,  where  the  roving  of  two  bob¬ 
bins  is  spun  into  one  upon  a  “  cop,”  or  sort  of  bobbin.  It  is  now 
prepared  for  weaving,  or  to  pass  through  the  final  processes  into 
thread.  In  the  establishment  in  question  it  is  all  made  into  thread. 
From  the  spinning-room  the  yarn  on  the  “  cop  ”  is  taken  to  the 
“  twisting-room,”  where  it  is  first  “steamed”  to  render  it  more 
flexible,  and  prevent  it  from  “kinking”  in  the  process  of  spool¬ 
ing  ;  then  placed  upon  a  spooling-frame,  and  the  contents  of  two 
“  cops  ”  run  together  upon  a  spool.  The  spooling-frame,  like 


SPOOL-COTTON  THKEAll 


1135 


most  of  the  machinery  in  this  establishment,  is  automatic  in  its 
action,  and  if  one  of  the  threads  chances  to  break,  the  spool  ceases 
to  revolve.  It  is  then  taken  to  the  “first  twisting  7 ’  machines, 
and  run  on  to  bobbins  and  twisted  ;  thence  to  another  set  of 
“twisters.” 

After  passing  the  twisting  process,  the  thread  is  taken  to  the 
“  doublers  ”  (machines  of  peculiar  construction,  made  by  the  Wil- 
limantic  Linen  Company  themselves),  where  three  (already  doubled) 
threads  are  run  together,  and  then  transferred  to  a  final  twisting 
machine,  and  made  into  six-cord  thread,  having  now  undergone 
20,702,822,400  “doublings,”  and  is  subjected  to  further  spooling, 
running  upon  reels,  into  skeins  of  one  thousand  yards  in  length, 
which  are  now  inspected,  and  the  perfect  ones  passed  on  to  the 
dyeing  or  bleaching  department.  Leaving  thence,  it  is  run  on  to 
large  spools,  and  taken  to  the  “finishing-room,”  where  the  soft 
finish  is  applied.  The  next  process  is  the  winding  of  the  thread 
upon  small  spools  for  the  market,  it  being  wound  upon  ingenious 
automatic  machines,  the  letters  patent  of  which  are  held  and  con¬ 
trolled  by  this  company.  These  machines  are  so  gauged  that  they 
necessarily  run  upon  each  spool  two  hundred  yards  of  thread, 
and  stop  winding  off  only  when  that  length  is  reached,  thus  as¬ 
suring  purchasers  of  full  measure.  The  capacity  of  the  machines 
in  this  room  is  fifty  thousand  dozen  spools  a  week.  These  are  then 
inspected,  and  the  perfect  are  passed  to  the  “  ticketing  machines  ” 
(wonderful  devices,  the  patent  of  which  is  exclusively  controlled 
by  the  Willimantic  Linen  Company),  and  then  stamped  or  “ticket¬ 
ed”  on  both  ends  at  the  same  time,  each  machine  ticketing  eighty 
spools  per  minute,  and  the  total  number  of  machines  being  able  to 
ticket  twenty-four  thousand  dozen  spools  a  day.  A  red  ticket 
is  placed  upon  one  end  of  each  spool  of  six-cord  thread,  to  distin¬ 
guish  it  from  the  three-cord  manufactured  by  this  company,  and 
forms  a  trade-mark  for  their  popular  soft-finish  thread.  After  the 
ticketing  and  placing  in  paper  boxes,  the  packing  follows,  and  the 
thread  is  then  ready  for  market. 

Our  female'  readers,  especially,  will  be  interested  to  know  how 
much  of  careful  labor,  patience,  etc.,  is  necessary  to  produce  that 
magical  thing  called  a  six-cord  cotton  thread,  and  we  have  endeav-  * 
ored  to  give  them  some  conception  of  it.  In  a  certain  sense 
thread  unites  the  world,  since  it  is  used  in  nearly  every  semi-civ¬ 
ilized,  as  well  as  civilized,  family  over  the  globe  ;  and  the  six-cord 
thread  of  the  Willimantic  Linen  Company,  which,  by  reason  of 


1136 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


its  great  superiority  to  any  other  thread,  worthily  enjoys  the  pat¬ 
ronage  of  the  leading  manufacturers  of  sewing-machines,  finds  its 
way  wherever  the  wonderful  invention  of  Ilowe,  and  the  machines 
of  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  and  the  Weed  Sewing  Machine  compa¬ 
nies,  and  other  great  manufacturers,  are  to  be  found.  On  account 
of  its  superior  strength  and  smoothness  this  thread  never  breaks  in 
a  sewing-machine,  and  always  ‘‘runs  easy.”  A  good  share  of 
the  thread  of  the  Willimantic  Linen  Company  is  used  by  straw 
goods,  knit  goods,  clothing  and  hat  manufacturers  ;  but  the  great¬ 
er  portion  of  their  thread  being  specially  adapted  for  the  use  of 
sempstresses,  is  consumed  in  the  family  circle,  by  hand,  and  on 
machines. 

The  Willimantic  Linen  Company  (whose  name  is  now  a  misno¬ 
mer,  the  company  being  organized  at  first  to  manufacture  linen 
goods  only)  was  established  in  1854,  principally  by  the  late  Law- 
son  C.  Ives  and  its  present  treasurer,  Mr.  Austin  Dunham,  both  of 
Hartford,  Conn.,  uniting  the  great  energy,  perseverance,  and  gen¬ 
eral  business  talent  of  the  former  to  the  equally  marked  excellent 
judgment  and  great  financial  ability  of  the  latter,  who  may  be 
said  to  be  without  a  superior,  if  not  a  peer,  among  New  England 
manufacturers,  in  his  special  department.  Mr.  Ives  died  in  1867, 
having  amassed  a  large  fortune,  and  crowned  in  his  lifetime  (an 
example  to  other  men  of  wealth)  his  career  by  sundry  valuable 
charities,  among  which  was  the  erection  at  Hartford  of  a  home  for 
indigent  widows.  The  company  started  with  a  capital  of  only 
$75,000,  which  was  soon  increased  to  $125,000,  and  in  1856  to 
$225,000.  Its  present  capital  is  $1,000,000. 

The  factories  of  this  company  are  noble  structures  of  granite, 
in  which  sixty  thousand  spindles  are  kept  running.  Their  factory, 
in  which  three-cord  thread  is  manufactured,  is  four  stories  in  height, 
two  hundred  feet  long  by  sixty-eight  in  width,  while  that  appro¬ 
priated  to  the  manufacture  of  six-cord  thread  (and  called  the  "new 
mill  ”)  is  five  stories  in  height,  four  hundred  feet  long,  seventy 
feet  wide,  and  remarkably  well  constructed  throughout,  and  fur¬ 
nished  with  the  very  best  machinery.  It  is  indeed  a  u  monument 
of  architectural  beauty.”  Every  provision  is  herein  made  for  the 
comfort  and  security  of  the  operatives.  The  building  is  supplied 
with  lour  of  Pales,  Jenks  &  Sons’  force  pumps  for  security  against 
fire,  each  capable  of  discharging  thirteen  hundred  gallons  of  water 
in  a  minute.  The  water  power  of  these  mills  is  ‘‘800-horse,”  to 
which  a  Corliss  steam  engine  of  three  hundred  horse  power  is  about 


SPOOL-COTTON  THREAD. 


1137 


to  be  added.  Besides  the  substantial  buildings  spoken  of  above, 
the  company  have  a  dye-house  and  bleachery  immediately  at¬ 
tached  to  the  new  mill,  and  which  is  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
in  length  by  seventy  in  width,  with  drying  rooms  of  about  the 
same  capacity. 

This  department,  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Janies  M.  Reid,  a 
gentleman  of  scientific  attainments,  and  probably  unequalled  any¬ 
where  in  his  profession,  is  very  complete  in  its  arrangements,  and 
is,  perhaps,  the  finest  establishment  of  its  kind  in  the  country. 
The  mode  of  ventilation  in  the  lower  rooms,  where  immense  quan¬ 
tities  of  steam  are  generated,  is  new,  unique,  and  very  efficient, 
and  the  labor-saving  appliances  and  general  fitting  up  of  the  de¬ 
partment  are  such  as  to  greatly  reduce  the  amount  of  manual  labor 
usually  needed  in  such  operations,  and  also  to  promote  the  com¬ 
fort  of  the  workmen.  Four  thousand  pounds  of  thread  a  day  can 
be  turned  out  when  the  place  is  run  to  its  full  capacity.  Attached 
to  the  main  building  is  the  boiler  house,  which  contains  eight 
steam  boilers,  in  which  steam  is  generated  for  use  in  the  dye 
house  and  the  mill  generally.  In  the  upper  story  and  attic  of  the 
main  building  are  the  store  rooms  for  receiving  and  storing  the 
product  of  the  several  mills,  and  from  these-  store  rooms  are  drawn 
the  required  numbers  and  quantities  to  fill  immediate  orders.  All 
colors  and  every  imaginable  shade  of  color  can  be  produced  here 
to  suit  customers. 

Turning,  carpenters’,  and  machine  shops,  rooms  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  paper  boxes,  etc.,  complete  the  body  and  appointments 
of  this  company’s  vast  establishment,  which  is  under  the  immedi¬ 
ate  care  of  Mr.  A.  B.  Burleson,  the  resident  ag'ent,  of  whom,  in 
his  business  capacity,  perhaps  the  most  complimentary  thing  which 
could  be  said  is,  that  he  admirably  directs  the  manufacturing  busi¬ 
ness  of  the  leading  thread  making  establishment  in  the  United 
States. 


CLOCKS. 


TIIE  SUN-DIAL.  —  THE  “MIRACLE”  OF  AHAZ.  — THE  TIME-PIECE  AND  THE 
CLOCK.  —  OLD  AND  CURIOUS  CLOCKS.  —  THE  CLOCK  TOWER  OF  ST.  MARK’S, 
VENICE.  — THE  OLD  CLOCK  TOWER  OF  BERNE,  SWITZERLAND.  — THE  CLOCK 
A  COMBINATION  OF  INVENTIONS.  —  THE  PENDULUM  CLOCK.  —  CONNECTICUT 
CLOCK  MAKERS.  — ELI  TERRY  AND  RILEY  WHITING,  PIONEER  CLOCK  MA¬ 
KERS.  —  THE  NUMBER  OF  CLOCKS  MADE  IN  CONNECTICUT  'ANNUALLY. 

The  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  doubtless  suggested  the 
practice  of  measuring  time  —  of  dividing  it  into  years,  days,  and 
hours.  From  the  earliest  period,  the  space  which  elapsed  between 
sunrise  and  sunset  has  been  called  a  day,  and  that  from  sunset  to 
sunrise  a  night.  At  a  later  period  the  day  and  night  were  divid¬ 
ed  into  twenty-four  equal  parts,  called  hours,  an  hour  into  sixty 
equal  parts,  called  minutes,  and  a  minute  into  sixty  equal  parts, 
called  seconds. 

The  sun-dial  was  one  of  the  earliest  inventions  used  for  meas¬ 
uring  time.  It  is  supposed  to  have  originated  with  the  Babylo¬ 
nians.  Greek  historians  affirm  that  the  Greeks  received  from  them 
the  dial,  the  gnomon,  and  the  division  of  the  day  into  twelve 
parts.  The  first  mention  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  hour  is  made  by 
the  prophet  Daniel,  (iii.  6.)  Though  the  dial  was  used  early  by 
the  Egyptians,  yet  there  are  no  indications  in  their  sculptures  to 
show  the  epoch  when  it  was  first  known  in  Egypt.  The  earliest 
clear  reference  to  the  dial  is  in  the  second  book  of  Kings,  xx.  11  : 
“  The  prophet  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  brought  the  shadow 
ten  degrees  backward,  by  which  it  had  gone  down  in  the  dial  of 
Ahaz.”  This  miracle  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Ilezekiah, 
the  son  of  Ahaz,  and  his  successor.  It  was  called  the  dial  of  Ahaz  ; 
he  had  been  in  alliance  with  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  had  commu¬ 
nication  with  the  princes  of  Babylon.  lie  was  a  man  of  progres¬ 
sive  ideas,  and  ready  to  adopt  foreign  improvements.  The  diaK 

(1138) 


CLOCKS. 


1139 


in  the  mode  of  its  construction,  was  undoubtedly  imported  from 
Babylon.  It  was  probably  only  an  object  of  curious  recreation 
for  the  king,  or  served  at  most  to  regulate  the  occupations  of  the 
royal  household.  There  is  no  mention  in  the  Scriptures  of  any 
instrument  for  keeping  time  before  this  dial  of  Ahaz,  seven  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  the  Christian  era. 

The  pieces  of  mechanism  used  to  measure  time,  and  kept  in 
motion  by  gravity  through  the  medium  of  weights,  or  by  the  elas¬ 
tic  force  of  a  spring,  are  called  time  pieces,  or  clocks.  The  term 
time  piece  is  applied  to  an  instrument  intended  merely  to  mark  the 
time  without  striking  the  hour  ;  a  clock,  besides  showing  the  time, 
strikes  every  hour  on  a  bell  or  a  spring. 

The  first  author  who  speaks  of  a  clock  appears  to  be  Dante, 
who  wrote  in  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century.  He  says, 
as  rendered  by  Cary,  “  as  wheels,  that  wind  their  circles  in  the 
horologe,”  implying  his  knowledge  of  a  clock  of  some  kind. 
Striking  clocks  are  said  to  have  been  invented  at  Padua,  Italy, 
and  that  which  now  exists  in  the  tower  in  the  Piazza  de’  Signori,  is 
claimed  as  the  contrivance  of  Giocomo  Dondi.  It  was  erected  in 
the  year  1344.  Besides  the  four  and  twenty  hours,  it  tells  the 
course  of  the  sun  and  the  aspects  and  phases  of  the  moon.  Dondi 
obtained  such  celebrity  for  his  performance  that  he  acquired  the 
surname  of  Ilorologio.  It  passed  to  his  descendants,  and  the 
family  of  “  Dondi  delP  Orologio  ”  still  flourishes.  The  exact  pe¬ 
riod  when  clocks  were  first  known  in  England  is  uncertain.  Early 
in  the  fourteenth  century  a  wonderful  clock  was  produced  by  the 
abbot  of  St.  Albans,  which  is  referred  to  as  the  oldest  one  known 
in  England.  A  German  artist  named  Ilenri  de  Vic,  or  Henry  de 
Wick,  put  up  a  large  clock  in  the  palace  of  Charles  V.  of  France. 
Very  old  and  curious  clocks  are  found  in  different  cities  of  Europe, 
which  have  been  noticed  by  travellers  and  writers  for  centuries. 
Strasburg  has  a  famous  clock  made  in  the  year  1571.  At  the  hour 
of  twelve  the  clockwork  puts  in  motion  many  puppets  and  images. 
There  is  a  clock  tower  in  the  square  of  St.  Mark,  Venice  ;  in  the 
centre  of  it  is  the  dial  of  a  very  old  clock,  which  is  resplendent 
with  gold  and  azure,  the  sun  travelling  round  the  zodiacal  signs 
which  decorate  it,  and  marking  the  time  of  twice  twelve  hours. 
On  the  top  of  the  tower  are  two  large  figures  of  bronze,  called 
by  the  Venetians,  Moors,  who,  with  large  hammers,  beat  the  hours 
upon  the  bell.  They  strike  the  hours  twice,  the  second  set  of 
Strokes  being  at  an  interval  of  five  minutes  from  the  first.  A 


1140 


CLOCKS. 


story  of  the  last  century,  current  in  Venice,  charges  one  of  these 
bronze  men  with  murder,  by  knocking  off  the  parapet  an  unfortu¬ 
nate  workman  who  stood  within  the  swing  of  the  hammer.  The 
city  of  Berne,  in  Switzerland,  has  an  old  clock  tower,  built  nearly 
eight  hundred  years  since.  Its  comic  clockwork  puppets  are  ob¬ 
jects  of  wonder  to  an  admiring  crowd  of  observers.  A  minute 
before  the  hour  strikes,  a  wooden  cock  appears,  crows  twice,  and 
flaps  his  wings  ;  then,  while  a  puppet  strikes  the  hour  on  a  bell, 
a  procession  of  bears  comes  out  and  passes  in  front  of  a  figure  on 
a  throne,  who  marks  the  hour  by  gaping  and  by  lowering  his 
sceptre.  In  the  year  1382  the  town  of  Courtray,  in  Belgium,  was 
burned  by  order  of  the  king  of  France.  Before  the  town  was  set 
on  fire,  Froissart  says,  11  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  taken  down 
a  curious  clock  which  struck  the  hours,  the  handsomest  that  was 
to  be  seen  on  either  side  of  the  sea,  which  he  had  caused  to  be 
packed  up  and  placed  on  carts,  with  its  bell,  and  carried  to  Dijon, 
where  it  was  placed,  and  there  strikes  the  hours  day  and  night.” 

The  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  may  be  regarded  as  about 
the  time  which  affords  the  first  clear  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
what  would  be  now  called  a  clock,  or  regulated  horological  ma¬ 
chine.  It  is  not  an  invention  so  ancient  as  some  have  supposed, 
nor  is  it  altogether  the  invention  of  the  two  last  centuries.  If,  as 
a  complete  machine,  it  had  an  inventor,  he  is  not  certainly  known. 
Ferdinand  Bcrthoud,  who  has  written  voluminously  on  the  subject 
of  clockwork,  concludes  his  researches  with  the  opinion  that  a 
clock,  such  as  that  put  up  by  Henry  de  Wick,  is  not  the  invention 
of  one  man,  but  a  combination  of  successive  inventions,  each  wor¬ 
thy  of  a  separate  contriver.  “  Thus  (1),  wheel  work  was  known 
and  applied  in  the  time  of  Archimedes  ;  (2)  a  weight  being  ap¬ 
plied  as  a  maintaining  power  would  in  all  probability  have  at  first 
a  fly,  similar  to  that  of  a  kitchen-jack,  to  regulate  the  velocity  ; 
(3)  the  ratchet-wheel  and  click  for  winding  up  the  weight,  without 
detaching  the  teeth  of  the  great  or  main  wheel  from  those  of  the 
pinion  in  which  they  were  engaged,  would  soon  be  found  an  in¬ 
dispensable  contrivance  ;  (4)  the  regulation  by  a  fly  being  subject 
to  great  changes  from  variations  in  the  atmosphere,  and  the  ten¬ 
dency  of  a  falling  body  to  accelerate  its  motion,  would  necessarily 
give  rise  to  the  alternating  motion  of  the  balance,  with  which  in¬ 
vention  an  escapement  of  some  kind  must  have  been  coupled  ; 
(5)  the  last-mentioned  two  inventions  are  most  important  ones,  and 
would  have  induced  such  a  degree  of  equability  in  the  rnotiou  of 


CLOCKS. 


1141 


the  wheelwork  as  would  lead  the  way  to  a  dial-plate,  and  its  neces¬ 
sary  adjunct,  a  hand  or  pointer  ;  lastly,  the  striking  part,  to  pro¬ 
claim  at  a  distance,  without  the  aid  of  a  person  to  watch,  the  hour 
that  was  indicated,  completed  the  list  of  inventions.”  It  is  sup¬ 
posed  that  the  clock  of  Henry  de  Wick  was  constructed  by  com¬ 
bining  the  successive  inventions  of  different  persons.  And  so  the 
clocks  of  the  modern  times  have  been  brought  to  their  present  de¬ 
gree  of  perfection  by  a  series  of  inventions  and  improvements  on 
what  may  now  be  called  the  rude  clocks  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries. 

About  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  clocks  were  reduced 
in  form  so  as  to  be  easily  transported  from  place  to  place.  Before 
portable  clocks  were  made,  a  main-spring,  as  the  moving  power, 
was  probably  substituted  for  weights.  About  a  century  later  the 
long-pendulum  clock  was  made.  The  honor  of  originating  the 
pendulum  clock  is  claimed  for  different  individuals. 

In  the  year  1639  Galileo  Galilei  published  his  observation  on  the 
pendulum  in  Paris  :  though  it  is  said  he  never  applied  the  pendu¬ 
lum  as  a  regulator  to  supersede  the  balance  in  clocks,  yet  his  dis¬ 
covery  doubtless  led  to  its  use.  In  the  year  1641  Richard  Harris, 
a  London  artist,  applied  the  principle  discovered  by  the  French 
philosopher,  and  is  supposed  to  have  made  the  first  pendulum 
clock.  The  English  have  continued  to  make  improvements  in 
clocks,  and  are  able  to  produce  the  very  best  specimens  of  work. 
The  French  also  continue  to  the  present  time  to  make  great  num¬ 
bers  of  clocks;  they. are  not  expensive,  but  serviceable,  and  ex¬ 
ternally  neatly  finished,  and  sometimes  highly  ornamented.  The 
English  generally  make  their  clocks  by  hand;  the  movements  of 
French  clocks  are  made  by  machinery. 

It  is  due  to  the  skill  and  enterprise  of  Connecticut  clock-makers 
that  good,  serviceable  clocks  are  made  at  such  a  low  price  that 
every  family  can  afford  to  be  the  owner  of  a  timepiece.  Nearly 
all  the  clocks  used  in  this  country  have  been  made  in  the  State  of 
Connecticut,  and  the  manufacturers  export  them  in  large  numbers 
to  almost  all  foreign  countries.  Towards  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  Eli  Terry  established  himself  in  the  town  of  Plymouth, 
Litchfield  County,  Conn.,  and  commenced  making  the  old-fashioned 
liang-up  wooden  clocks.  At  this  time  the  wheels  and  teeth  were 
cut  by  hand, — first  marked  out  with  square  and  compass,  and 
then  sawed  with  a  fine  saw.  The  movements  of  these  clocks  were 
sold  for  about  twenty-five  dollars  each.  In  the  year  1801  Mr. 


1142 


CLOCKS. 


Terry  commenced  making  wooden  clocks  by  machinery.  About 
the  same  time  Mr.  Riley  Whiting,  a  gentleman  of  scientific  edu¬ 
cation,  and  of  great  business  capacity,  established  the  manufacture 
of  clocks  at  Winchester  (now  Winsted),  Conn.,  and  conducted 
the  business  there  till  1835,  when  he  died.  Mr.  Whiting  made  nu¬ 
merous  improvements  in  clocks  and  clock  cases,  and  became  the 
most  important  clock  manufacturer  of  his  time,  in  this  country. 
In  less  than  five  years  the  competition  in  clock-making  was  so 
great  that  the  price  of  the  movements  for  a  single  clock  was  reduced 
to  five  dollars.  The  greatest  revolution  in  clock-making  in  Con¬ 
necticut  was  the  introduction  of  the  one-day  brass  clock,  an 
invention  of  Mr.  Chaunccy  Jerome.  The  parts  of  this  clock 
are  made  by  machinery,  so  that  cases  can  be  sold  at  fifty 
cents  each  ;  and  the  brass  wheels,  which  are  stamped  from  plates, 
are  made  so  rapidly  that  the  cost  of  the  movements  for  each  clock 
is  less  than  fifty  cents  ;  so  that  the  one-day  brass  clocks  can  be  sold 
for  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  dollars  each.  The  rapidity  with  which 
the  clock  movements  are  made  is  apparent  when  we  consider 
that  three  men  can  take  the  brass  in  sheets,  press  out  and  level  un¬ 
der  the  drop,  then  cut  the  teeth,  and  make  all  the  wheels  for  five 
hundred  clocks  in  one  day.  The  facilities  for  making  cases  are  such 
that  the  labor  on  the  case  of  an  0.  G.  clock  costs  less  than  twenty 
cents,  while  a  cabinet-maker  could  hot  manufacture  one  for  less 
than  five  dollars.  The  dials  are  cut  from  sheets  of  zinc,  painted, 
and  lettered  at  a  cost  of  less  than  five  cents  each  ;  the  painting 
of  the  tablets,  the  glass,  and  work  cost  about  five  cents  each. 
Thus  the  million,  in  all  countries,  may  easily  supply  themselves 
with  this  almost  indispensable  article  of  household  furniture. 

In  the  year  1812  a  consignment  of  Connecticut  brass  clocks 
was  sent  to  England  by  Mr.  C.  Jerome.  From  that  time,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  millions  of  them  have  been  sent  to  Eu¬ 
rope,  Asia,  South  America,  Australia,  China,  and  the  islands  of 
the  sea. 

The  largest  establishments  for  clock-making  are  found  in  New 
Haven,  Waterbury,  Plymouth,  and  Bristol,  Conn.  In  these  places 
half  a  million  of  clocks  are  manufactured  annually. 


PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS. 


VARIOUS  USES  FOR  PAPER.  — BOATS,  FURNITURE,  AND  FLOWERS. — PAPER  FOR 
THE  WARDROBE.  —  CHINESE  PAPER  CLOTHING.  —  JAPANESE  PAPER  HANDKER¬ 
CHIEFS.  —  CLEANLY  CIVILIZATION.  1 —  PAPER  DRESSES  AT  FANCY  BALLS.  — 
DRESS  PATTERNS. — NEGRO  MINSTREL  COLLARS. —  RESORTS  OF  DECAYED 
DANDIES.  —  DELAY  OF  THE  INVENTION.  — THE  INVENTOR.  — PREJUDICES 
AGAINST  THE  NEW  FASHION.  —  IT  "FINALLY  TRIUMPHS,  AND  THE  BUSINESS 
BECOMES  EXTENSIVE.  —  THE  LEADING  MANUFACTURERS  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  MESSRS.  RAY  AND  TAYLOR,  OF  SPRINGFIELD,  MASS.  —  HOW  PAPER 
COLLARS  ARE  MADE. — PROCESSES. -  THE  TURN-OVER  AND  GARROTE  COL¬ 

LARS.  —  ANECDOTE  OF  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER.  —  CELEBRATED  STYLES  OF 
COLLARS.  — VARIOUS  PAPER  GOODS.  — THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  MESSRS.  RAY 
AND  TAYLOR. 

With  all  the  multitudinous  and  different  purposes  to  which 
paper  is  now  devoted,  it  is  .probable  that  we  are  still  only  on  the 
edges  of  discovery  as  to  the  vastly  many  more  uses  to  which  it  is 
applicable.  From  its  first  obvious  utility  as  a  medium  for  the 
communication  and  preservation  of  written  characters,  and  after¬ 
wards  its  greater  value  when  printing  was  discovered,  paper  be¬ 
came  indispensable  in  almost  every  art  and  trade,  from  that 
of  the  engraver,  who  requires  the  finest  sheets  for  his  pictures,  to 
that  of  the  retail  grocer,  who  enwraps  his  goods  in  the  coarsest 
“  straw,”  or  brown.  As  papier-mache,  paper  pulp  mixed  with 
glue  or  gum,  or  paper  pasted  or  glued  in  layers  upon  moulds,  it  is 
used  for  making  almost  everything,  where  wood  for  the  same  pur¬ 
pose  could  be  used,  and  appears  in  a  multitude  of  forms,  from 
small  toilet  articles,  watch  and  match  holders,  and  dressing-cases, 
to  furniture,  piano-cases,  and  even  boats ;  and  it  is  found  to  be  an 
excellent  article  for  making  moulds  for  stereotypes.  It  is  also 
used  in  architectural  mouldings,  for  picture-frames,  for  daguerreo¬ 
type-cases,  for  hundreds  of  things,  while  sheet  paper,  plain  and 
colored,  is  made  into  various  trimmings,  artificial  flowers,  and  bits 

(1143) 


1144 


PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS. 


of  white  paper  even  make  the  “  snow-storms  ”  of  the  stage  in 
theatres. 

But  the  use  of  paper  in  the  wardrobe  of  “  Young  America  *’  is 
of  recent  introduction.  For  centuries  the  Chinese  have  gayly 
clothed  their  idols  in  colored  and  gilt  paper.  The  Japanese,  from 
time  immemorial,  have  used  paper  pocket-handkerchiefs,  carrying 
several  in  their  pockets,  using  one  and  throwing  it  away,  and  from 
that  custom  claiming  a  cleaner,  if  not  higher,  civilization  over  the 
“  barbarians  ”  who  carry  a  single  silk  or  linen  handkerchief,  which 
they  use  repeatedly,  and  as  often  return  to  their  pockets.  Paper 
over-dresses,  with  lace  paper  collars  and  trimmings,  are  occasion¬ 
ally  seen  in  masquerade  and  fancy  balls.  When  negro  minstrelsy 
first  became  an  institution  in  the  United  States,  the  “end  men  ” 
used  to  wear  enormous  collars  cut  from  card-board  or  drawing- 
paper  ;  and  years  ago  there  was  a  common  slander,  sometimes 
well  founded,  that  decayed  and  impecunious  dandies  wore  paper 
bosoms,  collars,  and  cuffs  to  conceal  the  absence  of  an  important 
article  of  dress  which  might  be  at  the  wash,  or  to  cover  the  dirt 
in  the  same  article  which  should  be  at  the  laundry. 

It  is  singular,  considering  how  close  some  one  must  have  been 
to  the  discovery,  that  the  invention  of  the  now  almost  universal 
paper  collars  and  cuffs  should  have  been  so  long  delayed.  But  in 
1853  paper  collars  for  men’s  wear  first  appeared  in  New  York,  and 
the  new  goods  soon  spread  to  other  cities.  At  first  they  were 
laughed  at  and  ridiculed,  as  exhibiting  a  sure  sign  of  poverty  in 
the  wearer.  Then  came  a  horrible  story  that  the  paper  possessed 
poisonous  properties,  dangerous  to  those  who  indulged  in  the  new 
and  cheap  luxury  of  a  clean  collar  every  day  for  less  than  the  cost 
of  washing,  and  collars  that  might  be  turned  and  worn  again  be¬ 
fore  they  were  thrown  away.  Washerwomen  rebelled  against  an 
invention  which  threatened  to  materially  lessen  the  conventional 
dozen,  more  or  less,  of  every  customer  per  week.  Society  pro¬ 
nounced  the  new  fashion  low  and  vulgar.  The  makers  of  starch 
calculated  the  probable  reduction  in  their  sales.  In  fact,  the  paper 
collar  created  a  commotion  which  largely  helped  to  advertise  it, 
and  assisted  in  its  introduction  to  popular  use.  All  prejudices, 
even  those  against  the  most  startling  innovations  upon  established 
styles  of  dress,  are  easily  worn  away  ;  and  when  it  was  discov¬ 
ered  that  the  chief  value  of  the  paper  collar  lay,  not  in  its  cheap¬ 
ness,  but  iu  its  convenience,  the  new  fashion  speedily  became  a 
success. 


PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS. 


1145 


Walter  Hunt,  of  New  York,  claimed  the  invention  of  pasting  or 
cementing  two  pieces  of  paper  together  to  give  the  required  stiff¬ 
ness  and  surface  for  collars,  which  were  cut  into  shape,  and  then 
rolled  with  a  serrated  wheel  to  give  the  imitation  stitches  on  the 
border.  The  inventor  and  a  few  of  his  friends  were  hardy  enough 
to  exhibit  such  collars  on  their  own  necks  in  public.  But  the  soft 
and  unsubstantial  character  of  the  material  soon  suggested  the 
placing  of  a  strip  of  thin  muslin  between  the  pieces  of  paper  ; 
and  with  this  invention,  duly  patented,  the  paper  collar  of  to-day 
was  discovered.  At  first  the  business  was  dull  and  unprofitable  ; 
but  it  has  finally  become  one  of  the  great  industries  of  the  land, 
covering  not  only  collars,  but  cuffs,  bosoms,  etc.,  and  is  conducted 
in  several  different  places,  the  leading  house  being  that  of  Messrs. 
Ray  &  Taylor,  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  whose  business  may  be  said 
to  ramify  throughout  the  United  States,  hardly  a  hamlet  to  be 
found  in  which  these  superior  wares  are  not  to  some  extent  worn. 

The  process  of  manufacturing  collars,  cuffs,  bosoms,  etc.,  is  con¬ 
siderably  detailed,  and  may  be  all  sufficiently  well  described  under 
that  of  collars.  In  the  establishment  of  Messrs.  Ray  &  Taylor, 
the  prepared  paper  or  stock,  as  brought  directly  from  the  manufac¬ 
tory,  is  first  taken  to  the  stock  room  and  inspected.  It  should  be 
remarked,  however,  that  the  firm  prepare  for  themselves  that  por¬ 
tion  of  their  stock  which  requires  the  nicest  manipulation.  After 
inspection,  when  a  case  of  paper  is  wanted,  it  is  placed  upon  a 
car,  and  the  car  is  rolled  to  and  upon  the  elevator,  which  then 
ascends  to  the  machine  room,  and  the  car  is  rolled  to  the  press, 
where,  by  means  of  suitable  dies  placed  under  the  ponderous  ma¬ 
chine,  the  first  process  of  manufacturing  commences  by  cutting 
out  from  thirty  to  eighty  articles  at  a  time.  If  the  articles  are 
“  Byron/7  or  turn-down  paper  collars,  they  are  then  rolled  in  cases 
upon  a  car  to  the  enamelling  room,  where,  by  an  ingenious  ma¬ 
chine  invented  by  the  proprietors',  they  receive  a  coat  of  enamel 
as  far  down  as  the  11  turn-down  ”  line,  leaving  the  inside  of  the 
collar,  which  comes  in  contact  with  the  neck,  plain,  and  free  from 
enamel.  This  enamel  which  they  use  is  water-proof,  and  will  not 
rub  off  by  being  wet  or  moistened  by  perspiration.  When  the 
enamel  is  dry,  the  articles  are  passed  through  another  ingenious 
and  powerful  machine,  which  imparts  to  the  enamel  surface  an 
exact  imitation  of  linen,  so  that  one  would  suppose,  even  upon  a 
close  inspection,  that  they  were  really  of  cloth  or  linen,  and 
prepared  for  use  by  a  careful  and  experienced  laundress.  This 

66 


1146 


PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS. 


process  is  also  an  invention  of  their  own,  for  which  they  hold  val¬ 
uable  patents.  In  the  manufacture  of  “  garrote,”  or  “  stand-up  ” 
collars,  the  paper  receives  its  “  linen  finish  ”  in  several  sheets  at  a 
time. 

These  garrote  collars  are  known,  according  to  their  several  pecu¬ 
liarities,  as  the  “Derby,”  after  the  celebrated  Lord  Derby,  who 
devised  the  pattern  ;  the  “  Kay,”  after  one  of  the  firm  ;  and  the 
“  Beecher  garrote,”  after  the  illustrious  preacher,  Ilenry  Ward 
Beecher,  with  his  consent ;  and,  passim ,  as  illustrative  of  the  tact 
of  Yankee  business  genius,  and  the  democratic  good  sense  of  some 
of  our  clergy  who  are  outgrowing  the  weak  notion  that  they  are 
demigods,  or  better  than  other  people,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place 
to  quote  here  Mr.  Beecher’s  reply,  when  applied  to  for  the  use  of 
his  name  for  the  collars.  He  was  assured  that  the  house  would 
do  no  discredit  to  his  good  taste  and  name  by  their  wares.  Mr. 
Beecher's  letter  is  as  follows  :  — 

“  Brooklyn,  March  3,  1869. 

“  Messrs.  Ray  &  Taylor. 

“  Gentlemen  :  My  name  has  been  used  so  much  for  all  sorts  of 
things  that  I  doubt  whether  I  could  substantiate,  in  a  court  of 
justice,  any  claim  to  it ;  and,  of  course,  it  would  not  be  fair  to  for¬ 
bid  you  the  use  of  it. 

“  1  hope  your  enterprise  may  be  successful,  and  that  the  collars 
may  be  good  enough  for  the  name,  and  the  name  never  disgrace  the 
collars.  Respectfully  yours, 

“IIenry  Ward  Beecher.” 

These  garrotes,  like  the  rest  of  Messrs.  Ray  &  Taylor’s  collars, 
are  of  the  best  possible  workmanship,  and  as  a  consequence  very 
popular. 

After  the  linen  finish  is  given  them,  the  collars  are  taken  to  the 
next  machines,  the  embossers,  all  of  which  are  of  this  firm’s  inven¬ 
tion,  and  are  a  great  improvement  over  the  old  “finger-cutters” 
generally  used.  Here  they  receive  the  “  stitching,”  size  and 
“  patent  mark,”  all  at  one  impression,  being  put  into  the  machine 
one  by  one  by  dexterous  female  operators.  Next  come  the  “  punch¬ 
ing  machines,”  where  from  four  to  eight  collars  or  cuffs  receive 
their  button-holes  at  a  time.  They  are  then  passed  on  to  the 
“folders,”  where,  upon  each  machine,  about  thirty  thousand  col¬ 
lars  per  day  are  folded,  or  rather  creased,  for  the  folding  process 
is  not  completed  until  they  have  passed  through  the  next  machine. 


PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS. 


1147 


the  “roller,”  which  squeezes  down  the  crease,  and  completes  the 
collar.  Next  come  the  “  putting-up  tables,”  at  each  of  which  five 
or  six  young  ladies  count  out  the  collars  as  fast  as  rolled  into 
bunches  of  ten  each,  and,  by  a  dexterous  twirl  or  twist,  put  each 
bunch  into  its  box.  Passing  on,  we  come  to  the  “labellers,”  who 
arrange  the  filled  boxes  in  triple  rows  in  concave  troughs  or  racks ; 
and,  with  wonderful  despatch,  the  whole  are  labelled,  and  ten  of 
these  small  boxes  are  packed  in  a  larger  box,  or  “  carton,”  each 
carton  thus  containing  one  hundred  collars.  These  cartons  are 
also  labelled,  placed  upon  a  car,  and  rolled  on  to  the  elevator,  and 
sent  to  the  next  floor,  or  shipping  room.  Here  they  are  packed, 
marked,  and  shipped  to  all  parts  of  the  country. 

In  passing  through  this  establishment,  one  is  most  favorably  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  admirable  arrangement  of  machinery  and  appli¬ 
ances,  and  with  the  perfect  system  and  regularity  with  which  each 
department  of  the  manufactory  is  conducted.  Everything  is  so  ar¬ 
ranged  that  all  unnecessary  labor  is  obviated,  as  the  stock  or  raw 
material,  after  being  taken  from  the  wareroom,  makes  its  way 
through  the. several  departments  of  tlie  establishment  in  the  differ¬ 
ent  processes  of  manufacture,  until  it  arrives  at  the  packing  room, 
as  manufactured  goods  ready  for  shipment.  Messrs.  Ray  &  Tay¬ 
lor  have  invented  a  large  portion  of  their  machinery  and  processes 
themselves,  for  all  of  which  they  hold  letters  patent  of  the  United 
States ;  and  they  have  in  operation  certain  greatly  improved  ma¬ 
chines  for  the  various  departments  of  their  manufacture,  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  the  construction  of  which  they  wisely  hold  as  their  own 
secret,  and  by  which  they  are  enabled  to  do  and  afford  better  work 
at  cheaper  prices  than  other  manufacturers. 

Besides  the  wearing  apparel  department,  they  have  also  a  large 
paper  box  manufacturing  department,  where  are  made  all  the  boxes 
used  for  putting  up  their  wares  ;  so  that  there  is  probably  no  es¬ 
tablishment  in  the  country  so  complete,  and  that  has  the  facilities 
which  they  possess  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  this  order  of 
manufacture.  In  addition  to  the  vast  amount  of  plain  “  linen 
finished  ”  and  cloth-face  collars  for  gentlemen  manufactured  by 
this  firm,  they  do  a  very  extensive  business  in  ladies’  collars,  cuffs, 
etc.  They  are  the  exclusive  manufacturers  of  the  celebrated  Cur¬ 
tis  bosoms,  holding  the  letters  patent  thereof.  These  bosoms  can 
be  readily  cleaned,  so  smooth  and  hard,  though  flexible,  is  their 
surface,  with  a  wet  sponge,  and  may  be  worn  for  a  long  time 
without  deterioration.  Ladies’  collars  and  cuffs  are  made  on  order 


1148 


PAPER  FURNISHING  GOODS. 


at  this  establishment  in  such  close  imitation  of  wrought  cambric 
and  lace  as  to  deceive  the  eye  without  closest  inspection,  reflect¬ 
ing  great  credit  upon  the  extreme  and  delicate  skill  employed  here. 
Among  the  collars  for  gentlemen,  which  are  chiefly  sought  in  the 
market,  this  firm  are  the  originators  of  the  “  Byron, ”  the  “  Dante, ” 
“  Longfellow,”  “  Derby, ”  “Semper  idem,”  “Semper  verum,” 
.  “  Gilmore,”  and  “  Persigny  ”  (the  “  Persigny  ”  was  the  first  name 
ever  given  in  the  United  States  to  a  paper  turn-over  collar),  and 
the  ladies’  “Shakespeare”  and  “Florence.”  This  firm  avoids  the 
“  catchpenny  ”  names  of  the  hour  for  its  wares,  which,  to  the  dis¬ 
grace  of  some  manufacturers,  have  become  far  too  common. 

The  establishment  of  Messrs.  Ray  &  Taylor  is  an  elegant 
brick  edifice,  five  stories  in  height,  erected  by  the  firm  after  its 
own  special  designs,  and  adapted  throughout  for  the  business,  and 
is  most  substantially  built.  Within  it  is  not  only  elegant,  but 
spacious,  as  to  its  several  departments,  and  provided  with  sump¬ 
tuous  offices,  which  are  furnished  with  great  taste,  ornamented 
with  fresco,  and  appointed  with  all  modern  conveniences.  Messrs. 
Ray  &  Taylor  are  evidently  of  that  order  of  successful  business 
men  who  have  an  eye  to  the  aesthetics  of  life.  We  have  frequent¬ 
ly  remarked,  in  our  inspection  of  business  establishments  through¬ 
out  the  country,  that  the  highest  class  of  successful  business  men 
are  turning  their  attention  more  and  more  to  neatness,  convenience, 
and  elegance  in  their  establishments  ;  and,  as  a  consideration  of 
business  tact,  this  fact  is  worthy  of  comment,  inasmuch  as  these 
things  add  to  the  comfort  of  operatives.  This  factory  is  supplied 
with  that  great  desideratum  and  necessity  in  every  large  estab¬ 
lishment,  an  elevator,  constructed  by  Messrs.  Otis,  Brothers  &  Co., 
of  New  York,  who  are  the  only  manufacturers  of  elevators  in  the 
United  States,  who  have,  it  would  seem,  mastered  every  detail  of 
their  art  ;  and  the  machinery  of  the  factory  is  driven  by  a  steam 
engine,  built  by  Mr.  George  II.  Corliss,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  who 
has  reflected  so  much  honor  upon  the  country  by  his  inventive 
genius  and  perfect  work. 

Messrs.  Ray  &  Taylor’s  establishment  is  not  only  an  ornament  to 
the  city  of  Springfield,  but  a  great  credit  to  the  spirit  of  American 
manufacturing  enterprise  in  general. 


MANUFACTORY  OF  RAY  &  TAYLOR,  SPRINGFIELD.  MASS. 


FIRE  INSURANCE. 

THE  IDEA  OF  INSURANCE  A  MODERN  ONE.  —  THE  NATURAL  GROWTH  OF  THE  SYS- 

* 

TEM.  —  FIRE  INSURANCE  IN  THE  DNITED  STATES.  —  THE  RISK  OF  FIRE  INSUR¬ 
ANCE.  —  THE  NEED  OF  LARGE  COMPANIES.  —  THE  INCREASE  OF  THE  BUSINESS. 
- THE  CAPITAL  INVESTED  IN  IT.  — AGENCIES.  —  THE  ABUSES  OF  THE  BUSI¬ 
NESS.  —  SPECULATING  COMPANIES.  —  INAUGURATION  OF  STATE  INSURANCE 
DEPARTMENTS.  —  THE  LOSS  DOUBLED  BY  A  COMPANY’S  FAILING.  —  THE  LESSON 
OF  THE  CHICAGO  FIRE.  —  THE  LOSS  IT  CAUSED.  —  MR.  LOWE’S  SUGGESTION  IN 
PARLIAMENT.  —  THE  ADVANTAGES  IT  PROPOSES. 

The  system  of  insurance  is  entirely  a  product  of  the  modern 
spirit  of  society,  which  tends,  in  all  our  social  and  industrial  rela¬ 
tions,  to  replace  the  isolation  of  selfishness  by  the  unity  of  mutual 
sympathy  and  aid,  or,  according  to  the  philosophic  formula,  egoism 
by  ultraism.  The.  first  application  of  the  principle  of  insurance 
was  to  marine  risks  ;  and  this,  as  is  easily  seen,  was  very  natural. 
The  risk  of  a  ship  was  more  unusual  than  that  of  a  house  ;  the 
owners  of  such  property  were  fewer  ;  and  the  risk  of  loss  being  so 
much  greater,  it  was  more  natural  that  those  interested  should 
combine.  At  first  the  assumption  of  marine  risks  was  taken  by 
private  persons,  who  agreed  to  assume  the  responsibility  for  a  cer¬ 
tain  amount  of  loss,  and  signed  their  names,  with  the  amount  they 
would  insure,  under  the  list  of  the  ship’s  cargo,  and  from  this 
practice  .the  name  “  underwriter/7  applied  to  marine  insurance, 
came  into  vogue.  From  this  arrangement  the  joint-stock  company 
engaged  in  insurance  naturally  arose,  and  the  extension  of  the 
principle  soon  included  fire  insurance. 

In  the  United  States  the  early  attention  paid  by  the  colonists  to 
ship  building  and  commerce  caused  the  practice  of  underwriting 
for  marine  risks  to  be  very  soon  adopted  ;  and  from  this  beginning 
attention  was  finally  turned  to  fire  insurance.  The  precise  date 
when  the  first  company  for  transacting  a  fire  insurance  business 
was  formed  does  not  appear,  but  before  the  revolution  the  busi¬ 
ness  was  regularly  established.  It  was  the  custom  in  those  days, 


1152 


FIRE  INSURANCE. 


and  even  down  to  within  about  forty  years,  to  place  upon  a  house 
which  was  insured  a  plate  bearing  the  name  of  the  company  which 
had  granted  the  policy.  In  many  of  the  villages  throughout  the 
earlier  settled  portions  of  the  country,  upon  the  old  houses  which 
yet  remain,  may  still  be  seen  such  plates,  bearing,  in  some  in¬ 
stances,  the  date  of  the  year  when  they  were  affixed,  and  some 
design,  such  as  two  hands  clasped,  #or  a  Phoenix  rising  from  the 
flames,  by  which  the  advantages  of  fire  insurance  was  typified. 

Fire  insurance  differs  from  life  insurance  in  being  more  entirely 
founded  upon  chance.  It  is  certain  that  every  one  of  us  must 
eventually  die,  but  it  is  by  no  means  sure  that  every  house  will 
burn  down.  From  the  average  mortality  of  *a  sufficient  number 
of  persons,  the  probabilities  of  life  insurance  have  been  calculated 
with  great  accuracy  ;  so  that  the  business  can  be  followed  with  a 
method,  and  a  certain  rule  applied  for  the  decision  of  any  special 
case.  With  fire  insurance,  however,  the  law  of  probability  has 
not  yet  been  calculated  with  such  accuracy,  and  from  the  very  con¬ 
ditions  of  the  question  it  is  probable  that  it  never  can  be.  With 
the  exercise  of  a  proper  business  precaution,  the  operations  of 
life  insurance  can  be  made  as  certain  as  a  mathematical  problem  ; 
but  even  the  most  cautious  foresight  and  care  cannot  give  this 
definite  certainty  to  the  operations  of  fire  insurance.  In  conse¬ 
quence,  therefore,  there  is  always  an  element  of  speculation  in 
such  transactions,  and  for  this  reason  the  business,  in  the  hands  of 
small  companies,  can  never  be  made  secure  ;  they  have  not  a  large 
enough  range  of  good  risks  to  cover  the  loss  of  any  unfortunate 
one.  This  has  been  so  frequently  proved  practically  that  it  is  be¬ 
yond  question. 

With  the  great  increase  in  the  industrial  activity  of  this  coun¬ 
try  during  the  present  century  the  business  of  fire  insurance  has 
kept  pace,  and  the  capital  now  invested  in  companies  doing  an 
exclusive  business  in  fire  insurance  may  be  fairly  estimated  at  be¬ 
tween  two  and  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  So  clearly  has 
the  truth  of  the  principle,  that  large  companies,  doing  a  wide  and 
extended  business,  are  the  safest,  been  seen  by  the  public,  that, 
throughout  the  most  recently  settled  portions  of  the  country  there 
has  been  but  little  opportunity  offered  for  the  establishment  of  local 
companies,  since  they  could  not  offer  as  good  inducements  to  the 
public  as  those  presented  by  the  agents  of  older,  richer,  and  bet¬ 
ter  established  companies.  In  this  way  the  fire  insurance  business 
has  become  a  most  important  interest  in  certain  localities.  This 


FIRE  INSURANCE. 


1153 


growth  of  the  business  of  fire  insurance,  as  well  as  that  of  other 
kinds  of  insurance,  brought  with  it  at  first  natural  abuses,  such  as 
a  greater  extension  of  the  business  than  was  safe,  and  also  opened 
a  field  to  the  exploitation  of  speculative  companies,  which  were 
not  based  upon  sound  financial  principles,  but  hoped  by  success  to 
make  money  for  their  stockholders.  Should  they  do  a  large  enough 
business,  and  collect  sufficient  premiums  without  meeting  any 
losses,  it  was  evident  that  the  business  was  worth  trying;  but 
if  they  should  be  unlucky  enough  to  meet  with  misfortunes,  the 
result  was  only  their  failure,  and  the  loss  came  upon  the  insured, 
since  the  actual  capital  contributed  to  the  company  was  very  little, 
only  enough  to  pay  the  expenses  of  trying  the  experiment.  So 
numerous  were  the  instances  of  these  insurance  speculations,  and 
so  disastrous  were  they  to  the  public  who  had  been  deceived  by 
them  into  supposing  that  the  security  could  be  gained  by  paying 
for  the  policies  they  issued,  that  public  attention  was  roused,  and 
measures  were  proposed  for  legislative  action,  by  which  the  gov¬ 
ernments  of  the  states  in  which  insurance  agencies  were  established 
should  have  some  control  over  them,  and,  in  the  interest  of  the 
public,  prevent  such  companies  as  were  unworthy  of  confidence 
from  seeking  to  gain  it. 

From  this  arose  the  establishment  of  insurance  departments  in 
some  of  the  states,  Massachusetts  having  inaugurated  this  move¬ 
ment,  and  New  York  having  perfected  it.  The  experience  which 
New  York  had  acquired  by  a  similar  supervision  exercised  over 
the  banks  of  the  state  made  her  more  ready  to  apply  the  same 
method  of  control  to  the  insurance  companies,  and  more  readily 
aware  of  its  advantages.  The  very  essence  of  fire  insurance  is 
security  and  stability.  A  company  which  fails  when  the  crisis 
comes,  for  which  it  pretended  to  be  a  safeguard,  is  worse  than  no 
company  at  all,  for  it  doubles  instead  of  diminishing  the  loss  by 
fire.  The  insurer,  who  has  taken  out  one  of  its  policies,  finds, 
when  his  house  has  burned  down,  that  the  security  he  thought  he 
had  is  worthless,  and  that  he  has  thrown  away  the  premiums  he 
has  paid. 

To  perform  for  the  public  the  same  office  with  regard  to  its  in¬ 
surance  policies  that  it  does  with  respect  to  its  bank-notes,  that  is, 
to  provide  that  the  public  shall  not  be  liable  to  being  cheated  in 
them,  is  one  of  the  legitimate  functions  of  the  government,  and  is 
especially  so  in  a  republican  government,  which  should  be  in  fact, 
as  it  is  in  theory,  the  agent  of  the  public,  delegated  to  perform 


1154 


FIRE  INSURANCE. 


just  such  duties  as  these,  for  which  individuals  are  necessarily  in¬ 
competent. 

By  the  working  of  this  innovation,  the  danger  of  speculative 
fire  insurance  companies  has  been  as  nearly  done  away  with  as  is 
possible  with  a  system  of  insurance  based  on  individual  companies 
competing  for  the  business.  That  absolute  security  is  not  gained 
by  such  a  system,  even  with  the  supervision  of  a  state  department, 
is  shown  by  the  recent  terrible  catastrophe  at  Chicago. 

From  the  report  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  the  Insurance 
Department,  made  the  11th  of  November,  1871,  and  based  upon 
statements  returned  from  the  companies  in  answer  to  a  circular 
calling  for  them,  it  appears  that  twenty  companies,  organized  un¬ 
der  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York,  had  ceased  to  do  business, 
and  gone  into  liquidation.  The  loss  by  this  single  conflagration, 
supposing  that  the  entire  assets  of  the  New  York  companies  which 
ceased  business  in  consequence  were  absorbed  to  meet  the  loss, 
and  adding  that  incurred  by  other  companies,  which  still  continued 
solvent,  was  in  the  State  of  New  York  alone  $20,724,457.  The 
aggregate  loss  of  all  the  insurance  companies  doing  business  in 
this  country,  including  six  foreign  companies,  was  $88,634,122, 
which  was  divided  among  three  hundred  and  forty-one  companies, 
having  as  their  total  assets  $145,879,521,  which  shows  that  by  this 
single  catastrophe  they  lost  one  half  their  assets. 

Such  a  crisis  as  this  calls  attention  to  the  proposition  which  was 
"made  a  few  years  ago  in  the  British  Parliament  by  Mr.  Robert 
Lowe,  that  the  government  should  assume  the  business  of  a  gener¬ 
al  insurer  for  that  country.  At  the  time  when  this  suggestion  was 
made  it  excited  but  little  attention,  being  passed  over  as  either 
unwise  or  premature  ;  but  by  the  light  of  the  Chicago  fire,  it  is 
made  plain  that  it  requires  the  collective  wealth  of  a  nation  to 
meet  the  strain  of  a  catastrophe  like  this.  Besides,  too,  the  econ¬ 
omy  introduced  into  the  administration  of  the  business,  if  the  na¬ 
tion's  insurance  were  conducted  by  one  bureau,  instead  of  by  hun¬ 
dreds  of  different  companies,  each  with  its  numerous  officers  to 
support,  would  in  fifty  years  —  and  such  an  occurrence  would  most 
probably  not  occur  oftener — prove  enough  to  make  up  even  such  a 
gigantic  loss.  At  the  same  time  also  if  insurance  was  made,  in  the 
hands  of  the  government,  universal,  the  rates  charged  would  need 
be  so  much  less  than  those  now  found  necessary,  as  to  itself  pro¬ 
vide  sufficiently  to  meet  such  catastrophes  when  they  occur. 


LINEN  FIRE  HOSE. 


THE  FIRE  ENGINE  BEFORE  CHRIST.  —  CTESIBIUS  AND  APOLLODORUS.  —  HOSB 
INVENTED  BEFORE  ENGINES.  —  QUANTITY  OF  LOSSES  BY  FIRE.  —  GREAT  FIRES. 
—  ROME  TO  CHICAGO.  —  FIRST  MODERN  FIRE  ENGINE  IN  GERMANY'.  —  “  HAND- 
SQUIRTS  ”  IN  LONDON.  —  VAN  DER  HEYDE’s  LEATHERN  HOSE.  —  NEWSHAM’S 
IN  ENGLAND.  —  ADVANTAGE  OF  HOSE.  —  USES  OF  HOSE  OTHER  THAN  AT 
FIRES.  — MILLS,  HOTELS,  RAILROADS,  STEAMBOATS,  GARDENING,  SIDEWALKS, 
HYDRAULIC  MINING.  — LEATHER  AND  WOVEN  HOSE.  — THE  RUBBER-LINED 
LINEN  HOSE.  —  MODE  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  STRENGTH.  —  TESTIMONIALS.  — 
SUCCESS  OF  THE  NEW  ARTICLE. 

There  is  a  statement  that  the  Greek  mechanician,  Ctesibius,  who 
lived  250  years  before  Christ,  “is  believed  to  have  invented  a  kind 
of  fire  engine.”  The  earliest  distinct  reference,  however,  known 
in  history,  to  any  mechanism  for  the  extinction  of  conflagrations, 
does  not  make  mention  of  anything  like  an  engine,  pump,  or 
syringe,  but  of  a  hose  with  a  compressible  bag  to  hold  the  water. 
This  reference  is  found  in  the  writings  of  Apollodorus,  an  archi¬ 
tect,  who  flourished  in  the  reign  of  the  two  Roman  emperors, 
Trajan  and  Adrian,  in  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era ; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  as  in  the  case  of  so  many  other 
ingenious  suggestions,  it  was  first  made  in  the  interest,  not  of 
peace,  but  of  war.  Apollodorus  suggested  that,  for  the  purpose 
of  preventing  harm  from  the  fire-darts,  which  were  then  sometimes 
flung  into  fortified  places  by  the  attacking  forces,  a  good  plan 
would  be  to  use  the  intestine  of  an  ox,  with  a  bag  full  of  water 
attached,  so  that  the  squeezing  of  the  bag  would  lead  and  drive 
the  water  out,  and  thus  extinguish  fire  at  heights  where  the  hands 
of  men  could  not  reach  it. 

The  enormous  quantity  of  property  and  the  great  numbers  of 
lives  which  have  been  lost  by  fires,  if  the  story  could  be  told  so 
as  to  be  within  the  grasp  of  the  mind,  would  form  a  most  impres¬ 
sive  exhibition  of  the  helplessness  of  humanity.  In  ancient  times, 
and  even  recently  in  Oriental  cities,  thousands  of  lives  have  been 
lost  at  a  single  fire,  as  at  London,  in  the  year  1212,  where  over 

(1155} 

t  >  ... 


1156 


LINEN  FIRE  HOSE. 


three  thousand  persons  perished.  From  the  burning’  of  Rome, 
ander  Nero,  down  to  the  tremendous  Chicago  fire,  of  October  8  and 
9,  1871,  great  fires  have  stood  high  in  the  awful  roll  of  human 
calamities.  The  number  of  fires  of  importance  enough  to  have 
been  put  on  record,  so  as  to  have  become  part  of  local  and  often 
general  history,  is  enormous.  In  or  near  London  alone  there 
have  been  a  hundred  and  sixteen  “  remarkable  ”  fires,  of  which  the 
“  Great  Fire  ”  of  1666  burned  four  days,  devastated  four  hundred 
and  thirty-six  acres,  including  four  hundred  streets  and  thirteen 
thousand  two  hundred  houses,  of  which  eighty-nine  were  churches  ; 
it  made  two  hundred  thousand  persons  houseless,  and  destroyed 
fifty  million  dollars’  worth  of  property.  The  number  of  fires  now 
happening  in  London  every  year  is  two  thousand  or  more,  but  very 
few  of  them  do  great  damage.  Since  that  time  no  fire  has  been 
equal  in  extent  and  destructiveness  to  that  at  Chicago,  which 
swept  a  space  four  miles  long  and  nearly  two  broad,  flung  a  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  persons  shivering  out  upon  the  prairie,  the  streets, 
or  the  lakes,  and  annihilated  at  least  two  hundred  million  dollars 
of  values  accumulated  by  human  labor.  Many  a  conflagration  of 
but  small  extent  has  Carried  into  nothingness  books,  manuscripts, 
relics  of  antiquity,  illustrations  of  history,  and  remembrances  of 
famous  men  and  women,  which  no  price  could  equal  or  replace. 

The  first  improvement  on  the  obvious  and  immemorial  practice 
of  carrying  and  pouring  water  in  whatever  vessels  were  at  hand 
was  a  pumping  machine,  not  so  very  different  from  a  small,  weak, 
hand  fire  engine  of  the  present  day,  without  any  air-chamber. 
Something  of  the  kind  was  in  use  in  Germany  early  in  the  six¬ 
teenth  century.  Almost  a  hundred  years  later  than  this,  however, 
nothing  better  seems  to  have' been  used  in  London  than  a  sort  of 
big  brass  “  hand-squirts,”  as  they  were  called,  being  syringes 
that  would  hold  two  or  three  quarts  of  water,  and  which  were  held 
and  pointed  by  two  men,  while  a  third  worked  the  piston.  They 
were  filled  at  a  tub  of  water. 

None  of  these  machines,  however,  could  have  any  effect  on  any 
fire  beyond  the  distance  to  which  they  could  throw  water,  nor  was 
there  any  suction  arrangement.  Water  had  to  be  brought  to  them. 
Ilose,  for  drawing  water  into  the  machine,  and  also  for  leading  the 
supply  of  water  to  more  distant  parts  of  a  conflagration,  were  first 
invented  by  two  Dutchmen,  named  Van  der  Ileyde,  in  Amsterdam, 
about  1670,  and  a  similar  device,  very  likely  copied  from  theirs, 
was  introduced  into  England  by  one  Newsham,  who  patented  an 


LINEN  EIRE  HOSE. 


1157 


tl  improved  fire  engine  ”  there.  These  hose  were  on  the  same 
general  plan  that  has  been  in  use  ever  since,  and  is  still  a  good 
deal  used  to-day.  They  were  made  of  leather,  —  sewed,  most 
probably,  instead  of  riveted, — and  the  suction  lengths  prevented 
from  collapsing  by  being  made  of  extra  strong  leather,  with  the 
reenforcement  of  a  strong,  spiral  piece  of  metal  running  through 
the  inside. 

The  usefulness,  and  indeed  indispensableness,  of  hose  as  a  means 
of  applying  the  most  improved  modern  resources  against  fires, 
have  been  most  fully  proved  since  the  introduction  of  the  steam 
fire  engines,  which  have  become  so  numerous  since  the  first  Cin¬ 
cinnati  engine  was  turned  out,  in  1853,  by  Mr.  Latta.  These  benef¬ 
icent  giants,  which  so  ingeniously  fight  fire  by  means  of  fire,  de¬ 
pend  very  greatly  on  the  immense  space  of  ground  over  which 
their  hose  enables  them  to  distribute  their  vast  and  incessant  cata¬ 
racts  of  water.  This  space  is  at  least  ten  times  as  great  in  every 
direction  as  could  be  commanded  by  the  stream  from  the  engine 
itself ;  so  that  the  whole  area  thus  made  accessible  by  the  use  of 
hose  is  about  a  hundred  times  as  great  as  without  it. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the  use  of  hose  for  city 
fire  departments  is  its  sole  use  by  any  means.  Great  quantities 
of  it  are  required  in  manufactories,  both  in  cities  and  out  of  them, 
as  no  large  mill,  whose  work  exposes  it  to  any  risk  of  fire, ( is 
properly  fitted  up  without  a  good  head  of  water  and  an  abundant 
supply  of  hose,  provided  independently  on  each  floor,  so  that  a 
powerful  stream  may  be  quickly  thrown  on  the  first  beginnings  of 
fire.  Many  large  hotels  require  similar  fixtures.  A  good  deal  is 
.  also  used  for  similar  and  other  purposes  by  steamboat  and  railroad 
companies  ;  a  further  extensive  market  arises  from  the  use  of  hose 
for  watering  gardens  and  sidewalks  ;  another  still,  and  quite  an 
important  one,  originated  in  the  modern  system  of  “  hydraulic 
mining,”  by  which  water  is  carried,  sometimes  from  great  heights, 
through  hose,  and  fired,  so  to  speak,  through  a  nozzle  against 
earth  where  gold  dust  is  supposed  to  be  found.  This  tremendous 
and  destructive  system  of  mining  devours  whole  hills,  and  sifts 
out  their  precious  contents  with  a  strange  rapidity..  Now  seventy 
thousand  feet  of  hose  is  no  very  great  quantity  to  be  used  by  the 
fire  department  of  one  city ;  many  large  mills  would  require  from 
eight  to  twelve  thousand  feet  to  equip  them  thoroughly  against 
fire  ;  and  when  we  consider  the  great  number  of  our  large  cities, 
the  far  greater  number  of  our  factories,  besides  railroads  and 


1158 


LINEN  FIRE  HOSE. 


steamboats,  and  lastly,  the  quite  incalculable  multitude  of  smaller 
individual  demands,  we  shall  quickly  be  convinced  that  the  aggre* 
gate  of  transactions  in  the  hose  business  is  very  considerable. 

Leather  was  for  a  long  time  considered,  on  the  whole,  the  best 
material  for  hose,  while  at  the  same  time  its  heavy  first  cost,  and 
its  rapid  decay  under  use,  were  recognized  as  serious  objections. 
These  defects,  moreover,  increase  in  importance  from  year  to  year, 
as  leather  grows  more  and  more  expensive  from  the  rapid  con¬ 
sumption  of  the  forests,  which  furnish  oak  and  hemlock  bark  for 
tanning.  Various  substitutes  have  been  tried,  but  none  of  them 
have  given  much  satisfaction,  until  the  introduction  of  the  rubber- 
lined  seamless  linen  hose,  at  present  manufactured  by  the  New 
England  Linen  Hose  Manufacturing  Company.  This  company, 
consisting  of  Messrs.  Erdman  Bauch,  Charles  H.  Proessdorf,  and 
F.  W.  Claessens,  Mr.  Claessens  being  treasurer,  has  a  factory  on 
Longwood  Avenue,  Boston  Highlands  (i.  e.,  Roxbury),  Boston, 
Mass.,  and  an  office  at  room  No.  4,  179  Washington  Street,  in  the 
same  city.  This  company  manufactures  seamless  linen  hose  and 
cotton  hose  of  all  sizes,  from  three  fourths  of  an  inch  up  to  ten 
inches  in  diameter,  and  the  same,  rubber  lined,  from  three  fourths 
of  an  inch  up  to  six  inches  in  diameter. 

These  seamless  hose  are  woven  round  and  round,  stocking-fash¬ 
ion,  but  with  a  web  like  that  of  cloth,  not  with  a  knitting-stitch. 
Such  hose  have  been  used  as  leading-hose  at  fires  in  Germany,  and 
France  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  but  the  first  attempt 
to  manufacture  the  article  in  the  United  States  was  made  in  1856. 
The  weaving  is  done  in  a  stout  loom,  not  very  different  from  an 
ordinary  cloth  loom,  but  with  a  very  heavy  leaden  beater,  for  the 
purpose  of  driving  the  threads  closely  together.  •  The  thread  used 
for  the  heavier  hose  is  a  stout  linen  cord,  of  the  best  Irish  or  Rus¬ 
sia  flax,  imported  expressly  for  the  purpose,  each  thread  consist¬ 
ing  of  fifteen  strands,  and  being  able  to  support  a  weight  of  seven¬ 
ty-five  pounds.  The  result  is,  a  fabric  compared  with  which  the 
heaviest  sail  cloth  is  as  muslin,  and  one  does  not  wonder,  while 
handling  the  dense  and  solid  texture,  at  hearing  that  it  is  warrant¬ 
ed  to  bear  a  strain  of  four  hundred  pounds  to  the  square  inch, 
equal  to  nearly  five  tons  on  the  area  of  a  man’s  hand. 

Even  this  tough  web,  however,  will  11  sweat,”  i.  e.,  will  permit 
the  gradual  escape  of  water  through  its  interstices  when  subjected 
to  the  great  strain  that  is  necessary  at  fires  ;  and  a  peculiarly  in¬ 
genious  mode  has  been  devised,  which  is  embodied  in  one  of  the 


LINEN  FIRE  HOSE. 


1159 


patents  under  which  the  company  works,  —  bearing  date  of  June 
23,  1868,  and  known  as  Forsyth’s  patent,  —  for  preventing  this 
sweating.  A  tube  of  India  rubber  is  made  just  small  enough  to 
draw  snugly  into  the  inside  of  the  linen  hose.  When  in,  the  ends, 
in  lengths  of  fifty  feet,  are  made  fast  together,  one  end  of  the 
double  tube  is  made  tight,  and  through  the  other,  steam,  at  a  con¬ 
siderable  pressure,  is  let  into  the  pipe.  The  steam  expands  the 

% 

rubber,  and  squeezes  it  so  forcibly  against  the  linen  behind  it  that 
the  two  are  cemented  intimately  together,  the  India  rubber  being 
driven  well  in  among  the  fibres  and  interstices  of  the  linen.  The 
severest  pressure  entirely  fails  to  cause  any  “  sweating  ”  in  the 
hose  thus  made.  The  company  manufactures  cotton  as  well  as 
linen  hose,  if  ordered,  but  it  is  not  an  equally  good  article,  though 
cheaper. 

The  American  Institute,  at  its  exhibition  in  New  York  in  1869, 
awarded  to  the  New  England  Linen  Hose  Manufacturing  Company 
a  medal  and  diploma  for  its  linen  hose  ;  and  from  its  customers  it 
has  received  numerous  and  conclusive  testimonials  to  the  merit  of 
its  productions.  A  specimen  or  two  of  these  are  worth  printing. 

“Fire  Department  Office,  City  Hall,  ) 
Boston,  September  13,  1869.  5 

“  F.  W.  Claessens,  Treasurer  New  England  Linen  Hose  Manufac¬ 
turing  Company. 

11  Dear  Sir  :  I  received  from  you  one  hundred  feet  of  your  two 
and  one  half  inch  linen  hose,  August  18,  1868,  for  trial  in  this 
department,  and  placed  the  same  in  charge  of  Engine  Co.  No.  6. 

“  This  hose  has  been  in  constant  use  for  one  year,  stood  the 
pressure  to  which  it  has  been  subjected  to  in  actual  duty,  and  only 
burst  after  having  been  run  over  by  one  of  our  heaviest  engines, 
at  a  pressure  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  If  its  powers  of 
endurance  will  equal  its  strength,  it  will  be  the  most  desirable 
hose  for  steam  fire  engines,  having  the  advantage  of  lightness  and 
flexibility  over  all  other  hose  in  use  in  this  department.  Up  to 
the  present  time  it  has  performed  all  you  claim. 

“  Yours,  very  respectfully, 

11  John  S.  Damrell,  Chief  Engineer .” 

“Nacoochee,  White  County,  Ga.,  March  17,  1870 

“  F.  W.  Claessens,  Esq.,  Treasurer ,  etc. 

“  Dear  Sir  :  We  have  been  using  your  seamless  linen  hose,  six 
inches  in  diameter,  constantly  during  the  past  sixteen  months, 


1160 


LINEN  FIRE  HOSE. 


under  a  pressure  of  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet, 
and  are  much  pleased  with  it.  As  an  evidence  of  this  fact,  the 
secretary  of  our  company,  Mr.  Frederick  Beck,  has  ordered  a 
further  supply  to  take  the  place  of  cotton  hose,  which  is  giving  out. 

**  Yours  truly, 

“  Samuel  N.  Bosworth, 

“  Superintendent  Nacoochee  Hydraulic  Mining  Company” 

“  Claremont,  N.  H.,  October  3,  1871. 

“  C.  K.  Sanborn,  Esq.,  Chief  Engineer ,  Rochester,  N.  EL 

“  Bear  Sir  :  In  answer  to  your  inquiry  about  New  England  Rub¬ 
ber-lined  Linen  Hose,  I  would  say  that  the  town  of  Claremont 
purchased,  in  June  last,  one  thousand  feet  of  the  hose,  and  like  it 
very  much.  We  tested  it  with  a  force-pump  that  would  burst  any 
hose  that  we  had  before,  and  it  made  no  impression  upon  it.  We 
had  no  means  of  telling  how  much  the  pressure  per  inch  was. 

“  We  think  this  hose  superior  to  any  other  kind  in  use,  but 
have  not  had  it  long  enough  to  say  how  durable  it  is. 

“  Very  respectfully, 

“  H.  E.  Barrett,  Chief  Engineer.” 

These  letters  have  peculiar  weight,  since  they  are  from  official 
persons  whose  positions  and  duties  give  them  the  best  possible 
means  of  forming  opinions,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are  by 
necessity  equally  cautious  not  to  commit  themselves  to  the  in¬ 
dorsement  of  any  untested  novelty.  There  is  a  further  signifi¬ 
cance,  moreover,  in  the  fact  that  a  very  strong  effort  would  naturally 
be  made  by  the  parties  who  have  controlled  the  supply  of  leathern 
hose  to  the  various  fire  departments  of  our  cities  and  towns  to 
prevent  a  change  so  dangerous  to  their  established  interests.  The 
makers  of  India  rubber  hose  would  naturally  decline  to  admit  the 
superiority  of  the  new  combination  of  India  rubber  and  linen; 
and  thus  the  new  invention  has  had  to  fight  its  way  up  towards 
general  use  against  a  pretty  numerous  and  determined  set  of  op¬ 
ponents.  At  present,  however,  the  reputation  of  the  rubber 
lined  linen  hose  is  well  established,  although  the  company  began 
operations  no  longer  ago  than  in  1868,  and  there  is  steady  and 
increasing  demand  for  it,  as  well  as  for  the  plain  linen  and  cotton 
hose  themselves,  without  the  rubber  lining. 


THE  TREASURY. 


THE  CHANGE  IN  THE  MODERN  FINANCIAL  METHODS  FROM  THOSE  OF  ANTIQUITY. 
—  THE  METALLIC  CURRENCY  OF  ANTIQUITY.  —  THE  MONEY  WHICH  IT  RE¬ 
PLACED.  -  THE  TREASURY  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES.  -  THE  MONEY  OF  THE  PRES¬ 
ENT.  - THE  POSITION  OF  THE  TREASURY  IN  MODERN  CIVILIZATION.  - PAPER 

MONEY  ISSUED  BY  GOVERNMENTS.  — THE  CONTINENTAL  CURRENCY.  —  FRENCH 
ASSIGNATS.  —  THE  NEW  YORK  BANKING  SYSTEM.  —  THE  NATIONAL  BANK 
SYSTEM.  —  THE  COST  OF  THE  CIRCULATION  THEY  PROVIDE  FOR  THE  PUB¬ 
LIC.  —  GREENBACKS.  —  OBJECTIONS  TO  A  PAPER  MONEY.  —  DIFFERENCE  BE¬ 
TWEEN  A  PAPER  MONEY  AND  A  MONEY  OF  PAPER.  —  PURCHASING  POWER 
THE  TEST  OF  MONEY.  — A  STABLE  MONETARY'  STANDARD. — HOW  BEST  TO 
ATTAIN  IT.  — THB  SELF-REGULATING  SYSTEM  OF  THE  MINT.  —  THE  SYSTEM 
PROPOSED  BY  VICTOR  CONSIDERANT.  —  OTHER  PROPOSED  SYSTEMS. — THE 
TREASURY  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

The  industrial  activity  of  our  modern  life,  which  differs  so  ma¬ 
terially  in  its  intensity  and  varied  character  from  that  of  antiquity, 
is  yet  not  more  distinct  in  its  methods  than  are  the  financial  sys¬ 
tems  o/  to-day  as  compared  with  those  of  the  early  periods  of 
historic  times.  In  the  development  of  industry,  we  have  seen,  in 
this  volume,  how  the  reliance  of  mankind  upon  their  unaided  mus¬ 
cular  energy  has  been  replaced  by  the  use  of  steam,  and  its  appli¬ 
cation  to  machines  of  an  apparently  intricate  complexity,  but 
which  are  all  only  modifications  or  combinations  of  simple  elements. 
By  this  means,  humanity  in  its  progress  towards  the  domination 
of  this  planet,  has  obtained  a  power,  together  with  a  knowledge 
and  control  of  the  laws  of  physical  nature,  which,  to  the  pre-his- 
toric  man,  would  have  appeared  impossible.  In  glancing  hurriedly 
over  the  evolution  of  our  financial  methods,  which  are  so  impor¬ 
tant  as  an  expression  of  the  advance  in  social  organization,  Yve 
will  see  that  the  same  general  tendency  has  been  preserved,  and 
that  the  growth  has  been  towards  universal  methods  ;  towards  ob¬ 
taining  a  knowledge  and  control  of  the  laws  of  finance,  and  in  this 
branch  of  investigation  the  history  of  the  position  and  influence 
of  the  treasury  forms  naturally  a  chapter  of  this  work. 

(1161) 


11G2 


THE  TREASURY. 


Among  the  nations  of  antiquity  the  only  money  in  use  was 
made  of  gold  and  silver,  or  some  alloy  of  the  metals,  such  as  brass 
or  bronze.  This  single  fact  is  sufficient  to  show  that  their  indus¬ 
try,  their  social  condition,  and  their  political  organization  had 
reached  only  a  rudimentary  stage  of  development.  The  savage, 
whose  tools  are  only  sharpened  stones,  cannot,  we  know,  have 
made  any  great  advance  in  his  industrial  methods,  and  it  would  be 
as  impossible  for  the  modern  world  to  retain  its  social  and  political 
relations  were  it  forced  to  depend  upon  a  simply  metallic  currency, 
as  it  would  be  for  it  to  manufacture  the  products  of  its  industry, 
were  it  forced  to  depend  for  its  tools  upon  only  the  flint  axes  and 
other  similar  appliances  used  during  the  stone  age  ;  and  though 
the  actual  amount  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  world  has  been  in¬ 
creased  from  the  new  sources  of  supply  discovered  in  quite  mod¬ 
ern  times,  by  an  amount  greater  than  the  entire  quantity  in  the 
possession  of  the  nations  of  antiquity,  yet  if  the  modern  world 
was  forced  to  depend  solely  upon  this  as  a  currency,  or  a  measure 
of  value  in  its  exchanges,  trade  and  industry  would  be  arrested  as 
completely  as  though  the  use  of  steam  was  as  suddenly  abrogated, 
and  mankind  was  obliged  to  return  for  the  sources  of  the  force  we 
require  for  our  industrial  operations  to  our  own  muscular  energy, 
supplemented  only  by  that  of  animals. 

That  gold  and  silver  should  have  been  used  exclusively  as  the 
material  for  the  currency  during  antiquity,  was  as  natural  as  that 
stones  should  have  been  used  as  the  material  for  edged  tools,  before 
the  ability  to  work  the  metals  had  been  gained  by  the  increased 
experience  of  generations  ;  but  to  attempt  to  make  them  subserve 
the  needs  for  a  measure  of  value  by  which  to  regulate  the  com¬ 
mercial  and  financial  operations  of  the  modern  world,  is  like  un¬ 
dertaking  to  manufacture  the  steam  engines  needed  for  the  work 
of  the  world  with  the  flint  adzes  of  pre-historic  times.  In  fact 
the  use  of  gold  and  silver  for  the  currency  was  itself  an  advance 
upon  the  previous  use  of  other  less  suitable  materials  for  the  same 
purpose.  The  Latin  word  for  money,  pecunia,  shows,  in  its  deri¬ 
vation  from  pecus,  a  domestic  animal,  that  during  the  pastoral 
stage  of  the  social  development  of  the  tribe  from  whom  the  Latins 
derived  their  language,  cattle,  as  the  most  generally  possessed 
evidence  of  wealth,  were  the  established  measure  of  value  ;  and 
the  conception  that  our  modern  paper  currency  should  be  based 
only  upon  the  possession  of  a  certain  amount  of  gold  and  silver, 
is  as  illogical  as  it  would  have  been  upon  the  introduction  of  a 


THE  TREASURY. 


1163 


metallic  currency  to  have  claimed  that  its  coinage  should  be  regu¬ 
lated,  not  by  the  demands  of  the  public,  but  upon  the  possession 
of  a  certain  amount  of  cattle. 

The  chief  material  used  for  the  currency  of  the  modern  civilized 
■world  is  paper ;  and  though  the  financial  organization  of  no  civ¬ 
ilized  nation  as  yet  recognizes  this  fact,  yet  the  exigencies  of  our 
industrial  activity  have  forced  its  practical  acceptance  upon  the 
commerce  of  the  world.  The  money  thus  in  use  is  paper  money, 
and  is  subject  to  the  same  objections,  in  a  more  modified  degree,  that 
a  metallic  money  is  inherently  liable  to.  It  can  be  monopolized. 
The  necessity  of  our  modern  industrial  activity  is  for  a  money 
that  shall  not  be  subject  to  this  objection,  and  as  the  greater  con¬ 
venience  of  paper  makes  this  material  peculiarly  fitted  for  mone¬ 
tary  purposes,  there  is  no  question  but  that  our  future  currency 
will  be  made  of  this  substance.  It  will  not  be  paper  money,  but 
a  money  of  paper,  and  its  value  will  not  be  based  upon  any  arbi¬ 
trary  standard,  but  upon  the  needs  of  our  industry  for  its  use. 

Among  the  nations  of  antiquity  the  state  treasury  was  the  store¬ 
house  in  which  were  kept  the  amounts  of  gold  and  silver  coins 
which  the  government  had  gathered  from  its  subjects  by  taxation, 
or  had  captured  in  war,  or  had  wrung  from  conquered  nations  as  a 
tribute ;  and  the  only  business  of  the  treasury  was  guarding  the 
accessions  made  to  these,  disbursing  the  amounts  necessary  for 
the  expenses  of  the  government,  and  keeping  an  account  of  the 
balance  on  hand.  Up  to  quite  modern  times  the  functions  of  the 
treasury  have  been  confined  chiefly  to  similar  duties,  though  with 
the  use  of  paper  money,  and  with  the  era  of  national  debts,  gold 
and  silver  have  ceased  to  be  the  only  representatives  of  value, 
the  custody  of  which  has  been  intrusted  to  the  treasuries  of  vari¬ 
ous  nations. 

Gold  and  silver  being  still,  however,  the  basis  of  value  for  the 
currencies  of  the  various  nations,  it  is  to  the  mints  that  the  prepa¬ 
ration  of  the  metallic  money  is  intrusted ;  the  issue  of  the  paper 
money  being  placed  in  the  hands  of  various  financial  institutions, 
which  are  more  or  less  under  state  control.  The  Bank  of  England, 
the  Bank  of  France,  and  our  own  national  banks,  afford  examples 
of  the  ‘financial  organizations  of  these  various  countries  which  are 
relied  upon  to  provide  the  chief  portion  of  the  paper  currency  re¬ 
quired  by  the  people  for  the  transaction  of  their  daily  business. 
In  the  revolutionary  crises  which,  during  the  last  century,  have 
attended  the  passage  of  civilization  to  a  higher  plane  of  political 
67 


1 1C4 


THE  TREASURY. 


and  social  organization,  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  have  forced 
the  governments  to  provide  a  currency  for  circulation.  The  chief 
instances  of  these  attempts  have,  as  was  natural,  been  furnished 
by  France  and  the  United  States,  the  two  countries  in  which  the 
democratic  movement  of  the  modern  world  has  most  vigorously 
asserted  itself.  The  first  of  these  was  in  our  revolution  of  1776, 
which  gave  rise  to  the  continental  currency.  This  currency  was 
such  as  it  seemed  alone  possible  to  make  under  the  circumstances. 
Many  of  the  colonies  had  before  issued  paper  money  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  meeting  the  extraordinary  expenses  of  wars  with  the  In¬ 
dians,  and  their  individual  credit  stood  high  enough  to  enable  them 
thus  to  borrow  money,  since  there  was  no  question  of  their  even¬ 
tual  success,  and  that  they  could  be  relied  upon  to  meet  the  ob¬ 
ligations  they  thus  incurred.  With  the  revolution,  however,  the 
case  was  different.  The  contest  appeared  hopeless,  and  the  colo¬ 
nies  at  that  time  were  far  from  having  any  spirit  of  national  unity. 
The  bills,  therefore,  issued  by  Congress,  continued  to  depreciate, 
until  they  became  practically  worthless,  and  ceased  to  have  any 
value  as  a  money. 

With  the  advent  of  the  French  revolution  of  1793,  the  same  ne¬ 
cessity  arose  for  the  issue,  by  the  government  of  the  time,  of 
paper  money.  There  was,  however,  a  stable  basis  for  the  issue 
of  this  currency.  The  revolutionary  government  had  suppressed 
the  monasteries  of  France,  and  confiscated  their  lands,  together 
with  many  of  the  estates  which  had  belonged  to  royalty  and  to  the 
nobility.  The  land  which  thus  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
government,  as  a  representative  of  the  people,  was  made  the  basis 
for  the  issue  of  the  assignats,  as  the  currency  thus  introduced  was 
called.  By  the  public  sale  of  these  lands  at  auction,  and  by  taking 
the  pay  for  them  in  assignats,  it  was  expected  that  these  would 
obtain  and  maintain  a  circulatory  power,  which  would  make  them 
a  valid  currency.  A  combination  of  various  circumstances,  how¬ 
ever,  made  the  sale  of  the  lands  impossible.  The  chief  of  these 
was  a  fear  that  the  revolution  would  not  be  successful,  and  that 
lands  thus  purchased  would  be  forcibly  retaken  ;  and  also  a  preju¬ 
dice,  which  had  great  force  in  preventing  their  sale,  that  the  pur¬ 
chase  of  lands  confiscated  from  the  church  would  inevitably  bring 
disaster  and  death  to  the  purchaser  In  consequence  the  assig¬ 
nats,  like  our  continental  currency,  speedily  commenced  to  depre¬ 
ciate,  and  continued  to  do  so  until  they  became  practically  worth¬ 
less  as  a  circulating  medium  of  exchange. 


THE  TREASURY. 


1165 


The  unsuccessful  results  of  these  two  attempts  to  introduce  a 
circulation  without  a  metallic  basis,  produced  a  prejudice  against 
paper  money  issued  by  a  government  through  its  treasury  depart¬ 
ment  which  has  not  yet  died  out,  while  at  the  same  time  the  inno¬ 
vation  of  such  a  system  of  currency  stimulated  the  study  of  finan¬ 
cial  methods,  and  showed  the  importahce  of  a  correct  comprehension 
of  the  monetary  system  as  one  of  the  chief  forces  in  the  social 
organization,  and  perhaps  the  most  important  one  in  the  distribu¬ 
tion  of  the  results  of  industry. 

During  the  early  part  of  this  century  the  industrial  activity  of 
the  United  States  demanded  imperatively  for  its  uses  a  larger 
amount  of  a  circulating  medium  than  the  coinage  of  the  country 
could  provide.  To  supply  this  need,  numerous  joint-stock  banks 
of  issue  were  formed,  and,  especially  in  the  newly  settled  portions 
of  the  country,  were  managed  with  great  recklessness,  and  fre¬ 
quently  to  the  great  loss  of  the  public.  Notwithstanding,  how¬ 
ever,  the  evils  incident  to  the  irresponsible  character  of  the  circu¬ 
lation  which  the  joint-stock  banks  furnished  to  the  public,  there  is 
no  question  but  that  the  possession  of  the  medium  of  exchange 
they  afforded  to  industry  did  much  to  stimulate  its  activity,  and 
was  one  of  the  chief  influences  in  producing  the  unexampled  pro¬ 
gress  of  this  country  during  the  past  fifty  years  in  all  the  evidences 
of  actual  wealth.  It  gave  to  industry  the  means  of  exchanging 
its  products,  and,  as  all  wealth  is  produced  by  industry,  the  houses, 
the  crops,  the  towns,  the  manufactured  products  of  all  kinds,  of 
which  this  nation  is  so  justly  proud,  are  in  a  great  measure  due  to 
the  operations  of  the  currency  furnished  by  the  banks.  It  is  true 
that  this  currency  was  defective,  that  it  was  irresponsible,  and  that 
the  ease  with  which  it  could  be  monopolized,  was  the  cause  of 
frequent  financial  crises,  with  all  the  disorganization  and  loss  con¬ 
sequent  upon  such  a  condition  of  things.  But  yet  it  furnished  the 
medium  for  exchange  which  industry  requires  as  absolutely  as  it 
does  tools  for  its  manual  work,  and,  in  default  of  a  better,  it  was 
forced  to  content  itself  with  this.  Still,  however,  the  evils  of  its 
irresponsible  character,  when  made  so  plainly  evident  by  the  spe¬ 
cies  of  financial  epidemics  which  seemed  to  periodically  attack  the 
banks  which  issued  it,  causing  them  to  fail,  and  making  their  bills 
a  partial  or  entire  loss  to  those  who  held  them,  impressed  upon  the 
public  the  necessity  of  instituting  some  method  which  should  ob¬ 
viate  this  fault,  and  New  York  State  has  the  credit  of  originating 
a  banking  system  which  made  the  circulation  they  issued  perfectly 


1166 


THE  TREASURY. 


stable  and  safe  in  the  hands  of  the  public.  This  simple  device  was 
as  follows :  No  bank  was  allowed  to  issue  any  bills  unless  they 
were  signed  by  the  state  comptroller,  who  thus  signed  amounts  for 
the  respective  banks  only  when  they  had  deposited  with  him  either 
national  or  state  bonds  to  the  amount  of  the  bills  they  desired. 

In  consequence  of  this  provision  the  actual  bill  holders  were 
made  perfectly  secure;  since,  even  though  a  bank  should  fail, through 
mismanagement  or  fraud,  yet  the  state  comptroller  had  in  his  pos¬ 
session  securities  sufficient  to  redeem  all  the  bills  it  had  issued. 
This  system  was  so  successful  in  its  working  that  the  bills  of  the 
New  York  State  banks  circulated  freely  and  at  par  all  through  the 
state,  and  elsewhere,  wherever  the  system  was  understood. 

With  the  advent  of  the  war  for  secession,  another  financial  crisis 
came  upon  the  government.  With  the  enormous  increase  in  its 
expenditures,  some  method  became  necessary  for  obtaining  the 
money  needed  to  meet  them,  and  as  the  uncertainty  of  the  result 
of  the  contest  naturally  injured  the  credit  of  the  government, 
some  means  had  to  be  devised  for  enabling  it  to  sell  its  bonds  on 
reasonable  terms.  From  this  necessity  arose  our  national 
bank  system,  which  is  simply  an  extension  of  the  organization 
of  the  New  York  State  banking  system  to  banks  chartered  by 
the  general  government.  The  banks  which  invested  their  capi¬ 
tal  in  United  States  bonds,  deposited  these  with  the  treasury, 
and,  while  drawing  interest  upon  them,  obtained  the  right  to  cir¬ 
culate  a  proportionate  quantity  of  notes  which  were  furnished 
them  by  the  treasury,  and  countersigned  by  its  officer.  By  this 
means  the  circulation  of  the  national  banks  was  made  secure  in 
the  hands  of  the  holders,  since  for  each  bill  issued,  the  government, 
through  the  treasury,  had  in  its  possession  securities  for  this  very 
purpose.  In  consequence,  therefore,  the  circulation  of  the  na¬ 
tional  banks  is  stable,  since  it  is  not  irresponsible,  and  passes  all 
over  the  country  without  question  and  at  par.  For  the  first  time 
in  onr  history  we  have  a  circulation  of  paper  money  which,  from 
Maine  to  Oregon,  is  the  same,  and  the  loss  from  discount  and 
fraud,  which  was  so  serious  an  evil  of  the  irresponsible  circulation 
formerly  provided  by  the  joint-stock  banks,  has  been  done  away 
with.  But  great  as  are  the  advantages  of  the  national  bank  sys¬ 
tem,  it  does  not  entirely  fulfil  all  the  conditions  necessary  i:i  a  cir¬ 
culation.  It  is  stable  ;  but  it  can  be  monopolized,  and  it  is  too 
expensive  to  the  public. 

On  the  first  of  April,  1871,  the  amount  of  the  notes  in  circula- 


THE  TREASURY. 


1167 


tion,  issued  by  the  national  banks,  amounted  to  $313,403,861, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  amount  of  the  notes  issued  directly 
from  the  treasury,  or  the  "greenbacks,”  was  about  $397,000,000, 
makingthe  amountof  the  currency  in  circulation  about$710,000,000 ; 
or,  estimating  the  population  of  the  United  States  at  about  forty 
millions,  not  quite  eighteen  dollars  for  each  of  us.  The  estimated 
amount  of  currency,  made  by  many  European  economists,  as  suffi¬ 
cient  for  the  daily  needs  of  the  people,  was  sixteen  dollars  to  each 
person.  Here,  in  this  country,  from  the  greater  activity  of  our 
industrial  life,  and  the  freedom  of  our  political  relations,  a  larger 
amount  is  needed.  Twenty  dollars  in  each  one’s  possession  means 
only  a  week’s  support ;  and  it  is  not  desirable  in  a  republican  gov¬ 
ernment  to  have  the  mass  of  the  people  as  near  actual  want  as 
money  enough  for  only  a  week’s  support  implies.  But  suppos¬ 
ing  that  an  average  of  twenty  dollars  to  each  of  the  population 
is  enough,  this  would  make  $800,000,000  the  amount  required  for 
the  circulation,  or  ninety  millions  more  than  is  now  in  the  hands 
of  the  public. 

The  amount  of  the  currency,  as  we  see,  is  made  up  of  two 
items  —  national  bank  notes  and  greenbacks.  The  basis  for  both 
of  these  is  the  same,  —  that  is,  the  credit  of  the  government ;  or, 
in  other  words,  the  collective  wealth  of  the  whole  people,  and  the 
results  of  all  our  industry.  With  the  national  bank  notes,  this  is 
represented  in  the  bonds  of  the  government  deposited  in  the  hands 
of  the  treasury ;  with  the  greenbacks,  it  is  the  credit  of  the  gov¬ 
ernment  directly,  without  this  intervention. 

The  amount  of  the  national  bank  notes  in  circulation  is  repre¬ 
sented  by  an  equal  amount  of  United  States  bonds  deposited  in 
the  hands  of  the  treasury,  and  upon  which  the  industry  of  the 
country  pays  a  yearly  interest.  This  amounts,  at  seven  per  cent, 
upon  $313,403,861,  to  very  nearly  $22,000,000  a  year.  Serious  as 
is  this  charge,  it  is  not  all  that  the  public  pays  for  the  use  of  this 
currency  based  upon  its  own  wealth.  The  banks  which  have 
these  notes  furnished  them  by  the  government,  and  printed  at  its 
own  expense,  charge  the  people  among  whom  it  circulates  interest 
for  its  loan.  This  makes  another  yearly  charge  of  $20,000,000,  so 
that  the  use  of  this  circulation  furnished  the  public  by  the  national 
banks  costs  to  the  industry  of  the  country  $40,000,000  a  year, 
which  the  people  must  pay  outright  into  the  hands  of  the  banks. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  this  circulation  furnished  by  the  na¬ 
tional  banks  is  too  expensive ;  and  when  it  is  also  remembered 


1168 


THE  TREASURY. 


that  this  system  gives  to  the  banks  an  immense  power  of  monop¬ 
oly,  which  they  are  not  slow  to  use,  the  necessity  for  a  change  be¬ 
comes  even  more  evident. 

At  the  time  of  their  creation,  during  the  crisis  of  the  war,  the 
national  banks  did  unquestionably  good  service  to  the  country, 
and  deserve  well  of  it.  But  so  did  the  army  ;  and  yet,  when  the 
necessity  for  its  use  was  past,  it  was  disbanded,  and  no  one  claimed 
that  the  gratitude  of  the  country  should  be  forever  taxed  to  sup¬ 
port  it  for  the  service  it  had  done.  It  is  the  same  with  the  na¬ 
tional  banks.  They  have  performed  their  function,  and,  like  their 

• 

predecessors,  the  irresponsible  joint-stock  banks,  they  must  give 
way  for  a  better,  a  cheaper,  and  a  more  efficacious  system,  which, 
for  these  very  reasons,  is  more  in  accordance  with  the  democratic 
growth  of  our  social  and  industrial  organization. 

This  system  would  consist  in  having  all  our  currency  issued  by 
the  treasury.  In  this  way  the  currency  would  be  stable,  since  it 
would  be  responsible,  and  its  monopoly  would  be  impossible, 
since  it  would  be  in  the  hands  of  the  nation.  As  the  coinage  of 
a  metallic  currency  has,  by  the  development  of  political,  organiza¬ 
tion,  been  taken  from  the  hands  of  the  kings  and  relegated  to  the 
mint,  as  a  national  institution,  so  must  the  providing  of  a  money 
of  paper  be  relegated  to  the  government,  as  the  agent  of  the  public, 
from  the  hands  of  private  corporations. 

One  of  the  chief  objections  which  will  be  urged  against  such  an 
innovation  will  arise  from  the  prejudice  against  what  is  called 
“  an  irredeemable  paper  money, ”  and  which  arises  partly  from  the 
unsuccessful  attempts  in  France  and  this  country,  to  which  allu¬ 
sion  has  been  made  above,  and  also  from  the  species  of  traditional 
reverence  for  gold  as  a  monetary  standard.  This  last  mentioned 
feeling  is  akin,  in  finance,  to  the  traditional  reverence  for  ro3ralty, 
in  politics.  There  are  many  persons  yet  in  the  world  who  sup¬ 
pose  that,  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  there  is  a  kind  of  mys¬ 
terious,  and  possibly  supernatural,  quality  inherent  in  gold,  as  in 
a  king,  which  has  a  wonderful  influence  in  producing  order  and 
stability.  To  such  persons  history  is  a  sealed  book,  all  analogy 
is  nonsense,  and  argument  is  thrown  away.  But  the  fact  is,  that 
an  irredeemable  currency  is  what  the  world  needs.  Such  a  cur¬ 
rency  has  never  been  seen,  and  the  objections  to  our  own  present 
currency  furnished  by  the  treasury  is,  that  it  pretends  to  be  re¬ 
deemable,  while  it  is  not.  It  is  a  paper  money,  and  not  a  money 
of  paper.  The  greenback  does  not  pretend  that  it  is  a  dollar,  but 


THE  TREASURY/ 


1169 


only  that  it  can  be  exchanged  for  a  dollar,  and,  in  consequence, 
cannot  be  expected  to  be  worth  more  than  a  dollar. 

A-  gold  dollar  is  a  coin,  containing  a  certain  weight  of  gold  of 
a  certain  fineness,  the  amount  and  degree  of  which  are  settled  by 
act  of  Congress.  But  the  public  are  not  specially  interested  in 
this  ;  what  they  want  in  a  dollar  is,  that  it  shall  have  a  certain 
purchasing  power,  and  to  them  the  value  of  the  dollar  lies  in  the 
ability  it  thus  has  of  being  exchanged  for  whatever  other  product 
of  industry  the  holder  of  it  desires  to  possess.  To  possess  this 
permanently  is  impossible  in  the  case  of  gold,  since  any  increase 
in  its  quantity  must  lessen  its  value,  while  any  scarcity  must  in¬ 
crease  it.  It  is  well  known  that  the  increased  amount  of  gold 
brought  into  the  circulation  from  the  deposits  discovered  within 
this  century  has  lessened  its  value  materially. 

The  problem  how  to  obtain  a  standard  measure  of  value,  which 
shall  be  constant  and  unvariable,  is  a  most  difficult  one  to  solve, 
and  has  exercised  the  attention  of  the  best  thinkers  upon  financial 
matters.  One  of  the  most  brilliant  and  valuable  contributions  of 
science  to  the  knowledge  of  the  modern  world  is  the  scientific 
unit  of  weight  and  of  length  which  the  experts  in  such  investiga? 
tions  have  given  us ;  but  as  yet  there  is  no  standard  monetary 
unit  which  is  constant  in  every  change  of  conditions.  The  best 
and  most  scientific  method  proposed  for  arriving  at  this  value  of 
the  abstract  monetary  unit,  the  dollar  for  example,  is  one  given  by 
Mr.  Victor  Considerant,  in  a  letter  to  Secretary  McCulloch.  His 
proposition  is,  that  an  average  be  made  of  the  purchasing  value 
of  a  dollar  from  the  chief  crops  of  the  country,  for  five,  ten, 
twenty,  or  a  hundred  years,  if  necessary,  and  that  this  average 
shall  be  fixed  by  law  as  the  standard  value  of  the  dollar.  Then, 
as  the  stability  of  a  currency  comes  from  the  correlation  between  the 
supply  and  demand,  the  government  has  a  constant  test  by  which  to 
decide  whether  the  issues  are  too  small  or  too  great.  Should  the 
dollar  at  any  time  be  found  to  have  less  purchasing  power  than  the, 
average  dollar  agreed  upon,  then  there  are  more  dollars  in  circula¬ 
tion  than  the  needs  of  the  public  require,  and  the  currency  should 
be  contracted  until  the  dollar  has  acquired  the  requisite  purchasing 
power ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  purchasing  power  of  the  dollar 
is  greater  than  the  average  agreed  upon,  then  there  are  not 
enough  dollars  in  circulation  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  public, 
and  enough  more  should  be  put  into  circulation  to  reduce  its  value 
to  the  fixed  standard.  By  this  self-regulating  system,  the  value 


1170 


THE  TREASURY. 


of  the  money  of  paper  issued  by  the  treasury  would  be  kept  as 
constant  as  that  of  the  gold  coinage  issued  by  the  mint,  and  from 
an  analogous  cause. 

The  infusion  of  the  democratic  spirit  into  our  political  relations 
has  made  the  mint  a  self-regulating  institution.  While  the  coin¬ 
age  of  money  was  in  the  hands  of  royalty,  nothing  was  more 
common  than  debasing  the  currency  as  a  device  for  raising  money 
for  the  king’s  private  purse.  By  making  a  thousand  dollars’ 
worth  of  gold  simulate  the  value  of  two  thousand,  the  royal  coiner 
pocketed  the  difference.  Finally,  however,  the  growing  spirit  of 
popular  freedom  demanded  that  the  mint  should  be  managed  in 
the  interest  of  the  public,  and  with  this  change  honesty  and  jus¬ 
tice  are  inherent  in  its  operations.  If  the  coinage  is  made  baser 
than  the  standard,  it  will  not  circulate  except  at  a  discount ;  if  it 
is  made  better  than  the  standard,  the  brokers  and  jewellers  buy  it 
up  and  melt  it  over  for  the  gain  they  can  thus  make.  The  stamp 
of  the  mint  is,  therefore,  a  guarantee  of  honesty,  and  is  every¬ 
where  accepted  without  question.  The  same  thing  could  be  done 
with  the  issues  of  the  currency  from  the  treasury,  and  the  dollar 
of  paper  could  be  given  as  accurate  and  stable  a  value  as  the  dol¬ 
lar  of  gold. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  value  of  this  system,  and  it 
requires  some  previous  training  in  such  subjects  of  consideration, 
before  any  one  is  capable  of  forming  an  intelligent  opinion  about 
the  matter,  yet  there  is  no  question  that  it  has  the  merits  of  a 
system  which  is  consistent  with  itself,  and  a  treasury  thus  man¬ 
aged  would  have  a  method  for  its  action,  and  a  test  for  what  it 
should  do.  In  this  respect,  at  least,  it  would  be  a  great  improve¬ 
ment  upon  the  want  of  method  which  now  characterizes  the  man¬ 
agement  of  the  treasury.  In  fact,  at  present,  this  important 
branch  of  the  national  service  is  conducted  very  much  as  though 
the  influence  of  the  treasury  upon  the  price  of  g^id  was  the  sole 
object  for  which  it  was  instituted,  and  the  measures  taken  by 
those  in  control  to  produce  the  ends  they  desire,  are  as  though  an 
engineer  should  attempt  to  control  the  steam  engine  under  his 
care,  not  by  handling  the  valves  which  regulate  the  admission 
of  the  stea.ii,  out  by  pushing  or  pulling  on  the  balance-wheel. 

The  attention  given  to  economic  science  in  modern  times  has 
resulted  in  the  suggestion  of  other  systems  for  the  management 
of  the  treasury,  which  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  notice  here.  The 
etu'^Nts  of  political  economy  are  fully  aware  of  the  importance 


THE  TREASURY. 


1171 


of  financial  systems  in  matters  of  social  and  industrial  organiza¬ 
tion,  and  how  desirable  it  is  that  the  popular  intelligence  upon 
such  subjects  should  be  accurate,  and  infused  with  a  wise  distrust; 
of  mere  precedent,  since  only  as  the  intelligent  desires  of  the 
public  are  expressed  in  political  action  can  it  be  hoped  that  the 
systems  in  operation  will  be  modified  to  suit  the  changed  condi¬ 
tions  of  the  times. 

Another  system  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Edward  Kellogg,  in  a  work 
published  first  in  1849,  and  again  in  1861,  under  the  title  A  New 
Monetary  System.  In  this  work  he  proposes  that  the  currency  of 
the  country  should  be  issued  by  the  government,  and  based  upon 
the  real  estate  of  the  country,  since  the  value  of  the  improved 
real  estate  is  the  best  test  of  the  wealth  of  a  country.  According 
to  this  system  any  owner  of  real  estate  should  have  the  right  to 
obtain  a  loan  from  the  government  of  one  half  the  valuation  of 
the  property.  This  loan  should  be  given  in  the  -currency,  for  an 
indefinite  period  of  time,  and  at  such  a  rate  of  interest  as  would  suf¬ 
fice  to  pay  the  expenses  of  organizing.and  conducting  the  business, 
at  most  probably  rather  under  than  over  one  per  cent,  interest.  In 
this  way  he  maintains  that  the  volume  of  the  currency  in  circula¬ 
tion  at  any  one  time  will  represent  the  necessities  of  the  industry 
of  the  country.  No  one  will  desire  to  thus  borrow  from  the 
treasury  unless  he  can  make  a  profitable  use  of  the  money,  and  of 
his  need  for  money,  and  his  ability  to  use  it,  each  man  is  his  own 
best  judge.  The  arguments  by  which  Mr.  Kellogg  sustains  his 
suggestions,  and  the  statistical  proofs  he  brings  to  show  that  the 
present  rate  of  interest  is  so  much  higher  than  the  average  rate 
of  the  profits  made  by  industry  over  the  expenses  of  living,  as  to 
threaten  the  absorption  of  the  country’s  wealth  into  a  few  hands, 
and  is  the  chief  cause  for  the  unequal  distribution  of  wealth,  are 
well  worthy  of  careful  consideration  from  every  one. 

Another  proposition,  by  which  the  currency  shall  be  made  so 
readily  accessible  to  all  that  it  cannot  be  monopolized,  consists  in 
the  suggestion  that  the  government  should  issue  through  the 
treasury  a  sufficient  quantity  of  bonds  to  provide  the  amount  of 
the  currency  required  by  the  industry  of  the  country,  and  that 
these  bonds  should  draw  only  a  low  rate  of  interest,  say  three 
per  cent,  a  year,  and  that  to  any  one  who  deposits  these  bonds 
as  collateral,  currency  of  a  certain  proportionate  value  shall  be 
lent  at  the  same  rate  of  interest,  all  loans  to  be  settled  within  a 
year,  so  that  each  year’s  products  shall  pay  each  year’s  loans. 


1172 


THE  TREASURY. 


The  working  of  this  system,  it  is  claimed,  would  be,  that  it  would 
prove  sell-regulating.  Whenever  opportunity  offered,  and  of  this 
the  public,  each  man  acting  according  to  his  own  knowledge  of 
his  own  interests,  is  the  best  judge,  currency  would  be  called  for, 
and  when  the  time  for  its  profitable  use  had  passed,  the  currency 
would  be  returned  for  bonds.  Further :  this  currency  would  be 
stable,  because  it  would  at  any  time  represent  the  demands  made 
for  it  by  the  industry  of  the  country,  and  it  would  also  be  impos¬ 
sible  to  monopolize  it,  while  it  would  not  cost  too  much. 

It  would,  perhaps,  not  be  wise  to  adopt  either  of  these  sugges 
tions  entirely,  but  all  of  them  are  valuable  as  indicating  the  modi¬ 
fications  of  our  financial  system  which  shall  make  the  treasury 
what  it  should  be,  the  centre  of  the  circulation  of  the  body  politic  ; 
and  it  is  manifest  to  every  one  who  has  studied  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  and  investigated  with  a  method  the  course  of  the  changes 
which  this  century  has  brought  about  in  our  social  and  financial 
organizations,  that  some  such  system  is  needed  for  satisfying  the 
demands  of  the  industrial  activity  of  the  times,  which,  with  its 
methods  of  steam  transportation  and  telegraphic  communication, 
has  outgrown  the  financial  systems  which  were  competent  for  the 
last  century. 


CONTINENTAL  MONEY. 


COTTON  AND  WOOLLEN  MACHINERY. 

PROGRESS  IN  MODERN  METHODS  OP  MANUFACTURE.  —  MODERN  AND  ANCIENT 
MATERIALS  FOR  PERSONAL  CLEANLINESS.  —  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  MACHI¬ 
NERY  TO  WEAVING.  —  TRADITIONS  OF  THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SPINNING- 
WHEEL.  —  EARLY  USE  OF  THE  DISTAFF  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  —  PUBLIC  SPINNING- 
SCHOOLS. —  England’s  jealousy  of  her  looms.  —  samuel  slater.  —  al- 

-  FRED  JENKS.  —  THE  FIRST  MILL  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  —  BARTON  H.  JENKS.  - 

HIS  CAREER  AS  AN  INVENTOR. — THE  BRIDESBURG  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 
—  COMPLETENESS  OF  THEIR  APPLIANCES  AND  THE  REPUTATION  OF  THEIR  PRO¬ 
DUCTIONS. 

The  methods  of  transportation  in  the  modern  world,  which  have 
replaced  the  galley  with  its  oarsmen  by  the  steamship  driven  by 
its  powerful  engines,  or  the  train  of  pack-mules  with  the  steam 
locomotive  and  its  long  linqp  of  cars,  are  not  more  striking  than  the 
change  introduced  into  the  production  of  cloth,  by  which  the  old 
hand  process  of  spinning  and  weaving  has  been  replaced  by  those 
of  machinery.  Elsewhere  in  this  volume  allusion  has  been  made 
to  the  moral  effects  produced  by  the  increased  production  of  mate¬ 
rial  for  clothing  in  modern  times.  Though  there  is  no  question 
that  among  the  favored  rich  in  antiquity,  and  even  in  the  middle 
ages,  stuffs  of  great  richness  and  splendor  were  frequently  used, 
yet  among  the  mass  of  the  people  habits  of  personal  cleanliness, 
which  are  so  dependent  upon  a  frequent  change  of  clothing,  were 
not  possible. 

With  the  tedious  and  slow  process  of  hand  spinning  and  weav¬ 
ing,  and  also  with  the  want  of  an  abundant  supply  of  a  cheap  mate¬ 
rial  like  cotton,  the  people  of  those  times  had  not  the  materials 
at  hand  for  providing  themselves  with  the  clothing  which  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  machinery  has  made  accessible  to  all.  The  dress  of  the 
people  was,  therefore,  mostly  of  woollen  materials,  which  were 
worn  much  longer  than  we  should  now  consider  to  be  in  accord¬ 
ance  with  the  rules  of  hygiene.  For  women,  particularly,  the  in- 

(1173) 


1174 


COTTON  AND  WOOLLEN  MACHINERY. 


troduction  of  cotton,  and  the  improvements  in  machinery,  have 
afforded  a  cheap  and  healthful  material  for  their  under-clothing, 
which  has  been  made  largely  available.  It  may  seem  to  many  an 
innovation  to  insist  upon  the  importance  of  the  material  conditions 
for  the  moral  advance  of  the  world,  and  it  is  only  within  quite 
modern  times  that  the  necessity  of  these  has  become  even  partially 
understood.  Yet  this  method  of  investigating  the  facts  of  social 
progress  is  daily  gaining  ground  with  scientific  students. 

The  introduction  of  machinery  to  weaving  and  spinning  was 
made  in  England.  The  earliest  method  of  spinning  by  hand  was 
with  the  spindle  and  distaff.  With  very  slight,  if  any  modifications 
or  improvements  in  these  implements,  this  method  continued  in 
use  for  centuries.  The  looms,  also,  for  weaving,  were  of  a  very 
primitive  and  rough  description.  Even  with  these  appliances, 
however,  very  fine  fabrics  were  produced,  but  at  a  cost  of  time 
and  labor  which  placed  them  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  any  but 
the  very  rich.  The  simple  looms  upon  which  the  camel’s-hair 
shawls  are  woven  are,  perhaps,  the  best  representatives  remaining 
now  in  use  of  the  looms  which  were  used  by  our  ancestors.  So 
great  an  innovation  upon  the  spindle  and  distaff  was  the  spinning- 
wheel  regarded,  that  in  early  Anglo-Saxon  and  Irish  traditions 
it  was  considered  to  have  had  a  divine^  origin. 

The  simplest  form  of  the  spinning-wheel  is  supposed  to  have 
been  brought  from  India,  where  it  had  long  been  in  use,  and  in  Ger¬ 
many,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  it  was  improved  by  .having  the 
treadle  applied  to  it.  Dr.  Taylor,  in  his  “  Hand-Book  of  the  Silk, 
Cotton,  and  Woollen  Manufacture ,”  has  given  a  version  of  the  Irish 
legend  of  the  divine  gift  of  the  spinning-wheel,  as  he  took  it  from 
the  lips  of  an  Irish  peasant  woman. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  about  1767,  Hargreaves  invented  the 
spinning  jenny,  though,  in  a  poem  entitled  the  “  Fleece,”  printed 
in  this  same  year,  the  distaff  and  spindle  are  spoken  of  as  being 
still  in  quite  general  use  in  Norwich  and  the  county  of  Suffolk, 
from  which  portion  of  England  many  of  the  first  settlers  of  this 
country  came. 

The  following  lines,  in  which  the  allusion  occurs,  may  prove  of 
interest  ;  — 

“  Anil  many  still  adhere 
To  the  ancient  distaff,  at  the  bosom  fixed, 

Casting  the  whirling  spindle  as  they  walk; 

At  home,  or  in  the  sheep-fold,  or  the  mart, 

Alike  the  work  proceeds.  Thi§  method  still 


COTTON  AND  WOOLLEN  MACHINERY. 


1175 

Noricum  favors  and  the  Icenian  towns ; 

It  yields  their  airy  stuffs  an  apter  thread.” 

With  Hargreaves’s  invention  a  new  era  opened  for  this  branch 
of  industry,  and  Arkwright,  Crompton,  and  others,  with  their  inven¬ 
tions,  abolished  the  era  of  hand-labor,  and  laid  the  foundations  for 
the  methods  now  used  for  cloth  making.  There  is  no  question  that 
in  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  of  this  country,  the  distaff  and 
spindle  were  used,  but  they  were  soon  superseded  by  the  spinning- 
wheel.  With  the  narrow-sighted  policy  which  characterized  her 
treatment  of  her  colonies,  England  attempted  to  suppress,  by 
legislation  and  in  other  various  ways,  the  increasing  manufactures 
of  the  seaboard  states  ;  but  despite  the  restrictions  she  placed  upon 
the  export  of  cloths  made  in  America,  the  home  demand  was, 
yearly,  more  and  more  nearly  supplied  by  the  domestic  produc¬ 
tion.  In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  an 
enthusiastic  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  fostering  the  colonial 
manufactures  ;  and  a  public  meeting  was  held  in  Boston,  presided 
over  by  Judge  Sewall,  in  which  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
report  upon  the  propriety  of  “  establishing  a  spinning-school  or 
schools  for  the  instruction  of  the  children  of  the  town.”  The 
movement  resulted  in  the  erection  of  a  large  brick  building  upon 
what  is  now  Tremont  Street,  emblematically  decorated  with  a 
figure,  upon  its  facade,  of  a  woman  spinning.  At  its  opening  an 
immense  crowd  gathered,  and  the  women  of  Boston,  the  rich  as 
well  as  the  poor,  appeared  in  public  on  the  Common,  carrying  their 
wheels,  and  displayed  their  dexterity  in  using  them  by  public 
trials  of  skill.  In  1737,  by  an  act  of  the  Assembly,  a  tax  was  laid 
upon  private  carriages  and  other  luxuries,  the  proceeds  of  which 
were  to  be  devoted  to  supporting  this  spinning-school.  The 
movement  spread  throughout  the  colonies,  and  various  efforts 
were  made  to  foster  the  same  industry  by  other  local  gov¬ 
ernments. 

During  the  war  for  independence  the  population  was  dependent 
for  its  supplies  of  cloth  of  all  kinds  upon  their  own  exertions,  and 
after  the  revolution,  motives  of  economy  led  to  fostering  this 
among  other  branches  of  domestic  industry. 

On<  account  of  the  jealous  strictness  with  which  England  guard¬ 
ed  against  the  exportation  of  any  of  her  improved  machines  for 
spinning  and  weaving,  as  well  as  the  emigration  of  those  skilled  in 
their  use,  or  capable  of  building  them,  there  was  great  difficulty  in 
getting  them  into  America.  It  is  said  that  models  of  Arkwright’s 


1176  COTTON  AND  WOOLLEN  MACHINERY. 

machines,  which  were  made  small  enough  to  be  concealed  in  a 
trunk,  were  seized  at  the  custom-house,  and  confiscated.  Despite 
these  precautions,  however,  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the  use  of 
machinery  in  other  countries,  the  business  was  inaugurated  in 
the  United  States,  in  1787,  by  the  establishment  of  a  cotton  fac¬ 
tory  in  Beverly,  Mass.  Some  of  the  handkerchiefs  made  here 
were  still  in  existence  a  few  years  ago,  and  were  of  remarkably 
fine  and  solid  texture. 

In  1789,  Samuel  Slater,  who,  though  still  a  young  man,  had 
served  a  regular  apprenticeship  to  the  business,  and  made  himself 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  construction  of  the  looms  and 
spinning  machinery  then  in  use,  came  to  the  United  States,  and 
succeeded  in  building  at  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  the  machinery  for  a 
mill,  which  began  operations  on  the  20th  of  December,  1790. 
This  was  the  first  use  in  this  country  of  the  Arkwright  machines. 
In  1810,  Alfred  Jenks,  who,  as  a  pupil  of  Slater’s,  and  afterwards 
as  an  assistant  with  him,  had  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  construction  of  cotton  machinery,  supplied  the  machinery  for 
a  mill  near  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Jenks  had  established  a  factory 
of  cotton  machinery  at  Holmesburg,  which  he  afterwards  removed 
to  Bridesburg.  He  also  supplied  the  machinery  for  other  mills. 
Ilis  business  having  increased,  Mr.  Jenks  removed  his  factory  to 
Bridesburg,  in  1820,  in  order  to  enjoy  the  greater  advantages  of 
this  place  for  the  shipment  of  his  products,  it  lying  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Delaware  River,  a  few  miles  from  Philadelphia. 

When  the  demand  for  woollen  machinery  began,  Mr.  Jenks 
engaged  also  in  its  production,  and  furnished  the  machinery  for 
the  first  woollen  mill  established  in  Pennsylvania,  by  Bethel  Moore, 
at  Conshohochen.  In  1830  he  invented  a  power  loom  for  weaving 
checks,  and  by  the  various  improvements  he  made  in  the  ma¬ 
chinery  for  spinning  and  weaving,  established  a  reputation  and 
laid  the  foundation  for  an  extensive  business. 

For  some  years  before  his  death  the  business  was  carried  on 
under  the  direction  of  his  son,  Mr.  Barton  H.  Jenks,  who  had 
been  carefully  educated,  under  his  father’s  direction,  as  a  machi¬ 
nist,  and  who  had  also  displayed,  from  his  earliest  youth,  great 
talents  in  this  direction.  During  the  course  of  his  career,  Mr. 
Barton  II.  Jenks  has  in  his  turn  improved  almost  every  portion 
of  the  machinery  used  in  cotton  and  woollen  machinery.  From 
the  process  of  ginning  the  raw  cotton,  in  carding  it,  spinning  and 
weaving  it,  each  separate  manipulation  it  undergoes  has  been 


COTTON  AND  WOOLLEN  MACHINERY. 


im 

facilitated  and  improved  by  the  machinery  invented  and  patented 
by  Mr.  Jenks. 

A  few  years  ago  the  establishment  at  Bridesburg  was  incorpo¬ 
rated  by  a  special  act  of  the  legislature,  and  made  a  joint  stock 
concern,  with  a  capital  of  one  million  of  dollars.  Under  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  Mr.  Barton  H.  Jenks,  who  has  remained  the  president  of 
the  company  since  its  incorporation,  the  Bridesburg  Manufacturing 
Company  has  maintained  its  reputation  for  the  excellence  of  the 
machinery  it  produces,  and  is  to-day  as  well  organized  and  thor¬ 
oughly  equipped  a  manufacturing  establishment  as  there  is  in  the 
world.  Not  only  has  Mr.  Jenks’s  inventive  talent  been  applied 
to  improving  the  machines  which  the  works  produce,  and  which 
are  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  of  their  kind  known, both  for  their 
excellence  of  workmanship  and  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the 
work  they  do,  but  he  has  also  invented  various  machines  by  which 
the  manufacture  of  the  various  parts  of  the  cotton  and  woollen 
machines  themselves  is  facilitated,  and  by  which  their  requisite 
accuracy  is  assured  beyond  the  hope  of  competition. 

Under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Jenks,  who  has  displayed  as  much 
talent  for  organization  as  he  has  for  invention,  the  Bridesburg 
Manufacturing  Company  has  become  one  of  the  most  important 
industrial  enterprises  in  the  country.  It  employs  an  average  of 
over  five  hundred  workmen,  and  the  spirit  with  which  it  is  direct¬ 
ed  is  sufficientl}'  shown  by  the  fact,  that  many  of  them  now  in  the 
employ  of  the  company  have  remained  in  their  present  situations 
for  periods  of  twenty  and  thirty  years. 

In  the  space  of  such  an  article  as  this  it  would  be  manifestly 
impossible  to  detail  with  minuteness  the  various  appliances  and 
improvements  which  have  given  the  productions  of  the  Bridesburg 
Manufacturing  Company  their  deserved  reputation,  since  there  is 
not  a  process  which  cotton  or  woollen  undergoes,  in  the  course 
of  its  transformation  from  the  raw  state  to  cloth,  which  has  not 
been  the  subject  of  careful  study  and  ingenious  improvement  in 
the  hands  of  Mr.  Jenks.  One  of  the  most  important  improve¬ 
ments,  among  the  various  inventions  made  by  Mr.  Jenks,  is  the 
series  of  simple  appliances  by  which  he  has  perfected  the  step, 
the  bolster,  the  bobbin,  and  the  spindle.  The  trouble  with  the 
spindles  formerly  in  use  was,  that  the  bobbin  was  apt  to  be  forced 
down  upon  it,  and,  when  in  motion,  would  consequently  work  and 
become  loosened,  often  flying  off,  and  in  all  cases  injuring  the 
evenness  and  tightness  of  the  thread,  while,  from  the  working  of 


ms 


COTTON  AND  WOOLLEN  MACHINERY. 


the  joints,  the  accuracy  of  the  position  of  the  bobbin  was  de¬ 
stroyed.  These  objections  were  obviated  by  making  the  set  screw, 
which  held  the  spindle  to  the  step,  work  in  a  groove,  rotating 
about  it,  so  that  when'worn  the  relative  position  of  the  spindle 
would  not  be  changed.  The  bobbin,  too,  is  made  of  a  hollow 
cylinder  of  wood,  in  which  are  collars  above  and  below,  arranged 
with  slots,  which  hold  the  bobbin  firmly  to  the  spindle,  while  giv¬ 
ing  it  just  enough  play  to  so  arrange  itself,  when  in  motion,  as  to 
revolve  upon  its  centre  of  gravity.  However  great,  therefore,  may 
be  the  speed  of  its  revolution,  like  a  boy’s  top  when  “  it  sleeps, ” 
as  the  boys  say,  it  balances  itself,  and  rotates  without  any  os¬ 
cillation.  By  these,  and  other  simple  modifications,  which  have 
been  patented,  but  which  could  hardly  be  explained  here  without  a 
more  fully  illustrated  description  than  our  space  affords,  the  results 
attained  in  the  spinning-frames  made  by  the  Bridesburg  Company 
render  them  superior  to  any  and  all  others.  In  the  old  spinning- 
frame,  the  greatest  speed  of  revolution  which  can  be  reached  is 
seven  thousand  in  a  minute,  while  these  average  ten  thousand  revo¬ 
lutions  a  minute.  By  the  greater  lightness,  also,  of  the  spindles,  as 
thus  constructed,  weighing  as  they  do  less  than  one  quarter  as  much 
as  the  ordinary  spindle,  and  by  the  accuracy  with  which  they  are 
fitted,  they  can  be  run  at  almost  double  the  speed,  with  about  half 
the  power  needed  for  the  spindles  previously  in  use.  Though  at 
first  this  result  may  not  appear  so  important,  yet  a  little  consid¬ 
eration  will  show  that  it  is  a  matter  of  national  importance.  It  _ 
amounts,  practically,  to  providing  the  conditions  for  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  the  enormous  supply  of  textile  fabrics  needed  for  the  con¬ 
sumption  of  this  country  with  one  half  the  number  of  spindles  of 
the  old  kind  ;  and  not  only  this,  but  with  half  the  power ;  thus 
saving  the  necessity  for  the  mining  or  transportation  of  the  enor¬ 
mous  quantity  of  coal  which  is  now  consumed  to  create  the  power 
for  the  countless  mills  engaged  in  making  cloths  of  all  kinds. 

If  he  who  has  made  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where  formerly 
there  was  but  one,  deserves  the  gratitude  of  his  fellow-men,  what 
measure  of  the  same  should  be  accorded  to  him  who  has  thus  quad- 
rupled  the  productive  spinning  capacity  of  the  country,  and  thus 
provided  the  material  conditions  for  quadrupling  the  consumption  ? 
Yet  this  is  the  result  which  the  country  really  owes  to  Barton 
II.  Jenks. 


COMBS. 


EGYPTIAN,  GREEK,  AND  ROMAN  COMBS. — WOOD,  IVORY,  GOLD,  AND  SHELL  AS 
MATERIAL.  —  COMBS  POR  USE  AND  ORNAMENT.  —  TORTOISE  SHELL.  —  WHERE 
AND  HOW  IT  IS  PROCURED.  —  CRUELTY  OE  THE  PROCESS-  —  MANUFACTCRE  OF 
SHELL  COMBS.  — INLAID  SHELL-WORK.  —  FIRST  COMB  MANUFACTORIES  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  EMPLOYMENT  OF  HORNSMITHS.  — COMB-MAKING  MACHINES. 

—  EARLY  PATENTS.  —  HOW  COMB  TEETH  ARE  CUT.  —  METAL  AND  MAGIC 
COMBS.  — NEW  MACHINERY.  — VULCANIZED  RUBBER  COMBS.  — ;  IVORY  COMBS. 

—  PRINCIPAL  PLACE  OF  MANUFACTURE. 

Combs,  both  for  use  and  ornament,  are  of  very  great  antiquity. 
The  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and  Romans  made  their  combs  from  hard 
wood,  generally  boxwood,  and  this  material  was  used  for  ages,  till 
horn,  ivory,  gold,  and  shell  were  substituted.  The  gold  combs  of 
the  middle  ages,  worn  as  ornaments,  or  to  support  the  hair,  were 
frequently  adorned  with  precious  stones.  The  horny,  overlapping 
plates  of  the  hawk’s-bill  turtle  were  known  to  the  ancient  Romans, 
who  used  them  in  inlaying  furniture  and  in  ornamental  work.  This 
tortoise  shell  afterwards  became  an  important  article  of  commerce, 
especially  in  India  and  China,  and  the  turtles  are  found  also  in  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific.  Fifteen  or  sixteen  pounds  of  shell  plates 
can  be  taken  from  a  single  well-grown  turtle,  and  the  process  pur¬ 
sued  by  the  turtle-hunters  is  to  remove  the  plates  by  heat  from  the 
back  of  the  living  turtle,  then  turning  the  turtle  back  to  the  sea 
again  to  grow  another  crop  —  a  proceeding  that  may  be  considered 
a  refined  cruelty  of  commerce. 

When  the  tortoise  shell  plates  are  to  be  manufactured  into 
combs,  they  are  softened  by  boiling,  and  are  then  cooled  in  metal 
moulds  to  any  shape  that  may  be  desired.  Excepting  in  Spain, 
Mexico,  and  South  America,  tortoise-shell  combs,  as  ornaments, 
have  nearly  ceased  to  be  articles  of  fashion,  though  a  few 
years  ago  they  were  almost  universally  worn,  and  some  of  the 
more  elaborately  wrought  patterns  were  very  costly.  The  delicacy 
68  •  (U79) 


1180 


COMBS. 


of  the  filigree  and  lace-like  work  on  some  of  the  “  back  combs, ” 
required  the  skill  of  workmen  who  might  be  called  artists.  The 
cuttings  of  the  shell  were  preserved,  softened  in  hot  water,  and 
were  moulded  into  plates  for  lesser-priced  combs,  and  the  shells  of 
turtles,  other  than  the  imbricated,  were  used  in  making  inferior 
articles.  The  use  of  other  and  cheaper  materials  for  hair  combs, 
for  use  and  not  ornament,  has  led  to  the  employment  of  tortoise 
shell  in  inlaying  cabinet  ware,  work-boxes,  etc.,  and  for  making 
card-cases  and  other  useful  and  ornamental  articles. 

From  the  days  when  a  pair  of  wooden  pocket-combs  could  be 
bought  anywhere  in  the  country  for  a  cent,  comb  manufacture  has 
been  an  important  industry  in  the  United  States.  Wood,  horn, 
shell,  metal,  ivory,  and,  of  late  years,  hard  rubber,  are  the  princi¬ 
pal  materials  used  in  the  manufacture.  The  colonists  imported 
their  combs  from  England  ;  but  in  1759  there  was  a  horn-comb 
manufactory,  the  first  in  the  country,  at  West  Newbury,  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts,  where  the  business  is  still  extensively  carried  on.  In  the 
same  year  a  comb-maker  in  Philadelphia  advertised  all  kinds  of 
combs  at  wholesale  and  retail.  In  1774  the  Provincial  Congress 
of  Massachusetts  suggested  the  encouragement  of  “  hornsmiths,” 
who  seem  at  that  time  to  have  made,  not  only  combs,  but  shoe¬ 
horns,  powder-horns,  and  horn  spoons.  In  1793  there  was  a  comb 
factory  in  Boston,  and  two  or  three  factories  in  Leominster,  Mass., 
one  manufacturer  making  excellent  ivory  combs. 

The  first  machine  for  making  combs  was  patented  by  Isaac  Try- 
•  on,  of  Connecticut,  in  1798.  As  the  importation  of  combs  almost 
entirely  ceased  during  the  revolution,  while  the  demand  was  not 
diminished,  the  domestic  manufacture  was  important  and  profitable, 
and  steadily  increased.  In  1809  three  manufacturers  in  Connecti¬ 
cut  obtained  patents  for  making  combs,  one  for  wooden  combs, 
and  a  New  York  manufacturer  took  out  a  patent  for  combs  made 
from  the  hoofs  of  cattle. 

At  first  the  teeth  in  all  combs  were  cut  by  a  fine  steel  saw  ;  but 
in  1814  one  of  the  Leominster  manufacturers  secured  a  patent  for 
a  machine  which  would  cut  combs  at  one  operation.  Another  pa¬ 
tent  for  cutting  and  manufacturing  was  granted  to  a  Philadelphia 
comb-maker  in  1818.  Two  years  afterwards  was  begun,  in  Sarato¬ 
ga  County,  N.  Y.,  the  manufacture  of  metal  combs,  in  which  the 
teeth  were  made  of  brass  wire,  and  the  new  style  soon  became 
very  popular.  A  more  modern  metal  comb  is  made  of  lead,  and  is 
the  “  magic  comb  ”  which  is  supposed  to  turn  gray  hairs  and  whis- 


COMBS. 


1181 


kers  to  their  11  original  color,”  as  it  does,  if  simply  blackening 
them  with  lead  can  effect  that  miracle. 

The  importance  of  this  manufacture  has  led  to  the  introduction 
of  new  machines,  which  shape,  press,  size,  cut  teeth,  and  com¬ 
pletely  finish  all  kinds  of  combs  with  great  rapidity  and  perfection. 
An  ingenious  machine  cuts  two  combs  at  once  from  the  same  strip 
of  ivory,  shell,  or  other  material,  and  for  some  kinds  of  combs  the 
delicacy  of  the  machinery  is  such  that  a  hundred  teeth  may  be  cut 
in  the  space  of  an  inch. 

The  invention  of  vulcanized  India  rubber,  and  experiments  with 
hard  rubber  in  various  applications,  resulted  in  the  discovery  that 
it  is  one  of  the  best  and  cheapest  materials  for  making  combs,  and 
very  superior  and  highly  finished  rubber  combs,  which  in  flexibility 
and  durability  are  equal  to  the  best  horn  and  shell,  are  now  exten¬ 
sively  manufactured.  The  principal  factory  for  the  making  of 
ivory  combs  is  located  at  Meriden,  Ct.,  and  the  company  was 
formed  by  the  association  of  several  leading  manufacturers  of  that 
class  of  goods. 


BUTTONS  OF  NO  USE  TO  THE  SAVAGE.  —  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  HISTORY  OF 
COSTUME.  — THE  ROMAN  USE  OF  THE  TOGA. — MUSEUM  OF  BUTTONS;  THEIR 
VALUE.  — THE  QUANTITY  OF  BUTTONS  CONSUMED. —  CLASSIFICATION  OF 
BUTTONS. —  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE. —  WHERE  THE  MATERIALS  ARE 
OBTAINED.  —  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONAL  BUTTON  COMPANY. 


From  the  naked  savage  to  the  civilized  man  of  modern  times, 
the  gradations  of  clothing  are  infinite.  Accustomed  as  we  are  to 
the  style  of  dress  we  wear,  it  is  seldom  that  it  ever  occurs  to  us 
men  that  the  coats,  the  waistcoats  and  pantaloons  we  cover  our¬ 
selves  with,  are  not  the  natural  and  inevitable  dress  of  men  all 
ovef  the  world,  and  in  all  ages.  Yet  a  simple  inspection  of  such 
a  work,  for  example,  as  The  Uncivilized  Races  of  Mdn*  will  show 
that,  even  at  the  present  day,  it  is  only  a  small  minority  of  the 
world’s  inhabitants  who  dress  as  we  do,  while  perhaps  nearly  one 
half  of  the  remainder  look  upon  dress  as  a  pure  article  of  luxury, 
to  be  used  more  for  purposes  of  personal  decoration  than  from 
any  considerations  of  decency  or  comfort. 

In  looking  at  the  history  of  costume,  and  comparing  the  style 
of  dress  used  by  the  ancients  and  the  moderns,  or,  in  the  present 
time,  by  the  nations  of  the  East,  and  those  of  Europe  and  the 
United  States,  we  shall  find  that  the  cliief  distinction  which  divides 
the  subject  of  clothing  into  two  classes  is  the  difference  of  loose¬ 
ness.  Among  the  ancients,  as  in  the  East  to-day,  the  dress  is 
flowing,  and  is  worn  as  drapery,  while  among  the  civilized  nations 

*  “The  Uncivilized  Races  of  Men  in  all  Countries  of  the  World;  being  a 
comprehensive  Account  of  their  Manners  and  Customs,  and  of  their  Physical, 
Social,  Mental,  Moral,  and  Religious  Characteristics.  By  Rev.  J.  G.  Wood. 
With  numerous  Illustrations.  Hartford:  J.  B.  Burr  &  Hyde.  1871.  This  is 
the  best  edition  of  this  admirable  exposition  of  the  condition  of  the  uncivilized 
races  of  men  who  are  still  existing  in  the  world. 

(1182)  _ 


BUTTONS. 


i:83 


of  to-day  the  various  articles  of  dress  are  cut  to  fit  closely  to  the 
person.  In  the  East  garments  are  wrapped  round  the  person, 
while  the  civilized  man  puts  his  clothes  on.  The  reason  for  this 
difference  is  really  a  question  of  buttons,  and  it  is  to  the  invention 
and  introduction  of  this  simple  and  useful  article  that  we  must 
ascribe  the  difference  of  our  methods  of  dressing  from  those  in 
use  in  the  East,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  difference  in  our  avo¬ 
cations  and  habits  of  living,  which  are  so  dependent  upon  the 
style  of  our  dress. 

The  savage,  who  first  fastened  his  robe,  made  of  some  animal’s 
skin,  with  a  thorn  or  a  sinew,  so  that  he  could  wear  it  and  use 
his  hands  without  the  necessity  of  holding  it  on,  commenced  the 
advance  in  costume  which  with  us  has  finally  culminated  in  the 
coats  and  pantaloons  of  to-day.  It  might  not  be  •  too  much  to 
say  that  the  Romans  retained  the  use  of  the  toga  chiefly  because 
they  had  not  yet  discovered  any  inexpensive  way  of  making  but¬ 
tons.  Had  they  been  able  to  fasten  their  garments  by  some  sim¬ 
pler  method  than  that  of  brooches  or  strings,  the  dress  coat  and 
the  waistcoat  would  not  have  remained  undiscovered  until  modern 
times. 

During  ancient  times  buttons  were  far  from  being  as  universally 
used  as  they  are  now.  '  Clasps,  hooks  and  eyes,  various  devices 
made  of  metal,  and  resembling  in  principle  our  breastpins,  were 
the  articles  most  generally  used  for  fastening  the  two  edges  of 
garments,  and  with  these  and  strings  the  people  of  those  times 
had  to  be  content.  Now,  however,  buttons  are  made  of  various 
materials.  Metals,  glass,  porcelain,  horn,  bone,  india  rubber, 
mother  of  pearl,  wood,  are  but  a  small  part  of  the  substances 
which  have  been  impressed  into  this  service. 

In  some  of  the  museums  of  Europe  are  collections  of  buttons  ; 
and  insignificant  as  such  a  collection  might  seem,  yet,  when  thus 
brought  together  and  classified,  they  form  the  material  for  a  study 
of  our  social  history  which  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  One 
of  the  most  curious  kind  of  button  was. in  use  about  a  century 
ago  among  the  aristocratic  fops  of  England.  They  were  made 
of  polished  brass,  and,  being  ruled  with  lines  so  fine  as  to  be 
almost  microscopic,  the  roughness  of  the  surface  thus  obtained 
served  to  break  the  reflection  of  the  light  falling  upon  them,  and 
gave  them,  apparently,  the  prismatic  colors.  The  peouliar  beauty 
of  mother  of  pearl,  and  its  iridescent  brilliancy,  are  said  to  be 
produced  by  the  fact  that  the  thin  plates  overlap  each  other 


1184 


BUTTONS. 


unevenly,  and  thus  disperse  the  light  as  they  reflect  it.  These 
buttons  appeared  thus  iridescent  from  the  same  cause,  and, 
being  very  expensive,  costing  a  guinea  each,  they  were,  of 
course,  for  a  time  the  rage. 

The  quantity  of  buttons  consumed  is  enormous.  Some  im¬ 
practicable  economist  has  calculated  that  if  the  civilized  world  at 
large  could  be  induced  to  forego  the  wearing  of  the  two  buttons 
upon  the  backs  of  our  coats,  where  they  are  of  no  practical  use, 
and  of  doubtful  decorative  value,  the  amount  thus  saved  would, 
in  time,  accumulate  to  sufficient  to  support  an  extended  system 
of  charity.  Fashion,  however,  which  regulates  according  to  its 
own  fancy  most  of  these  things,  has  recently  tended  towards  the 
discarding  of  these  supernumerary  buttons  ;  but,  as  far  as  known, 
the  money  thus  saved  is  not  wholly  applied  to  charitable  pur¬ 
poses. 

Buttons  are  of  two  kinds,  those  which  are  to  be  sewed  to  the 
garment  through  holes  drilled  in  the  button  itself,  and  those 
which  have  a  shank  by  which  they  are  attached  to  the  garment. 
These  last  are  most  generally  made  of  metal,  and  the  process  of 
making  and  covering  them  can  be  best  shown  by  a  description 
of  the  works  of  the  National  Button  Company,  at  East  Hamp¬ 
ton,  Massachusetts,  where  the  various  operations  have  been  sys¬ 
tematically  organized. 

The  iron  used  for  the  shell  of  the  buttons  is  of  the  best  quality, 
and  is  delivered  in  sheets,  and  is  first  “  scaled, ”  the  scales  being 
removed  by  acid,  in  order  to  preserve  the  tools.  The  iron  is  then 
submitted  to  a  machine  which  cuts  it  into  the  required  shape  and 
size.  The  collet,  or  under  portion  of  the  button,  and  the  shell, 
constitute  all  the  iron  used  in  the  button.  The  collet,  after  being 
cut  and  stamped,  is  then  japanned.  The  filling  of  the  button  is 
made  of  brown  paper  or  of  button  board.  The  covering  and  the 
shank  of  the  buttons  are  cut  by  hand,  with  hollow  chisels. 

The  next  process  is  putting  the  parts  together,  or,  as  it  is  tech¬ 
nically  called,  covering  them,  which  connects  all  the  parts.  Next 
the  buttons  are  subjected  to  the  process  of  pressing,  which  gives 
both  strength  and  the  required  shape  to  them.  Then  they  are 
inspected,  and  all  that  are  not  perfect  are  rejected.  Then  they 
are  counted  out .  by  weight  ;  a  gross  having  been  counted  are 
weighed,  and  this  weight  serves  as  a  measure  for  counting  out 
the  rest.  Next  they  are  packed,  ready  for  shipment. 

The  extent  of  the  business  can  be  estimated  from  the  following 


BUTTONS. 


1183 


statistics.  The  amount  of  iron  consumed  by  the  National  Button 
Company  varies  from  five  hundred  to  seven  hundred  boxes  a 
year ;  each  box  containing  from  one  hundred  and  twelve  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty  pounds  of  iron  in  sheets.  The  coverings  for 
the  buttons  consist  of  various  materials  ;  the  lasting,  brocade,  and 
twists  are  mainly  imported,  as  is  also  the  canvas  for  the  shanks. 

For  this  industry  the  world  is  laid  under  contribution,  a  por¬ 
tion  of  this  material  coming  from  England,  while  the  brocades 
and  twists  are  imported  chiefly  from  France  and  Germany.  The 
production  of  this  establishment  amounts  to  four  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  gross  a  year,  or  almost  sixty -five  millions  of  buttons, 
which  it  would  seem  was  enough  to  supply  the  needs  of  the 
entire  population  of  the  country,  whether  the  supernumerary  but¬ 
tons  worn  on  the  backs  of  coats  were  discarded  or  not. 

In  the  production  of  these  one  hundred  and  forty  persons  are 
employed,  who  are  mainly  adult  women,  and  Americans  by  birth. 
The  business  was  commenced  by  Joel  Hayden,  of  Haydenville, 
who,  in  1834,  began  to  make  flexible  buttons.  Before  the  present 
process  was  introduced  the  buttons  were  covered  by  hand,  and 
the  covering  secured  by  sewing  ;  but  this  slow  process  had  to  be 
discarded,  in  order  to  meet  the  growing  demand,  and,  by  the 
gradual  introduction  of  their  new  methods,  the  company  has 
eventually  reached  their  present  position  among  the  leaders  in 
this  branch  of  national  industry. 


HOTELS. 

OLD  ENGLISH  INNS.  — AMERICAN  TAVERNS  IN  THE  STAGE-COACH  DAYS. — LAND¬ 
LORDS  AND  SERVANTS.  —  THE  HOTELS  OF  TO-DAY.  —  EXTRAVAGANCE  AND 
DISPLAY  VS.  ECONOMY  AND  COMFORT. — THE  TABLE  D'HOTE  SYSTEM. — HO¬ 
TELS  IN  EUROPE  ON  THE  AMERICAN  MODEL.  —  THE  LOUVRE  AND  GRAND  HO¬ 
TELS  IN  PARIS.  —  THE  LANGHAM  AND  CHARING  CROSS  HOTELS  IN  LONDON. — 

d.  d.  Howard’s  project.  —  the  European  plan  in  the  united  states.  — 

THE  PIONEER  ESTABLISHMENTS  IN  AMERICA-  — REVOLUTION  IN  HOTEL  KEEP¬ 
ING. —  LANDMARKS  OF  AMERICAN  PROGRESS.  — MARCH  OF  NEW  YORK  UP 
TOWN.  — MANIA  FOR  IMMENSE  HOTELS.  —  GREAT  SEA-SIDE  AND  WATERING- 
PLACE  ESTABLISHMENTS.  —  ACCOMPANYING  INDUSTRIES.  —  FAMILY  HOTELS.  — 
THE  MODEL  MODERN  HOTEL.  —  EVERYTHING  UNDER  ONE  ROOF.  —  LABOR- 
SAVING  MACHINERY.  — SHOPS  AND  STORES.  —  A  COMPLETE  CITY  IN  MINIA¬ 
TURE.  —  THE  NEXT  LESSON  TO  BE  LEARNED. 

Falstaff’s  question,  “Shall  I  not  take  mine  ease  in  mine  inn  ?  ft 
is  an  expression  of  that  complete  comfort  and  entire  independence 
which  travellers  in  all  ages  and  in  all  nations  have  at  least  expected 
to  find  in  a  public  house  ;  but  often  indeed  has  the  ancient  legend, 
11  Good  entertainment  for  man  and  beast/’  been  only  a  promise  to 
the  eye,  as  well  as  ear,  to  be  broken  to  the  hope.  The  hostel  of  old 
times  became  the  inn  ;  with  the  increase  of  travel  and  the  growth 
of  cities,  the  inn  expanded  to  the  hotel  —  a  name  hitherto  applied 
to  the  great  and 'sumptuous  city  residences  of  the  noble  and  rich 
in  Europe  ;  and  with  the  present  and  prospective  advance  in  the 
size  and  splendor  of  hotels,  particularly  in  the  United  States,  we 
shall  soon  come  to  express  their  full  grandeur  by  calling  them  pal¬ 
aces,  as  indeed  some  of  them  are. 

Before  the  days  of  railways  in  England,  in  the  old  mail-coach 
times,  the  wayside  inns  were  the  embodiment  of  good  cheer  and 
comfort.  And  so  in  the  stage  and  turnpike  times  in  the  United 
States,  the  tavern  in  country  towns  and  in  cities  gave  the  sojourn¬ 
er,  at  reasonable  rates,  the  real  worth  of  his  money  in  food,  drink, 
and  lodging.  Then  the*huge  clapboard  or  staring  red  brick 
(1186) 


HOTELS. 


1 1 r  7 


“  hotel  ”  close  to  every  railroad  station,  with  its  profusion  of  often  ill- 
cooked  meats,  its  adulterated  liquors,  its  horde  of  ill-trained,  some¬ 
times  ill-mannered,  Hibernian  “  help,”  its  small,  unventilated  rooms, 
its  economy  of  actual  comforts,  and  its  extravagance  of  suppositi¬ 
tious  charges  in  the  bill,  was  unknown.  The  cleanly,  unpretend¬ 
ing  '.‘tavern,”  with  its  table  bountifully  furnished  with  the  best 
products  of  the  field  and  garden,  wood  and  river,  and  attended  by 
neat  handmaids,  exists  now  in  rare  instances,  or  in  remote  places 
removed  from  the  great  lines  of  travel.  When  such  resorts  were 
common,  the  landlord  was  not,  as  now,  the  traveller’s  master,  but 
his  servant ;  and  the  “  guest,”  as  the  sojourner  is  even  now  called, 
wms  indeed  a  guest,  and  during  his  s^ay  was  so  considered  and 
treated. 

Extravagance  and  display  have  almost  entirely  superseded  the 
old-fashioned  economy  and  comfort.  This  is  simply  because  the 
change  has  been  demanded.  The  present  generation  likes  large 
hotels,  and  the  correspondingly  large  hotel  bills,  which  imply  the 
desire  for  unbounded  luxuries  and  the  ability  to  pay  for  them. 
Americans,  too,  more  than  any  other  people,  are  gregarious  ;  and 
if  a  man  is  known  by  the  company  he  keeps,  Americans  especially 
are  known  by  the  amount  of  company  they  keep,  and  hence,  with 
perpetual  travel  and  much  hotel  frequenting,  they  have  and  make 
more  acquaintances  than  any  other  people  in  the  world.  The  table 

d'hote  which  assembles  from  one  hundred  to  one  thousand  persons 

* 

in  a  single  dining-room,  with  the  accompanying  din,  as  well  as 
dinner,  the  clatter  of  cutlery  and  crockery,  and  the  rush  of  a 
regiment  of  waiters,  is  an  Americanism  which  is  not,  nor  for  some 
years  is  likely  to  be,  popular  abroad,  though  it  obtains  to  a  limited 
extent  in  some  of  the  more  modern  German  hotels,  and  in  some 
of  the  English  and  European  watering-places.  Nowhere  else  in 
the  world  is  the  hotel  so  essentially  a  “  public  ”  house  as  in  the 
United  States  ;  and  publicity  in  its  fullest  extent  in  the  halls,  par¬ 
lors,  reading-rooms,  and  dining-rooms  is  here  preferred  to  the  com¬ 
parative  privacy  which  is  sought  in  hotels  abroad. 

The  great  modern  hotel,  wherever  it  appears,  abroad  or  at  home, 
is  a  strictly  American  invention.  When  the  Hotel  Louvre,  in  Par¬ 
is,  —  the  first  of  the  immense  foreign  hotels,  —  was  projected,  com¬ 
plete  plans  of  the  then  recently-erected  St.  Nicholas  Hotel,  in  New 
York,  were  sent  over  to  give  the  Parisian  architect  an  idea  of  the 
interior  arrangements.  The  Grand  Hotel,  of  Paris,  yet  more  ex-, 
tensive  than  the  Louvre,  is  only  a  more  complete  carrying  out  of 


1138 


HOTELS. 


the  American  plan  of  a  first-class  city  hotel.  But  to  the  American 
idea  of  a  hotel  building  was  wedded  the  European  idea  of  hotel 
keeping,  which  is  only  beginning  to  make  its  way  in  the  United 
States  —  that  is,  of  charging  guests  according  to  their  actual  ac¬ 
commodations,  and  of  not  compelling  a  guest  who  occupies  a  room 
just  under  the  roof  to  pay  the  same  price  charged  to  a  more  fa¬ 
vored  customer,  to  whom  is  assigned  a  better  and  far  better  fur¬ 
nished  apartment  on  the  first  floor.  What  is  called,  too,  the 
u  European  plan  ”  —  meaning  often  a  plan  on  which  no  hotel  in 
Europe  is  kept  —  that  is,  of  furnishing  meals  from  a  bill  of  fare 
at  a  certain  price  for  every  dish,  thus  implying  that  the  guest 
pays  only  for  what  he  orders  —  obtains  now  in  some  American 
hotels,  in  many,  even,  which  still  maintain  also  a  table  d’hote,  and 
which  charge  such  guests  as  choose  a  fixed  price  per  day  for  all 
that  the  hotel  can  furnish. 

Thus  we  have  borrowed  a  little  from  countries  to  which  we  have 
given  much.  Till  quite  recently,  London  and  Paris,  which  assem¬ 
ble  constantly  crowds  of  travellers  from  all  nations,  had  no  large 
hotels  ;  or  rather,  a  hotel  which  could  feed  and  shelter  a  hundred 
guests  was  deemed  a  large  one.  A  few  years  ago,  D.  D.  How¬ 
ard,  who  had  attained  celebrity  and  acquired  a  fortune  as  a  hotel 
keeper  in  New  York,  contemplated  the  erection  of  an  immense 
hotel  on  the  American  plan  in  London.  The  difficulty  of  secur¬ 
ing  a  proper  location  and  the  cost  of  land  dissuaded  him  from  his 
project ;  but  since  then  the  Langham  Hotel,  kept  by  an  American, 
and  the  still  larger  Charing  Cross  Hotel,  have  furnished  suitable 
and  much-needed  accommodation  for  travellers,  and  have  given 
Londoners  an  idea  of  what  a  hotel  really  is,  or  should  be. 

Among  the  now  numerous  hotels  in  the  United  States,  the  St. 
Charles,  at  New  Orleans,  and  the  Astor  House,  in  New  York,  were 
the  pioneer  establishments.  These  establishments  were,  in  fact, 
experiments  —  to  see  if  the  assemblage  of  the  accommodations  of 
several  hotels  under  one  roof,  with  the  consequent  economy  in 
management,  might  not  result  in  a  complete  revolution  in  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  hotel  keeping.  It  did.  The  experiment,  from  the  start, 
was  a  success.  The  world-wide  reputation  which  these  hotels 
achieved  for  their  vastness,  their  tables,  their  conveniences,  their 
comforts,  with  the  immense  increase  of  travel  which  ocean  steam¬ 
ers  and  railway  lines  induced,  soon  necessitated  the  erection  of 
similar  but  larger  and  more  complete  hotels  in  every  leading  city 
in  the  Union. 


HOTELS. 


1189 


These  great  hotels  are  great  landmarks  of  American  progress  in 
wealth  and  population.  In  New  York,  milestones  bearing  the  date 
of  the  opening  of  new  streets  would  not  more  surely  mark  the 
*  growth  of  the  city  in  business  and  boundaries,  than  do  the  great 
hotels  in  their  march  towards  Harlem.  Time  was,  within  the 
memory  of  men  yet  in  their  prime,  when  the  Astor  and  Irving  (on 
the  corner  of  Chambers  Street  and  Broadway)  were  “  up  town.” 
When  the  St.  Nicholas  and  Metropolitan  Hotels  were  projected,  it 
was  predicted  that  they  were  too  far  away  from  the  business  and 
travel  centres  to  “make  a  living;  ”  no  one  would  go  “  so  far  up 
town  ;  ”  it  was  folly  to  build  them  :  but  now  these  up-town  hotels 
are  very  far  down  town ;  and  above  them  on  Broadway,  on  Union 
and  Madison  Squares,  on  some  of  the  cross  streets,  up  to  Forty- 
second  Street,  have  since  been  erected  even  larger  and  finer  hotels, 
while  the  most  expensive  and  enormous  establishment  yet  pro¬ 
jected  is  to  cover  a  whole  block  in  front  of  Central  Park.  The 
locations  of  these  new  hotels  indicate  the  up-town  progress  of  busi¬ 
ness  ;  and  with  the  hotels  the  theatres,  which  are  mainly  sup¬ 
ported  by  the  floating  population,  go  also  ;  and  with  these  also 
the  retail  stores,  particularly  those  devoted  to  dry  goods,  jewelry, 
and  articles  of  luxury,  keep  pace.  The  building  of  the  new  grand 
railway  station  at  Forty-second  Street  will  compel  the  erection  of 
large,  first-class  hotels  in  that  vicinty. 

The  mania*  for  immense  hotels  has  extended  from  New  York,  not 
only  to  other  cities,  but  to  the  smaller  sea-side  resorts  and  water¬ 
ing-places.  Newport,  Long  Branch,  Cape  May,  Saratoga,  and  the 
numerous  new  resorts  on  Long  Island  Sound,  and  along  the  Atlan¬ 
tic  coast,  now  exhibit  hotels  which  often  surpass  in  size  the  largest 
establishments  in  the  cities.  When  it  is  considered  that  the  en¬ 
tire  season  for  most  of  these  hotels  covers  a  period  of  only  three 
months,  in  which  the  whole  harvest  of  the  year  must  be  gathered, 
it  may  be  imagined  how  many  thousand  guests  are  to  be  accommo¬ 
dated,  and  proportionally  “  charged,”  to  pay  the  expenses  of  these 
houses,  and  to  leave  besides  the  oftentimes  enormous  clear  profit 
for  the  owners  and  proprietors.  These  hotels  are  also  the  direct 
stimulus  to  other  industries  and  business,  such  as  the  shops  kept 
open  only  in  the  summer,  billiard-rooms,  livery  stables,  etc.  ;  and 
they  occasion  a  vast  amount  of  expenditure  on  the  railway  and 
steamboat  lines  of  travel. 

In  some  of  the  large  cities,  in  New  York  especially,  the  high 
cost  of  living,  covering  rent,  servants’  wages,  food,  fuel,  and  all 


1190 


HOTELS. 


that  housekeeping1  compels,  has  induced  many  families  to  live  per¬ 
manently  in  hotels,  where  more  luxury  can  be  secured  at  less  ex¬ 
pense  than  in  any  other  way.  There  are  now  many  strictly  “  fami¬ 
ly  hotels, ”  comprising  the  best  features  of  the  “  community  ”  sys¬ 
tem,  in  which  each  family  really  shares  its  proportion  of  the  ex¬ 
pense  in  the  management  and  attendance  of  a  large  establishment. 
Quite  latel}-,  hotels  on  the  foreign  plan  have  been  built  in  New 
York,  where  unfurnished  suits  of  rooms  are  let  to  individuals  and 
families,  in  which  all  the  privacy  of  a  house  is  secured,  with  the 
advantages  of  a  public  restaurant,  or  meals  in  one’s  own  rooms, 
the  laundry,  the  services  of  superior  servants,  and  all  the  multi¬ 
tudinous  comforts  and  conveniences  which  a  great  hotel  can  give. 
When  the  economy  of  this  kind  of  living,  as  compared  with  the 
expense  necessary  to  secure  half  these  conveniences  and  accommo¬ 
dations  in  a  private  establishment,  is  considered,  the  family  hotel, 
on  the  latest  plan,  will  be  as  popular  in  America  as  it  is  abroad. 

The  model  modern  establishment  in  American  cities  is  something 
more  than  a  mere-  hotel.  It  combines  under  one  roof  many  sepa¬ 
rate  industries,  nearly  all  conducted  with  the  greatest  economy,  on 
the  most  improved  plans.  The  kitchen  and  laundry  are  supplied 
with  labor-saving  machinery.  Steam-propelled  elevators  hoist  and 
lower  guests  and  their  baggage  from  one  floor-  to  another.  There 
is  an  effective  police  and  fire  department.  A  post-office  is  an 
essential  feature.  There  is  telegraphic  communication,  not  only 
with  all  parts  of  the  hotel,  but  with  every  quarter  of  the  world 
which  is  reached  by  the  wires.  Under  the  same  roof,  and  con¬ 
necting  by  entrances  with  the  hotel,  are  retail  stores  devoted  to  the 
sale  of  clothing,  shoes,  hats,  jewelry,  trunks,  travelling-bags,  and 
other  needed  articles.  Billiard-rooms  and  bath-rooms  adjoin,  and 
from  the  Metropolitan  Hotel,  in  New  York,  one  can  step  under 
cover  into  Niblo’s  Theatre.  In  short,  the  first-class  American 
hotel  is  a  complete  miniature  city,  in  which  the  guest  can  find 
everything  essential  to  his  comfort,  and  everything  to  his  satisfac¬ 
tion,  perhaps,  excepting  the  bill.  And  the  bills  will  be  smaller 
when  American  landlords  learn  how  to  apply  the  economy,  so  con¬ 
spicuous  in  most  departments  of  their  business,  to  the  lessening 
of  the  woeful  waste  which  now  appears  in  their  kitchens  and  din¬ 
ing-rooms. 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER. 


man’s  FIRST  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  FORCES  OF  NATURE.  —  THE  FIRST  AIDS  HE 
USED.  —  THE  FIRST  PROPOSAL  TO  BUILD  A  DAM.  —  THE  SPANISH  CORTEZ 
AND  THE  DUTCH.  —  STEAM  AS  A  POWER.  —  WIND.  —  THE  SUNLIGHT.  —  AN 
ESTIMATE  OF  THE  POSSIBLE  WATER  POWER.  —  MODERN  SOCIETY  FOUNDED 
ON  INDUSTRY.  —  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THIS  CENTURY  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  — 
THE  CONNECTICUT.  —  THE  HADLEY  FALLS  COMPANY. — THE  LOSS  OF  THE 
FIRST  DAM.  — THE  SECOND  DAM  BUILT.  — THE  HOLYOKE  WATER  POWER 
COMPANY.  —  ITS  SUCCESS.  —  THE  DAM  STRENGTHENED.  — THE  HISTORY  OF 
HOLYOKE. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  human  race  men  were  naturally 
impressed  with  the  stupendous  energy  of  the  natural  forces  of 
nature,  as  compared  with  the  energy  of  their  own  muscular 
strength.  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that,  cowering  helpless  before 
the  whirlwind,  or  drenched  with  a  driving  storm,  or  blasted  with 
a  lightning  stroke,  our  forefathers  of  those  days  naturally  com 
sidered  these  exhibitions  of  the  energy  of  nature  as  evidences 
of  the  might  of  some  wrathful  being  of  a  greater  power  than 
their  own,  whose  anger  was  to  be  feared,  and  whose  passion  to 
be  appeased,  if  possible,  by  submission  and  adoration.  Between, 
these  destructive  manifestations  of  the  energy  of  natural  forces, 
and  the  beneficence  of  the  orderly  progress  of  the  seasons,  of  the 
warm  sunshine  and  the  gentle  showers,  making  the  earth  blossom 
with  herbs  and  flowers,  and  ripening  the  grains  and  fruits  for  the 
sustenance  of  men,  it  seemed  impossible  to  see  any  connection, 
or  to  consider  them  as  simply  different  manifestations  of  the  same 
cause. 

So,  too,  it  must  have  been  a  long  time  before  men  found  that  ' 
the  energy  of  the  natural  forces  could  be  made  subservient  to 
their  own  needs.  At  first  man  must  have  depended  entirely  upon 
his  own  muscles  for  the  force  he  required  to  exercise  in  perform¬ 
ing  any  work.  The  next  step  was  impressing  animals  to  his 

(1191) 


1192 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER. 


service.  But  this  is  depending  upon  the  most  complex  organiza¬ 
tions  in  the  world  for  the  supply  of  what  nature  provides  gratis. 
Doubtless,  to  the  “  practical  ”  men  among  his  contemporaries, 
the  man  who  first  proposed  to  use  the  energy  of  a  brook  which 
ran  babbling  over  the  rocks,  as  it  fell  in  its  course  from  some 
higher  to  a  lower  level,  was  considered  an  impracticable  theo- 
lizer,  or,  perhaps,  a  daring  innovator,  who  would  irreligiously 
propose  to  alter  the  established  order  of  things.  Though  this 
may  appear  impossible  to  us  to-day,  when  the  steam  engine  and 
the  telegraph  are  in  such  common  use,  yet  instances  of  the  same 
spirit  displayed  in  quite  modern  times  show  us  that  it  is  quite 
probable  that  such  was  the  reception  of  the  first  suggestion  to 
utilize  the  energy  of  a  waterfall. 

During  the  reign  of  Philip  II.,  of  Spain,  who  died  in  1598,  an 
offer  was  made  by  the  Dutch  to  deepen  the  Tagus  and  render  it 
navigable.  The  proposition  was  submitted  to  the  Cortez,  who 
replied  to  it  that  had  Providence  intended  to  make  the  Tagus 
navigable,  it  would  have  created  it  so,  and  that  they  declined  the 
proposal,  since,  in  their  opinion,  attempting  such  a  thing  would 
be  contrary  to  the  decrees  of  Providence. 

Though,  in  the  present  age  of  the  world,  our  industrial  advance 
is  not  restrained  or  hampered  by  such  considerations,  yet  the 
spirit  which  dictated  this  reply  is  not  yet  entirely  dead,  but,  in 
other  departments  of  human  thought  and  energy,  would  limit  and 
repress  the  increasing  power  of  the  human  mind  by  a  similar 
acquiescence  in  ignorant  beliefs. 

Of  all  the  modern  sources  of  power  upon  which  the  wonderful 
industrial  advance  of  the  present  century  is  founded,  that  derived 
from  water-courses  is  the  cheapest.  To  utilize  the  energy  of 
steam  requires  a  complicated  and  expensive  arrangement  of  ma¬ 
chinery  and  a  constant  supply  of  fuel.  The  motive  force  of  the 
wind,  as  applied  in  wind-mills,  is  liable  to  such  fluctuations  that 
it  cannot  be  counted  on  with  such  certainty  as  an  established 
industry  requires.  In  Holland,  however,  where  the  flatness  of 
the  country  offers  little  or  no  opportunity  for  the  use  of  water 
power,  wind-mills  are  largely  used.  The  landscape  is  dotted  with 
them,  and  the  chief  work  of  the  country  is  performed  by  them. 
Quite  recently  the  suggestion  has  been  made  for  collecting  and 
using  the  power  of  sunlight  for  obtaining  a  motive  power.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  appliances  could  be  made  by  which  this  could  be 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER. 


1193 


successfully  done  ;  but  as  yet  no  practical  steps  have  been  taken 
to  perform  it,  • 

Steam  is,  however,  the  chief  source  from  which  the  industry 
of  modern  times  derives  its  motive  power.  The  reasons  of  this 
are  chiefly  that  the  steam  engine  can  be  introduced  anywhere, 
while  water  power  can  be  obtained  only  in  certain  localities. 
Again,  too,  the  work  necessary  to  be  done  before  obtaining  the 
control  of  a  stream,  the  dams  to  be  built,  the  canals  to  be  dug, 
and  the  other  various  work  to  be  performed  before  the  energy 
of  a  waterfall  can  be  practically  applied,  necessitate  so  large  an 
expenditure  of  capital  that  some  of  our  best  natural  opportunities 
for  using  the  largest  streams  are  still  neglected.  It  is  probably  a 
fair  estimate  that  only  a  small  part,  perhaps  not  a  hundredth,  of 
the*  water  power  of  this  country  is  as  yet  utilized.  Even  in  the 
oldest  settled  parts  of  the  country  the  utilization  of  the  streams 
has  heretofore  been,  as  a  rule,  intrusted  to  individual  enterprise. 
The  conception  of  a  thorough  and  complete  survey  of  the  whole 
country,  with  the  view  of  utilizing  the  entire  water  power  which 
its  natural  configuration  affords,  by  an  extended  and  well-organ¬ 
ized  system,  has  not  yet  been  entertained.  In  this  respect,  as 
with  our  railroads  and  other  industrial  enterprises,  the  tendency 
of  the  times  is  towards  the  conception  and  realization  of  projects 

which  would  even  in  the  last  generation  have  been  considered  im- 

« 

possible,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  daily  becoming  more  evi¬ 
dent  that  the  method  with  which  such  enterprises  are  pursued 
must  be  such  as  shall  serve  the  purposes  of  the  increasing  ten¬ 
dency  of  society  towards  a  plan  of  more  intimate  union  and 
interdependence  of  its  parts. 

Our  modern  society  is  founded  upon  industry,  instead  of  war. 
In  Rome  and  in  Greece  all  industry  which  was  carried  on  was 
performed  by  slaves,  who  were  kept  in  a  state  of  degradation  and 
poverty  which  was,  perhaps,  worse  even  than  that  Existing  in  this 
country  before  the  abolition  of  slavery.  The  business  of  the  state 
was  warfare,  and  to  this  alone  the  increase  of  the  national  wealth 
was  owing.  The  tribute  of  the  conquered  nations  was  the  only 
resource  depended  upon  for  the  immense  sums  of  money  which 
supported  the  extravagance  of  the  wealthy  classes,  and  the  am¬ 
bitious  men  of  that  time  planned  a  new  campaign,  instead  of,  as 
at  present,  establishing  some  new  branch  of  industry. 

In  the  modern  world,  therefore,  the  utilization  of  the  energy 
Nature  displays  in  the  action  of  her  natural  forces,  is  really  the 


1194 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER. 


foundation  of  our  social  organization;  and  he  who  proposes  new 
methods  for  doing  this,  and  introduces  them  into  practical  opera¬ 
tion,  is  entitled  to  public  consideration.  In  the  early  part  of  this 
century,  when  manufacturing  industry  began  to* interest  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  capitalists  of  New  England,  the  undeveloped  water 
power,  then  running  simply  to  waste,  was  studied  carefully.  In 
Lowell,  Manchester,  and  various  other  towns  of  New  England, 
which  fifty  years  ago  were  simply  farms,  we  see  the  results  of  the 
combined  effort  necessary  to  utilize  the  energy  of  the  streams 
which  formerly  ran  uselessly  away.  Now  cities,  with  varied 
industries,  support  large  populations,  where  formerly  a  few  cattle 
cropped  a  scanty  herbage,  or  the  farmer,  by  hard  labor,  gathered 
his  meagre  harvest. 

The  chief  river  of  New  England,  however,  the  Connecticut, 
was  at  first  thought  to  be  too  large  a  stream  for  human  labor  to 
master  and  turn  to  its  own  uses.  But  industry,  like  ambition, 
grows,  by  what  it  feeds  on,  and,  as  the  man  performs  easily  tasks 
which  to  the  child  seem  impossible,  the  Holyoke  W ater  Power 
Company  have  performed  the  task  which  to  the  last  generation 
would  have  seemed  absurd  to  attempt. 

As  late  as  1831  the  present  site  of  this  vast  water  power  was  a 
rocky  channel,  through  which  the  Connecticut  jan  away  to  waste 
over  what  was  known  as  the  great  rapids,  or  falls  of  South  Had¬ 
ley.  These  falls  were  situated  at  a  point  between  the  lower  vil¬ 
lage  of  South  Hadley,  on  the  easterly  side  of  the  river,  and  a 
sparsely  settled  agricultural  district,  known  as  Ireland  Parish, 
which  was  then  a  part  of  the  town  of  West  Springfield,  on  the 
west  side  of  the  river.  The  rapids  extended  for  the  distance  of  a 
mile  and  a  half,  with  a  total  fall  of  sixty  feet. 

In  1831  a  company  was  formed,  under  the  title  of  the  Hadley 
Falls  Company,  for  the  purpose  of  utilizing  a  portion  of  the 
power,  by  the*  erection  of  a  wing  dam  on  either  side  of  the 
stream,  which  should  divert  a  portion  of  the  water  of  the  river, 
and  make  it  thus  available  for  industrial  purposes  by  means  of 
canals.  By  this  means  a  small  paper  mill  on  the  east  side  of  the 
liver,  and  a  cotton  mill,  capable  of  running  about  two  thousand 
spindles,  were  provided  with  power.  This  was  the  only  use  made 
of  this  enormous  water  power  until  the  year  1847,  when  a  charter 
was  obtained  for  a  company,  bearing  the  same  name,  but  with  a 
capital  of  four  millions  of  dollars,  for  the  purpose  of  damming  the 
entire  stream,  which  at  this  point  is  one  thousand  and  nineteen 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER. 


1195 


feet  wide,  and,  by  a  system  of  canals  upon  the  western  side, 
making*  use  of  the  whole  of  the  water  power.  Operations  were 
immediately  begun,  and  the  dam  was  finished  on  the  19th  of  No¬ 
vember,  1848. 

Crowds  of  people,  whose  interest  in  the  structure  had  been 
excited  during  the  year  this  gigantic  work  was  going  on,  clus¬ 
tered  upon  the  banks  to  see  the  water  gather  after  the  gates 
were  closed.  During  the  month  before,  a  great  freshet  had  swept 
down  the  river,  and  it  was  known  that  the  dam  had  sustained 
some  injuries,  though  it  was  hoped  these  were  not  too  serious. 
As  the  waters  gathered,  a  trench  was  made  in  about  the  middle  of 
the  dam,  into  which  large  stones  were  thrust,  with  other  mate¬ 
rial,  in  the  hopes  of  preserving  the  structure,  which  had  been 
reared  with  so  great  an  expenditure  of  time  and  money.  At  one 
time,  so  great  was  the  pressure  of  the  water,  that  it  was  feared 
the  abutments  themselves  would  give  way,  and  the  lower  part 
of  the  town  be  flooded. 

These,  however,  stood  the  strain,  and  the  water  rose  steadily 
until,  at  about  two  in  the  afternoon,  it  had  nearly  reached  the  top 
of  the  dam,  when  with  a  mighty  crash  the  whole  structure  gave 
way,  and  the  immense  volume  of  water  rushed  through  its  accus¬ 
tomed  channel,  bearing  with  it  the  ruins  of  the  too  feeble  barrier 
which  had  been  erected  to  stay  its  course. 

Disastrous  as  was  this  result  of  a  year’s  labor  and  expense, 
yet  the  company  was  not  dismayed  at  their  failure.  With 
admirable  persistence  they  commenced  immediately  to  rebuild 
their  dam  on  an  improved  pattern.  The  construction  of  this 
second  dam  occupied  not  quite  a  year,  it  being  finished  on  the 
22d  of  October,  1849,  and  it  has  since  stood  the  immense  pressure 
of  the  whole  body  of  Connecticut  River,  even  when  swollen  b}r 
the  spring  freshets. 

The  success  of  the  dam  was  all  that  was  wanting  to  insure  the 
immediate  settlement  of  the  banks  of  the  river  as  a* manufacturing 
centre,  and  shops  and  mills  were  soon  built  along  the  line  of  the 
canal,  which  was  thus  furnished  with  the  water  that  before  had 
fallen  uselessly  over  the  “  rapids.”  The  power  which  is  thus 
»  made  available  is  distributed  by  means  of  three  canals,  at  different 
levels,  and  furnishes,  in  the  aggregate,  about  eight  miles  of  available 
sites  for  mills.  This  improvement  has  thus  rendered  practicable 
a  power  equal  to  that  used  in  Lowell  and  Manchester  combined, 


69 


x 


1196 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  ROWER. 


and  greater  than  that  furnished .  by  any  similar  structure  in  the 
world. 

The  estimate  made  of  the  water  passing  through  the  channel  at 
low-water  mark  in  1847,  and  based  upon  an  accurate  measure, 
was  found  to  be  six  thousand  cubic  feet  a  second,  which,  con¬ 
verted  into  power,  gives  a  total  of  thirty  thousand  horse  power. 
Allowing  a  deduction  from  this  total  of  one  third,  for  the  varia¬ 
bleness  of  the  seasons,  and  friction  or  other  causes,  this  leaves  a 
total  of  twenty  thousand  horse  power,  which  is  equal  to  three 
hundred  mill  powers.  Of  this  power  about  one  third  is  now  em¬ 
ployed. 

The  total  loss  of  the  first  dam  and  the  expense  of  building  the 
second  one  involved  the  company  in  financial  embarrassments, 
which  were  further  increased  by  the  business  crisis  of  1857,  and 
under  this  pressure  they  were  forced  to  suspend. 

A  new  company  was  formed,  with  the  title  of  the  Holyoke 
AVater  Power  Company,  which  purchased  the  property,  with  the 
improvements,  for  $350,000.  In  1868  the  dam,  which  had  stood 
twenty  years,  was  examined  carefully,  and  it  was  found  that  it 
required  repairing.  The  unusually  heavy  freshet  of.  this  year  had 
awakened  apprehensions  of  the  strength  of  the  dam,  and  the 
examination  showed  that  the  concussion  of  the  heavy  masses  of 
ice  brought  down  b}*-  the  spring  floods  had  loosened  and  worn 
away  many  of  the  front  timbers  of  the  dam,  and  also  that  the 
rock  foundation  of  the  dam  was  being  undermined. 

As  at  first  built,  the  dam  presented  a  sheer  front  on  the  side 
down  stream,  and  the  volume  of  water  pouring  over  this  had 'gone 
far  towards  undermining  the  foundation.  The  bed  of  the  river  at 
this  point  is  of  rock,  but  is  full  of  seams,  and  the  enormous  force 
of  the  falling  water  had  lifted  out  the  rock  in  masses,  scattering 
them,  from  a  ton  to  twenty  tons  in  weight,  for  a  considerable  dis¬ 
tance  down  the  stream.  The  result  of  this  had  been  to  make  a 
great  hole  in  front  of  the  dam,  from  twenty-six  to  thirty  feet  deep, 
and  extending  along  the  entire  front  of  the  structure.  To  remedy 
this,  the  dam  was  thickened  and  strengthened  by  a  new  front, 
which  slopes  gradually,  thus  presenting  an  inclined  plane  for  the 
flow  of  the  water  when  the  stream  is  so  swollen  as  to  flow  over 
the  top,  and  delivering  it  so  easily  as  not  to  render  the  new  struc¬ 
ture  liable  to  the  same  process  of  undermining. 

This  strengthening  of  the  dam  was  finished  at  an  expense  of 
about  $400,000,  and  insures  its  permanence.  The  original  com- 


HYDRAULIC  WATER  POWER. 


1197 


pany  had  found,  at  first,  considerable  difficulty  in  obtaining  pos¬ 
session  of  the  land  necessary  in  order  to  control  the  water  power, 
and  it  was  only  after  months  of  negotiation  that  they  were  able 
to  overcome  the  prejudices  of  the  chief  owner  against  selling  his 
property  to  a  corporation.  They  were,  however,  finally  success¬ 
ful,  and  the  property  now  owned  by  the  Holyoke  Water  Power 
Company,  which  entered  on  their  rights,  comprises  about  one 
thousand  acres,  intersected  with  three  miles  and  a  half  of  canals, 
arranged  upon  three  levels.  These  canals  and  the  necessary 
streets  occupy  about  one  half  of  the  company’s  property. 

The  town  of  Holyoke,  which  is  the  legitimate  offspring  of  this 
great  work  for  this  utilization  of  the  hydraulic  energy  of  the  Con¬ 
necticut  River,  was  incorporated  in  1850,  and  now  contains  an 
industrious  and  thriving  population  of  over  eleven  thousand  per¬ 
sons,  who  have,  in  a  little  more  than  twenty  years,  settled  upon 
what  was  before  a  sterile  pasture.  In  this  way  a  comparatively 
barren  spot  has  been  changed  into  a  thriving  and  enterprising- 
town,  which  ranks  third  in  the  list  of  the  manufacturing  centres 
of  Massachusetts. 


* 


\ 


FISH  CULTURE. 


FORMER  ABUNDANCE  OF  FISH.  —  PRESENT  SCARCITY.  —  HOW  THE  RIVERS  HAVE 
BEEN  DEPLETED.  — MEANS  FOR  RE-STOCKING.  —  ANCIENT  PISCICULTURE.  — 
THE  CHINESE  AND  ROMANS.  —  A  LOST  ART. — ITS  RE-DISCOVERY.  — PIN- 
CIION,  OF  FRANCE.  — JACOBI,  OF  HANOVER.  — EUROPEAN  EXPERIMENTS  AND 
ESTABLISHMENTS. — REMY  AND  GEIIIN. — THIRD  RE-DISCOVERY  OF  ARTIFI¬ 
CIAL  BREEDING.  — TIIE  FRENCH  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  BUSINESS. — LOUIS 
NAPOLEON  INTERESTED.  —  THE  GREAT  FISH  FARM  AT  HUNINGUE. — IMMENSE 
DISTRIBUTION  OF  OVA.  —  GERMAN,  SWISS,  SCOTCH,  IRISH,  AND  ENGLISH 
ESTABLISHMENTS.  —  SALMON  LADDERS.  —  THE  PROCESS  OF  BREEDING  TROUT 
AND  SALMON.  —  NATURAL  SPAWNING.  —  METHOD  OF  TIIE  FISH  FARMER.  — 
ESSENTIALS  FOR  AN  ESTABLISHMENT. - FORCED  SPAWNING  AND  IMPREGNA¬ 
TION. —  TIME  REQUIRED  FOR  HATCHING. - CARE  OF  THE  YOUNG  FISH.  — 

INCREASE  IN  SIZE  FROM  YEAR  TO  YEAR.  —  HOW  FISH  ARE  FED. - BREED¬ 

ING  BASS  AND  OTHER  FISH.  — RAISING  SHAD. —  WONDERFUL  FECUNDITY  OF 
FISH.  —  PRACTICABILITY 'OF  FISH  FARMING.  — PROFITS  OF  PISCICULTURE. 
—  ANECDOTE  ABOUT  AN  AMATEUR  .ANGLER.  —  STATE  LEGISLATION  FOR  FISH 
CULTURE.  — FISH  COMMISSIONERS.  —  PROGRESS  OF  PISCICULTURE  IN  TIIE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  PROSPECTS  AND  PROPHECIES. 

It  is  traditional  that,  years  ago,  when  a  man  bought  a  shad  at 
any  of  the  fishing  places  on  the  Connecticut,  so  much  more  plen¬ 
tiful  were  salmon  in  the  river  that,  with  every  shad  sold,  a  salmon 
was  “thrown  in.”  It  is  on  record  that  there  was  a  time  in  Con¬ 
necticut  when  masters  were  restrained  by  law  from  compelling 
their  apprentices  to  eat  salmon  or  trout  more  than  three  times  a 
week.  In  Europe,  too,  in  times  past,  fish  of  all  kinds  have  been 
so  common  that  similar  stipulations  have  been  made  that  this  food 
should  be  served  to  domestics  only  at  stated  intervals  or  on  fast 
days.  Until  a  comparatively  recent  period  the  rivers  of  Europe 
and  of  the  United  States,  particularly  the  Northern  and  Eastern 
States,  fairly  swarmed  with  salmon,  and  the  brooks  and  streams 
everywhere  were  alive  with  trout.  This  food,  at  once  wholesome, 
appetizing,  and  cheap,  was  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest ;  but 
now,  what  was  one  once  of  the  commonest  and  most  easily  attain¬ 
able  necessities  of  the  poor  has  become  an  expensive  luxury  for 
(11 OS) 


FISH  CULTURE. 


1199 


the  well  to  do  and  rich  ;  salmon  and^  trout  are  the  most  costly  fish 
in  market,  and  shad  are  smaller,  scarcer,  and  higher  priced  from 
year  to  year. 

What  has  become  of  the  fish  —  particularly  the  salmon  and  the 
trout  ?  Why  have  salmon,  once  so  cheap  and  plentiful,  deserted 
the  rivers  of  New  England  and  the  north  ?  The  only  sources  of 
supply  for  years  have  been  tlie  Kennebec  River,  in  Maine,  the 
rivers  of  the  British  provinces,  and  quite  recently  those  of  Cali¬ 
fornia  ;  and  fish  brought  on  ice  from  remote  regions,  with  impaired 
flavor  and  enhanced  price,  commands  in  the  eastern  markets  from 
twenty  cents  to  two  dollars  a  pound,  according  to  the  season  and 
supply.  Undoubtedly  the  industries  of  the  country  are  mainly 
responsible  for  driving  away  the  salmon.  A  few  years  ago  the 
beautifully  clear  waters  of  the  Merrimac  River,  running  from  New 
Hampshire  through  Massachusetts  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  were 
filled  with  salmon  of  from  nine  to  twelve  pounds  in  weight ;  but 
on  that  river,  as  on  other  rivers,  the  dams  and  factories,  and  the 
discharges  from  mills,  tan-yards,  sewers,  and  dye-houses  have 
forced  the  fish  to  seek  purer  streams.  Cities,  too,  with  their  sewer- 
age  and  poisonous  outpourings  from  gas-houses,  are  fatal  to  sal¬ 
mon,  though  the  shad  seem  to  survive  these  evils  long  enough  to 
reach  their  spawning  grounds  and  return  to  the  sea.  Happily, 
however,  means  are  now  in  operation  which  will  go  far  to  remedy 
some  of  these  evils,  and  to  re-stock  long  deserted  rivers  with  the 
fish  that  once  made  these  rivers  their  favorite  resorts. 

Obviously,  the  first  means  to  attain  the  desired  end  is  to  supply 
“ladders,”  which  is  effectually  done  so  that  shad  and  salmon  can 
ascend  the  dams;  and  next,  to  prevent,  or  limit  the  erection  on 
fish-bearing  streams  of  print-works,  dye-houses,  gas-works,  paper- 
mills,  or  other  establishments  whose  discharges  may  poison  the 
water.  But  best  of  all  is  the  process  of  supplying  perfectly  clear 
and  unobjectionable  lakes;  ponds,  and  streams  with  stocks  of  such 
fish  as  salmon,  bass,  trout,  shad,  etc.,  which  is  now  effected  to 
such  an  extent  that,  in  a  few  years,  the  choicest  varieties  of  fish 
will  be  among  the  cheapest  as  well  as  most  desirable  meats  in  our 
markets.  This  is  done  by  what  is  variously  called  fish-culture, 
fish-farming,  and  artificial  fish-breeding. 

Ancient  Fish-Culture. 

Modern  fish-culture  is  the  recovery,  or  re-discovery,  of  a  long 
lost  art.  The  Chinese,  who  claim  the  origination  ages  ago  of 


1200 


FISH  CULTURE. 


every  discovery  —  who  have  known  silk-culture,  printing’,  engrav¬ 
ing,  gunpowder,  and  many  other  things  for  centuries  —  understood 
at  a  very  ancient  period  the  process,  not  only  of  preserving,  but 
of  artificially  breeding  in  the  remote  and  interior  regions  of  their 
vast  empire  the  fish  so  necessary  to  the  support  of  an  enormous 
population  living  almost  entirely  upon  fish  and  rice.  The  ancient 
Komans,  if  they  did  not  know  how  to  breed  fish,  certainly  under¬ 
stood  the  art  of  preserving  them  —  that  is,  of  protecting  the 
spawn  and  young  fish  from  the  ravages  of  the  older  fish,  reptiles, 
rats,  and  birds,  which  feed  upon  them,  and  of  bringing  the  fish  to 
maturity  for  the  table  or  for  breeding.  It  is  a  question  whether 
the  Chinese  or  the  Romans  understood  the  process  of  fecundating 
the  ova ;  but  if  they  only  carefully  collected,  preserved,  and 
hatched  the  impregnated  ova,  which  they  did  with  entire  success, 
they  well  knew  what  is  really  the  most  important  part  of  fish-cul¬ 
ture.  For  when  it  is  considered  that  of  the  thousands  of  eggs 
from  single  fish  of  the  trout  and  shad  kind,  as  naturally  spawned, 
only  a  very  small  portion  comes  to  maturity,  while  the  great  bulk 
is  devoured  or  washed  away ;  and  of  what  is  hatched,  that  the 
young  fish,  especially  salmon  and  trout,  have  numerous  enemies, 
including  their  unnatural  progenitors,  which  devour  them  by  thou¬ 
sands  —  it  is  indeed  a  valuable  discovery  which  insures  the  hatch¬ 
ing  of  from  ninety  to  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  entire  number  of 
eggs  by  artificial  means,  and  by  measures  which  insure  the  safety 
of  the  ova  and  the  young.  The  Chinese  and  Romans  also  made 
the  important  discovery  that  fish  readily  adapt  themselves  to  new 
localities  ;  that  they  may  be  introduced  in  entirely  new  waters  ; 
that  salt-water  fish  may  be  bred  and  brought  to  perfection  in  fresh 
water  ;  that  the  ova,  properly  packed,  may  be  transported  to  great 
distances  ;  and  other  vital  matters  pertaining  to  successful  fish- 
culture  in  our  own  day.  Thus,  at  present,  deserted  streams  are 
not  only  re-stocked  with  ova  from  remote  rivers,  but  fish  of  differ¬ 
ent  kinds  are  introduced  in  sections  where  they  never  bred  natu¬ 
rally  ;  pickerel  have  been  put  into  ponds  in  Western  Massachusetts  ; 
pike  from  the  northern  lakes  have  been  brought  to  Connecticut ; 
and  it  is  confidently  expected  that  choice  foreign  fish  like  the  tur¬ 
bot,  the  Danube  salmon  (which  has  been  bred  in  Europe  to  its  full 
weight  of  two  hundred  pounds),  and  other  varieties  soon  will  be 
imported  and  reared  in  the  United  States.  But  what  was  known 
to  the  Romans  was  lost  to  Europe,  and  for  centuries  the  Chinese, 
who  cut  themselves  off  from  communication  with  the  rest  of  the 


FISII  CULTURE. 


1201 


world,  kept  to  themselves  the  secrets  of  the  art  of  successful 
fish-farming. 

Recovery  of  the  Art. 

There  are  many  claimants  to  the  honor  of  the  re-discovery  of 
the  art.  It  was  practised  in  France  in  the  fourteenth  century 
All  works  on  Pisciculture  give  credit  to  Pinchon,  a  monk  of 
R4ome,  for  “  inventing  ”  a  mode  of  hatching  fish,  similar  to  the 
modern  process,  but  the  art  of  artificially  impregnating  eggs  was 
lost  with  his  death.  His  works,  important  as  they  were,  literally 
followed  him,  and  it  was  not  until  the  eighteenth  century  that  the 
art,  twice  lost,  was  once  more  re-discovered.  Jacobi,  of  Hano¬ 
ver,  after  years  of  experiment,  made  public,  in  l? 63,  his  plan  for 
fish-breeding  —  the  same  in  principle  as  that  now  pursued.  His 
fish  farm,  established  with  assistance  from  the  government,  was 
soon  able,  not  only  to  supply  the  home  market,  but  to  export  large 
quantities  of  fish  to  England  and  France. 

Experiments  and  Establishments  abroad. 

Experiments  began  in  the  salmon  streams  of  Scotland  in  1833, 
and  in  183*7  a  few  fish  were  artificially  hatched,  and  were  reared 
to  the  age  of  two  years.  But  for  what  is  known  now  of  practical 
and  profitable  pisciculture,  Europe  and  America  are  indebted  to 
two  French  fishermen,  Remy  and  Geliin,  living  near  the  head  wa¬ 
ters  of  the  Moselle.  They  saw  and  deplored  the  constant  dimi- 
nution  of  the  trout  for  which  they  fished,  and  which  furnished 
their  support.  Pecuniary  interest  led  them  to  watch,  as  they  did 
carefully  for  three  years,  the  manner  of  natural  fecundation.  Their 
first  idea  was  to  devise  means  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  the 
ova  and  young  fish,  and  their  investigations  in  this  direction  led 
to  the  discovery,  for  the  third  time,  of  the  process  of  artificial 
impregnation. 

Their  experiments,  as  early  as  1842,  resulted  in  the  stocking,  or 
re-stocking  of  several  rivers.  Five  years  later  their  enterprise 
and  its  success  was  known  to  the  French  government.  It  was 
shown  that  the  fish-farm  of  these  men  had  re-stocked  the  Moselle 
with  salmon,  trout,  and  other  fish,  and  that  their  establishment 
was  bountifully  supplied  with  ova  and  young  fish  ready  for  trans¬ 
fer  to  other  streams.  All  Europe  became  interested  in  the  subject. 
Jean  Jacques  Coste,  of  the  French  Academy,  after  personal  inves¬ 
tigation,  suggested  the  undertaking  of  a  great  government  estab- 


1202 


FISH  CULTURE. 


lisliment;  Louis  Napoleon,  then  President  of  the  French  Republic, 
was  willing  to  risk  thirty  thousand  francs  in  the  experiment ;  and 
the  result  was  the  soon  celebrated  fish-farm  at  Iluningue,  on  the 
Rhine.  With  a  further  appropriation  of  two  hundred  thousand 
francs,  in  all  say  fifty-six  thousand  dollars,  it  became  the  finest  es¬ 
tablishment  of  the  kind  in  Europe.  It  furnished  eggs  and  fish  for 
the  rivers  of  France  free  of  cost,  and  further  supplies,  provided 
returns  were  made  of  the  success  of  the  first  operation  —  besides 
selling  to  other  countries  and  individuals  sufficient  quantities  to 
make  the  establishment  entirely  self-supporting. 

Within  ten  years  of  its  establishment  the  ITuningue  farm  fur¬ 
nished  in  1861  to  France  and  to  eleven  other  countries  nearly  sev¬ 
enteen  millions  of  eggs.  Before  the  days  of  Remy  the  French 
fisheries  were  well  nigh  exhausted.  Iluningue  made  fish  more 
plentiful  than  ever.  It  stimulated  the  forming  of  similar  farms  all 
over  Europe.  It  demonstrated  that  a  fish  crop  may  be  raised  with 
far  more  certainty  than  any  grain  crop,  because  it  is  entirely  ex¬ 
empt  from  casualties  by  drought,  insects,  hail,  and  other  evils, 
since  with  proper  care  nearly  every  egg  can  be  hatched.  Ilunin¬ 
gue  has  had  enough  confidence  in  this  crop  to  send  out  for  plant¬ 
ing  in  the  past  few  years  an  annual  average  of  twenty  million  fish 
eggs.  Elsewhere  in  France  there  are  eel-breeding  establishments, 
and  when  it  is  stated  that  a  pound  weight  of  eel  fry,  say  eighteen 
hundred  young  eels,  will  increase  within  two  years  to  a  weight  of 
four  tons,  it  will  be  seen  that  an  enormous  amount  of  nutritious 
food  is  furnished  at  a  small  cost. 

Following  France  and  the  methods  practised  at  Iluningue,  Ger¬ 
many  and  Switzerland  have  been  prominent  in  pisciculture.  The 
Galloway  ponds  in  Scotland,  and  the  Galway  establishments  in 
Ireland,  supplied  with  salmon  eggs  from  Scotland,  are  eminently 
prosperous,  and  fish-farming  is  pursued  with  entire  success  in 
England  and  in  Wales.  It  was  early  shown  in  Great  Britain  that 
dams  are  not  necessarily  an  obstruction  to.  fish  ascending  rivers  to 
spawn.  The  remedy  is  to  leave  openings  in  the  dam,  with  cross¬ 
pieces  to  prevent  too  great  a  loss  of  water,  and  through  these 
holes  the  salmon  find  their  way.  Salmon  ladders,  on  the  same 
principle,  extend  down  from  the  top  of  the  dam,  the  cross  pieces 
enabling  the  fish  to  rest  while  making  the  ascent,  and  swarms  of 
fish  may  be  seen  making  their  way  in  the  spawning  season  up 
these  ladders.  Everywhere  abroad,  too,  proper  laws  have  been 
made  to  protect  fish  when  they  are  running  up  rivers  to  spawn. 


FISH  CULTURE. 


1203 


The  Mode  of  Artificial  Breeding. 

The  methods  of  pisciculture  are  the  same  in  all  properly  con¬ 
ducted  establishments  in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States.  The 
purpose  of  the  pisciculturist  is  to  imitate  and  assist  Nature  In 
natural  spawning  —  to  take,  for  instance,  the  trout  as  a  rep¬ 
resentative  of  the  salmon  family,  to  which  it  belongs  —  in  the 
spawning  season,  which  is  in  October  and  November,  the  female 
ascends  the  stream,  digs  down  into  the  gravel,  and  deposits  her 
eggs.  The  male  goes  over  the  eggs  to  “milt”  or  impregnate 
them,  and  the  milt  and  spawn  are  deposited  at  the  same  time. 
The  female  then  returns  and  covers  the  eggs  with  gravel,  and  they 
are  left  to  become  the  prey  of  other  fish,  fowl,  or  reptiles,  or  per¬ 
chance  to  hatch.  The  fish-farmer  simply  secures  the  eggs;- sees 
that  they  are  impregnated  ;  watches  their  hatching  ;  protects  the 
young  fish  from  their  natural  enemies  and  unnatural  fathers  ;  feeds 
them,  and  brings  them  to  maturity.  This  is  all  ;  there  is  nothing 
elaborate  or  intricate  in  the  operation.  The  more  important  part 
of  £he  business  generally  is  to  provide  impregnated  ova  and  young 
fish  for  transportation  to  re-stock  rivers  and  to  supply  the  numer¬ 
ous  private  ponds  and  small  establishments  which  now  abound 
.nearly  everywhere  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  to  raise 
sufficient  fish  for  further  breeding. 

The  essentials  for  a  fish-farm  are  clear  spring  water,  ponds  for 
fish  of  different  ages,  and  a  hatching-house  usually  forty  feet  by 
twenty-eight.  The  necessary  implements  are  a  bucket,  tin  pans, 
a  ladle,  a  small  net,  a  syringe  for  feeding,  nippers,  and  a  syphon 
to  remove  dead  ova.  A  stove  to  warm  the  house,  and  troughs 
divided  into  boxes  for  the  more  convenient  distribution  of  the  eggs 
(and  when  tho  eggs  are  hatched,  the  young  fish),  complete  the 
establishment.  When  the  breeding  fish  are  “ripe,”  that  is,  ready 
to  spawn,  the  fish-farmer  partly  fills  a  tin  pan  with  pure  spring 
water,  over  which  he  holds  the  male  fish  in  his  left  hand,  keeping 
the  fish’s  belly  under  the  water,  while  with  his  right  hand  he  com¬ 
presses  the  fish,  and  with  his  fore-finger  gently  presses  out  the 
milt.  The  female  is  then  taken  in  hand,  and  her  eg*gs  pressed  out 
in  the  same  way.  This  process,  even  under  the  most  skilful  han¬ 
dling  and  the  speediest  return  of  the  fish  to  the  water,  is  quite 
exhausting  and  is  fatal  to  about  three  per  cent,  of  the  parent 
trout.  Experiments  have  accordingly  been  made  in  this  country 
to  arrange  wire  screens  in  the  ponds  on  which  the  trout  may  natu- 


1204 


FISH  CULTURE. 


rally  spawn,  when  the  thus  impregnated  ova  can  be  removed  to 
the  house.  This  has  been  done  with  success  in  New  York  and 
elsewhere. 

The  eggs,  after  forty  minutes'  contact  with  the  milt,  are  trans¬ 
ferred  from  the  pan  to  the  hatching  boxes,  and  are  evenly  spread 
over  the  clean  gravel  bed.  Over  this  bed  flows  a  stream  of  filtered 
water.  The  boxes  now  require  watching  only  with  regard  to  the 
cleanliness  and  temperature  of  the  water,  and  for  the  immediate 
removal  of  any  dead  ova,  which  may  be  known  by  their  change 
of  color.  According  to  the  temperature,  in  from  forty  to  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty-five  days  the  eggs  will  hatch.  For  forty-five  days 
the  young  fish  is  fed  by  the  “  yolk-sack  "  attached  to  it,  and  which 
is  gradually  absorbed.  The  “  troutlet  ”  is  now  an  inch  and  one 
half  in  length,  and  must  be  fed  with  beef  liver  and  sweet  cream, 
finely  chopped  and  sifted,  mixed  with  water,  and  supplied  to  the 
boxes  through  a  small  syringe,  taking  care  to  furnish  enough,  but 
not  too  much,  as  the  food  not  eaten  will  foul  the  boxes  and  kill  the 
fish.  In  six  months  the  fish  is  three  inches  long,  and  may  be  fed 
with  sifted  curd.  In  a  year  the  trout  is  six  inches  in  length,  and 
is  removed  to  a  pond,  where  he  and  his  fellows  will  be  safe  from 
larger  fish,  to  make  room  for  fresh  ova  in  the  hatching-boxes. 

The  fish  may  now  be  fed  with  finely  cut  liver,  with  curds,  with 
grasshoppers,  and  wfitli  small  chopped  fish.  On  this  diet  they 
thrive,  and  at  the  end  of  the  second  year  will  measure  from  ten 
to  fifteen  inches  in  length.  At  three  years  old  a  trout  will  weigh 
three  fourths  of  a  pound  ;  at  four  years,  a  pound  and  a  quarter. 

Breeding  other  Fish. 

The  foregoing  describes  in  brief  the  process  of  fish-culture  as  it 
applies  to  salmon  and  trout.  With  shad,  the  spawning  season  is 
from  February  to  June,  according  to  location.  The  spawn  is  put 
in  hatching-boxes,  which  may  be  placed  in  the  river  to  be  stocked, 
and  in  water  at  a  temperature  of  76°  the  eggs  will  hatch  in  eighty 
hours.  The  young  fish  subsist  for  three  days  only  on  the  yolk- 
sack,  and  thereafter  find  their  own  food.  The  female  shad  two 
years  old  will  weigh  two  pounds  ;  at  three  }mars,  three  and  one 
half  pounds  ;  at  four  years,  six  pounds.  The  wonderful  fecundity 
of  shad,  the  ease  with  which  they  can  be  bred,  and  the  fact  that 
they  need  no  subsequent  feeding  or  care.,  makes  them  peculiarly 
profitable  for  pisciculture. 


FISII  CULTURE. 


1205 


Fecundity  of  Fisii. 

Trout,  according  to  age,  will  yield  from  two  hundred  to  four 
thousand  eggs  ;  the  average  annual  yield  of  salmon  is  estimated  at 
ten  thousand  eggs  ;  shad,  according  to  size,  yield  from  fifty  thou¬ 
sand  to  one  hundred  thousand  eggs.  The  work  of  the  piscicul¬ 
turist  is  to  preserve  this  spawn,  to  make  it  productive,  and  so  to 
supply  unlimited  quantities  of  the  best  kinds  of  fish  for  market. 
Already  throughout  the  United  States  and  Europe  the  entire  prac¬ 
ticability  of  fish-farming  is  manifest  in  the  increased  supplies  and 
diminished  prices  in  the  city  markets. 

Profits  of  Pisciculture. 

It  is  a  fully  established  fact  that,  properly  conducted,  piscicul¬ 
ture  pays.  Apart  from  the  remunerative  business  of  the  large  es¬ 
tablishments,  numerous  smaller  and  private  hatching-houses,  which 
might  be  erected  on  every  farm  where  there  is  a  good  stream  of 
water,  are  abundant  proof  that  artificial  fish-breeding,  requiring 
but  a  small  amount  of  capital,  is  very  profitable.  The  writer  of 
this  article  recently  saw  a  fish-farm,  by  no  means  one  of  the  largest 
in  the  country,  which  had  been  in  operation  only  four  or  five  years, 
and  was  able,  if  the  proprietor  had  been  willing,  to  supply  all  the 
hotel  tables  of  the  near  by  watering-place  with  a  constant  supply 
of  fine  trout  and  bass.  When  he  had  secured  enough  three  and 
four  years  old  fish  he  proposed  to  furnish  these  hotels,  and  also  to 
erect  on  his  own  premises  a  dining  establishment  for  the  accom¬ 
modation  of  patrons  who  might  like  to  catch  their  own  fish  from 
the  ponds  at  a  dollar  a  pound.  Two  of  the  ponds  fairly  swarmed 
with  fish  weighing  from  three  quarters  of  a  pound  to  a  pound  and 
a  quarter,  or  of  good  size  for  the  table.  Not  long  ago  a  New 
Yorker  offered  the  fish-farmer  two  dollars  a  pound  for  all  he  could 
catch  with  a  rod  and  line  in  the  four-year  old  pond  in  five  minutes. 
It  was  a  bargain  ;  but  when  he  had  hooked  out  a  dozen  fine  fel¬ 
lows  “  in  less  than  no  time,”  the  proprietor  implored  him  to  stay 
his  hand,  for  the  trout  were  worth  more  to  him  than  the  money. 
The  dozen  weighed  thirteen  pounds,  and  cost  the  amateur  angler 
twenty-six  dollars.  The  fish-farmer  estimated  that  in  another  sea¬ 
son  every  trout  in  his  larger  ponds  —  and  they  numbered  thousands 
—  would  be  worth  a  dollar.  Considering  the  entire  cost  of  breed¬ 
ing  the  fish,  the  profit  at  this  rate  is  enormous. 


1206 


FISH  CULTURE. 


What  certain  States  have  done 

# 

Since  1867  the  legislatures  of  several  of  the  states  have  enacted 
laws  looking  to  the  re-stocking  of  their  rivers,  and  the  protection 
for  a  proper  time,  and  during  spawning  seasons,  of  the  new  sup¬ 
plies  of  fish.  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Connecti¬ 
cut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  one  or  two  more 
states,  have  appointed  commissioners  to  take  charge  of  this  mat¬ 
ter,  and  many  rivers  in  these  states  have  been  re-stocked  with 
shad,  salmon,  and  trout.  Fish-ways  have  been  built  in  many  of 
the  dams  ;  measures  have  been  taken  to  prevent  the  fish-breeding 
streams  from  becoming  common  and  poisonous  sewers  ;  and  it  is 
claimed,  in  1871,  that  there  has  been  a  marked  increase  of  fish, 
particularly  of  shad,  in  the  northern  rivers.  Fish-culture  was  be¬ 
gun  in  1870  in  Alabama,  and  the  subject  is  attracting  much  atten¬ 
tion  in  other  Southern  States.  Enthusiastic  pisciculturists  prophecy 
that  the  day  is  not  distant  when  fine  fish  will  be  so  plentiful  in  the 
northern  and  eastern  markets  that  a  twelve  pound  salmon  will  be 
sold  for  a  shilling. 


GAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


THE  NECESSITY  FOR  PIPES.  —  THE  INCREASE  OF  TIIEIR  USE  IN  MODERN  TIMES.  — 
THE  WATER  SUPPLY  OF  ROME.  —  THE  OLD  METHODS  OF  MAKING  PIFES.  —  THE 
FIRST  WATER-PIPES  FOR  LONDON.  —  THE  CHIEF  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  FOR  MAKING  IRON  PIPES. — A  DESCRIPTION  OF  ITS  EXTENT 
AND  OF  ITS  PRODUCTION.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PROCESS.  —  TESTING  THE 
PIPES. — WILLIAM  SMITH,  THE  FOUNDER  OF  THIS  ESTABLISHMENT. — A  SKETCH 
OF  HIS  PERSONAL  HISTORY. - HIS  BUSINESS  CAREER. 

In  our  modern  society  the  use  of  pipes  for  conveying  gas  or 
water,  or  for  other  purposes,  has  increased  with  wonderful  rapidity, 
and  has  added  proportionally  to  the  comfort  and  health  of  the 
•inhabitants  of  our  cities  and  villages.  In  ancient  times  the  supply 
of  water  for  a  city  was  a  question  of  prime  importance,  which  could 
be  met  only  by  the  expenditure  of  infinitely  greater  stores  of  labor 
and  of  money  than  is  required  for  the  same  purpose  to-day. 

As  the  Romans  were  unacquainted  with  the  property  of  water  by 
which  it  rises  to  its  level,  they  brought  into  their  cities  their  sup¬ 
plies  of  water  in  aqueducts,  which  were  carried  on  a  level  often 
at  great  expenditure  of  labor  in  building  up  high  arches  through  the 
valleys,  or  in  excavating  through  the  higher  levels.  So  prodigious 
was  the  labor  necessary  for  supplying  the  ancient  cities  with  water, 
that  it  was  only  the  rich  and  powerful  ones  which  could  undertake 
it ;  and  the  remains  of  the  ancient  aqueducts,  and  the  sewers  with 
which  Rome  was  provided,  are  among  the  grandest  remains  of  the 
architectural  works  of  that  pre-eminently  building  city  of  antiquity. 

In  modern  times,  however,  with  the  use  of  iron  pipes,  the  supply 
of  water  and  the  drainage  of  even  a  village  has  become  a  task  which 
is  not  too  great  for  its  own  resources ;  while  the  use  of  gas  is  en¬ 
tirely  a  modern  invention  which  has  become  practicable .  only  by 
the  invention  of  the  iron  pipe,  and  affords  another  striking  instance 
of  how  intimately  interdependent  upon  each  other  for  their  success¬ 
ful  introduction  are  all  the  various  branches  of  industrial  progress. 

In  the  progress  of  modern  civilization  the  necessity  for  obtaining 
some  method  of  making  cheap  and  serviceable  pipes  has  been  so 
plainly  seen  that  various  methods  had  been  proposed  and  tried 

'  (1207) 


1203 


GAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


before  the  modern  iron  pipe  came  into  use.  Pipes  have  been  made 
of  logs,  through  which  holes  were  bored.  The  water  supply  of 
London  was  at  first  brought  in  pipes  of  this  kind,  made  from  the 
trunks  of  elm-trees ;  and  pipes  of  this  kind  are  still  in  use  in  many 
parts  of  the  United  States,  in  which  the  requisite  mechanical  skill 
and  appliances  for  making  iron  pipes  have  not  yet  been  obtained. 

Pipes  of  this  kind  are,  however,  defective,  on  account  of  the  ten¬ 
dency  of  the  wood  to  rot,  and  thus  impregnate  the  water  passing 
through  them  with  decaying  vegetable  matter.  Pipes  have  also 
been  made  of  glass,  of  pottery,  and  of  other  substances ;  and  though 
useful,  when  made  of  these  materials,  for  certain  uses,  yet  their  cost, 
their  want  of  strength,  or  their  failure  in  some  other  respect  to  meet 
all  the  necessities  for  a  cheap,  durable,  and  strong  pipe,  which  can 
be  readily  produced  in  sufficient  quantity  to  answer  the  demand  for 
them,  has  led  to  their  gradual  abandonment,  and  the  substitution  of 
iron  pipes. 

The  chief  establishment  for  the  manufacture  of  iron  pipes  in  this 
country  is  the  National  Foundry  and  Pipe  Works,  situated  in 
Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania.  In  these  immense  works,  which  occupy 
over  six  acres,  pipes  of  all  sizes,  from  two  inches  to  six  feet  in  diame-' 
ter,  are  produced ;  and  the  capacity  of  the  works  is  such  that  they 
can  work  up  two  hundred  tons  of  iron  a  day,  their  regular  con¬ 
sumption  amounting  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  tons,  which 
can  be  increased,  when  necessary,  to  the  above  enormous  produc¬ 
tion. 

The  pipes  are  cast  vertically  in  moulds.  The  cavity  of  the  centre 
is  obtained  by  casting  them  about  a  central  tube,  called  the  “  core 
barrel.”  This  tube,  of  the  desired  length,  is  wound  tightly  with  a 
straw  rope,  which  is  then  covered  smoothly  with  a  mortar  made 
chiefly  of  loam.  When  this  has  dried  thoroughly,  it  is  covered  with 
a  composition  intended  to  prevent  the  moulding  sand  from  sticking 
to  it,  and  it  is  then  placed  upright  in  an  iron  mould  or  “  flask,”  of 
the  proper  length.  An  iron  pattern,  corresponding  in  shape  with 
the  pipe  to  be  made,  is  then  put  in  the  flask,  and  the  space  lying 
between  the  pattern  and  the  flask  is  filled  with  sand.  The  pat¬ 
tern  being  then  removed,  the  interior  of  the  mould  thus  made  is 
washed  with  the  same  mixture  used  for  washing  the  core  barrel,  and 
the  whole  thing  allowed  to  dry  thoroughly.  The  heat  from  a  fur¬ 
nace  is  distributed  through  the  casting-pits,  in  order  to  aid  the 
thorough  drying  of  the  moulds.  When  the  moulds  are  dry  the 
molten  iron  is  poured  into  them,  and,  after  cooling,  the  mould  is 


GAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


1200 


opened  and  the  pipes  are  lifted  ont  by  cranes,  and  placed  on  the 
cooling  ground,  until  they  become  ready  for  handling. 

An  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  business  done  by  the  National  Pipe 
Company  may  be  given  by  a  statement  of  the  amount  of  straw  used 
in  making  the  ropes  to  bind  about  the  core  barrels.  The  straw 
used-  for  this  purpose  is  rye  straw,  and  the  amount  yearly  consumed 
amounts,  in  value,  to  about  two  thousand  dollars.  The  ropes  are 
twisted  by  machinery,  by  which  a  great  saving  of  labor  is  effected. 
One  of  these  machines,  operated  by  a  boy,  will  make  as  much  rope 
as  fifty  men  could  twist  by  hand,  and  leaves  it  coiled  upon  a  roller 
ready  for  use.  Three  machines  supply  all  the  rope  required  for  the 
large  consumption  of  the  National  Pipe  Works. 

The  preparation  of  the  sand  for  the  moulds  is  an  operation  re¬ 
quiring  considerable  care.  The  sand  has  to  be  sifted  and  kneaded 
as  carefully  as  a  housewife  prepares  her  flour  for  her  bread.  The 
casting-pits  are  deep  enough  to  cast  the  pipes  in  lengths  of  twelve 
feet,  and  there  are  three  of  these  in  this  establishment  devoted  to 
casting  small  pipe.  These  pits  contain  about  sixty  flasks  each,  and 
produce  from  six  to  twelve  tons  daily,  according  to  the  size  of  the 
pipe  made  in  them.  Each  pit  is  provided  with  a  crane  for  removing 
the  pipe  when  made. 

The  National  Foundry  is  amply  provided  with  all  the  mechani¬ 
cal  appliances  necessary  for  the  prompt  transaction  of  its  work. 
Among  these  the  cranes,  which  are  numerous,  are  perhaps  as  strik¬ 
ing  as  any  other  portion  of  the  machinery.  Some  of  these  cranes 
are  operated  by  steam,  and  several  of  them  have  a  capacity  for  lift¬ 
ing  seventy-five  tons,  and  with  ease  and  rapidity  will  lift  burdens 
which  would  require  the  combined  muscular  strength  of  a  regiment 
of  men  to  move.  With  these  aids  the  pipes  six  feet  in  diameter 
are  handled  with  as  much  ease  and  certainty  by  the  workmen  as  a 
boy  would  handle  a  pea-shoqter. 

After  the  pipes  have  cooled,  and  are  removed  from  the  pit,  their 
interior  surface  has  to  be  cleaned  from  the  sand  which  adheres  to  it. 
To  undergo  this  operation  they  are  carried  to  the  Preparing  House, 
where,  with  scrapers  made  to  fit,  the  sand  is  by  a  few  dexterous 
movements  scraped  away,  coming  out  in  scales  and  segments  of 
circles. 

The  pipes  are  then  tested  by  an  hydraulic  force-pump,  to  see 
whether  they  are  free  from  imperfections,  and  able  to  stand  the 
severe  pressure  to  which  their  use  may  subject  them.  According  to 
their  size,  and  the  purposes  to  which  they  are  to  be  applied,  they 


1210 


GAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


are  subjected  in  this  test  to  a  pressure  rising  as  high  as  five  hundred 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  The  pipes  are  finally  finished  by  being 
immersed  in  a  composition  of  which  tar  is  the  chief  ingredient. 
They  are  heated  to  about  three  hundred  degrees,  and  allowed  to 
lie  in  the  mixture  for  some  time.  This  treatment  makes  the  pip.e 
better  able  to  resist  the  action  of  ammonia,  and  insures  its  lasting 
three  times  as  long  as  it  would,  had  it  not  been  subjected  to  it. 
The  pipes,  when  thus  “  tarred,”  have  a  shiny  appearance  on  being 
removed  from  the  vat. 

Beside  these  appliances  in  their  regular  business  of  pipe-making 
the  National  Pipe  Works  has  a  regular  machine-shop,  provided  with 
lathes,  planers,  and  the  other  necessary'appliances  for  performing  all 
the  machine-work,  the  blacksmithing,  and  the  model-making  re¬ 
quired  by  the  establishment.  The  power  for  carrying  on  the  com¬ 
plicated  and  extensive  operations  of  the  company  is  furnished  by 
several  engines,  and  the  hands  employed  in  the  various  branches  of 
the  business  reaches  a  total  of  over  five  hundred  persons. 

The  successful  establishment  of  this  vast  industrial  establishment 
is  due  to  the  persistent  energy  and  untiring  perseverance  of  the 
proprietor,  Mr.  William  Smith,  who,  starting  in  life  with  no  adven¬ 
titious  aids,  has  by  his  own  industry  and  enterprise  built  up  the 
business  to  its  present  gigantic  proportions.  Among  the  numerous 
instances  which  this  country  affords  of  the  rewards  which  the  free¬ 
dom  of  our  social  and  political  relations  offers  to  industry  and 
enterprise,  this  case  of  Mr.  William  Smith  is  perhaps  as  striking  as 
any.  Commencing  his  industrial  career  at  the  very  foot  of  the  lad¬ 
der,  he  began  as  a  young  man  by  obtaining  employment  at  the  rate 
of  sixty  cents  a  day,  as  a  helper.  From  this  position  he  soon  rose 
to  become  an  assistant,  with  a  slight  increase  of  daily  pay.  Being 
frugal,  as  well  as  industrious  and  ambitious  to  advance,  he  managed 
to  lay  aside  a  little  even  of  the  small  amount  of  money  which  he  was 
then  gaining,  and  in  the  fall  of  1843  his  brother,  who  had  noticed  his 
intelligent  devotion  to  business,  proposed  that  they  should  form  a 
partnership,  which  was  done,  and  the  new  firm  commenced  their 
career,  under  the  title  of  John  and  William  Smith,  in  the  foundry 
business.  Their  establishment  was  known  as  the  “  Carron  Foundry,” 
and  was  devoted  exclusively  to  the  production  of  butts,  or  hinges, 
wagon-boxes  and  smoothing-irons.  It  was  situated  on  Penn  Street, 
Pittsburg,  and  the  original  sign  of  the  firm  could  quite  recently 
have  been  seen,  remaining  in  its  position,  upon  the  side  of  the 
building. 


QAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


1211 


After  continuing  the  business  for  two  years,  the  balance-sheet 
from  the  books  showed  that  the  firm  had  lost  fifty  dollars  by  their 
operations.  Mr.  John  Smith  then  retired  from  the  firm,  and  Mr. 
William  Smith,  with  his  confidence  and  determination  unabated  by 
this  apparently  undeniable  evidence  of  the  impossibility  of  success, 
continued  the  business,  having  taken  as  partners  Mr.  John  Wright 
and  Mr.  John  Yan  Winkle,  and  changed  the  name  of  the  firm  to 
Smith,  Wright,  and  Company. 

The  existence  of  this  firm  was  even  shorter  than  that  which  it 
replaced ;  though  its  business  operations  were  quite  successful,  yet 
the  financial  condition  of  the  country,  the  scarcity  and  dearness  of 
money,  and  other  causes,  caused  its  dissolution  in  1846,  after  it  had 
continued  in  existence  but  little  over  a  year.  Notwithstanding  the 
apparently  unsuccessful  termination  of  this  new  experiment,  caused 
by  circumstances  so  general  in  their  character  as  to  be  beyond  his 
power  to  control  them,  Mr.  William  Smith  still  felt  confident  of  his 
ability  to  eventually  succeed,  and  was  the  more  strengthened  in  his 
determination  to  do  so  by  the  increase  of  the  business  which  had 
been  made  during  even  this  short  period,  while  the  conditions  were 
so  unpropitious. 

In  this  next  change,  Messrs.  Wright  and  Yan  Winkle  retired 
from  the  firm,  their  interests  being  purchased  by  Mr.  Jacob  Painter 
and  Joseph  Jenks.  With  the  foresight  which  has  characterized  the 
whole  course  of  Mr.  Smith’s  business  career,  he  determined  to 
attempt  to  supply  the  cotton-manufacturers  of  Pittsburg  with  the 
castings  and  the  machinery  which  they  then  relied  upon  New 
England  to  supply.  The  business  of  cotton-spinning  had  then 
entered  upon  the  course  of  development  in  this  country  which  has 
resulted  in  its  attaining  its  present  importance,  and  the  industrial 
enterprise  of  Pittsburg  had  begun  to  turn  its  attention  to  this  new 
branch  of  employment.  Up  to  this  time,  however,  all  the  supplies 
of  machinery,  as  well  as  the  castings  needed  for  repairs,  had  been 
obtained  from  New  England;  and  there  was  a  prejudice  in  the 
minds  of  those  engaged  in  the  business  in  Pittsburg,  that  they 
could  not  obtain  at  home  the  material  they  required  as  well  as  they 
could  abroad.  Knowing,  however,  that  they  were  mistaken,  Mr. 
Smith  tried  to  convince  them  that  they  were,  but  had  hard  work 
to  do  so.  Having  finally  persuaded  some  of  them  to  allow  him  to 
try  and  produce  for  them  some  of  the  castings  they  needed  for 
repairs,  his  success  soon  convinced  them  that  they  had  at  hand  a 

man  who  could  supply  their  needs  as  well,  and  at  cheaper  rates 
70 


1212 


GAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


than  they  could  obtain  their  castings  from  abroad;  and  thus  the 
foundation  was  laid  of  the  business,  which  finally,  in  the  hands  of 
the  firm  of  Jenks,  Painter,  and  Company,  became  celebrated  through¬ 
out  the  West  for  its  skill  and  reliability  in  manufacturing  cotton- 
6])inning  machinery. 

While  Mr.  Smith  was  connected  with  this  firm  his  energy  ex¬ 
tended  their  business  so  that  they  were  called  upon  to  prepare  the 
machinery  for  various  manufacturing  establishments  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  Upon  one  occasion,  having  gone  himself  to 
superintend  the  erection  of  a  large  cotton-mill  in  Memphis,  Tennes¬ 
see,  and  stock  it  with  machinery  of  his  manufacture,  the  business 
ability  of  organization  which  he  displayed  struck  the  proprietors  so 
favorably  that  they  offered  him  a  large  salary  if  he  would  stay  and 
oversee  it ;  and,  as  a  further  inducement,  to  give  him  a  plantation, 
with  an  ample  supply  of  slaves.  His  native  independence  of  char¬ 
acter  made,  however,  the  holding  of  slaves  so  distasteful  to  him  that 
he  politely  but  firmly  refused  the  offer. 

In  1854  Mr.  Smith,  having  dissolved  his  connection  with  his  part¬ 
ners,  determined  to  establish  another  foundry,  and  purchased  the 
ground  which  is  now  occupied  by  the  National  Foundry  and  Pipe 
Works.  His  judicious  business  foresight  was  displayed  in  the  selec¬ 
tion  of  this  site;  his  friends,  to  whom  he  mentioned  his  design, 
advised  him  strongly  against  it,  telling  him  that  the  position  was 
too  far  out  of  the  town,  and  that  it  was  certain  that  the  enterprise 
would  consequently  prove  a  failure. 

With  a  confidence,  however,  in  his  own  judgment,  which  his 
experience  had  naturally  created,  and  which  the  result  has  justified, 
Mr.  Smith  persisted  in  carrying  out  his  plans,  and  has  never  seen 
any  cause  to  regret  his  so  doing.  The  first  building  he  erected  for 
his  foundry  measured  forty  feet  by  seventy,  and  in  October,  1854, 
he  melted  his  first  run.  That  day,  as  he  expressed  it,  was  the 
proudest  one  of  his  life  :  he  was  in  business  for  himself. 

At  first  he  had  only  two  assistants,  and  began  with  melting  only 
once  a  week.  Devoted  to  his  business,  he  was  at  once  proprietor, 
moulder,  business  manager,  bookkeeper,  and  filled  any  other  posi¬ 
tion  which  required  filling.  This  indefatigable  perseverance  met 
its  reward,  and  soon  the  business  had  so  increased  that  it  became 
necessary  to  melt  twice  a  week.  Encouraged  by  his  success,  he 
dared  to  look  forward  hopefully  to  the  time  when  the  requirements 
of  the  business  should  be  such  as  to  consume  a  ton  a  day  of  cast- 


GAS  AND  WATER  PIPES. 


1213 


In  1855  the  business  had  so  increased  that  he  was  forced  to  take 
a  partner,  to  relieve  him  of  a  part  of  the  various  duties  he  had 
hitherto  performed,  and  the  style  of  the  firm  was  changed  to  Smith 
and  Company.  This  partner,  Mr.  Dixon  Brown,  having  died  in 
1858,  Messrs.  David  E.  and  James  Park,  Jr.,  purchased  his  interest, 
and  the  firm’s,  name  was  again  changed  to  Smith,  Park,  and  Com¬ 
pany. 

In  1865,  however,  with  other  changes,  Mr.  Smith  purchased  the 
interests  of  these  gentlemen  in  the  firm,  and  has  since  conducted 
the  business  in  his  own  name,  and  confined  his  operations  to  one 
special  branch,  instead  of  doing  a  general  foundry  business.  Re- 
ehristening  his  works  as  the  National  Foundry  and  Pipe  Works,  he 
entered  then  upon  the  career  which  has  made  his  establishment  the 
largest  in  its  specialty  in  the  world. 

With  the  wise  foresight  which  he  has  always  shown,  Mr.  Smith 
has  also  become  interested  in  a  company  owning  and  operating  coal 
and  iron  mines  at  Ursina  Station,  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail¬ 
road.  The  lands  of  this  company  consist  of  6,430  acres,  containing 
almost  inexhaustible  supplies  of  coal,  and  also  -in  the  Isabella  Fur¬ 
nace  Company,  which  has  now  in  operation  two  of  the  largest  blast 
furnaces  for  the  manufacture  of  crude  iron  in  the  country.  Beside 
these  he  is  also  interested  in  the  Cascade  Iron  Company  of  Lake 
Superior,  whose  lands  comprise  3,025  acres  of  ore  sand,  and  2,000 
acres  of  woodland,  and  upon  which  there  is  already  a  furnace  in 
operation.  By  these  means,  being  able  to  control  the  production 
of  the  raw  material  needed  for  the  specialty  to  which  the  National 
Foundry  and  Pipe  Works  are  devoted,  Mr.  Smith  looks  forward  to 
a  still  greater  increase  of  the  present  enormous  business  which  is 
there  earned  on. 

As,  too,  he  controls,  by  several  patents  of  his  own  inventions,  and 
by  others  which  he  has  obtained  by  purchase,  the  best  improved 
methods  for  the  making  of  pipes,  there  is  little  or  no  question 
that  the  future  of  his  business  career  will  be  marked  by  the  same 
increasing  growth  and  improved  organization  which  have  in  the 
j3ast  made  it  distinguished  among  even  the  most  remarkable  busi¬ 
ness  successes  of  the  United  States. 


NEWSPAPERS. 

ORIGIN  OF  NEWSPAPERS.  —  MANUSCRIPT  NEWS  LETTERS.  —  FIRST  PRINTED  JOUR¬ 
NAL  IN  ENGLAND.  — FIRST  DAILY  PAPER  IN  LONDON.  - PROGRESS  OF  THE 

PRESS.  —  WILKES,  HAZLITT,  HUNT,  LAMB,  SOUTHEY,  COLERIDGE,  WORDSWORTH, 
BLANCHARD,  JERROLD,  DICKENS,  AND  THACKERAY,  AS  JOURNALISTS.  —  AMERI¬ 
CAN  NEWSPAPERS.  —  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  THE  COLONIES.  —  ITS  BIRTH  AND 

SUDDEN  DEATH. ESTABLISHMENT  OF  JOURNALS  IN  DIFFERENT  LOCALITIES.  — 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  AS  AN  EDITOR.  —  FIRST  DAILY  IN  NEW  YORK.  — THE  OLD¬ 
EST  NEW  YORK  PAPERS. — THE  GREAT  WEEKLIES.  —  BENNETT,  BRYANT,  BON¬ 
NER,  RAYMOND,  AND  GREELEY. - ACTIVE  COMPETITION.  —  NEWS  BOATS.  —  EX¬ 
TRAS. —  PONY  EXPRESSES. - STEAMSHIPS  AND  RAILROADS.  — THE  MAGNETIC 

TELEGRAPH.  —  ASSOCIATED  PRESS.  —  ATLANTIC  CABLES.  —  RIVAL  ASSOCIA¬ 
TIONS.  —  THE  CIVIL  WAR.  —  GROWTH  AND  EXPANSION  OF  THE  NEWSPAPER 
BUSINESS.  —  JOURNALISM  A  PROFESSION.. —  BRANCH  OFFICES.  —  THE  SUNDAY 
PRESS.  - IMPROVED  PRINTING  PRESSES  AND  OTHER  MACHINES.  —  SUPERIORI¬ 

TY  OF  AMERICAN  NEWSPAPERS. — REPRESENTATIVE  AMERICAN  JOURNALS. 

The  history  of  newspapers  really  begins  with  the  written  new3 
letters  circulated  from  hand  to  hand  and  place  to  place  in  Europe 
in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Such  manuscripts  were 
issued  in  England,  at  intervals,  whenever  important  news  was  to 
be  communicated,  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Ilenry  VI.  The  inven¬ 
tion  of  the  art  of  printing  was  applied  first  and  principally  to  book 
work,  especially  to  the  production  in  cheaper  form  of  the  hitherto 
costly  manuscript  copies  of  the  classics  and  the  Scriptures ;  but 
the  adaptation  of  the  art  to  the  dissemination  of  news  was  soon 
apparent,  though  the  progress  of  this  kind  of  publication,  consid¬ 
ering  its  importance,  was,  for  two  centuries  or  more,  astonishingly 
slow. 

The  first  printed  journal  in  England,  giving  the  news  of  the 
week,  was  issued  in  1622.  Reports  of  the  daily  proceedings  in 
Parliament  were  issued  in  1640.  Next  came  a  succession  of  pa¬ 
pers,  called  the  “  Newes,”  one  of  which  was  first  made  a  medium 
for  advertising  in  1648.  Then  followed  a  series  of  “  Mercurys.” 
The  first  strictly  commercial  paper  appeared  in  London  in  1657  ; 

*4214) 


NEWSPAPERS. 


1215 


the  first  literary  paper  was  published  in  1680  ;  a  sporting  paper 
was  issued  in  1683  ;  and  a  medical  journal  in  1686. 

The  first  daily  paper  appeared  in  London  in  1*702,  and  in  the 
course  of  fifty  years  from  that  time,  there  were  a  large  number  of 
monthly,  weekly,  and  daily  journals.  In  the  last  half  of  the  eigh¬ 
teenth  century,  political  journalism  assumed  an  importance  in  Lon¬ 
don,  when  John  Wilkes  edited  the  North  Briton.  Edmund  Burke 
contributed  to  the  Englishman,  and  the  Public  Advertiser  printed 
the  famous'  Junius  letters.  Later  still  came  the  Chronicle,  Post, 
Herald,  and  Advertiser  —  all  daily  morning  journals,  some  of  them 
employing  the  pens  of  prominent  statesmen,  while  for  a  long  time 
the  Post  numbered  among  its  contributors  such  men  as  Words¬ 
worth,  Coleridge,  Lamb,  and  Southey.  The  daily  Universal  Regis¬ 
ter,  started  in  1785,  became,  in  1788,  the  Times,  the  leading  jour¬ 
nal  of  the  world  to-day.  The  Times  was  the  first  to  apply  steam 
power  (in  1814)  to  its  press.  (See  Printing  and  the  Printing 
Press.)  The  progress  of  the  daily  press  in  England  was  now 
rapid,  and  new  journals  constantly  appeared.  Before  1840,  such 
men  as  Hazlitt,  Leigh  Hunt,  Laman  Blanchard,  Dickens,  Thack¬ 
eray,  Douglas  Jerrold,  Robert  Owen,  and  other  eminent  writers,  had 
made  their  mark  as  journalists.  The  Illustrated  London  News  was 
established  in  1842,  and  has  attained  an  extensive  circulation. 
The  abolition  of  the  stamp  duty,  in  1855,  gave  an  immense  impulse 
to  the  newspapers  of  Great  Britain,  enabling  them  to  reduce  their 
price  and  increase  their  circulation.  Besides  the  literary,  illus¬ 
trated,  and  humorous  papers  now  published,  every  shade  of  poli¬ 
tics,  nearly  every  proposed  social  reform,  and  almost  every 
profession  and  trade,  has  its  representative  organ  in  the  British 
press.  • 

The  limits  of  this  article  will  not  permit  even  a  brief  review  of 
the  rise  and  progress  of  the  newspaper  press  on  the  continent. 
The  history  and  growth  of  journalism  in  the  United  States  is  more 
interesting  and  more  important,  because  in  this  country  jour¬ 
nalism  has  been  at  no  time  since  the  Revolution  seriously  re¬ 
stricted  by  censorship,  or  hampered  by  stamp  acts.  Americans 
are  a  news-seeking  and  news-buying  people ;  no  nation  so  freely 
uses  the  telegraphs,  or  pays  more  for  gathering  intelligence ;  and 
no  country,  in  proportion  to  its  population,  prints  and  circulates  so 
many  newspapers.  The  general  diffusion  of  intelligence  and  edu¬ 
cation  in  the  United  States  is  scarcely  more  due  to  the  excellent 
and  universal  common  school  system  than  to  the  numerous  and 


1216 


NEWSPAPERS. 


cheap  weekly  and  daily  publications  which  penetrate  to  every  cor¬ 
ner  of  the  country. 

Newspapers  began  in  the  colonies  with  the  publication,  in  1690, 
in  Boston,  of  the  first  and  only  number  of  a  paper,  which  was  at 
once  suppressed  by  the  authorities.  In  the  same  year  one  number 
of  the  London  Gazette,  containing  important  news,  was  reprinted 
in  New  York.  The  Boston  News  Letter  was  published  weekly 
from  1104  to  1716.  The  Gazette,  in  Boston,  and  the  Mercurie,  in 
Philadelphia,  followed  in  1719.  James  Franklin  started  the  New 
England  Courant,  in  Boston,  in  1721,  and  the  year  following,  on 
account  of  some  difficulties  with  the  authorities,  he  cancelled  the 
indentures  of  his  young  brother,  Benjamin  Franklin,  then  sixteen 
years  old,  in  order  to  make  him  the  responsible  publisher  of  the 
paper.  The  first  newspaper  in  New  York  was  the  Gazette,  in 
1725.  Two  years  afterwards,  the  Maryland  Gazette  was  printed 
at  Annapolis  :  following  this  was  the  South  Carolina  Gazette,  at 
Charleston,  in  1731  ;  the  Virginia  Gazette,  at  Williamsburg,  in 
1736  ;  the  North  Carolina  Gazette,  at  Newbern,  and  the  Connecti¬ 
cut  Gazette,  at  New  Haven,  in  1755  ;  the  New  Hampshire  Gazette, 
at  Portsmouth,  in  1756  ;  and  the  Connecticut  Courant,  at  Hartford, 
in  1764.  The  Pennsylvania  Packet,  or  General  Advertiser,  estab¬ 
lished  as  a  weekly  in  1771,  became  the  first  daily  paper  in  the 
country  in  1784.  The  year  following,  the  Daily  Advertiser  ap¬ 
peared  in  New  York.  The  still  preserved  copies  of  some  of  these 
earlier  American  journals  are  curiosities  in  size,  paper,  typography, 
the  antiquity  of  the  "  news  ”  when  printed,  and  the  absence  of 
editorial  expression  of  opinion.  They  were  the  crude  beginnings 
of  American  journalism  as  it  is  at  present ;  but  they  were  not,  as 
newspapers  are  now,  an  almost  complete  history  of  the  world’s 
doings  from  day  to  day. 

With  the  rapid  growth  of  newspaper  enterprise  in  this  country 
in  the  present  century,  it  would  require  a  volume  to  give  the  * 
names  merely  of  the  journals  which  have  been  born,  have  lived 
their  brief  existence,  and  have.  died.  The  oldest  newspapers  in 
New  York  are  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  dating  from  1797,  and 
the  Evening  Post,  established  in  1801.  The  Journal  of  Commerce 
was  founded  in  1827  ;  the  Sun  1833  ;  the  Herald  in  1835 ;  the 
Tribune  in  1841  ;  the  Times  in  1850  ;  and  the  World  in  1860. 
These  are  among  the  most  successful  and  best  conducted  journals 
published  in  this  country,  or  in  the  world.  The  Sunday  papers  of 
New  Pork  —  not  only  the  Sunday  issues  of  three  or  four  of  the 


NEWSPAPERS. 


1217 


daily  journals,  but  papers  published  only  on  that  day  —  print  very 
large  editions,  and  some  of  the  New  York  weeklies,  like  Harper’s, 
the  Ledger,  Frank  Leslie’s  Illustrated  Newspaper,  and  others,  have 
attained  an  enormous  circulation,  far  greater  than  that  of  similar 
publications  abroad.  The  names  and  prominence  of  certain  editors, 
such  as  Bonner,  of  the  Ledger,  Bennett,  of  the  Herald,  Bryant,  of 
the  Evening  Post,  Raymond  (when  he  was  living),  of  the  Times, 
and  Greeley,  of  the  Tribune,  have  given  their  journals  a  reputation 
and  a  corresponding  circulation.  The  American  press  i£  cordially 
appreciated,  too,  as  a  medium  for  advertising,  and  in  no  other  coun¬ 
try  are  the  people  more  ready  to  make  their  wants  and  business 
known  through  the  columns  of  the  press. 

The  most  active  competition  in  news-gathering  and  printing  has 
made  the  United  States  daily  press  what  it  is  now.  Enterprise  in 
this  direction  began  with  the  Journal  of  Commerce,  in  1828.  There 
were  then  no  ocean  steamers  or  electric  telegraphs  ;  but  there  were 
fast  packets  between  Europ*e  and  America,  and  the  J ournal  of  Com¬ 
merce  set  afloat  a  swift-sailing  schooner  which  intercepted  in-bound 
ships  off  Sandy  Hook,  procured  the  news  and  foreign  papers,  from 
which  an  editor  on  board  the  schooner  made  up  his  “  copy  ”  in 
readiness  for  the  printer  the  moment  he  landed.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  the  afterwards  common  “  Extra,”  giving  the  *news 
while  it  was  “  news,”  and  in  advance  of  slower  rivals.  Soon  after, 
the  same  paper  built  another  fast  news  boat,  and  the  remaining 
city  papers,  in  self-defence,  associated  in  running  a  news  boat  for 
themselves  and  the  lively  competition  to  get  and  print  the  news 
first  was  greatly  to  the  benefit  of  the  public,  as  well  as  of  the  suc¬ 
cessful  journals.  “  Pony  expresses,”  as  they  were  called  —  mean¬ 
ing  relays  of  horses  with  bold  riders,  to  bring  election  returns  from 
all  parts  of  the  state,  or  adjoining  states  —  next  followed.  Before 
the  days  of  railroads  there  were  pony  expresses  between  New 
York  and  Washington,  and  between  other  important  points,  whose 
runnings  kept  pace  with  the  running  of  the  printing  press.  News 
at  any  price  must  be  obtained,  and  the  rivalry  of  the  journals  kept 
the  public  well  supplied  with  the  latest  news  and  good  papers  at 
reasonable  prices. 

The  increasing  size  and  circulation  of  the  journals  demanded  and 
made  room  for  special  departments,  such  as  money  and  commercial 
articles,  market  reports,  ship  news  columns,  law  and  police  reports, 
a  greater  attention  to  local  affairs  and  city  items,  and  verbatim 
reports  of  important  speeches  and  proceedings  in  public  meetings. 


1218 


NEWSPAPERS. 


The  general  application  of  steam  power  and  the  vast  improvement 
in  printing  presses  of  American  invention  immensely  increased  the 
importance  and  circulation  of  newspapers.  Many  a  now  great 
newspaper  in  the  country,  which  began  its  printing  on  a  hand 
press,  has  progressed  by  rapid  steps  from  a  two  cylinder  to  a  four, 
six,  eight,  and  ten  cylinder  press,  as  its  increasing  business  de¬ 
manded.  The  establishment  of  steamship  lines,  the  spread  of  rail¬ 
ways,  and  above  all,  the  invention  of  the  magnetic  telegraph,  and 
the  successful  connection  of  continents  by  means  of  sub-marine 
cables,  have  enabled  the  journals  of  every  city  in  the  United  States 
to  spread  before  their  readers,  every  morning  or  evening,  the  im¬ 
portant  news,  the  day’s  history,  in  fact,  of  the  whole  world.  This 
progress  in  journalism  has  not  been  confined  to  the  great  cities  on 
the  Atlantic  board',  but  it  has  extended  throughout  the  country, 
till  every  locality,  east,  north,  west,  and  south,  has  its  representa¬ 
tive  journals,  which  display  all  the  ability  and  enterprise  so  charac¬ 
teristic  of  the  American  press. 

Before  the  laying  of  the  first  Atlantic  cable,  the  establishment 
of  a  telegraph  line  to  Farther  Point,  where  news  by  the  European 
steamers  was  taken  off  and  transmitted,  shortened  the  time  of  com¬ 
munication  with  Europe,  and  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  “  Ship 
News  Association,”  which,  by  the  joining  in  of  leading  papers 
throughout  the  Union,  became  the  “  Associated  Press.”  This  en¬ 
terprise  necessitated  the  location,  at  every  important  point,  of  skilled 
news-gatherers,  who  collected  and  telegraphed  whatever  was  im¬ 
portant ;  the  associated  journals  using  the  news,  and  eacli  paying 
its  proportion  of  the  cost  of  collection  and  transmission.  To  this 
association,  several  of  the  papers,  particularly  at  the  west,  opposed 
a  rival  association  in  1863,  the  result  greatly  benefiting  the  pub¬ 
lic,  in  increasing,  and,  to  some  extent,  cheapening  the  news.  The 
civil  war,  from  1861  to  1865,  developed  the  fullest  resources  of 
American  newspaper  enterprise.  No  expense  was  spared  in  the 
use  of  the  telegraph,  sending  of  special  correspondents  to  every 
point,  and  the  employment  of  messengers  and  horses  in  gathering 
details  from  every  corner  of  the  seat  of  war.  For  important  news 
“  extras  ”  were  issued,  sometimes  three  or  four  times  in  a  day,  and 
the  sale  of  papers  was  enormous.  Frequently  a  local  event  of 
extraordinary  interest  —  for  instance,  the  riot  in  New  York,  July 
12,  1871  — will  double  the  ordinary  daily  issue  of  some  of  the  city 
journals. 

A  most  noticeable  feature  in  the  progress  of  newspapers  in  the 


•  }• 


* 


. 


— 4**>*4-  -  •***  .-  *  ,  ■ 

v 


' 

' 


NEWSPAPERS. 


1221 


United  States  is  the  employment  of  men  of  the  highest  culture  as 
editors,  writers,  and  correspondents.  Journalism  is  now  a  recog¬ 
nized  profession,  which  includes  many  of  the  most  cultivated  men 
in  the  country.  The  larger  journals  employ  full  staffs  of  editorial 
writers,  reporters,  heads  of  special  departments,  and  special  cor¬ 
respondents  ;  and  have  agencies,  which  are  branch  offices,  at  Wash¬ 
ington,  London,  Paris,  and  other  leading  localities.  American  jour¬ 
nals  pay  more  money  by  far  for  news  from  all  quarters,  than  do 
the  newspapers  of  Great  Britain  or  the  Continent.  With  the  vast 
improvements  in  printing  presses,  American  ingenuity  has  been 
active  in  inventing  newspaper  folding  and  directing  machines, 
which  greatly  facilitate  the  speedy  transmission  of  papers  by  mail. 
In  spite  of  the  boasted  superority  of  the  London  Times,  the  lead¬ 
ing  journals  of  New  York  and  of  some  other  American  cities  are 
unsurpassed  as  able  and  enterprising  newspapers  by  any  journals 
in  the  world. 

The  entire  number  of  newspapers  and  periodicals  now  (1871) 
published  in  the  United  States  and  Territories  is  six  thousand  and 
fifty-six,  of  which  five  hundred  and  ninety-four  are  daily,  four  thou¬ 
sand  three  hundred  and  eighty  are  weekly,  tri-weekly,  semi-weekly, 
bi-weekly,  bi-monthly,  and  quarterly.  The  influx  of  foreigners  has 
necessitated  the  publication  of  a  large  number  of  papers  in  foreign 
languages.  The  German  papers  number  three  hundred  and  forty- 
one  ;  French,  in  New  York  and  New  Orleans,  seven  or  eight ; 
Spanish,  seven  ;  Scandinavian,  in  the  west  and  north-west,  eigh¬ 
teen  ;  Dutch,  six ;  Welsh,  three  ;  Bohemian,  two  ;  Portuguese, 
one ;  and  the  Cherokee  Indians  have  a  newspaper  in  their  own 
language. 

Eleven  papers  print  editions  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
copies.  Five  hundred  and  forty-eight  papers  print  editions  of  more 
than  five  thousand  copies.  New  York  has  the  largest  number  of 
publications,  to  wit,  eight  hundred  and  ninety-four,  of  which  New 
York  city  has  three  hundred  and  seventy-one. 

Of  daily  papers,  New  York  has  eighty-nine ;  Pennsylvania,  six¬ 
ty-one  ;  Illinois,  thirty-eight ;  California,  thirty-four  ;  Ohio,  twenty- 
five  ;  Massachusetts,  Missouri,  and  New  Jersey,  each  twenty-one  ; 
Indiana  and  Iowa,  each  twenty  ;  Connecticut,  seventeen  ;  Virginia 
and  Wisconsin,  each  sixteen  ;  Tennessee,  twelve  ;  Texas,  eleven  ; 
and  other  states  from  one  to  ten  daily  papers  each.  The  total  an¬ 
nual  circulation  of  all  the  papers  and  periodicals  in  the  United 


1222 


NEWSPAPERS. 


States  and  Territories  is  estimated  at  the  enormous  number  of 
1,436,551,619  ! 

The  American  Newspaper  Directory  of  Messrs.  George  P.  Rowell 
&  Co.,  of  New  York,  estimates  that  from  March,  1870,  to  January, 
1871,  more  than  one  thousand  new  newspapers  were  established  in 
the  United  States,  and  that  the  number  of  newspapers  started  since 
the  beginning  of  1871  averages  four  a  day,  while  the  suspensions 
are  about  one  fourth  as  large  as  the  number  of  the  new  issues  ;  it 
is  believed  that  within  six  years  the  number  of  newspapers  in  this 
country  has  doubled. 

About  one  thousand  papers,  principally  in  the  interior  towns, 
buy,  at  New  York  and  at  Chicago,  papers  printed  with  general  news 
and  miscellaneous  matter  on  one  side,  leaving  two  pages  for  local 
news,  advertisements,  and  editorials.  This  “  auxiliary  plan  ”  has 
long  prevailed  in  Great  Britain,  and  is  becoming  popular  in  this 
country.  The  economy  in  composition  and  other  labor  is  a  con¬ 
siderable  saving  to  country  papers. 

Of  papers  devoted  to  specialties,  the  religious  papers  take  the 
lead,  and  number  two  hundred  and  eighty-three ;  of  farming,  horti¬ 
cultural,  and  stock-raising  journals  there  are  one  hundred  and  six, 
many  of  them  profusely  and  expensively  illustrated ;  medical  jour¬ 
nals  number  seventy-two  ;  insurance  business  is  specially  repre¬ 
sented  in  nineteen  publications  ;  of  college  papers  and  education¬ 
al  journals  there  are  eighty-four  ;  and  freemasonry,  temperance, 

•  » 

law,  music,  odd  fellowship,  mechanics,  real  estate,  sporting  mat¬ 
ters,  etc.,  etc.,  have  their  special  organs. 


MATCHES. 

THE  NECESSITY  OF  FIRE  TO  MAN.  —  THE  TRADITION  OF  ITS  DISCOVERY.  —  THE 
CARE  USED  IN  GUARDING  IT  IN  ANTIQUITY.  —  THE  FLINT  AND  STEEL.  — 

CHEMICAL  METHODS.  - THE  FIRST  MATCH.  —  THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PATENT.  — 

THE  EXTENT  OF  THE  MATCH  BUSINESS.  —  THE  SWIFT  AND  COURTNEY  AND 

BEECHER  COMPANY.  —  THEIR  ESTABLISHMENTS. THE  MACHINES  THEY  MAKE. 

—  THE  EXCELLENCE  OF  THEIR  MATCHES.  —  A  HISTORY  OF  THEIR  BUSINESS 
CAREER.  —  THE  PROCESS  THEY  USE.  —  THE  LESSON  OF  THE  MATCH  BUSINESS. 

The  utility  of  fire  is  so  great  to  mankind,  and  it  is  such  an  appar¬ 
ently  inexplicable  phenomenon,  that  there  is  no  wonder  tradition  ac¬ 
counted  for  its  possession  by  the  story  that  it  was  furnished  directly 
to  man  by  divine  agency.  The  mythological  fable  that  Prometheus 
was  punished  by  the  angry  gods  for  having  stolen  fire  from  heaven, 
and,  by  imparting  to  men  a  knowledge  of  its  use,  enabled  them  to 
contend  with  the  gods  in  power  and  knowledge,  expresses,  as  was 
the  spirit  of  those  times,  in  a  dramatic  story,  the  importance  to 
mankind  of  a  knowledge  of  the  uses  of  fire,  and  also  the  super¬ 
stitious  fears  of  the  powers  of  nature,  which  are  so  characteristic 
of  an  age  of  scientific  ignorance.  To  the  ancients  the  fact  of 
burning  was  so  mysterious  and  inexplicable  that  a  flame  was  made 
an  expression  of  their  religious  worship,  and  used  as  a  symbol  of 
their  adoration  of  their  divinities ;  nor  has  this  custom  yet  en¬ 
tirely  disappeared  from  the  world.  To  the  modern  chemist,  how¬ 
ever,  burning  is  simply  a  process  of  rapid  oxidation,  and  a  flame 
is  merely  one  of  the  indications  of  the  chemical  affinity  of  two 
substances,  differing  in  intensity  only  from  the  rusting  of  a  nail, 
but  no  more  than  this  ordinary  process  symbolical  of  any  special 
sentiment  of  worship. 

It  would  be  interesting,  as  a  matter  of  mere  curiosity,  to  know 
exactly  how  the  first  man  who  made  use  of  fire,  for  any  purpose, 
obtained  it.  Most  probably  it  was  supplied  to  him  by  some  case 
of  spontaneous  combustion,  or  from  some  tree  set  on  fire  by  light- 

(1223) 


1224 


MATCHES. 


ning.  Of  course,  however,  this  must  bo  mere  conjecture,  though 
it  is  evident  that  it  was  a  long  time  after  the  use  of  fire  was  known 
before  simple  and  efficient  means  were  discovered  for  obtaining  it 
at  will.  This  appears  from  the  care  with  which  it  was  guarded 
when  once  obtained.  The  Hebrews,  as  appears  from  their  records, 
carried  it  carefully  with  them  from  place  to  place,  as  the  North 
American  Indians  were  in  the  habit  of  doing  before  the  early  set¬ 
tlers  of  this  country  taught  them  the  use  of  the  flint  and  steel. 
Various  methods  for  obtaining  fire  were  discovered  during  the  his 
tory  of  human  society,  and  with  the  increasing  knowledge  gained 
by  the  experience  of  successive  generations  these  means  have 
constantly  increased  in  simplicity  and  in  certainty,  until  we  have 
reached  that  of  the  modern  match,  which  has  resulted  from  the  ap¬ 
plication  to  the  arts  of  the  knowledge  of  chemistry,  which  is  pecu¬ 
liarly  a  modern  science. 

Before  the  idea  of  using  chemical  mixtures  for  obtaining  fire 
came  to  be  practically  applied,  the  chief  device  used  was  the 
flint  and  steel.  By  striking  these  together  sharply,  a  spark  was 
elicited,  which,  being  caught  upon  a  bit  of  tinder,  could  be  blown 
into  a  flame.  Despite  the  inconvenience  and  trouble  incident 
upon  the  use  of  this  appliance  for  obtaining  fire,  it  was  for  a 
long  time  the  best  in  use. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  it  was  discovered 
that  phosphorus,  by  friction,  would  ignite  the  end  of  a  stick  which 
had  been  dipped  in  sulphur.  Phosphorus  did  not,  however,  come 
into  general  use,  as  a  means  of  obtaining  fire,  for  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  this  discovery  ;  but  in  the  interval 
several  modes  of  using  it  for  that  purpose  were  devised. 
Those  of  us  who  are  not  too  young  can  still  remember  this 
matches  of  fifty  years  ago.  They  were  made  of  small  sticks, 
the  end  of  which  had  been  dipped  in  melted  sulphur.  With  these 
and  a  vial  containing  oxide  of  phosphorus,  produced  by  partially 
burning  a  bit  of  phosphorus  in  the  confined  air  in  the  vial,  our 
fathers  prided  themselves  upon  the  improvements  made  in  the 
methods  of  obtaining  fire  at  will.  This  commencement  having, 
however,  been  made  in  using  chemical  means  for  obtaining  fire,  in 
the  place  of  depending  upon  friction,  as  had  been  done  before,  in¬ 
genuity  naturally  turned  its  attention  to  bettering  the  process,  and 
the  first  great  improvement  consisted  in  combining  chlorate  of  pot¬ 
ash  with  the  sulphur  upon  the  end  of  the  match,  so  that  when 
dipped  in  sulphuric  acid  the  match  was  lighted.  Though  this  was 


MATCHES. 


1225 


an  advance,  yet,  compared  with  our  present  matches,  this  method 
was  very  clumsy.  It  required  that  the  person  using  the  match 
should  also  be  provided  with  a  vial  of  sulphuric  acid. 

In  1829,  however,  an  English  chemist  discovered  by  experiment 
that  chlorate  of  potash  would  ignite  by  friction  ;  and  with  this  dis¬ 
covery  the  era  of  our  present  matches  was  inaugurated.  Im¬ 
provements  in  their  preparation  were  made  by  Professor  Faraday, 
whose  contributions  to  the  scientific  knowledge  of  the  world  are 
so  well  known,  and  at  his  suggestion  nitre  or  saltpetre  was  used 
in  the  place  of  chlorate  of  potash,  in  order  to  avoid  the  explosion 
made  by  the  ignition  of  this  latter  substance ;  while,  by  a  mixture 
of  stearine  with  the  sulphur,  the  objectionable  fumes  of  this  sub¬ 
stance  were  lessened.  In  the  United  States  the  first  patent  for  the 
invention  of  friction  matches  was  granted  to  Alonzo  D.  Phillips, 
of  Springfield,  Mass.,  October  24,  1836.  The  chemical  mixture 
used  by  him  consisted  of  glue,  phosphorus,  chalk,  and  sulphur. 
Since  that  time  the  manufacture  of  matches  has  greatly  increased, 
and  various  other  patents  for  improved  methods  of  manufacture 
have  been  granted  to  various  claimants,  and  the  match  business 
has  become  a  very  important  one.  The  extent  of  the  business  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  government  derives  from  the  tax  upon 
matches  a  yearly  sum  of  two  millions  of  dollars. 

The  manufacture  of  matches  as  a  special  industry  may  be  said 
to  have  fairly  begun  in  the  United  States  in  1836,  although  at  that 
time  there  were  very  few  factories  in  operation,  and  these  few 
very  small  ones. 

The  proportions  attained  by  the  match  business,  in  the  short 
time  which  it  has  been  in  existence,  have  become  possible  only  by 
the  introduction  of  machinery  to  ,tlie  manufacture.  At  first  all 
matches  were  made  by  hand,  the  splints  being  whittled  out.  At 
present,  however,  all  the  operations  which  can  be  are  done  by 
machines.  An  account  of  the  methods  used  in  the  establishments 
of  the  Swift  &  Courtney  &  Beecher  Company  will  best  serve  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  present  condition  of  the  manufactures  in  this 
country.  This  company  has  three  manufactories,  one  in  Wilming¬ 
ton,  Del.,  another  in  Westville,  Conn.,  and  a  third  in  Chicago,  Ill. 
We  give  representations  of  the  first  two.  The  present  company 
was  formed  in  May,  1870,  by  the  union  of  the  firm  of  A.  Beecher 
&  Sons,  which  was  established  in  1850,  at  Westville,  Conn.,  and 
that  of  Swift  &  Courtney,  which  was  established  in  1854,  at 
Wilmington,  Del. 


1226 


MATCHES. 


The  Wilmington  branch  was  founded  by  Mr.  Edward  Tatnall, 
with  Mr.  Courtney  as  foreman  and  practical  manager,  Mr.  Court¬ 
ney  having  from  his  boyhood  been  engaged  in  making  matches, 
when  the  hand  process  was  the  only  one  in  use. 

The  business  was  commenced  in  a  one-story  building  containing 
sixteen  hundred  and  fifty  square  feet  of  floor  room.  Under  the 
direction  of  the  original  founder  the  business  did  not  make  any 
great  advance  ;  and  in  July,  1861,  he  disposed  of  his  interest  to  a 
new  firm,  composed  of  William  If.  Swift  and  H.  B.  Courtney, 
who,  under  the  title  of  Swift  &  Courtney,  continued  the  business 
until  the  present  company  was  incorporated,  in  May,  1870.  Under 
their  management  the  business  was  greatly  increased,  and  such 
additions  to  the  premises  as  were  necessary  to  meet  the  growing 
wants  of  the  business  were  made  from  time  to  time,  until  they 
now  occupy  an  entire  block,  with  buildings  which  furnish  twenty- 
eight  thousand  square  feet  of  floor  room.  This  firm  were  the  pio¬ 
neers  in  the  business  of  making  matches  without  sulphur  in  this 
country ;  they  originated  the  name  “  parlor  match, ”  and  adopted 
it  for  their  matches,  the  merits  of  which  have  brought  them  into 
general  consumption.  They  have  constantly  adhered  to  their  high 
standard  in  the  quality  of  the  goods  they  offered  for  sale,  and  thus, 
despite  the  imitations  of  their  special  wares  which  have  been  made 
by  others,  the  demand  for  the  parlor  matches  of  their  make  has  be¬ 
come  general,  not  only  throughout  the  United  States,  but  in  South 
America  and  other  countries.  With  the  Wilmington  branch  of 
this  company  the  manufacture  of  parlor  matches  is  a  specialty,  and 
they  confine  their  attention  exclusively  to  that  grade  of  match  ; 
but  at  the  Westville  and  Chicago  branches,  besides  the  parlor 
matches,  they  also  make  sulphur  matches  of  a  superior  quality. 

The  Westville  branch  of  the  company  was  established  as  the 
firm  of  A.  Beecher  &  Sons,  in  1850.  The  three  members  com¬ 
prising  this  firm  were  the  inventors  of  the  machines  used  in 
match-making,  and  the  extent  and  importance  of  the  match  busi¬ 
ness  at  the  present  day  in  this  country  is  due  chiefly  to  their  me¬ 
chanical  skill  and  ingenuity.  It  would  have  been  impossible,  un¬ 
der  the  old  system  of  hand  labor,  to  accomplish  the  results  which 
they  have  made  attainable  b}r  the  application  of  machinery.  One 
of  the  branches  of  the  company’s  business  at  Westville  is  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  these  machines,  which  are  in  use  in  every  match  factory 
in  the  United  States  and  in  Canada,  and,  being  protected  by  letters 
patent,  are  manufactured  only  here.  These  machines  comprise 


FACTORY  OF  THE  SWIFT  &  COURTNEY  &  BEECHER  CO.,  AT  WILMINGTON.  DEL 


MATCHES. 


1229 


the  stick-cutting  machine,  which  prepares  the  splints  either  round 
or  square  ;  the  setting  machine,  by  which  the  splints  are  arranged 
in  bundles,  each  one  being  kept  distinct  from  all  the  others,  so 
that,  in  the  process  of  dipping  the  splints,  each  of  them  shall  re¬ 
ceive  its  share  of  the  mixture  without  interfering  with  its  neigh¬ 
bor  ;  the  rolling-off  and  cross-cutting  machine,  by  which  the  bundles 
of  splints,  after  they  are  dipped,  are  unrolled  and  cut  into  halves  ; 
dripping  apparatus,  composition  mixers,  and  machines  for  scoring 
and  cutting  paper  for  boxes. 

This  firm  also  built  up  theif  business  from  a  small  beginning, 
and  have  increased  the  capacity  of  their  buildings,  until  they  now 
have  an  area  of  floor  room  of  about  thirty-three  thousand  square 
feet. 

At  Westville  the  splints  are  made  and  shipped  to  the  other  fac¬ 
tories,  to  be  worked  up  into  matches.  The  lumber  used  is  selected 
pine,  which  comes  chiefly  from  Canada  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Com¬ 
pany’s  possessions.  The  Swift  &  Courtney  &  Beecher  Company 
employ  during  the  season  three  or  four  gangs  of  men  selecting  it. 
After  being  received  at  the  factory,  the  lumber  is  kept  stored  for  a 
year  in  order  to  season,  and  is  then  sawed  to  lengths  equalling 
two  matches,  and  cut  into  splints  by  the  machines.  These  ma¬ 
chines  work  with  great  rapidity,  a  single  machine  making  two 
million  splints  every  ten  hours.  The  splints  are  then,  by  another 
machine,  rolled  into  bundles  measuring  about  eighteen  inches 
across,  each  splint  being  kept  isolated  from  every  other.  The 
dipping  process  is  then  gone  through  with.  The  mixture,  of 
a  pasty  consistency,  is  spread  upon  a  flat  slab  of  stone,  and  the 
workman,  taking  a  bundle,  rapidly  dips  one  side,  and  then,  turning 
it  over,  dips  the  other  side.  By  the  simplification  of  the  process, 
a  workman  can  dip  a  million  matches  in  an  hour.  The  matches 
are  then  dried,  and  by  another* machine  the  bundles  are  unwound, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  splints  are  cut  into  two,  and  the  matches 
are  then  delivered  to  the  boxers.  These  are  generally  girls,  who 
acquire  great  dexterity  in  their  manipulation.  Provided  with  a 
pile  of  boxes,  and  another  of  matched,  one  of  these  boxers  soon 
acquires  the  knack  of  taking  up  just  enough  matches  to  fill  a  box, 
and,  by  a  peculiar  shuffling  motion,  arranges  them  with  great 
rapidity  in  the  box  which  she  has  taken  and  opened  with  the  other 
hand.  The  boxes  are  then  stamped  and  packed,  ready  for  sale. 

In  their  three  establishments  the  Swift  &  Courtney  &  Beecher 
Company  employ  about  four  hundred  hands,  the  chief  portion  of 
71 


1230 


MATCHES. 


whom  are  women  and  girls,  and  the  average  of  their  production  is 
fifteen  hundred  gross  a  day.  The  care  of  inspection,  which  is 
necessary  to  keep  the  standard  of  their  goods  at  the  point  of  ex¬ 
cellence  which  has  given  them  their  reputation,  is  very  great ;  but 
the  skill  and  long  experience  of  the  members  of  the  company 
secure  the  proper  performance  of  this  important  duty.  The  fac¬ 
tory  at  Chicago  was  established  to  partially  relieve  those  at  the 
east  from  the  demand  for  the  western  markets,  and,  though  estab¬ 
lished  only  in  1871,  has  already,  by  the  exercise  of  the  same  enter¬ 
prise  and  care  which  have  given  the  parent  branches  their  repu¬ 
tation,  earned  such  a  success  as  could  confidently  be  looked  for. 

Perhaps  in  no  single  department  of  our  varied  industry  is  the 
course  of  the  business  of  the  modern  world  more  clearly  indicated 
than  in  this  of  matches.  This  branch  of  manufacture,  which  forty 
years  ago  was  hardly  in  existence,  or  was  carried  on  in  the  small¬ 
est  way,  has  now  reached  such  proportions  as  afford  employment 
for  companies  like  this,  with  a  large  capital,  every  appliance  of 
machinery,  giving  employment  to  hundreds  of  hands,  drawing  its 
necessary  supplies  of  material  from  distant  points,  and  sending  its 
productions  to  various  countries.  The  necessity  for  the  union  of 
mankind,  as  a  necessary  result  of  their  interdependence,  is  thus 
shown  practically  from  our  industrial  growth,  as  it  is  from  the 
widening  scope  of  our  philosophy. 


FACTORY  OF  THE  SWIFT  &  COURTNEY  &  BEECHER  CO.,  AT  WESTVILLE,  CONN. 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 

•  * 

THE  ETYMOLOGY  OF  THE  WORD  “TELEGRAPH.” — THE  TELEGRAPH  OF  ATC- 
CIENT  TIMES.  —  THE  AMERICAN  ELECTRO-MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH,  COMMONLY 
KNOWN  AS  THE  “MORSE  TELEGRAPH.”  — WHAT  IT  IS.  — WHO  INVENTED  THIS 
TELEGRAPH.  —  THE  UNVEILING  OF  A  STATUE  OF  PROF.  S.  B.  F.  MORSE,  AND  THE 
GREAT  FARCICAL  DEMONSTRATION  AT  THE  ACADEMY  OF  MUSIC,  TO  HIS  GLORY, 
JUNE  10,  1871.  —  OF  SUNDRY  “  EMINENT  MEN,”  MERCHANTS,  EDITORS,  ETC.  — 
AN  INVENTOR  DEFINED,  AND  PROF.  MORSE  MEASURED  BY  THE  DEFINITION.  — 
AN  UNEQUALLED  PIECE  OF  IRONY.  —  CHIEF  JUSTICE  CHASE.  —  FURTHER  IN¬ 
QUIRY  INTO  PROF.  MORSE’S  CLAIMS.  —  PROF.  JOSEPH  HENRY.  —  PROF.  LORENZO 
D.  GALE.  —  MR.  ALFRED  VAIL.  —  WHO  THE  REAL  INVENTORS  OF  THE  PRACTICAL 
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH  WERE.  —  HON.  FRANCIS  O.  J.  SMITH  IN  HIS 
RELATIONS  TO  THE  TELEGRAPH.  —  PROF.  MORSE  AS  A  RHETORICIAN  AS  WELL 
AS  AN  “INVENTOR.” — PROF.  MORSE  AS  A  “  PROVIDENTIAL  HYPHEN.”  —  THE 
WESTERN  UNION  TELEGRAPH  COMPANY,  AND  ITS  SPECULATIVE  SCHEMES. 

Among  the  marvellous  accomplishments  of  human  study  and 
genius,  nothing,  all  facts  considered,  can  well  be  regarded  as  more 
important  than  man’s  triumph  over  space  and  time  in  the  matter 
of  the  intercommunication  of  widely  separated  individuals  and 
nations.  From  the  earliest  times  some  mode  of  conveying-  intelli¬ 
gence  to  a  distance  by  a  more  expeditious  and  less  expensive  pro¬ 
cess  than  that  of  actually  sending  it  by  couriers  has  been  resorted 
to,  such  as  by  fires  built  upon  hills  or  mountains  far  remote  from, 
but  with  their  peaks  within  sight  of,  eacli  other.  This  method  was 
carried  to  such  perfection  by  the  Romans  at  one  time,  that,  as 
Julius  Africanus  relates,  they  were  enabled  to  convey  messages 
with  much  rapidity  to  great  distances  in  words,  the  letters  being 
indicated  by  different  colored  lights. 

The  method  of  transmitting  intelligence  by  means  of  signs,  ob¬ 
served  from  distant  points,  has  long  been  denominated  a  telegraph 
—  a  word  derived  from  two  Greek  words,  tele,  far  off,  and  graphein, 
to  write,  and  seems  to  have  been  in  use  for  man}'-  centuries,  up  to 
about  1845,  as  exclusively  indicating  some  kind  of  visual,  far-off,  or 
signal  writing,  or  telegraphy.  But  when  the  electro-magnetic  means, 

(1233.) 


1231 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


with  its  mechanical  correlations,  became  an  established  accom¬ 
plishment  of  science  for  the  conveyance  of  intelligence,  the  word 
telegraph  was  assigned  as  its  name,  and  is  now  universally  under¬ 
stood  as  signifying  that  alone;,  and  we  purpose  to  speak  in  this 
article  of  little  else  than  the  Electro-Magnetic  Telegraph,  and  its 
inventors  and  promoters. 

A  thorough  dissertation  upon  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph, 
and  the  numerous  matters  of  dispute  which  have  arisen  as  to  its 
origin  in  the  long  line  of  scientific  research  which  eventuated  in 
its  suggestion,  and  the  painful  years  of  mechanical  experiment 
which  resulted  in  its  realization  as  a  mighty  “  power  in  the  earth, ” 
would  fill  a  large  volume,  and  will,  doubtless,  at  no  very  distant  time, 
be* written,  as  it  should  be,  for  the  interests  of  science  and  truth. 

The  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  though  in  the  general  under¬ 
standing  classed  as  an  “  invention, ”  was,  prQperly  speaking,  a 
slow  creation  of  science,  step  by  step  ;  a  growth  of  many  years  ; 
not  the  suggestion  of  a  single  instant,  or  the  discovery  of  a  single 
mind. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  comment  upon  the  immense  value  of 
the  telegraph  to  our  present  civilization,  and  the  great  changes  it 
is  silently  and  steadily  working  in  conjunction  with  other  forces 
of  progress  in  the  world’s  modes  of  thought  and  customs,  all 
pointing  to  those  days  of  enlightenment  when  the  race  will  look 
back  with  mingled  contempt  and  pity  upon  the  hideous  moral 
slaveries,  the  wretched  social  isolation,  the  cowardice,  the  igno¬ 
rance,  the  bigotry,  the  false  religions,  and  other  of  the  indecencies 
and  unscientific  conditions  of  present  times,  in  which  men  and 
women  are  nearly  all  monstrously  deformed,  or  dwarfed  in  mind 
and  morals,  as  well  as  in  body.  The  telegraph  serves  to  unite 
peoples,  and  thus  to  awaken  a  larger  human  sympathy.  It  is  one 
of.  the  reconstructive  forces  in  society,  a  practical  regenerator, 
worth  all  the  miracles  of  the  saints,  the  “  metaphysical  philoso¬ 
phy/’  the  Paulistic  sermons,  and  the  false  teachings  of  physical 
and  moral  crucifixion,  with  which  the  world  has  been  from  time  to 
time  vexed,  in  the  mad  scheme  to  make  men  and  society  better  by 
warring  against  the  senses,  instead  of  recognizing  the  supremacy, 
purity,  and  good  sense  of  Nature.  As  such  an  engine  of  progress, 
the  telegraph  is  worthy  of  the  profoundest  consideration  in  its 
moral  as  well  as  physical  influences  ;  but  with  its  moral  bearings 
the  scope  of  this  article  will  not  permit  us  to  deal  as  we  could 
desire. 


-  :  ii  •  ; 


. 


*  ' 

..■V- 


•  •  ■'  T  ■ 


.  1  - 

• 

♦ 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


123T 


Over  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  miles  of  public  tele¬ 
graph  wires  are  in  use  in  the  United  States  alone,  to  say  nothing 
of  private  lines,  which  must  extend  several  thousand  miles,  be¬ 
sides  the  existence  of  many  thousand  miles  more  of  wire  in  use 
within  private  dwellings,  hotels,  etc.,  as  signals  for  communications 
between  proprietors  and  servants. 

The  interests  of  the  entire  civilized  world  are  now  affected  more 
or  less  by  the  telegraph  ;  and  if  it  were  not  contemptible  and  weak 
to  indulge  anything  like  a  “  national  pride, ”  America  might  well 
be  proud  that  her  children  first  made  practical  this  great  mode  of 
intercommunication,  and  instructed  the  world  in  its  use ;  for  the 
so-called  “  Morse  telegraph  ”  is  the  only  one  at  this  time  in  gen¬ 
eral  use,  and  is,  specially,  the  result  of  American  study  and  labor. 

The  electro-magnetic  telegraph  structure  may  be  succinctly 
described  as  consisting  of  a  copper  plate  buried  in  the  earth,  from 
which  extends  a  metallic  wire  to  one  'pole  of  a  galvanic  battery. 
From  the  other  pole  of  the  battery  the  wire  continues  to  one  end 
of  the  helices  of  insulated  wire  which  surround  a  core  of  soft 
iron,  and  from  the  other  end  back  to  a  plate  of  copper  corre¬ 
sponding*  with  the  first-named  plate  buried  in  the  earth.  The 
earth  is  a  substitute  for  wire  between  the  copper  plates,  and  thus 
completes  the  circuit.  The  battery  acts  chemically  in  generating 
a  current  of  galvanic  electricity,  which  follows  the  wires  and  the 
earth  line  between  the  plates.  This  current,  in  passing  along  the 
helices  surrounding  the  core  of  soft  iron  bent  into  the  form  of  a 
horseshoe,  generates  magnetism  in  the  core.  An  armature,  or 
small  piece  of  soft  iron,  is  attached  to  a  lever  that  is  movable 
up  and  down  upon  a  pivot  or  axis,  and  located  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  two  ends  of  the  iron  core.  This  armature  is  at¬ 
tracted  by  the  magnetization  of  the  iron  core  by  the  current  pass¬ 
ing  along  the  helices,  and  is  again  released  from  this  attraction 
by  the  cessation  or  breaking  of  the  galvanic  current,  and  drawn 
away  from  the  armature  by  a  delicate  spiral  spring.  This  alter¬ 
nate  attraction  and  release  of  the  armature  imparts  motion  back 
and  forth  to  the  adjacent  lever;  and  this  motion  is  what  does  the 
writing  or  imprinting  of  telegraphic  characters  upon  paper  kept  in 
motion  by  clockwork  under  the  rising  and  falling  point  at  one  end 
of  the  lever.  The  galvanic  current  passes  from  one  end  of  the 
wire  helix  to  the  other,  and  thence  along  the  route  into  the  earth, 
the  latter  constituting  the  returning  half  of  the  galvanic  circuit. 

In  the  city  of  New  York,  on  the  10th  of  Juno,  1871,  occurred  a 


1238 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


peculiar  demonstration  in  honor  of  a  great  triumph  of  science,  and 
of  a  man  evidently  supposed  by  the  majority  of  the  participants 
of  the  occasion  to  have  wrought  this  great  triumph,  under  the  in¬ 
spiration  of  a  “  Supreme  Author,”  to  whom  the  man  in  question 
saw  fit  to  modestly  attribute  “  the  gift,”  as  he  was  pleased  to  en¬ 
title  the  invention  of  which  he  discoursed.  On  that  day,  in  the 
Central  Park  of  New  York,  was  unveiled  a  statue  to  the  honor  of 
Prof.  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  by  whose  name  the  great  American 
electro-magnetic  telegraph  is  generally  designated.  In  the  even¬ 
ing  of  the  same  day  a  vast  concourse  of  people  met  at  the  Acad¬ 
emy  of  Music  to  do  supplemental  honors  to  the  man.  Many  of 
the  scholars  and  statesmen  of  the  land  were  gathered  together  on 
these  occasions,  the  honorary  exercises  of  which  were  not  a  little 
poetic  and  sublime,  and,  as  far  as  the  hearts  of  the  general  partici¬ 
pants  were  concerned,  constitute  a  grand  chapter  in  the  history  of 
the  nation,  as  demonstrating  the  possession  on  the  part  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  that  appreciative  reverence  which  is  due  to  science,  and  the 
exalted  character  of  a  truly  great  and  pure  man  ;  for  it  would  be 
doing  too  great  violence  to  the  evidence  of  one’s  senses  to  suppose 
it  possible  that  the  assembled  multitudes  on  that  day  were  well 
aware  that  they  were  only  the  misinformed  and  beguiled  instru¬ 
ments  in  the  hands  of  a  number  of  artful  men,  who  had  called 
them  together  as  the  necessary  stock  actors  in  a  play,  which  these 
men  had  designed  as  a  means  to  effect  certain  ends  of  their  own. 
The  multitude  assembled  undoubtedly  believed  Prof.  Morse  to  have 
been  the  inventor  of  the  Electro-Magnetic  Telegraph,  and  there¬ 
fore  to  be  entitled  under  the  law  to  the  letters  patent  therefor, 
which  he  obtained  as  the  inventor  of  something  “  novel  and  use¬ 
ful,”  to ‘the  consideration  shown  him.  It  was  but  honorable  in 
them,  then,  to  pay  him  their  homage. 

But  in  looking  over  the  long  list  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the 
“reception”  at  the  Academy  of  Music  before  alluded  to,  the 
writer  finds  recorded  the  names  of  many  eminent  men,  some  whom 
it  would  be  preposterous  to  suppose  to  have  been  unaware  of 
the  farcical  character  they  were  made  to  play,  were  it  not  for  the 
reflection  that,  in  this  country  especially,  men  may  become  “emi¬ 
nent,”  even  in  scientific  fields,  so  far  as  the  popular  understanding 
is  concerned,  while  quite  guiltless  of  any  scientific  accomplish¬ 
ments  or  achievements.  A.  Oakey  Hall  heads  the  list  of  vice- 
presidents  to  which  we  allude —  an  eminent  man  on  the  10th  of 
June,  1871,  and  soon  after  rendered  more  eminent,  and  not  an  unfit 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


1239 


leader  of  most  of  the  long  array  of  those  whose  names  follow 
his  —  the  Dodges,  Griswolds,  Lows,  Vanderbilts,  Kelleys,  Padel- 
fords,  and  other  mere  merchants  and  politicians,  whose  scientific 
attainments  and  judgment  need  no  comment.  Here  and  there 
among  the  list  are  the  names  of  sundr}7-  editors  of  political  journals, 
a  class  of  men  whose  “  duties  in  life  ”  generally  forbid  their  ag¬ 
gregating  to  themselves  anything  like  scientific  facts,  to  say  noth¬ 
ing  of  their  lack  of  method  in  thought.  Thus  far  the  supporting 
array  of  vice-presidents  was  only  a  ludicrous  phase  in  the  farce. 
But  in  this  list  the  writer  finds  incorporated  the  names  of  some 
who  were  not  present  on  the  occasion,  and  of  whose  names  fraud¬ 
ulent  and  unpermitted  use  must  have  been  made,  inasmuch  as  they 
must  have  known  too  much  of  the  facts  regarding  the  origin  and 
history  of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  to  have  conscientiously 
allowed  such  use  of  their  names. 

In  the  light  of  this  fact  the  farce  assumes  a  serious  aspect ;  and 
for  the  integrity  of  history,  as  well  as  for  commemoration  of  the 
worthy  living  and  of  others  —  the  worthy  dead  —  to  whom  the 
world  is  indebted  for  the  American  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  it 
is  not  unfitting  that  we  here  turn  to  the  serious  consideration  of 
tke  question,  “  Who  invented  this  telegraph  l  ” 

An  inventor,  in  the  legal  sense,  is  one  who  discovers  something 
11  novel  ”  to  the  human  understanding,  and  “useful”  to'  society, 
elementally  unknown  before,  as  in  chemistry,  for  example  ;  or  who 
projects  an  entirely  new  machine,  new  in  all  its  powers  and  parts  ; 
or  who  combines  old  and  previously  known  forces  or  powers  in  a 
“novel”  manner  to  a  “  useful  ”  end.  To  Mr.  Morse  were  ac¬ 
corded  the  letters  patent  for  this  invention,  in  the  strictly  legal 
sense  considered,  according  to  the  evidence  presented.  With  this 
simple  fact  we  find  no  fault,  and  it  is  prima  facie  evidence  that 
Prof.  Morse  is  the  inventor  of  the  telegraph  in  question.  But  the 
letters  patent  by  no  means  settle  the  question.  These  are  often 
set  aside  as  improperly  granted.  The  writer  regrets  that  his  space 
is  limited,  for  it  would  be  most  satisfactory  to  him  to  present  in 
detail  all  the  facts  which  bear  upon  the  interesting  question  in 
issue,  and  follow  the  course  of  Prof.  Morse  from  the  year  1832, 
when,  as  he  of  late  years  has  endeavored  to  impress  the  public 
mind,  he  professes  to  have  invented  the  electro-magnetic  tele¬ 
graph,  up  to  the  10th  of  June,  1871,  when  he  allowed  himself  to  un- 
blushingly  receive,  before  a  vast  multitude,  almost  divine  honors, 
of  which  only  the  most  meagre  part  were  equitably  due  to  him, 


1240 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


and  no  part  of  which  were  in  any  other  than  in  the  most  strictly 
technical  legal  sense  due  to  him  ;  to  wit,  in  the  fact  that  he  holds 
the  letters  patent  for  an  invention  to  which,  so  far  as  it  is  a  “novel 
and  useful  ”  (practical)  one,  he  has  no  just  claims,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  writer. 

But  to  follow  the  course  of  Prof.  Morse  wrould  require  a  volume 
*  as  large  as  the  “  Great  Industries  ”  itself,  and  the  wrriter  is  forced  to 
content  himself  with  presenting  a  few  facts  and  suggestions  here, 
leaving  it  to  the  historian,  who  may  have  abundant  time  and  due 
respect  to  the  integrity  of  history,  to  do  full  justice  to  the  matter 
in  question. 

In  the  whole  range  of  “  pious  frauds,”  romantic  imaginings, 
and  spurious  pretences  of  all  kinds,  perhaps  there  never  was  a 
more  ludicrous  and  lamentable  delusion  practised  than  that  which, 
conducted  with  no  mean  skill  at  times,  it  must  be  confessed,  has 
been  practised  upon  the  credulous  masses,  causing  them  to  believe 
that  Prof.  Morse  is  the  inventor  of  the  practical  telegraph  known 
by  his  name.  This  delusion  is  the  more  to  be  regretted  in  that 
not  only  the  masses,  but  large  numbers  of  scientific  and  usually 
astute  men,  have  been  led  to  concur  with  the  multitude  in  their 
error.  Only  now  and  then,  it  would  seem,  has  an  eminent  man, 
even,  failed  to  fall  into  this  error.  The  writer  calls  to  mind  at  the 
moment,  however,  an  honorable  exception,  who  ought  to  be  ac¬ 
credited  here,  both  as  such  exception  and  for  the  great  skill  with 
which,  upon  a  delicate  occasion,  in  embarrassing  circumstances,  he 
concealed  under  the  most  subtle  irony  the  contempt  which  he  must 
have  felt  for  the  demigod  of  the  hour,  and  preserved  his  own  self- 
respect,  while  thus  avoiding  also  the  marring  of  the  happiness  of 
a  convivial  occasion  by  the  “  sentiment :  ”  “  It  is  the  providential 
distinction  and  splendid  honor  of  the  eminent  American  who  is  our 
guest  to-night,  that,  happily  prepared  by  previous  acquirements 
and  pursuits,  he  was  quick  to  seize  the  opportunity,  and  give  to 
the  world  the  first  recording  telegraph.  Fortunate  man  !  thus  to 
link  his  name  forever  with  the  greatest  wonder  and  the  greatest  benefit 
of  the  age.”  This  gentleman  was  no  other  than  the  lion.  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  at  a  dinner  at  Del- 
monico’s,  in  New  York,  December  29,  1868,  over  which  he  was 
called  to  preside.  Judge  Chase  had,  many  years  before  (1853), 
been  engaged  as  attorney  in  a  cause  in  which  the  claims  of  Prof. 
Morse  were  pretty  thoroughly  investigated.  Perhaps  the  language 
of  his  toast,  for  delicate  and  pungent  sarcasm,  was  never  equalled*. 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


1241 


And  what  were  Prof.  Morse’s  “  previous  acquirements  and  pur¬ 
suits  ?  ”  “  Fortunate  man,”  indeed  ! 

Prof.  Morse  himself  enables  us  to  shorten  our  investigation  for 
present  purposes,  somewhat,  in  that,  under  the  fire  of  a  cross- 
examination  in  the  case  of  “  F.  0.  J.  Smith  vs.  Hugh  Downing, 
et  ah,  tried  before  Judges  Levi  Woodbury,  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  and  Hon.  Peleg  Sprague,  of  the  United 
States  district  of  Massachusetts,  in  May,  1850,  he  was  compelled 
to  admit  that  he  neither  “discovered  electricity,  galvanism,  nor 
electro-magnetism  ;  ”  nor  “  the  electro-magnet,  abstractly  ;  ”  nor 
“the  abstract  fact  of  combining  an  electro-magnet  generally  with 
a  circuit  of  conductors  ;  ”  nor  “that  the  breaking  and  closing  of 
an  electric  or  galvanic  circuit,  having  within  it  a  generator  of 
electricity  or  galvanism,  would  cause  an  alternate  flow  and  cessa¬ 
tion  of  a  current  of  electricity  or  galvanism.”(!)  This  was  not  all 
that  Prof.  Morse  was  obliged  to  disclaim  ;  but  we  have  not  space 
to  quote  extendedly  from  the  case.  He  was  compelled  to  ac¬ 
knowledge  that  he  discovered  nothing  whatever  of  the  elements 
and  forces  of  the  telegraph.  But  he  claims  that  he  was  “  the 
first  who  combined  and  used  an  electro-magnet  and  armature  in  a 
circuit  of  electric  or  galvanic  conductors,  in  combination  with 
other  appliances,  for  a  specific  and  novel  purpose.”  This  is  the 
gist  of  his  present  claim  ;  and  to  the  initiated,  the  subtle  character 
of  Prof.  Morse’s  speech  on  the  10th  of  June,  at  the  Academy  of 
Music,  was  not  a  little  amusing.  He  was  in  a  delicate  position. 
He  knew  full  well  that  there  were  those  living  who  knew  all  about 
his  pretensions,  and  it  was  necessary  to  speak  guardedly ;  and  he 
did  so,  in  a  style  which,  while  it  conveyed  to  the  common  mind  a 
notion  of  the  speaker’s  modest  (!)  but  immeasurable  greatness, 
claimed  no  more  for  him,  as  the  intelligent  and  careful  hearer  or 
reader  would  see,  than  would  bear  inspection  in  the  light  of  the 
case  to  which  we  have  alluded  above. 

But  let  us  see  if  Prof.  Morse  can  sustain  even  the  most  meagre 
claim  to  the  invention  of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  in  the 
court  of  honest  common  sense  and  scientific  research.  The  reader 
will  remember  that  it  is  not  enough  to  entitle  one  to  an  inven¬ 
tion,  that  he  has,  at  some  time,  vaguely  conceived  that  something 
more  or  less  like  it  might  be  desirable  ;  or  that  he  has  ignorantly 
speculated  with  this  or  that  force,  and  dabbled  with  mechanical 
impossibilities  in  order  to  reach  a  presumptive  end.  Millions, 
probably,  have  wished  they  could  fly.  Many  have  attempted  to 


1242 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


actualize  a  flying  machine,  and  all,  so  far,  have  failed.  But  we 
cannot  absolutely  declare  that  such  a  machine  will  not  be  invented, 
in  the  not  distant  future,  perhaps.  If  a  practical  flying  machine 
shall  be  invented,  shall  all  the  dreamers  be  accorded  credit  there¬ 
for  ?  Or  will  those  who  have  heretofore  attempted  to  render  practi¬ 
cal  certain  mechanical  absurdities  to  such  end  be  thus  honored  ? 
Neither.  Prof.  Morse,  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  stands  in 
relation  to  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  as  a  dreamer,  and  spec¬ 
ulator  with  certain  forces,  to  obtain  the  desirable  end  of  a  ‘‘re¬ 
cording  telegraph, ”  who  never  really  invented  anything  important 
in  its  composition,  and  who  never,  in  a  practical  and  useful  sense, 
“  combined  ”  any  of  its  parts  or  forces.  As  the  earnest  and  inef¬ 
ficient  dreamer,  he  is  entitled  to  all  the  credit  which  attaches  to 
such  a  character.  He  got  it  into  his  head  that  a  “  telegraph, ” 
constructed  in  some  way  with  wires,  and  over  which  electricity 
could  be  sent,  he  knew  not  how,  would  be  a  desirable  thing. 
Others  thought  so,  too,  and  they  carried  out  their  projects  into 
practical  operation,  long  before  the  aids  of  Prof.  Morse  developed 
or  “  invented  ”  the  “electro-magnetic  telegraph.”  Prof.  Morse 
did  not  invent  the  flying  machine  of  “electro-magnetic”  teleg¬ 
raphy.  lie  wished  that  he  could  make  such  a  machine,  and  he 
went  to  work  and  got  together  materials  of  which  to  make  the 
wings  ;  but  he  found  he  was  unable  to  fashion  them  to  any  “  use¬ 
ful  ”  purpose.  Moreover,  he,  in  his  ignorance  of  the  then  ad¬ 
vanced  state  of  science  as  to  the  proper  forces,  was  unable  to 
conceive  of  the  motive  power  for  the  proposed  wings  ;  for  the 
power  that  he  selected  would  only  lift  a  single  feather  of  the 
wings,  and  not  that,  if  it  were  a  sufficiently  long  one.  II is  efforts 
were,  in  short,  all  abortive  ;  for  he  groped  about  in  ignorance  of 
both  chemistry  and  mechanics  ;  and  according  to  his  own  story, 
he  had  spent  four  years  in  this  loose  dreaming  and  speculation, 
when  one  day  a  man  of  brains  and  science  came  along,  and  gave 
him  the  first  scientific  light  which  proved  of  importance  in  the 
realization  of  the  object  of  his  dreaming. 

This  was  four  vears  after  Prof.  Morse  had  invented,  on  board 
the  Sully  (as  he  by  marked  implication  and  almost  direct  statement, 
declared  to  the  audience  at  the  Academy  of  Music  in  June,  1871), 
the  electro-magnetic  telegraph.  Since  1837  it  has  been  an  object 
with  Prof.  Morse  to  make  the  public  believe  that  he  invented  the 
electro-magnetic  telegraph  on  board  the  Sully,  in  1832.  The  dis- 
ingenuousness  of  the  man  on  this  point  can  best  be  understood  by 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


1243 


tlie  fact,  that  whereas  Prof.  Morse  not  only  allowed,  but  encour- 
aged,  this  false  assumption  to  be  entertained  by  his  audience  on 
that  day,  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  he  nevertheless,  in  his  cross- 
examination  in  the  case  before  referred  to  (of  Smith  and  others 
vs.  Downing  and  others),  made  oath  that  he  “  never  had  on  board 
the  ship,  or  elsewhere,  any  consultation  with  Dr.  Jackson  on 
electro-magnetism,  in  its  application  to  telegraphing.77  Now,  this 
is  undoubtedly  true,  as  circumstances  subsequent  to  that  time 
indicate.  Yet  Prof.  Morse,  according  to  his  own  showing,  put 
implicit  confidence  in  Prof.  Jackson’s  ability  to  help  him  to  a 
means  of  accomplishing  a  recording  telegraph,  and  in  a  letter  of 
December  7,  1837,  declares,  with  some  acrimony,  that  all  his  con¬ 
sultations  with  Dr.  Jackson  not  only  served  to  retard  his  inven¬ 
tion,  but  compelled  him,  “  after  five  years7  delay,  to  consider  the 
result  of  that  experiment 77  (the  one  proposed  on  board  the  Sully) 
“as  a  failure,  and  consequently  to  devise  a  new  mode  of  apply¬ 
ing  my  apparatus  —  a  mode  entirely  original  with  me  77  (Morse). 
Prof.  Morse  in  the  same  letter  says,  “  My  invention  on  board 
the  Sully  is  mechanical  and  mathematical.  It  has  no  more  to 
do  with  chemical  science  than  with  geology  or  anatomy.77  (This 
letter  was  written  to  repudiate  Dr.  Jackson’s  claim  of  having 
instructed  Prof.  Morse  in  chemical  matters  relative  to  telegraph¬ 
ing.)  In  the  case  of  himself  and  others  vs.  O’Peilly  and  others 
(known  as  “the  Kentucky  case77),  Prof.  Morse,  on  the  31st  day 
of  August,  1848,  declared  under  oath,  substantially,  that  he 
knew  nothing,  at  the  time  of  his  invention,  of  the  practicability 
of  propelling  electricity  effectively  to  a  great  distance  (in  opposi¬ 
tion  to  the  opinion  of  Barlow  that  it  was  impracticable).  ‘  He 
took  it  for  granted  that  it  was  a  fact,  and  founded  his  invention 
upon  that  belief ; 7  but  at  that  time  he  was  ignorant  of  the  fact,  and 
of  the  discoverer  of  the  fact  !  This  shows  the  professor’s  igno¬ 
rance,  by  his  own  confession,  of  the  science  of  electricity  at  that 
time  ;  and  as  it  is  clearly  demonstrable  that  he  made  no  progress 
with  his  invention  after  four  years  more  of  dreaming,  it  is  not  a 
violent  inference  to  believe  that  he  remained  ignorant  all  that 
time.  At  any  rate,  we  are  left  in  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  as 
late  as  the  fall  of  1836  he  had  no  knowledge  which  could  avail 
him  practically  in  the  construction  of  an  electro-magnetic  tele¬ 
graph  which  would  operate  over  the  distance  of  forty  feet.  This 
is  mace  evident  by  the  statement  of  Prof.  Lorenzo  D.  Gale,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Prof.  Morse,  that  he  (Morse)  then  (1836)  pro- 


1244 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


fessed  great  surprise  at  the  contents  of  a  certain  paper  which 
Prof.  Gale  showed  him,  and  which  related  to  scientific  facts,  upon 
which  Prof.  Gale  had  just  made  to  Prof.  Morse  the  very  “  sug¬ 
gestions,”  without  which  the  telegraph  called  the  “  Morse  tele¬ 
graph  ”  could  never  have  existed  !  To  Prof.  Gale,  then,  is  the 
world  directly  indebted  for  communicating  to  Prof.  Morse  the 
contents  of  the  paper  in  question,  and  showing  him  how  his  spec- 
ulative  and  abortive  machinery  could  be  made  effective,  and  of 
value  for  communicating  intelligence  to  any  desirable  distance 
(though  necessarily  very  slowly,  such  was  the  clumsy  character 
of  the  “  type  ”  arrangements,  etc.). 

This  “paper”  was  no  less  than  an  article  by  Prof.  Joseph 
Henry,  then  of  Princeton  College,  illustrating  his  experiments  in 
electro-magnetism,  and  published  in  Silliman’s  Journal  in  the  year 
1831,  and  of  which  the  limited  scientific  understanding  of  Prof. 
Morse  had  not  permitted  him  to  know  anything  before.  Prof. 
Ilenry  had  discovered  the  power,  and  reduced  it  to  actual  prac¬ 
tice  in  mechanism,  which  Prof.  Morse,  in  his  dreaming,  longed  for  ; 
and  thus  was  Prof.  Ilenry  the  legitimate  father  of  the  American 
electro-magnetic  telegraph,  in  one  form.  But  the  child  of  Prof. 
Morse’s  dreams  still  needed  a  proper  body  to  be  of  any  service 
to  the  world  ;  and  here  Prof.  Morse’s  ignorance  of  mechanism 
proved  another  cloud  too  dense  for  his  talents  to  pierce.  He 
invented  (with  what  borrowed  aid  we  know  not)  some  clumsy 
and  impractical  contrivances,  which,  however,  served,  with  Prof. 
Gale’s  aid,  to  demonstrate  the  possibility  of  a  successful  machine 
some  time  in  the  future.  And  now  came  another  brainful  supple¬ 
ment  to  Prof.  Morse’s  necessities,  in  the  person  of  the  late 
Mr.  Alfred  Vail,  of  Morristown,  N.  J.  Prof.  Morse  showed  to 
Mr.  Vail  his  plan  of  telegraphing.  Mr.  Vail  comprehended  the 
mechanical  condition  of  things  at  once,  and  saw  that  he  could 
devise  the  right  plans  of  machinery,  if  it  were  true  that  the  gal¬ 
vanic  current  could  be  made  to  generate  the  necessary  magnetic 
force  at  a  distance.  In  a  few  days  Mr.  Vail  returned,  to  satisfy 
himself  as  to  this  point ;  and  so  assuring  himself,  and  believing  in 
the  practicability  of  the  affair,  with  the  right  machinery,  made 
Prof.  Morse  aware  of  his  opinion.  Prof.  Morse  soon  entered  into 
articles  of  agreement  with  Mr.  Vail  and  Prof.  Gale,  whereby  he 
not  only  shrewdly  secured  these  gentlemen’s  aid,  but  bought  their 
genius  as  well,  binding  them  to  give  him  not  only  their  labor,  but 
all  “  the  improvements,  new  discoveries,”  etc.,  scientific  and  me- 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


1245 


chanical,  which  they  should  make.”  Mr.  Vail  went  forward,  and 
eventually  invented  the  most  important  parts  of  the  register,  the 
lever  and  roller,  together  with  the  method  of  embossed  writing*, 
as  they  now  exist ;  discovered  that  only  one  circuit  of  wire  was 
necessary,  instead  of  two,  upon  which  Prof.  Morse  had  insisted  ; 
and  other  matters,  which  we  will  not  now  stop  to  mention.  In 
fact,  Mr.  Vail  became  the  brains  of  the  mechanical  portion  of  the 
invention,  and  contributed  to  the  enterprise  numerous  important 
scientific  suggestions,  for  experiment  by  himself  and  Prof.  Gale  ; 
and  it  is  firmly  believed  by  the  writer  that  neither  Prof.  Morse  nor 
any  of  his  most  ardent  friends  will  undertake  to  prove  that  the 
professor  ever  made  a  single,  however  unimportant,  improvement, 
scientific  or  mechanical,  upon  the  ineffective,  clumsy,  and  imprac¬ 
ticable  machine  as  Prof.  Gale  found  it.  All  the  improvements 
and  subsequent  new  inventions  w~ere  Mr.  VaiPs. 

In  the  early  part  of  his  engagement  with  Prof.  Morse,  Mr.  Vail 
provided  him  with  the  financial  as  well  as  mechanical  means  of 
making  the  practical  experiment  on  a  considerable  scale,  which 
was  made  in  the  iron  works  of  the  father  of  Mr.  Vail,  the  late 
Judge  Stephen  Vail,  at  Speedwell,  Morristown,  N.  J.,  in  Janu¬ 
ary,  1838.  Mr.  VaiPs  mechanism  proved  a  success,  and  the  child 
of  Prof.  Morse’s  confident  dreams  and  sickly  hopes  was  at  last 
born,  but  not  clothed  in  the  beauty,  and  endowed  with  the 
strength,  which  Mr.  Vail  and  Prof.  Gale  subsequently  gave  it. 
This  was  the  American  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  which  came 
•  unexpectedly  to  Prof.  Morse  ;  for  on  board  the  Sully,  and  for  four 
long  years  thereafter,  he  had  only  conceived  of  something,  — 
he  could  not  define  to  himself  or  anybody  else  what,  and  which 
he  declared  to  Dr.  Jackson,  on  December  1,  1831,  had  proved  a 
failure,  —  but  not  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  ;  for  he  then 
neither  knew  anything  of  electro-magnetism,  nor,  of  course,  had 
any  notion  of  what  sort  of  machinery  this  force  unknown  to  him 
could  or  would  operate,  in  order  to  accomplish  a  recording  tele¬ 
graph.  His  flying  machine  now  had  wings,  and  the  power  to 
move  them  ;  and  it  would  seem  that  Prof.  Morse  had  ever  since 
been  riding  on  it,  through  the  more  or  less  sane  regions  in  which 
his  egotism  and  vanity  have  prompted  him  to  move. 

Mr.  Alfred  Vail  was,  at  the  time  of  his  first  meeting  with  Prof. 
Morse,  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  —  in  the  full  vigor  of  manhood. 
Though  so  advanced  in  life,  he  had  but  just  graduated  with  honor 
at  the  New  York  University.  Mr.  Vail,  before  entering  college, 


1216 


TIIE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


had  been  engaged  in  business  and  mechanical  pursuits,  and  even 
then  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  possessing  great  skill,  mechanical 
ingenuity,  and  extensive  scientific  attainments.  Mr.  Vail  was  a 
gentleman  of  high  and  unblemished  character,  generous  to  a  fault, 
and  enthusiastic  in  the  promotion  of  the  telegraph,  and  was  just 
such  a  man  as  would  doubtless,  were  he  living  to-day,  concede  to 
Prof.  Morse’s  arrogant  claims,  reserving  nothing  to  himself  of  the 
glory  of  the  invention.  But  happily  the  proofs  of  his  -great 
genius,  and  the  part  which  he  took  in  the  invention  of  a  practical 
American  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  are  too  abundant  and  clear 
to  be  successfully  disputed.  Mr.  Vail  died  January  18,  1859. 
Prof.  Morse’s  agreement  with  Mr.  Vail  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
exclude  Mr.  Vail’s  taking  out  letters  patent  for  his  inventions. 
Besides,  he  wished  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  invention  to  the 
several  “proprietors,”  who  were  at  that  time  Prof.  Morse,  Prof. 
Gale,  Mr.  Smith,  and  himself,  and  so  did  not  apply  for  letters 
patent. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Prof.  Morse  really  invented  nothing  of 
importance  in  regard  to  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  neither 
discovering  its  spirit,  nor  providing  it  with  a  suitable  body,  when 
brought  to  him  by  Prof.  Gale.  In  his  speech  at  the  Academy  of 
Music,  June  10,  1871,  Prof.  Morse  had  the  address  to  concede  to 
Prof.  Gale,  Mr.  Vail,  and  another  gentleman  of  as  much  impor¬ 
tance  to  him  as  they  (the  lion.  F.  0.  J.  Smith),  some  recogni¬ 
tion  of  their  valuable  services;  but  this  concession  was  evidently 
but  a  part  of  his  adroit  tactics,  as  he  who  carefully  reads  Prof. 
Morse’s  speech  in  the  light  of  this  article  will  readily  see.  A 
monument  had  been  that  day  erected,  by  designing  and  duped  cit¬ 
izens,  to  the  sole  honor  of  Prof.  Morse,  in  the  Central  Park  of 
New  York,  and  another,  of  a  national  character,  to  be  erected  at 
Washington,  to  Prof.  Morse’s  glory,  had  been  designed.  Perhaps 
this  fact  tempted  Prof.  Morse  to  withhold  their  true  honors  from 
his  old  associates  —  the  inventors  proper  of  the  electro-magnetic 
telegraph.  But  whatever  were  his  temptations,  his  course  was 
quite  inexcusable  ;  and  though,  in  the  language  of  Chief  Justice 
Chase,  he  was  a  “fortunate  man”  in  that  he  had  been  able  to 
adroitly  “  link  his  name  forever  with  the  greatest  wonder  and  the 
greatest  benefit  of  the  age,”  he  ought  in  justice  to  have  acknowl¬ 
edged  more  fully  so  than  he  did  the  merits  of  the  men  who  not  only 
enabled  him  to  “link  ”  his  name,  but  pointed  out  the  method,  and 
provided  him  with  the  “  link  ”  itself. 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


1247 


We  have  alluded  to  Hon.  F.  0.  J.  Smith,  to  whom  Prof.  Morse, 
in  his  10th  of  June  speech,  accorded  the  credit*  of  early  appre¬ 
ciating  the  invention.  Mr.  Smith  was  one  of  those  men  just  as 
necessary  to  Prof.  Morse’s  commercial  and  financial  success  with 
the  telegraph,  as  were  Prof.  Gale  and  Mr.  Vail  to  its  invention 
and  practical  perfection.  Mr.  Smith,  though  but  thirty  years  of 
age,  was  then  serving  his  third  term  in  Congress,  representing  the 
Portland  district,  Maine  —  a  man  of  great  energy,  clear  intellect 
and  prevision.  When,  in  1838,  Prof.  Morse  went  to  Washington 
to  exhibit  the  telegraph,  and  either  sell  to  the  government  the  in¬ 
vention,  or  obtain  aid  to  build  an  experimental  line,  Mr.  Smith  was 
chairman  of  the  committee  of  commerce,  to  whose  notice  the  matter 
was  brought.  While  most  of  even  the  leading  men  in  Congress 
jeered  at  the  project  of  the  telegraph,  Mr.  Smith  foresaw  its  grand 
possibilities,  and  its  great  financial  value,  if  properly  handled.  He 
brought  the  matter  to  the  attention  of  Congress  in  a  masterly 
report,  and  eventually  entered  into  business  relations  with  Prof. 
Morse,  Prof.  Gale,  and  Mr.  Vail,  regarding  the  telegraph  ;  and 
indeed  to  him  is  due  the  chief  credit  for  the  skilful  management 
by  which  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  was  forced  upon  the 
attention  of  the  people,  and  erected  into  a  public  necessity.  Mr. 
Smith,  though  young,  was  even  then  an  astute  and  eminent  law¬ 
yer  ;  and  from  what  light  the  writer  of  this  has  upon  the  subject, 
he  is  led  to  the  belief  that,  without  Mr.  Smith’s  counsel  and 
assistance,  the  invention  would  neither  have  been  secured  under 
proper  letters  patent,  nor  preserved,  even  under  these. 

In  the  record  of  the  case  of  Morse  et  al.  vs.  Smith,  in  the  Supe¬ 
rior  Court  of  New  York,  in  1852,  among  other  similar  evidences  of 
Mr.  Smith’s  controlling  and  protecting  relations  to  Prof.  Morse,  the 
writer  finds  the  professor  thus  addressing  Mr.  Smith,  under  date 
New  York,  May  24,  1839.  11 1  sometimes  am  astonished  when  I 

reflect  how  I  have  been  able  to  take  the  stand,  with  my  telegraph, 
in  competition  with  European  rivals,  backed  as  they  are  with  the 
purses  of  the  kings  and  wealthy  of  their  countries,  while  our  own 
government  leaves  me  to  fight  their  battles  for  the  honor  of  this 
invention,  fettered  hand  and  foot.  Thanks  will  he  due  to  you,  not 
to  them,  if  I  am  able  to  maintain  the  ground  occupied  by  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Telegraph  Company .” 

.  The  reports  of  the  cases  in  which  the  validity  of  the  Morse 
patent  was  called  in  question,  show  to  the  mind  accustomed  to 
deal  with  legal  subtilties,  that  only  the  most  discreet  management 


1248 


TIIE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAITI. 


and  skill  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Smith  could  have  saved  the  patent. 
The  wonder  is,  that  Air.  Smith’s  able  opponents  (some  of  them  the 
first  lawyers  of  the  land)  did  not  discover  the  most  vulnerable 
points  of  Prof.  Alorse’s  claims.  Prof.  Aiorse  may  indeed  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  one  of  the  most  “  lucky  ”  men  who  ever  lived,  finding 
ever  at  the  right  time  the  right  man  to  act  for  him,  and  so  not  only 
succeeding  in  “  linking  his  name  with  the  greatest  wonder  of  the 
age,”  but  being  enabled  to  keep  the  “linking”  force  unbroken, 
through  the  guardian  talents  of  an  eminent  counsel,  until  he  has 
achieved  of  wealth  not  enough,  perhaps,  and  of  glory  not  only 
what  little  is  due  to  him,  but,  besides,  about  all  that  so  mcritedly 
belongs  to  others.  But  history  will  probably,  in  due  time,  give 
Prof.  Aiorse  his  proper  place  in  relation  to  science,  and  accord  to 
Prof.  Henry  his  true  position,  as  well  as  render  full  honors  to 
Prof.  Gale  and  Air.  Vail,  as  the  immediate  inventors  of  the  prac¬ 
tical  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  and  to  Air.  Smith  his  due  merit 
for  having  made  it  a  commercial  success.  The  complete  history 
of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  will,  when  written,  be  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of  books,  disclosing,  as  it  must,  the  machina¬ 
tions  of  subtle  minds,  and  many  strange  tergiversations,  much 
false  pretence,  etc.,  from  sources  not  generally  suspected.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  it  will  be  written  while  Prof.  Aiorse  is  living,  for  it 
is  eminently  proper  that  he  should- revise  those  portions,  especially, 
in  which  no  human  power  but  his  own  cunning  will  be  able  to 
find  anything  less  than  dubious  dealing  upon  his  part,  and  where 
that  cunning  will  probably  no  longer  be  able  to  serve  him.  Air. 
Vail,  fortunately  for  the  true  history  of  the  electro-magnetic  tel¬ 
egraph,  left  a  large  amount  of  correspondence,  drawings,  spec¬ 
ulative  (scientific)  designs,  queryings,  daily  records,  and  impor¬ 
tant  statements  in  writing,  which  will  enable  the  historian  to  es¬ 
tablish  all  the  claims  herein  made  for  him,  and  more. 

The  writer  of  this  article  has  designed  to  give  nothing  more  4han 
a  most  meagre  history  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  the  electro¬ 
magnetic  telegraph,  and  to  intimate  to  whom  the  credit  is  due  for 
its  existence  in  a  practical  shape.  That  Prof.  Aiorse  may  have 
first  suggested  to  Dr.  Jackson,  on  board  the  Sully,  in  1832,  the 
desirability  of  conveying  intelligence  by  electricity,  is  possible. 
But  Dr.  Jackson  claims  the  honor  of  the  first  suggestion.  These 
gentlemen,  it  seems,  entertain  but  little  respect  for  each  other’s 
honesty,  and  we  will  not  attempt  to  settle  their  dispute  ;  for  it  is 
clear  that  they  had  no  thought  of  the.  electro-magnetic  telegraph 


THE  AMERICAN  MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


1249 


(unless  Prof.  Morse  deliberately  falsifies);  and  if  they  had  not, 
then  the  telegraph  proper,  did  not,  as  Prof.  Morse  declared  to  his 
audience  on  the  10th  of  June  it  did,  have  “  its  birth  in  an  Ameri¬ 
can  ship,”  and  was  not,  though  he  said  it  was,  “  cradled  upon  the 
ocean.”  But  Prof.  Morse  is  a  rhetorician,  as  well  as  “inventor,” 
and  perhaps  intended  nothing  but  a  “  figure  of  speech  ”  in  this 
declaration.  The  writer’s  research  into  this  matter  of  the  inven¬ 
tion  of  the  telegraph  has  disclosed  to  him  some  very  strange 
things,  which  ought  to  be  given  to  the  public.  This  is  work  for 
the  patient  historian  to  do,  and  il  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  some 
time  be  done.  But  enough  has  here  been  shown,  it  is  thought,  to 
establish  the  electro-magnetic  or  “  Morse  ”  telegraph  as  American 
in  its  origin  and  perfection,  even  without  Morse  himself  (save  as 
a  sort  of  providential  hyphen,  or  unwitting  magnet,  by  which 
Prof.  Henry’s  science  became  at  last  united  to  Mr.  Vail’s  con¬ 
structive  genius). 

Perhaps  this  article  should  not  be  brought  to  a  conclusion  with¬ 
out  intimation  to  the  unsuspecting  readpr  of  the  object  of  the 
“artful  men”  (spoken  of  in  the  early  part  of  this  paper)  in 
erecting  monuments  and  giving  ovations  to  Prof.  Morse  like  that 
of  the  10th  of  June.  The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  is 
managed  by  cunning  men.  The  alleged  value  of  its  capital  is 
about  forty  millions,  and  this  cost  its  owners  perhaps  twelve  per 
cent,  thereof,  or  say  five’ millions.  It  is  anxious  to  induce  the 
government  to  buy  up  its  lines  for  forty  millions,  so  that  it  may 
pocket  thirty-five  millions,  and  the  stockholders  retire  each  with  a 
fortune.  It  might  be  desirable  for  the  nation  to  own  universal 
lines  of  telegraph.  But  it  would  be  much  wiser  for  the  govern¬ 
ment  to  build  new  lines,  than  to  purchase  these  old  ones  at  a  ruin¬ 
ous  price.  As  the  Morse  patent  has  expired,  it  would  be  no 
injustice  to  any  one  if  the  government  should  build  new  lines. 


72 


LADIES’  *  SHOES. 

THE  PROTECTIONS  FOR  TIIE  FEET  OF  ANIMALS.  —  MAN  MUST  DEPEND  ON  HIS  OWN 
INVENTION.  —  THE  SANDAL  IN  ANTIQUITY.  — AMONG  THE  JEWS.  —  AMONG  THE 
ROMANS.  —  SHOES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  —  FIRST  SHOEMAKER  IN  THE  COUN¬ 
TRY.  —  WOMEN’S  SHOES  FIRST  MADE  IN  LYNN.  — THE  EARLY  GROWTH  OF  THE 
BUSINESS.  —  SHOEMAKING  IMPROVED  IN  THIS  CENTURY.  —  B.  F.  SPINNEY  AND 
•CO.  —  DESCRIPTION  OF  THEIR  PROCESS.  — THE  CRISPINS  AND  THE  EMPLOY¬ 
ERS.  —  HOW  THEIR  DISPUTES  WILL  BE  FINALLY  SETTLED. 

Man  appears,  in  the  bconomy  of  nature,  to  be  the  only  animal 
whose  feet  are  not  protected  with  some  defence  against  the  injuries 
and  friction  incident  to  locomotion.  The  hoofs  of  the  entire  order 
'of  herbivorous  animals  —  the  complete  protection  provided  for 
the  feet  of  birds  —  shows  how  admirable  is  Nature’s  adaptation 
of  means  to  ends.  The  cushioned  foot  of  the  camel,  fitted  to  the 
yielding  sands  of  the  desert,  and  the  peculiarly  constructed  hoofs 
of  the  mule  and  the  mountain  goat,  reveal  how  wonderful  is  the 
contrivance  which  protects  the  brute  creation  from  injuries  which 
otherwise  would  arise  to  the  chief  organs  of  locomotion. 

The  human  being,  however,  has  no  such  natural  provision. 
His  feet  will  become  hardened  by  use,  as  will  his  hands.  Callosi¬ 
ties  will  form  upon  the  heel  and  ball  of  the  foot,  as  they  will  upon 
any  portion  of  the  body  which  is  subjected  to  the  same  disposing 
causes.  Though  a  horse  should  never  touch  his  feet  to  the  ground, 
he  would  still  have  hoofs  grow  upon  them ;  but  a  man  who 
should  pursue  the  same  course  would  preserve  his  feet  in  as  deli¬ 
cate  a  state  as  those  of  an  infant. 

In  this  respect,  no  less  than  for  the  protection  of  his  body  against 
cold  or  hunger,  man  is  forced  to  depend  upon  his  own  resources  ; 
and  the  earliest  records  of  antiquity  show  how  he  has  displayed 
his  ingenuity  in  devising  suitable  protection  for  the  feet.  The 
savage  goes  with  his  feet  bare  and  his  body  naked,  or  nearly  so  ; 

(1250) 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


1251 


but  civilized  man,  guided  not  less  a  refinement  of  taste  than 
by  physical  necessity,  exhibits  his  inventive  genius  in  protecting 
and  decorating  his  person. 

Among  the  nations  of  antiquity  sandals  were  first  used  to  protect 
the  feet.  These  consisted  of  a  sole,  fastened  by  thongs,  and  pro¬ 
tecting  only  the  bottom  of  the  feet.  They  were  made  from  a 
variety  of  materials,  —  wood,  leather,  felt,  or  cloth,  —  and  were 
sometimes  shod  with  iron.  In  Egypt  palm  leaves  and  the  fibrous 
stalks  of  the  papyrus  were  also  used.  Sandals  varied  in  their 
form,  some  of  them  turning  up  in  front  so  as  to  protect  the  toes  ; 
others  covered  the  sides  and  backs  of  the  feet,  and  the  thongs  with 
which  they  were  secured  displayed  great  skill  in  their  arrange¬ 
ment,  the  germ,  probably,  of  those  modern  devices,  which,  in  the 
form  of  buckles,  bows,  and  rosettes,  decorate  the  lady’s  shoe  of 
the  present  day. 

Among  the  Jews  the  wearing  of  sandals  was  general,  and,  as 
with  most  nations  of  the  East,  they  were  worn  only  when  walking 
on  the  rough  and  uneven  surface  of  the  ground,  being  removed 
on  entering  their  dwellings.  The  custom  of  thus  removing  the 
shoes  before  coming  into  the  house  rendered  it  necessary  that  the 
shoe  be  so  arranged  as  to  be  easily  slipped  upon  the  foot  and  as 
easily  removed. 

Among  the  Homans  the  art  of  sandal-making  was  carried  to  a 
high  degree  of  perfection,  and  in  the  luxurious  days  of  the  empire 
the  sandals  worn  by  the  women  were  beautifully  and  expensively 
ornamented. 

During  the  middle  ages  the  fashions  of  shoes  became  so  extrava¬ 
gant  and  eccentric  as  to  furnish  a  theme  for  animadversions  from 
the  pulpit,  and  sumptuary  laws  were  passed  in  the  vain  hope  of 
checking  unnecessary  display  and  wasteful  expenditure.  But 
legislation  and  priestly  anathema  were  alike  powerless  against 
fashion.  Mankind  repel  as  tyrannical  all  attempts  to  interfere  in 
matters  which  common  sense  dictates  should  be  left  to  be  deter¬ 
mined  by  individual  taste  and  private  judgment. 

The  manufacture  of  ladies’  shoes  in  this  country  began  early  in 
colonial  times  ;  and  the  town  of  Lynn,  in  Massachusetts,  has  been 
distinguished  for  this  branch  of  industry  almost  from  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims,  in  1020.  According  to  Lewis’s  IIisto7'y  of  Lynn,  to 
which  we  are  indebted  for  many  of  the  facts  contained  in  these 
pages,  the  first  shoemakers  that  came  to  Lynn  were  Philip  Kertland 
and  Edmund  Bridges,  who  arrived  in  1635. 


1252 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


In  the  second  general  letter  of  the  governor  and  deputy  of  the 
New  England  Company,  dated  London.  1629,  May  28,  appears  the 
following  extract  concerning  the  first  shoemakers  who  came  to 
Massachusetts  :  — 

“Thomas  Beard,  a  shoemaker,  and  Isack  Rickman,  being  both 
recomended  to  vs  by  Mr  Symon  Whetcombe  to  receive  their 
dyett  and  house  roorne  at  the  charge  of  the  companie,  wee  have 
agreed  they  shalbe  wth  you,  the  Goveno1,  or  placed  elsewhere,  as 
you  shall  tliinke  good,  and  receive  from  you,  or  by  you  appointm1, 
their  dyett  and  lodging,  for  wch  they  are  to  pay,  each  of  them, 
after  the  rate  of- 10£  p.  ann.  And  wee  desire  to  receive  a  certifi¬ 
cate,  under  the  hand  of  whomsoever  they  shalbe  soe  dyetted  and 
lodged  wth,  how  long  tyme  they  have  remained  wth  them,  in  case 
they  shall  otherwise  dispose  of  themselues  before  the  yeare  bee  ex¬ 
pired,  or  at  least  wise  at  the  end  of  each  yeare,  to  the  end  wee 
may  heere  receive  paym1  according  to  the  sd  agreemh  The  said 
Tho  :  Beard  hath  in  the  sliipp  the  May  Flower  divers  hydes,  both 
for  soles  and  vpp  leathers,  w  c  hee  intends  to  make  vpp  in  botes 
and  shoes  there  in  the  country.'7 

OLRickman,  the  other  shoemaker,  nothing  more  is  known. 

At  first  women’s  shoes  were  made  in  Lynn  of  woollen  cloth,  or 
of  neats’  leather  only.  A  pair  made  of  white  silk  were  provided 
for  the  wedding  day,  and  carefully  preserved  afterwards.  About 
1670  shoes  with  straps  and  buckles  began  to  be  worn,  and  the 
fashion  lasted  for  women  until  about  1727.  In  1750  a  Welchman, 
named  John  Adam  Dagyr,  by  the  excellence  of  the  shoes  he  made 
g-ave  a  great  impetus  to  the  business,  which  soon  became  the  most 
important  industry  of  the  town. 

The  shoes  were  made  with  sharp  toes  and  wooden  heels,  from 
half  an  inch  to  two  inches  high,  and  covered  with  leather.  The 
making  of  the  wooden  heels  was  a  separate  business  until  about 
1800,  when  they  were  discarded  for  the  use  of  leather  heels. 

Until  quite  recently,  shoes,  both  for  men’s  and  ladies7  wear, 
were  made  entirely  by  hand,  and  generally  by  individual  workmen, 
who  worked  independently  of  one  another,  instead  of  in  “teams,77 
as  at  the  present  day.  The  shoemaker’s  shop  of  the  olden  time 
deserves  mention.  The  engraving  gives  a  very  good  idea  of  both 
the  exterior  and  interior  of  one  of  these  buildings.  They  were 
generally  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  square,  and  contained  from  four 
to  eight  “  berths,”  as  the  space  occupied  by  each  workman  was 
called. 


BOTTOMING  ROOM  IN  FACTORY  0^  B.  F.  SPINNEY  &  CO,  LYNN,  MASS. 


A  SHOEMAKER  S,  SHOP  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


1255 


Though  Lynn  is  usually  spoken  of  as  noted  for  the  manufacture 
of  ladies’  shoes,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  product  of  her 
industry  includes  large  numbers  of  both  misses’  and  children’s 
shoes.  The  lasts  upon  which  these  shoes  are  made  are  numbered, 
or  “  sized,”  as  follows :  One  to  thirteen  represent  infants’,  chil¬ 
dren’s,  and  part  of  misses’  sizes  ;  then,  again,  from  one  to  seven, 
occasionally  eight  and  nine,  representing  the  largest  of  misses’ 
and  all  of  ladies’  sizes.  The  smallest,  which  is  taken  as  the  basis 
of  measurement,  is  about  four  inches  in  length,  each  size  increas¬ 
ing  about  one  third  of  an  inch. 

The  first  invention  of  any  importance  in  this  branch  of  industry 
w'as  the  pegging  machine.  Pegged  shoes  made  by  hand  were 
manufactured  in  large  quantities  a  long  time  before  the  invention 
of  this  machine  ;  but  the  manufacture  was,  and  is,  confined  chiefly 
to  men’s  boots  and  shoes,  and  to  the  coarser  kinds  of  ladies’  shoes. 
Lynn,  the  great  centre  of  the  manufacture  of  ladies’  shoes,  was 
never  engaged  to  any  extent  in  the  manufacture  of  pegged  shoes. 
The  introduction  of  this  machine  largely  increased  the  production, 
and  of  course  diminished  the  cost  of  the  product. 

The  next  great  invention  was  the  stitching  machine,  the  product 
of  the  mechanical  genius  of  Elias  Howe.  This  machine  was  per¬ 
fected  in  1845,  and  patented  in  1846.  Prior  to  this  wonderful  in¬ 
vention  ladies’  shoes  were  “  bound,”  as  it  was  called,  by  hand. 
Its  introduction  speedily  revolutionized  this  department  of  indus¬ 
try.  A  single  operator  with  one  of  these  machines  can  do  the 
work  of  nearly  a  score  working  by  the  old  process  with  needle 
and  thread,  rendering  possible  the  production  of  the  elaborately- 
stitched  boots  of  the  present  day  at  moderate  cost. 

Hardly  less  important  was  the  introdnetion  of  the  McKay  sew¬ 
ing  machine,  an  invention  for  stitching  the  uppers  and  bottoms  to¬ 
gether,  thus  superseding  the  old  hand  method  with  awl  and  waxed 
thread.  These  inventions,  and  many  others  of  minor  importance, 
have  revolutionized  this  branch  of  industry,  so  that  to-day  the 
machinery  employed  in  its  prosecution  represents  an  amount  of 
individual  labor  which  it  would  be  difficult  exactly  to  compute. 
In  1855  four  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifteen  male  and  eleven  thou¬ 
sand  and  twenty-one  female  operatives,  in  Lynn,  produced  boots  and 
shoes  valued  at  a  little  upwards  of  four  million  dollars.  This  was 
before  the  introduction  of  machinery.  In  1865,  when  but  a  com¬ 
paratively  small  amount  of  the  appliances  now  in  use  were  intro¬ 
duced,  six  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighty-four  male  and  four 


1256 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-four  female  operatives  produced 
boots  and  shoes  valued  at  nearly  nine  million  dollars.  In  1870  Lynn 
produced  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  and 
thirty  cases,  of  sixty  pairs  each,  or  about  eleven  million  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  pairs,  valued  at  about  seventeen  million  dollars. 

•  The  prevailing  styles  of  ladies’  boots  and  shoes  of  the  present 
time  are  Polish  or  high-cut  front-laced  boots,  made  from  cloth  or 
leather,  or  a  combination  of  both  materials  ;  button  Polish,  made 
from  the  same  kinds  of  stock  ;  Congress  gaiters,  or  boots  with 
elastic  gores,  and  made  mostly  from  cloth  ;  slippers  of  leather  or 
cloth  ;  and,  to  a  very  limited  extent,  buskins,  or  the  old-fashioned 
laced  shoe,  low  cut,  and  made  from  cloth  or  leather. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Messrs.  B.  F.  Spinney  &  Co.,  of  Lynn, 
we  are  enabled  to  give  an  account  of  the  several  processes  em¬ 
ployed  in  their  establishment.  This  firm  has  for  several  years 
occupied  a  high  position,  both  as  regards  the  extent  of  their  busi¬ 
ness  and  the  excellent  quality  of  their  productions.  Messrs. 
Spinney  &  Co.  have  spared  no  expense  in  introducing  the  latest 
results  of  mechanical  genius  employed  in  this  branch  of  industry; 
and  their  extensive  and  well-ordered  factory  may  be  taken  as  a 
fitting  representative  of  the  best  methods  now  known  in  this  im¬ 
portant  art.  This  firm  gives  employment  to  about  two*  hundred 
male,  and  nearly  the  same  number  of  female  operatives,  and  in 
the  amount  of  its  annual  production  ranks  among  the  largest 
houses  in  the  trade.  Entering  this  factory  on  the  lower  or  base¬ 
ment  floor,  we  found  ourselves  in  the  sole-leather  department. 
This  material,  manufactured  from  the  best  slaughter  hides,  at  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  tanneries,  is  first  cut  into  strips,  which 
determine  the  length  of  the  soles.  These  strips  are  next  passed 
through  a  machine  which,  by  a  system  of  knives,  forms  the  soles 
to  the  necessary  width.  These  are  then  “  sorted  ”  according  to 
their  quality,  packed  into  bundles  of  sixty  pail's  each,  and  carried 
to  the  “  stock  fitting  room.”  Here,  after  being  wet  and  properly 
11  tempered,”  they  are  run  through  a  “  splitter,”  which  reduces 
them  to  a  uniform  thickness.  They  are  then  passed  between  roll¬ 
ers,  which  give  them  the  firmness  and  solidity  obtained  in  the  old 
process  by  hammer  and  lapstone.  They  are  now  cut  into  the 
exact  shape  required,  by  a  very  ingenious  machine,  by  which 
each  sole  is  pressed  upon  a  die  by  a  block,  which  rotates  by 
mechanism.  By  this  movement  the  block  makes  seven  hundred 
impressions  before  touching  the  same  spot  a  second  time.  The 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


1257 


saving  thus  effected  in  its  wear  is  estimated  at  one  hundred  dol¬ 
lars  a  year  for  each  machine.  With  this  machine  a  boy  can  pre¬ 
pare  twenty-five  cases  in  a  day,  including  both  outer  and  inner 
soles.  The  outer  soles  are  then  “  channelled  77  by  a  machine 
which  cuts  the  edge  of  the  sole  just  below  the  “  grain, 77  as  the 
hair  side  of  the  sole  is  termed,  and  leaves  a  groove  for  the  stitches. 
They  are  then  “moulded/7  or  pressed  to  the  shape  of  the  bottom 
of  the  last  by  a  machine,  and,  with  the  “  stiffenings  77  or  “  count¬ 
ers  77  for  the  heels,  are  sent,  properly  labelled  and  numbered,  to 
the  floor  above. 

Upon  the  second  floor  are  the  offices,  sales-room,  trimming  and 
packing  room,  and  cutters7  department. 

The  materials  used  for  the  “  uppers  77  are  goat-skins  and  calf¬ 
skins,  and  cloth,  generally  of  the  kind  known  as  “  lasting.77  The 
goat-skins  are  imported  from  Mexico,  South  America,  and  India. 
The  calf-skins  are  largely  of  domestic  production,  but  for  the  . 
finer  qualities  of  goods,  are  imported  from  France  and  Germany. 
The  lasting  is  for  the  most  part  made  in  England.  The  quality  of 
this  is  determined  by  the  number  of  threads  contained  in  each 
square  inch  of  its  upper  surface.  Until  quite  recently,  the  “  up¬ 
pers  77  were  cut  with  knife  and  pattern  ;  but  this  is  now  being* 
superseded  by  the  use  of  dies,  which  do  the  work  with  an  exact¬ 
ness  and  execution  impossible  by  the  old  method.  The  linings 
are  made  of  drillings,  strengthened  and  stayed  around  the  tops 
and  edges  of  the  upper  with  goat-skins  and  sheep-skins. 

The  several  parts  of  the  “  uppers77  are  now  sent  to  the  stitch- 
ing-room,  which  occupies  the  entire  third  floor,  giving  accommo¬ 
dation  to  some  one  hundred  sewing  machines  operated  by  power. 
Here  they  are  pressed  and  basted,  and  then  stitched  together  upon 
the  sewing  machines,  the  ornamental  stitching  done,  and  in  button 
boots  the  button-holes  made. 

The  work  done  in  this  room  is  performed  entirely  by  women, 
under  the  superintendence  of  one  foreman.  Ten  to  fifteen  different 
operations  are  performed  upon  the  uppers  in  this  department  of 
the  process,  as  the  various  styles  may  require.  The  uppers  are 
now  sent  to  the  trimmers7  room  in  the  story  below,  where  they 
are  eyletted,  if  they  are  laced  boots  or  shoes,  by  ingenious  self 
feeding  machines,  which  execute  this  delicate  process  with  won¬ 
derful  despatch.  In  button  boots  the  buttons  are  here  sewed  on, 
and  such  other  operations  are  performed  as  may  be  necessary  to 
complete  the  uppers. 


1253 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


At  this  place  they  are  met  by  the  soles,  ready  “fitted  ”  from 
the  stock  fitting  room,  and  uppers  and  bottoms  are  conveyed  to¬ 
gether  to  the  bottoming  department,  which  occupies  the  entire  up¬ 
per  story  of  the  factory,  and  a  portion  of  which  is  shown  in  the 
engraving. '  The  first  operation  here  is  the  process  of  “lasting/7 
in  which  the  uppers  are  placed  upon  the  last  and  tacked  to  the  in¬ 
ner  soles  ;  the  outer  soles  are  now  placed  on,  and  secured  with  a 
few  nails,  and  the  tacks  removed. 

They  are  now  read}*  for  the  McKay  sewing  machine,  which  will 
sew  about  five  hundred  pairs  in  a  day.  The  channels  are  now 
cemented,  and  the  shoes  are  passed  to  the  beating-out  machine. 
This  contrivance  “  lays  77  the  channels  smoothly  over  the  stitches, 
and  subjects  the  soles  to  an  immense  pressure,  removing  all  in¬ 
equalities  of  surface,  and  giving  the  bottoms  that  firmness  and 
solidity  formerly  obtained,  under  the  old  method,  by  the  shoe¬ 
maker’s  hammer.  The  shoes  are  now  ready  for  the  heels.  These 
are  first  pricked  or  drilled  with  holes  for  the  nails.  This  is  done 
by  a  machine.  They  are  then  “  loaded  77  by  hand  ;  that  is,  the 
nails  are  placed  in  the  holes,  and  set  in  a  machine  worked  by 
power.  One  descending  stroke  firmly  fastens  the  heel  to  the  sole. 
A  single  motion  of  a  crank,  working  a  semicircular  knife,  shaves 
the  heel  in  an  instant. 

Another  machine  trims  and  burnishes  the  edges,  and  still  another 
burnishes  the  heels.  The  bottoms  are  then  scoured  on  sanded 
rollers,  revolving  by  power,  buffed  and  smoothed  by  others  covered 
with  a  finer  material. 

The  shanks  are  then  blacked  and  burnished  ;  the  inner  soles 
lined,  and  after  being  tied  in  pairs,  are  returned  to  the  trimmers’ 
room.  Here,  after  being  trimmed  with  bows,  buttons,  or  lacings, 
they  are  packed  in  cartons,  containing  one  dozen  pairs  each  of 
assorted  sizes.  These  are  placed  five  in  a  case,  and  the  goods  are 
ready  for  shipment  to  the  various  markets  for  which  they  are  de¬ 
signed. 

It  will  be  seen  that  a  perfect  system  of  machinery  has  been  in¬ 
troduced  into  this  department  of  industry,  pervading  every  part, 
from  the  time  the  various  materials  enter  the  factory  until  they  are 
packed,  the  completed  product  ready  to  be  shipped  to  the  various 
markets  of  the  country. 

And  yet  this  is  probably  but  the  beginning  of  better  things  to 
come.  The  methods  of  a  few  years  ago  seem  crude  and  ineffec¬ 
tive  beside  those  which  have  to-day  displaced  them  ;  and  these 


VIEW  OF  LYNN,  MASS.,  FROM  SADLER'S  ROCK. 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


1261 


again  will  be  superseded  by  the  more  perfect  products  of  the  cun¬ 
ning  hand  and  inventive  brain.  One  great  result  of  this  is  the  devel¬ 
opment  of  skilled  industry.  The  operator  must  become  master  of 
the  machine  whose  motions  he  directs  ;  and  thus  is  developed  a 
sense  of  his  superiority  over  the  mighty  forces  which  the  touch 
of  his  finger  can  control.  Hence  a  consciousness  of  power  giving 
self-respect  and  personal  independence  ;  and  hence  that  education 
-which  is  to  fit  him  to  intelligently  grapple  with  the  great  ques¬ 
tions  of  the  day  involving  the  true  relations  of  capital  and  labor. 

The  Crispin  organization  of  this  and  other  cities  and  towns  en¬ 
gaged  in  this  industry  wields  a  power  not  only  from  the  magni¬ 
tude  of  its  numbers,  but  from  the  intrinsic  importance  which  in¬ 
vests  the  problem,  the  discussion  and  solution  of  which  is  the  great 
purpose  of  the  association.  The  opinion  is  becoming  more  wide¬ 
ly  prevalent  among  those  who  have  studied  these  questions,  that, 
in  the  long  run,  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor  are  identical, 
and  that  the  chief  difficulty  which  invests  the  subject  is  to  pro¬ 
vide  a  remedy  for  those  temporary  disturbances  which  arise  from 
mutual  misunderstandings  and  mutual  distrust.  The  remedy  is  a 
work  of  time  ;  and  the  hope  of  the  future  lies  in  the  fact  that 
never  before  was  the  subject  so  widely  and  sb  intelligently  dis¬ 
cussed  as  now.  Statesmen,  and  thinkers  of  every  class,  are  en¬ 
deavoring  to  find  the  best  ans-wers  to  the  industrial  questions  of 
the  day ;  and  the  press  spreads  broadcast  the  ripest  thoughts 
matured  by  the  investigations  and  experiences  of  the  past. 

The  Crispin  organization  of  the  city  of  Lynn  is  probably  the 
largest  in  the  country.  In  this  society  are  found  thoughtful  men, 
who  have  deeply  pondered  the  subject  so  nearly  affecting  their  in¬ 
terests,  and  whose  best  efforts  are  given  to  adjust  differences,  and 
to  establish  harmonious  relations  between  the  employer  and  the 
employed. 

These  endeavors  are  met,  on  the  part  of  the  manufacturers,  in  a 
spirit  of  conciliation  which  has  established  a  degree  of  confidence 
and  good  will  that  is  truly  surprising,  when  we  consider  the  differ¬ 
ent  stand-points  from  which  each  regards  the  apparently  conflicting 
interests  involved  in  the  great  questions  at  issue.  May  these  har¬ 
monious  relations  continue  to  exist. 

The  history  of  the  branch  of  industry,  considered  in  this  arti¬ 
cle,  is  invested  with  a  peculiar  and  almost  romantic  interest,  from 
the  fact  that  the  entire  revolution  in  its  modes  of  manufacture, 
from  the  irregular  and  unsystematic  methods  of  hand-work  to  its 


1202 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


present  complete  factory  system,  has  taken  place  within  the  past 
ten  years,  the  McKay  sewing  machine,  wdfich  was  the  pioneer  in 
this  great  change,  having  been  introduced  in  the  year  1861,  and 
first  employed  upon  the  coarse  work  of  “  army  brogans.”  It  was 
speedily  adapted  to  the  finer  work  in  ladies’  shoes,  and  supplying 
the  needs  created  by  this  great  invention,  one  machine  after  another 
has  followed,  until  the  present  grand  result  has  been  attained. 

It  is  a  very  significant  fact,  bearing  upon  this  matter,  that  very 
generally  the  most  successful  manufacturing  houses  engaged  in 
this  trade,  are  composed  of  men  under  middle  age,  who  have  en¬ 
tered  the  business  since  the  “new  departure”  in  the  manufacture 
of  shoes.  The  history  of  the  firm  whose  business  has  supplied 
the  foregoing  description  deserves  mention  in  this  connection. 
Mr.  B.  F.  Spinney,  the  leading  member  of  the  firm,  and  who  es¬ 
tablished  the  business,  is  a  young  man,  being,  we  should  judge 
from  his  appearance,  about  thirty-five  years  of  age.  lie  came 
to  Lynn  in  1858,  now  thirteen  years  ago,  and  located  his  business 
on  Willow  Street,  associating  with  himself  Mr.  G.  N.  Spinney, 
under  the  firm  name  of  B.  F.  &  G.  N.  Spinney.  Subsequently, 

the  last  named  gentleman  retired,  and  for  a  few  years  the  business 

% 

was  conducted  by  Mr.  B.  F.  Spinney  alone.  More  recently  Mr. 
Ivers  L.  Withered,  who  is  thoroughly  informed  in  all  the  practical 
details  of  manufacturing  shoes,  became  connected  with  the  busi¬ 
ness. 

The  rapidly  rising  reputation  of  the  house,  the  popularity  of  the 
style  of  goods  it  was  enabled  to  put  upon  the  market,  the  confi¬ 
dence  it  inspired  throughout  the  trade,  and  the  energy  manifested 
by  its  managers,  soon  made  a  change  of  location  needful  in  order 
to  secure  greater  facilities  for  meeting  the  demands  of  a  constant¬ 
ly  increasing  business.  Accordingly,  the  present  extensive  and 
convenient  factory  was  erected  on  Union  Street,  and  the  business 
transferred  to  it  in  the  year  1864.  This  factory,  as  has  been 
shown,  is  thoroughly  furnished  with  all  modern  facilities  for  manu¬ 
facturing  shoes.  The  enterprise  and  intelligence  of  the  manage¬ 
ment  have  always  prompted  a  timely  adoption  of  the  best  methods 
in  this  line  of  business.  And  one  needs  but  to  visit,  as  we  have 
done,  the  varied  and  extensive  departments  of  the  establishment, 
ascend  from  basement  to  upper  floor,  and  note  the  different  suc¬ 
cessive  stages  through  which  a  shoe  is  obliged  to  pass,  in  order 
to  be  convinced  of  the  thorough  system  and  efficiency  that  Messrs. 
Spinney  &  Coi.  have  introduced  into  their  business. 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


1263 


The  mechanical  appliances  are  not  only  the  best  and  most  com* 
plete  known  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes,  but  one  can  see  at  a 
glance,  that  the  persons  representing  the  different  departments  of 
the  work  manifest  the  intelligence  that  bespeaks  the  highest  capach 
ty  in  producing  the  best  results  of  the  labor  under  their  control. 
By  a  natural  wisdom  and  a  shrewd  judgment  of  human  nature,  this 
establishment  has  succeeded  in  drawing  about'  it  the  most  skilful 
labor  in  the  craft  of  “  St.  Crispin.”  This  fact  is  evinced  by  the 
well-known  standing  of  its  goods  throughout  the  trade. 

There  is  one  thing  we  feel  called  upon  to  say  in  contemplating 
the  course  of  this  house  —  it  has  never  been  willing  to  sacrifice  its 
reputation  for  manufacturing  a  line  of  first-class  goods,  that  will 
bear  the  most  rigid  tests,  in  obedience  to  the  clamor  for  a  cheap 
and  common  article  of  wear.  It  has  valued  more  a  permanent 
reputation  for  durability  and  taste,  than  the  temporary  triumph 
of  depreciated  products  which  are  now  so  extensively  placed  upon 
the  market. 

This  fact  explains  why  this  establishment  commands  the  pat¬ 
ronage  of  so  many  of  the  best  shoe  houses  in  our  large  cities.  It  is 
reliable  and  straightforward  in  its  business  methods,  depends  upon 
the  merits  of  its  goods  ;  is  not  fickle  and  sensational  in  its  style, 
and  therefore  wins  its  patrons  into  permanent  customers. 

The  modern  demand  for  “  shoddy  ”  has  not  broken  down  its 
faith  in  the  sound  maxim  of  business  that  a  good  article  at  a  fair 
price  is  better  than  a  poor  one  at  more  than  it  is  worth.  At  the 
same  time  such  are  the  financial  resources  of  the  firm,  its  advan¬ 
tages  in  purchasing  stock,  its  system  of  trained  and  skilful  labor, 
and  the  extent  of  its  operations  in  this  branch  of  industry,  that  it 
has  been  able  to  put  into  the  shoe  markets  of  the  country  the  very 
best  qualities  of  goods  at  the  most  reasonable  prices  ;  thus  de¬ 
monstrating  that  it  is  possible  to  hold  a  reputation  for  first  class 
goods  that  will  secure  the  confidence  of  the  buyer,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  furnish  them  at  prices  that  will  compel  his  pat¬ 
ronage. 

Messrs.  Spinney  &  Co.,  making  a  speciality  in  their  factory  of 
ladies’  wear,  and  being  determined  that  that  speciality  shall  hold 
the  highest  position  in  the  market,  may  take  some  pleasure  in 
reflecting  that  their  original  purpose,  so  uniformly  sustained,  has 
brought  them  reputation  and  success. 

The  writer  of  this  sketch  is  familiar  with  the  leading  shoe  houses 
in  the  large  business  centres  of  the  country  ;  and  in  the  great  West 


1264 


LADIES’  SHOES. 


particularly,  where  this  well-known  firm  finds  its  principal  market, 
the  quality  of  its  goods  commands  the  highest  confidence.  It 
stands  as  an  example,  in  this  day  when  elegance  and  variety  in  the 
make-up  of  shoes  are  so  marvellous,  of  the  lightness,  grace,  and 
beauty  of  the  “  fine  art  ”  of  protecting  and  decorating  the  foot. 

We  predict  for  this  well-established  business  a  future  of  greater 
success,  even,  than  has  characterized  its  past.  The  introduction 
of  steam  and  machinery  makes  extension  of  labor  wonderfully 
practicable.  Past  success  will  be  but  a  stepping-stone  to  future 
efforts.  Skill  and  energy  will  prompt  to  larger  plans,  and  if  we 
do  not  mistake,  we  shall  still  find  the  establishment,  whose  cohrtesy 
enabled  us  to  give  the  facts  of  this  article,  holding  a  leading  place 
among  the  shoe  manufacturers  of  the  “  City  of  Soles.” 


WOOD  TYPE. 

GUTENBERG  AND  HIS  ART.  —  THE  CHINESE  IN  RELATION  TO  PRINTING.  —  THE  ART 
OF  WOOD-TYPE  FACTURE  AT  THE  PRESENT  TIME.  —  THE  LEADING  MANUFAC¬ 
TURERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,  MESSRS.  WILLIAM  H.  PAGE  AND  COMPANY,  OF 
GREENVILLE,  CONN.  —  OF  MR.  PAGE.  —  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  AT  GREENVILLE. 
—  THE  PROCESS  OF  MANUFACTURE.  —  THE  MACHINERY  EMPLOYED. 

When  Gutenberg*  first  conceived  of  his  famous  types,  which 
have  revolutionized  the  world,  he  could  hardly  have  dreamed  of  a 
spirit  like  that  of  American  enterprise,  which  was  to  arise  in  the 
then  far  future,  and  demand  of  one  type  in  the  nineteenth  century 
more  extent  of  execution, — that  is,  of  ink-spreading, — than  he 
with  his  clumsy  types  could  safely  attempt  with  a  whole  font. 
But  Gutenberg  lived  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  was  some¬ 
where  about  the  year  1435  that  he  invented  his  wonderful  symbols. 
With  all  its  wars  among  nations,  the  world  was,  notwithstanding,  a 
peaceable  planet  then  in  comparison  with  the  hubbub  and  noise 
which  extended  commerce  and  the  intellectual  conflicts  which 
science  have  now  everywhere  inspired.  What  would  Gutenberg 
have  thought  of  that  printing  art  which  demands  for  the  construc¬ 
tion  of  a  single  letter  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  of  lumber,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  makes  use  of  small  types  in  countless  profusion 
almost  as  numberless  as  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore  ? 

But  back  of  Gutenberg,  as  far  as  the  year  900,  —  if  we  are  to 
credit  plausible  testimony,  —  that  wonderful  people,  the  Chinese, 
made  printed  impressions  from  engraved  wooden  blocks  ;  and  it 
may  be  that  in  their  ages  of  experience  they  may  have  come  to 
need,  and  learned  to  make,  letters  both  larger  and  smaller  than 
Yankee  ingenuity  has  devised.  Far  in  advance  of  us  miserable 
Westerners,  the  Orientals  had  the  good  sense,  centuries  ago,  to  know 
that  a  paper  currency  is  preferable  to  a  metallic  one,  and  therefore 
**  made  paper  money  ”  then,  like  the  sensible  people  they  are, 

(1265) 


12G6 


WOOD  TYPE. 


masters  of  the  world’s  best  political  economy.  And  since  we  for¬ 
eigners  are  not  permitted  to  inspect  Chinese  workshops  and  stu¬ 
dios  of  art,  we  are  ignorant  as  to  whether  they  accomplish  in 
wood  type  the  greatest  possible  successes.  But  regarding  Europe 
and  this  country,  we  are  not  left  in  doubt  as  to  the  representative 
manufactures  of  wood  type,  —  an  art  which  has  revived  in  latter 
years,  after  a  comparative  obscuration  by  metal  type  for  centuries, 
and  become  one  of  the  greatest  importance.  This  fact  is  due,  for 
the  most  part,  to  the  advertising  enterprise  in  the  United  States, 
which  will  not  be  satisfied  with  modest  display,  but  must  express 
itself  in  the  largest  as  well  as  most  fanciful  posters,  etc.,  for  the 
construction  of  which  metal  type  are  quite  out  of  the  question. 

Wood  type  have,  since  the  early  days  of  printing,  been  made  to 
some  extent ;  but  it  was  not  before  the  year  1827  that  its  manufac¬ 
ture  became  anything  like  a  special  and  regular  business,  even  on 
a  small  scale.  In  that  year  Mr.  Darius  Wells,  a  printer  in  New 
York,  cut  several  fonts  of  wood  type  for  his  own  use,  which 
proved  so  much  superior  to  the  wood  type  then  sparsely  in  use, 
that  he  was  induced  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  manufacture  of 
this  order  of  type  as  a  distinct  business.  Ilis  tools,  patterns,  and 
processes  were,  as  a  natural  incident  of  a  business  in  its  crude 
state,  very  rude  and  unskilful,  in  comparison  to  those  existing  to¬ 
day  in  the  factory  of  the  leading  manufacturers  of  wood  type,  the 
Messrs.  William  II.  Page  &  Co.,  of  Greenville,  Conn. 

About  the  time  that  Mr.  Wells  entered  upon  the  business,  a  Mr. 
Edwin  Allen,  of  South  Windham,  Conn.,  also  embarked  in  it,  and 
continued  it  for  many  years,  his  business  eventually  becoming  in¬ 
corporated  in  that  of  Messrs.  Page  &  Co.  Indeed,  the  principle  of 
the  chief  machines  used  by  Mr.  Allen  is  still  preserved,  though 
with  many  improvements  in  the  construction  of  the  instruments  in 
the  machines  now  operated  by  Messrs.  Page  &  Co.  The  business 
made  fair  progress  under  the  control  of  Mr.  Allen  ;  and  a  very  re¬ 
spectable  business  was  also  conducted  by  Darius  Wells  &  Co.,  at 
Paterson,  N.  J.  ;  but  the  business  was  of  a  peculiar  nature,  re¬ 
quiring  for  its  conduct,  not  only  that  order  of  business  talent 
which  judiciously  supplies  an  existing  demand,  but  also  the  fore¬ 
casting  and  planning  genius  which  creates  a  demand  commensurate 
with  the  ability  to  respond  to  it.  Finally,  the  man  combining  the 
requisite  talents  appeared  in  the  person  of  Mr.  William  II.  Page, 
the  founder  and  principal  of  the  house  of  William  II.  Page  &  Co., 
to  whom  we  have  before  alluded. 


WOOD  TYPE. 


12G7 


The  biographies  of  men  who,  like  Mr.  Page,  make  their  dis¬ 
tinctive  mark  in  the  promotion  of  a  great  industry,  or  an  elegant 
art,  are  never  without  interest  to  the  general  public  ;  and  that  of 
Mr.  Page  may  properly  be  dwelt  upon  in  a  work  of  this  kind  in*a 
cursory  manner.  Mr.  Page  was  born  in  New  Hampshire,  in  1829, 
and  began  his  business  career  in  a  “  country  printing  office  ”  at 
the  age  of  fourteen.  He  continued  to  follow,  as  apprentice  and 
“jour,”  the  profession  of  a  type-setter  for  some  sixteen  years  in 
different  cities  of  New  York  and  New  England,  and  finally  made 
his  way  to  Norwich,  Conn.,  where  he  was  induced  by  a  friend  to 
turn  his  attention  to  the  matter  of  manufacturing  wood  type. 
With  a  ready  grasp  of  the  situation,  Mr.  Page’s  inventive  mind 
foresaw  what  the  future  might  have  in  store  for  him,  if  the  proper 
business  conditions  could  be  controlled.  Quite  proficient  in  land¬ 
scape  painting  and  designing,  he  had  an  intellectual  turn  of  mind, 
and  disciplined  by  having  employed  his  leisure  hours  in  sundry 
studies  which  he  could  now  make  available,  he  set  himself  with 
confidence  to  work  out  the  problem  of  a  large  and  honorable  busi¬ 
ness  from  the  fragmentary  elements  which  he  found  at  hand.  It 
was  in  the  fall  of  1854  that,  with  no  one  to  instruct  him,  he  began 
the  work  of  a  type-trirnmer  or  finisher.  Ilis  judgment  was  his 
only  guide.  What  machinery  he  had  was  poor. 

For  about  two  years  matters  progressed  slowly  and  unsatisfactori¬ 
ly,  and  Mr.  Page  came  to  the  conclusion  that  only  by  greatly  improved 
machinery  could  the  proper  finishing  be  profitably  given  to  the 
type.  His  first  step  was  to  procure  the  machinery  of  a  wood-type 
establishment  which  had  failed  several  years  before,  and  with  cour¬ 
age  and  genius  as  his  capital,  and  with  the  responsibilities  of  a 
“master  of  a  household”  upon  his  shoulders, — for  he  had  just  then 
married,  — he  started  a  factory  on  his  own  account  at  South  Wind¬ 
ham,  Conn.  This  was  in  1856.  During  the  next  year  many  im¬ 
provements  were  made  in  his  machinery,  and  a  much  superior  kind 
of  type  produced.  185t  was  a  year  of  financial  disasters,  and 
nothing  but  the  artistic  merit  of  Mr.  Page’s  type  could  have  saved 
him  from  being  wrecked  with  the  many  business  houses  which  then 
went  down.  But  the  business  survived  in  a  health}''  state,  and  in 
the  fall  of  that  year  was  removed  tc  Greenville,  Conn.,  where  ex¬ 
tensive  quarters  were  secured  ;  and  soon  finding  that  the  demand 
for  his  wares,  the  improved  kinds  which  he  had  meanwhile  devised, 
required  the  addition  of  more  extensive  improvements  in  machin¬ 
ery,  and  a  larger  capital  than  he  then  possessed,  Mr.  Page  entered 


12G8 


WOOD  TYPE. 


into  partnership  with  Mr.  Samuel  Mowry,  a  wealthy  capitalist  and 
experienced  business  man,  of  Greenville.  Extensive  additions 
were  then  made  to  the  machinery  of  the  establishment  ;  but  such 
lnffe  been  the  steady  march  of  improvement  therein  that  it  is 
only  within  the  past  four  or  five  years  that  Mr.  Page’s  excellent 
machinery  can  be  said  to  have  become  perfected.  This  is  now 
unequalled  for  its  purpose  in  the  whole  field  of  mechanics  ;  and 
the  type  of. this  firm  is  universally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  in 
use.  Indeed,  Messrs.  Page  &  Co.  may  be  said  to  control  the  mar¬ 
ket  for  wood  type,  and  to  be  virtually  without  competition. 

The  factory  of  Messrs.  William  II.  Page  &  Co.  is  situated  on  the 
banks  of  the  Shetucket  River,  and  utilizes  a  water  power  of  incal¬ 
culable  value  to  a  manufacturing  interest.  This  firm  not  only 
possess  the  facilities  for  carrying  on  their  extensive  business,  but 
are  prepared  to  meet  any  increasing  demands  the  business  may  re¬ 
quire  in  coming  years.  This  establishment  gives  employment  to  a 
large  number  of  hands,  a  goodly  portion  of  whom  are  females,  who 
exhibit  great  skill  in  the  manipulation  of  the  deft  and  delicate 
machinery. 

The  principal  material  used  in  the  manufacture  of  wood  type  is 
hard  maple,  and  for  the  purposes  of  this  establishment  is  mostly 
selected  on  the  Connecticut  hills,  near  to  and  far  from  the  factory, 
by  Mr.  Page  himself,  and  is  brought  in  logs  to  the  factoiy.  These 
are  first  sawn  in  cuts  across  their  diameter,  then  steamed,  and  sub¬ 
sequently  packed  away  in  a  drying  room  for  fully  two  years  before 
they  are  made  up  into  type.  The  blocks  are  then  dressed  very 
smooth  by  hand,  and  planed  to  type  height  by  machinery,  every 
piece  being’  gauged,  to  insure  the  utmost  accuracy.  The  upper 
surface  is  then  twice  lacquered  and  also  twice  sandpapered,  leaving 
it  in  a  perfectly  smooth  and  polished  condition.  They  are  then 
sawed  into  pieces  of  the  requisite  size  for  the  letters  required,  and 
the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  work  begins.  Wood  letters  for 
posters  and  general  printing  are  made  from  the  size  of  two-line 
pica,  or  one  third  of  an  inch,  up  to  about  twenty  inches,  by  ma¬ 
chinery,  and  cut  partly  by  hand,  from  the  latter  size  up  to  the 
largest  thus  far  made,  which  requires  a  hundred  and  sixty  feet  of 
lumber  per  letter  ! 

The  machine  for  cutting  the  type  from  a  pattern  is  a  most  in¬ 
genious  contrivance,  and  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  almost  impossi¬ 
ble  to  describe  or  explain  without  diagrams.  The  whole  thing 
being  made  of  cast  iron  and  steel,  the  movable  part  resting  on  a 


WOOD  TYPE  AND  BORDER  CUT  BY  MACHINERY.  W  H  PAGE  &  CO,  GREENVILLE,  CONN. 


WOOD  TYPE. 


1271 


large  cast-iron  table,  the  pattern  is  fastened  in  at  one  point,  while 
the  block  for  the  letter  is  fastened  at  another.  A  tracer  at  one 
corner  of  the  machine  is  made  to  follow  the  pattern,  while  the  cut¬ 
ter  at  another  point  cuts  the  letter.  The  cutter  makes  from  eigh¬ 
teen  to  twenty  thousand  revolutions  per  minute.  As  the  machine 
is  adjustable,  a  number  of  sizes  can  be  cut  from  the  same  pattern. 
A  difficulty  is  here  experienced  in  making  borders  for  two  colors 
in  wood.  After  one  lot  is  made,  and  the  machine  altered  or  changed 
to  a  different  size,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  reset  it  so  that  a 
continuation  of  the  same  border  would  match  the  first  one  cut. 
When  the  letters  are  taken  from  the  machines,  they  go  into  the 
hands  of  the  type-trimmer,  where  the  best  of  skilled  workmanship 
is  required  to  give  them  the  finishing  touches,  then  soaked  in  oil, 
and  put  up  in  packages  of  convenient  lengths  for  boxing. 

There  are  also  several  machines  for  the  preparation  of  various 
other  styles  of  wood-cutting,  a  most  successful  feature  being  the 
elegance  achieved  inffhe  cutting  of  tint-blocks  for  envelopes  and 
other  purposes.  The  lines  on  these  blocks  are  cut  so  exceedingly 
fine  and  delicate  that  it  becomes  a  matter  of  wonder  that  it  is  pos¬ 
sible  to  print  from  them  without  the  ink  at  once  filling  the  surface 
of  the  block  ;  yet  some  of  the  choicest  specimens  of  press-work 
that  we  are  familiar  with  have  been  done  from  these  same  wooden 
tint-blocks.  The  type-cutting  machines  are  quite  expensive  affairs, 
some  of  those  used  by  Messrs.  Page  &  Co.  having  cost  in  the 
neighborhood  of  one  thousand  dollars  to  build. 

The  accompanying  full-page  engraving  illustrates  some  of  the 
exquisite  wood-type  workmanship  of  Messrs.  William  II.  Page  & 
Co.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  art  is  specifically  confined  to  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet,  but  includes  rules,  borders,  etc.,  con¬ 
nected  with  the  printing  business. 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 

OLD-TIME  CHARIOTS.  —  SOLOMON  LACKING  IN  INVENTIVE  GENIUS.  —  SPRINGLESS 
VEHICLES  IN  QUEEN  ELIZABETH’S  TIME.  — THE  AXLE  AND  SPRING  MANUFAC¬ 
TURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — THE  LEADING  MANUFACTORY  THAT  OF  THE 
MOW'RY  AXLE  AND  MACHINE  COMPANY,  OF  GREENVILLE,  CONN.  — PROCESSES  OF 
MANUFACTURE.  —  VARIOUS  IMPORTANT  MACHINES  MANUFACTURED  BY  THIS 
COMPANY.  —  THE  REED  AND  BOWEN  COMBINATION  SHEAR  AND  PUNCH.  — THE 
SIBLEY  SELF-OILER  JOURNAL-BOX.  —  THE  WEST  TIRE-SETTER,  A  MARVEL  OF 
MECHANICS.  —  THE  SIBLEY  PHOTOGRAPH  PRESS. — ®PAPER  ENGINES,  ETC. 

Perhaps  nothing  in  the  history  of  human  progress  is  more 
marked  than  are  modern  improvements  in  vehicles  of  transporta¬ 
tion,  especially  those  adapted  to  the  conveyance  of  persons. 
And  among  these  improvements  none  are  more  important  than 
those  which  have  been  effected  in  axletrees,  and  by  the  invention 
of  various  springs,  to  make  the  coach,  wagon,  or  whatever  the 
vehicle  may  be,  more  comfortable  to  its  occupant. 

Chariots,  or  two-wheeled  vehicles,  always  clumsy  in  their  mov¬ 
ing  parts,  and  made  tolerable  to  the  eye  only  by  the  graceful  shape 
of  their  upper,  or  box  work,  existed  in  the  earliest  historic  periods. 
These  were  mostly  used  by  kings  and  grandees  on  state  occasions, 
or  by  soldiers  in  battle,  sometimes  having  scythes  and  crooked 
knives  affixed  to  their  axles.  When  Pharaoh  set  Joseph  over 
Egypt,  he  “  made  him  to  ride  in  the  second  chariot  which  he  had” 
(Gen.  xli.  43),  which,  though  a  nominal  honor,  must  have  been  a 
sort  of  "cross”  for  poor  Joseph  to  bear,  inasmuch  as  without 
springs  the  clumsy  chariot  could  hardly  have  been  equal  for  ease 
to  a  modern  lumber-box  wagon.  Solomon  did  more  or  less  busi¬ 
ness  in  the  chariot  line,  as  is  evident  from  1  Kings  x.  29.  The 
business  was  probably  a  profitable  one,  as  those  poor  vehicles  sold 
for  six  hundred  shekels,  or  about  three  hundred  and  seventy-five 
dollars  of  our  money.  In  reading  of  these  clumsy  affairs  in  the 

Scriptures,  and  reflecting  upon  Solomon’s  having  been  a  man  of 
(1272) 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 


1273 


superior  wisdom,  one  is  led  to  wonder  that  some  improvements 
in  these  vehicles  were  not  made  by  him.  He  ought  at  least  to 
have  displayed  the  small  modicum  of  genius  which  it  requires  to 
invent  carriage  springs  of  a  poor  kind.  But  the  history  of  man 
shows  that  talent  and  genius  have  been  distributed  along  down  the 
line  of  the  ages  among  men  with  a  sort  of  parsimony  on  the  part 
of  Nature,  as  if  the  good  dame’s  gifts,  or  source  of  the  same, 
were  limited.  Perhaps  it  is ;  and  this  would  account  for  Solo¬ 
mon’s  stupidity  in  persisting  in  riding  in,  and  dealing  in,  lumber- 
box  chariots,  constructed  with  bungling  axles. 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  used  chariots  to  some  extent,  but 
the  general  use  of  these  or  other  wheeled  vehicles  was  impossible 
in  early  times  on  account  of  the  want  of  suitable  roads.  Even  till 
after  the  middle  ages,  during  which  riding  was  principally  done  on 
horseback,  carriages  were  uncommon,  so  much  so  that  one  of  an 
indifferent  and  uncomely  structure  was  thought  fit  to  be  mentioned 
in  history,  if  it  chanced  on  occasion  to  bear  a  king.  Even  in  1550 
there  were  only  three  coaches  to  be  found  in  Paris,  then  a  distin¬ 
guished  city.  Coaches  were  introduced  into  England  in  1554,  the 
first  by  a  Dutchman,  for  Queen  Elizabeth’s  use.  Soon  after 
“divers  great  ladies,”  in  jealousy  of  the  queen,  caused  coaches 
to  be  made  for  themselves,  to  ride  up  and  down  the  country  in  ; 
and  after  a  period  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  coach-making  trade 
obtained  some  foothold  in  England. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  this  country  nothing  better  than  the 
common  ox-cart,  or  the  most  cumbersome  wooden-axle  lumber-box 
wagon  was  known  up  to  a  comparatively  recent  date.  In  the  early 
part  of  this  century  the  greatest  advance  made  in  carriages  was 
the  adaptation  to  some  of  the  leathern  side-spring.  To  the  intro¬ 
duction  and  perfection  of  the  iron  axle  and  the  best  class  of  steel 
springs,  permitting  lightness  of  structure,  is  due  the  present  ele¬ 
gance  of  our  wagons  and  carriages,  which  have  no  equals  in  the 
world.  The  traveller  from  this  country  to  Europe  is  at  once 
struck  with  the  comparative  cumbersomeness  and  inelegance  of 
European  vehicles. 

The  axle  and  spring  manufacture  in  this  country  constitutes  a 
large  business  interest,  employing  a  great  amount  of  capital  and  a 
large  number  of  hands  in  various  parts  of  the  land.  The  repre¬ 
sentative  establishment  of  the  United  States  in  the  manufacture  of 
springs  and  axles,  both  in  the  matter  of  quality  and  in  that  of 
quantity  as  regards  the  perfectly  finished  kinds  of  the  same,  is  that 


1274 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 


of  The  Mowry  Axle  and  Machine  Company,  of  Greenville,  Conn., 
who  make  all  kinds  of  axles  and  springs,  from  the  lightest  and 
most  tasteful,  such  as  we  use  in  trotting  sulkies,  to  the  heaviest,  for 
omnibuses,  for  example.  The  business  of  this  company  was  estab¬ 
lished  in  1845  by  Mr.  Samuel  Mowry,  then  a  man  in  middle  life, 
and  a  pioneer  of  cotton  manufacturing  in  this  country,  and  who 
had  accumulated  a  large  estate,  enabling  him  to  at  once  enter  upon 
the  axle  and  spring  business  with  every  advantage  and  facility 
which  the  state  of  the  art  then  permitted,  taking  at  once  the  lead¬ 
ing  position,  which  the  establishment  has  continued  to  hold.  The 
business  was  conducted  under  the  firm  name  of  Samuel  Mowry  & 
Sons  till  1869,  when  it  was  incorporated  under  the  style  of  “  The 
Mowry  Axle  and  Machine  Company/7 

At  this  establishment  in  the  manufacture  of  axles  only  the  best 
Salisbury  iron  is  used,  brought  to  the  factory  directly  from  the 
mill  in  bars.  It  is  first  cut  into  proper  lengths  by  immense  shears 
heated  to  a  red  heat,  and  drawn  out  under  trip-hammers.  The 
collar  of  the  axle  is  formed  in  dies,  as  well  as  the  “  arm,77  that 
portion  on  which  the  wheel  runs.  The  arm  is  then  turned  to  the 
right  size,  and  receives  whatever  grooves  are  necessary  in  its  con¬ 
struction,  and  is  then  “  steel-converted,77  as  to  its  surface,  to  the 
depth  of  about  one  sixteenth  or  an  eighth  of  an  inch,  the  surface  be* 
coming  so  hard  that  a  file  will  make  no  impression  upon  it.  The 
process  of  steel-converting  is  this  :  Hollow'  boxes  or  cylinders  of 
cast  iron,  twice  as  large,  perhaps,  as  an  axle  arm,  are  filled  with 
bone  dust  and  other  materials  containing  carbon,  and  into  these 
the  axle  arms  are  thrust,  and,  thus  covered,  placed  in  a  fire  made 
of  charcoal,  and  of  intense  heat.  The  bone  dust,  etc.,  become 
speedily  calcined,  parting  with  their  carbon,  which  is  imparted  di¬ 
rectly  to  the  red-heated  arms,  converting  the  surfaces  of  the  same 
into  steel.  The  arms  are  taken  from  this  fire  when  at  a  red  heat, 
denuded  of  the  boxes,  and  plunged  into  a  cold  bath,  hardening 
them  to  such  a  degree  that  no  amount  of  friction,  even  that  of 
grindstones  or  emery  wheels,  produces  any  effect  upon  them. 
Hence  it  is  necessary  that  they  be  duly  polished  and  finished,  hav¬ 
ing  the  thread  cut  upon  their  ends,  etc.,  before  being  subjected  to 
this  process.  Salisbury  iron  is  the  most  tough  and  tenacious  iron 
in  use,  and  therefore  the  best  for  these  axles.  All  the  axles  of 
this  company  are  brought  to  given  sizes  by  a  gauge,  so  that  all 
axles  of  a  certain  size  could  run  in  the  same  box,  and  may  be  in¬ 
terchanged. 


127.5 


J 

CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 

The  nuts  attached  to  these  axles  are  made  of  a  peculiar  compo¬ 
sition,  and  the  boxes  of  cast  iron  lined  with  the  same.  Constructed 
of  this,  the  boxes  are  far  more  durable  than  if  made  of  iron.  Most 
of  the  improvements  which  have  been  made  in  axles  in  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  have  originated  at  this  establishment.  Per¬ 
haps  the  most  noticeable  of  them  is  the  leaving  of  a  small  shoulder 
on  the  arm  at  the  point  where  it  unites  with  the  collar.  When 
the  arm  is  cut  down,  so  that  its  line  at  that  point  forms  a  right 
angle  with  the  collar,  the  axle  is  liable  to  break  there.  Oil  and 
dirt  gather  at  that  point,  and  by  the  tremor  of  the  axle  when  in 
running  use  are  made  to  cut  into  the  axle  at  the  collar  joint,  and  so 
weaken  the  axle  there.  Had  this  house  secured  the  improvement 
by  letters  patent,  instead  of  generously  abandoning  it  to  the  pub¬ 
lic,  this  item  alone  would  have  brought  to  them  a  vast  fortune  in 
addition  to  their  large  capital.  As  an  example  of  the  perfect  axle 
work  of  this  establishment,  the  fact  may  be  mentioned  that,  after 
ten  years’  constant  use,  these  axles  are  found  to  bear  the  impression 
of  the  makers’  name,  stamped  on  the  arm  before  being  steel-con¬ 
verted,  as  clear  and  distinct  as  when  first  placed  in  use,  and  this 
at  points  where  the  whole  weight  of  the  vehicle  or  loads  are  felt. 

The  carriage  springs  of  The  Mowry  Axle  and  Machine  Company 
are  unequalled  for  finish,  elasticity,  and  durability.  These  are 
made  of  the  best  English  or  Swedes  steel.  When  the  business 
was  commenced  by  this  house,  springs  were  but  little  in  use. 
Several  manufacturers,  in  attempting  to  establish  the  business,  had 
failed.  English  steel  was  used,  which  was  not  then  good.  The 
steel-makers  made  it  of  English  iron,  which  was  then  not  so  dura¬ 
ble  as  now.  Many  years  transpired  before  steel  springs  were 
brought  to  the  durable  and  economical  point,  and  great  credit  is 
due  to  Mr.  Samuel  Mowry,  especially,  for  the  genius  and  industry 
which  he  used  in  putting  the  facture  of  steel  springs  in  this  coun¬ 
try  on  a  permanent  basis. 

The  steel  comes  to  the  factory  in  bars,  which  are  cut  into  re¬ 
quired  lengths.  The  ends  of  those  intended  for  the  “  backs,”  or 
the  longest  parts  which  are  attached  to  each  other  by  “  heads,” 
are  heated  to  red  heat,  and  the  heads,  first  struck  out  into  the 
right  shape  from  Swedes  iron,  are  welded  on  under  a  power-ham¬ 
mer,  which  11  forms  ”  the  head.  These  heads  are  uniform  in  shape, 
so  that  they  will  all,  of  a  given  size,  opply  to  backs  of  a  certain 
size.  This  method  of  heading  is  a  very  great  improvement  over 
the  common  process,  and  is  an  invention  of  great  value. 


1276 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 


The  several  plates  of  the  springs  are  rolled  from  their  centres, 
gradually  thinning  to  their  ends,  where  they  present  a  sharp  edge 
under  a  gauge,  so  that  the  spring  when  made  presents  on  its  sur¬ 
face  a  perfectly  regular  declension  in  thickness  from  the  centre  to 
the  ends  of  the  backs,  where  the  latter  are  united  to  the  heads. 
There  are  many  advantages  in  springs  thus  made,  both  as  regards 
elasticity  and  durability,  as  well  as  elegance.  The  workman  first 


REED  AND  BOWEN  PUNCH. 

shapes  out  the  backs  to  suit  his  pattern,  and  then  adjusts  each 
plate  to  it.  When  otherwise  finished  the  spring  is  tempered  in  oil. 
No  spring  is  allowed  to  leave  the  establishment  till  it  lias  under¬ 
gone  the  most  thorough  tests.  Having  won  their  high  reputation 
by  extreme  care  in  the  manufacture  of  their  wares,  this  house  con¬ 
tinues  to  preserve  it  by  the  same  means. 

Aside  from  its  axles  and  springs,  this  establishment  is  worthy  of 


CONCORD  SIDE  SPRING. 


(POWER  MACHINE.) 


(HAND  MACHINE 


WEST'S  AMERICAN  TIRE  SETTER 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 


1279 


comment  here  in  the  fact  that  it  controls  the  manufacture  of  sev¬ 
eral  most  important  machines  for  working  in  iron.  Among  these 
we  have  selected  three  for  especial  mention,  one  of  them  being  the 
so-called  “  Reed  and  Bowen  Punch  ”  (a  cut  of  which  we  here  give, 
and  which  will  better  describe  the  machine  than  can  mere  wrords), 
for  blacksmiths’  and  carriage  smiths’  use  ;  another  being  “  Sibley’s 
Self-oiler  Journal  Box,”  which  we  will  describe  farther  on;  and 
the  third  being  one  of  the  most  marvellous  inventions  ever  made 
in  mechanics,  and  known  as  “  West’s  American  Tire-setter,”  rep¬ 
resentations  of  which  accompany  this  article  on  the  annexed  page 
of  cuts.  The  punch  is  of  immense  power,  and  comprises  in  its 
construction  a  pair  of  shears.  Its  combination  of  levers,  four  in 
number,  is  such  that,  with  100  lbs.  powTer  on  the  lever,  a  pressure 
of  more  than  70,000  lbs.  is  given  to  the  punch  proper,  and  more 
than  52,000  lbs.  to  the  .shears.  The  whole  machine  weighs  but 
350  lbs.  On  the  top  of  the  machine,  where  two  wheels,  like,  with 
handles,  are  observed  attached,  two  ends  of  a  tire,  for  example, 
may  be  placed,  held  by  these  notched  wheels,  and  be  thoroughly 
“upset”  "with  one  motion  of  the  lever,  rendering  cutting  and 
welding  entirely  unnecessary ;  and  a  perfect  circle  of  any  size  can 
be  formed  by  placing  an  iron  bar  in  a  “  bender  ”  at  the  end  of  the 
shears.  By  this  machine  saws  are  gummed  with  a  freedom  and 
celerity  never  obtained  by  any  other  machine.  Only  one  man  is 
required  to  work  the  machine.  This  punch  has  already  acquired 
the  reputation  among  first-class  manufactures  due  to  its  great 
merits. 

The  Sibley  self-oiler  journal  box  is  a  specimen  of  perfect  mech¬ 
anism.  It  is  the  invention  of  Mr.  Rufus  Sibley,  the  superin¬ 
tendent  of  the  establishment.  The  journal  box  may  be  fixed  on  a 
stand  or  suspended  in  “hangers.”  The  journal  box  is  united  with 
the  improved  hanger  bj7-  bolt  and  check-nuts,  and  is  so  constructed 
externally  as  to  adapt  itself,  being  hung  on  trunnions,  to  any  up- 
and-down  or  lateral  motion  of  the  shaft,  fulfilling  perfectly  in  this 
regard  the  long-felt  desideratum.  It  is  constructed  in  two  pieces, 
a  base  and  cap  fitting  to  each  other.  Within,  in  each  part,  is  cut 
half  of  an  oil-chamber  ;  within  this  chamber,  and  affixed  by  a  screw 
to  the  shaft,  is  an  iron  ring  with  a  small  scoop  attached  to  it,  and 
which  revolves  with  the  shaft,  the  scoop  at  every  revolution  dip¬ 
ping  up  the  oil  from  the  chamber  and  carrying  it  upward  so  as  to 
constantly  lubricate  the  shaft.  A  groove  is  made  in  either  end  of 
the  base  leading  to  the  oil-chamber,  through  which  whatever  oil 


12S0 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 


may  have  found  its  way  to  the  ends  of  the  journal,  after  being 
there  prevented  from  leaking  out  by  grooves  formed  in  the  ends 
of  the  journal,  may  trickle  back  to  the  chamber.  In  each  end  of 
the  cap  are  cut  sockets,  in  which  sponges  or  cotton  waste  are 
placed,  which  duly  spread  the  oil  upon  the  shaft,  as  well  as  aid  in 
preventing  its  escape  at  the  ends.  This  journal  needs  supplying 
with  oil  but  once  a  year,  and  saves  at  least  90  per  cent,  of  the 
amount  of  oil  which  would  be  required  in  other  journals.  These 
journals  have  undergone  some  two  years7  constant  trial  in  some  of 
our  largest  manufactories,  and  persons  using  the  like  could  not  be 
induced  to  forego  them.  Another  advantage  of  this  journal  is, 
that  it  is  easily  adaptable  to  the  shaft,  the  simplest  mechanic  being 
able  to  put  it  up. 

The  “  West  Tire-setter/7  the  invention  of  a  Mr.  Jonathan  B. 
West,  whose  name  is  worthy  of  a  place  among  those  of  the  most  im¬ 
portant  inventors  of  the  world,  consists  of  a  band  formed  of  four  or 
more  thin  leaves  of  iron  or  steel,  an  eighth  of  an  inch  thick  and  six 
inches  wide,  thus  making  a  flexible  band  of  immense  strength, 
which  adapts  itself  to  close  contact  with  the  whole  circumference 
of  any  ordinary  sized  wheel,  and  by  the  action  of  a  powerful  steel 
screw,  operated  by  hand,  lever,  or  other  power,  brings  sufficient 
pressure  upon  the  tire  to  compress  or  upset  it  any  required 
amount,  to  properly  atid  effectually  tighten  any  new  or  old  loose 
tire  in  less  than  two  minutes,  without  removing  the  bolts,  scratch¬ 
ing  the  varnish,  or  in  any  way  injuring  the  wheel.  It  requires 
ordinarily  about  twenty  minutes  to  set  the  tires  on  a  set  of  car¬ 
riage  wheels.  At  a  test  of  a  large  size  power  machine  at  the  fac¬ 
tory,  an  iron  tire,  three  inches  wide  and  one  inch  thick,  was 
shortened  three  inches  with  perfect  ease,  and  without  injury,  and 
without  being  placed  on  a  wheel.  This  would  seem  incredible  to 
most  scientists,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true. 

The  saving  by  this  method  is  obvious.  No  heat,  no  water,  no 
taking  out  bolts,  no  breaking,  scratching,  or  burning  the  paint  or 
varnish,  and  saving  in  time  to  the  person  using  the  machine,  and 
to  the  customer,  by  having  his  carriage  to  use,  full  eighty  per 
cent,  over  the  old  method.  Every  carriage-maker  should  be  pro¬ 
vided  with  one  of  these  machines,  and  no  village  blacksmith  should 
be  without  one.  The  prices  of  these  machines  range  from  $150  to 
$G50,  according  to  size.  One  man  alone  can  work  the  machine 
easily.  We  feel  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  commending  this  marvel  of 
mechanism  to  public  consideration. 


CARRIAGE  AXLES  AND  SPRINGS. 


1281 


The  Mo  wry  Axle  and  Machine  Company  are  also  sole  manufac¬ 
turers  of  Sibley’s  Photograph  Press,  which  may  be  described  as 
an  inverted  car  working  within  a  frame  on  four  wheels,  which  are 
so  connected  with  the  roller  by  which  the  picture  is  rolled  as  to 
move  along  with  it,  thus  preventing  the  card  from  “  curling,”  and 
obviating  the  artistic  deformity  which  always  follows  the  use  of 
the  rollers,  by  the  elongation  of  the  picture  which  the}'  produce. 
Good  pictures  are  thus  usually  spoiled.  This  establishment  also 
manufactures  paper  engines,  rag  boilers,  and  all  the  machinery 
connected  with  paper-making,  up  to  the  Fourdrinier  machine. 

The  Mowry  Axle  and ,  Machine  Company  will  be  seen  by  the 
above  to  be,  not  only  the  leading  manufacturers  of  carriage  axles 
and  springs  in  this  country,  but  peculiarly  alive  to  the  promotion 
of  excellent  machinery  of  various  kinds. 


WIIAT  A  STENCIL  PLATE  IS.  —  THE  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  — 
THE  LATE  INCREASE  OF  THE  BUSINESS.  — THE  USES  OF  THE  STENCIL. — THE 
BUSINESS  BEFORE  1841.  — THE  OLDEST  MANUFACTURERS  IN  THIS  COUNTRY, 
MESSRS.  JOHN  POPE  AND  SON,  OF  BOSTON,  MASS. 

The  stencil  plate  belongs  to  that  class  of  mechanical  contriv¬ 
ances  which,  like  the  screw,  the  jack-knife,  or  the  common  pin, 
while  they  are  very  simple  in  themselves,  are  so  important  that 
we  could  hardly  exist  without  them.  The  stencil  plate  is  a  thin 
plate  of  wood,  metal,  leather,  or  other  substance,  used  in  orna¬ 
mental  painting,  the  marking  of  names,  &c.  The  pattern  of  the 
ornament  or  name  is  cut  out  of  the  plate,  which  is  then  laid  on  the 
flat  surface  to  be  marked,  and  the  paint  or  ink  brushed  over  it. 
How  old  is  this  process  of  stenciling,  we  have  no  means  of  know¬ 
ing  ;  but  probably  something  like  the  modern  stencil  plate  was 
discovered  early  in  the  art  of  ornamental  coloring ;  and  we  know 
that  stencils  were  cut  as  far  back  as  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  business  of  manufacturing  stencil  plates  is  quite  extensive 
in  this  country  at  the  present  time,  and  is  constantly  increasing 
with  the  advance  of  various  commercial  enterprises,  in  the  con¬ 
ducting  of  which  the  stencil  is  found  a  great  convenience.  Prob¬ 
ably  ten  times  more  stencils  are  now  in  use  than  were  employed 
ten  years  ago.  Everybody  has  learned  the  importance  of  the 
stencil  for  marking  clothing,  books,  umbrellas,  and  various  other 
light  personal  property,  while  business  men  in  all  departments  of 
trade  find  the  stencil  the  only  satisfactory  and  economic  means  of 
marking  boxes,  bales,  and  barrels  of  goods  for  transportation.  In 
immense  enterprises  like  those  of  our  express  companies,  the 
stencil  is  invaluable.  The  countless  packages  of  goods,  and  bar¬ 
rels  of  flour,  sent  hither  and  thither  over  the  land  every  day, 
bear,  for  the  most  part,  the  marks  of  the  stencil ;  and  it  would  be 

an  ingenious  problem  for  some  curious  mathematician  to  solve,  to 
(1282) 


STENCIL  PLATES. 


1283 


decide  of  what  value  the  stencil  is  to  the  flour  trade  alone  of  the 
country,  in  the  amount  of  valuable  time  it  saves  for  a  given  time, 
in  contrast  with  that  which  would  be  required  by  the  old  forms  of 
marking.  Doubtless,  in  the  course  of  ten  years,  the  saving  would 
amount  to  an  enormous  sum  in  dollars  and  cents. 

Up  to  1841,  no  great  business  was  done  in  stencils  in  this 
country.  Previous  to  that  time,  the  stencil  was  made  mostly  of 
pasteboard,  and,  at  that  date,  the  term  “  stencil  ”  was  but  little 
understood.  Now,  the  business  is  a  regular  and  established  one, 
and  the  catalogue  of  “a  name  stencil  outfit”  for  making  stencils 
for  marking  clothing,  is  quite  an  imposing  array  of  items,  con¬ 
sisting  of  an  alphabet  of  dies  for  cutting  capital  and  small  letters  ; 
dies  for  cutting  ornamental  designs ;  cases  for  the  dies ;  steel 
hammer ;  steel  shears ;  framing  knife  ;  steel  compasses  ;  smooth¬ 
ing  stone  ;  bed  plate  and  block  scraper ;  rule  and  measure  ;  steel 
scribe  ;  polishing  brush  ;  rubber  for  countersinking ;  lignum  vitm 
block  ;  polishing  powder ;  combination  square  and  scroll  pattern  ; 
brass  and  German  silver  to  make  the  stencils  of;  zinc  frames; 
numerous  vials  of  indelible  ink,  etc.  And  there  are  other  outfits, 
such  as  a  “  business  stencil  outfit,”  “key  check  outfit,”  etc. 

Stencil  plates  are  mostly  made,  nowadays,  from  sheets  of 
brass,  of  the  kind  called  “  low  brass,”  very  malleable  and  soft, 
and  much  care  must  be  taken  in  laying  out  the  work.  Messrs. 
John  and  Frank  G.  Pope,  doing  business  under  the  firm  name  of 
John  Pope  &  Son,  at  No.  8  Dock  Square,  and  No.  9  ’Change 
Avenue,  Boston,  Mass.,  are  the  oldest  manufacturers  of  stencils 
in  the  United  States,  having  commenced  the  business  in  1841. 
Mr.  John  Pope  is  one  of  the  substantial  citizens  of  Boston,  a  class 
of  men  who,  for  sterling  worth,  native  intelligence,  and  solid  in¬ 
formation,  have  no  superiors,  if  equals,  anywhere,  as  valuable 
members  of  society.  A  life  of  industry  and  moral  integrity  has 
won  for  Mr.  John  Pope,  and  the  firm,  the  full  confidence  of  all 
who  know  him  ;  and  to  this  reason,  probably,  as  well  as  to  the 
perfect  work  done  by  them,  is  due,  in  good  part,  the  fact  that 
this  old  firm  stands  to-day  at  the  head  of  the  stencil-making  busi¬ 
ness  in  this  country.  This  firm  has  contributed  largely  to  the 
adjuncts  of  the  business,  and  manufactures,  among  other  things, 
the  best  kinds  of  “  stencil  paste,”  and  of  various  colors,  princi¬ 
pally  the  blue,  green,  red,  and  black.  Their  paste  is  of  peculiar 
composition,  and  stands  at  the  head  in  the  market. 


HOOKS  AND  EYES. 


OUR  FIRST  PARENTS’  WANT  OF  HOOKS  AND  EYES.  —  THE  “  BREECHES  BIBLE.” 

—  TIIE  INVENTION  OF  HOOK  AND  EYE  MAKING  MACHINERY.  —  THE  MANU¬ 
FACTURE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. 

Of  the  millions  of  persons  in  the  civilized  world,  who  daily 
depend,  in  arraying  themselves,  upon  the  use  of  hooks  and  eyes, 
how  few  ever  think  how  much  they  are  dependent  upon  these 
simple  conveniences  for  the  make  and  fashion  of  their  garments, 
and  how  long  the  world  was  obliged  to  do  without  them,  and 
depend  upon  various  make-shifts,  before  invention  had  arrived  at 
this  simple  device  !  In  the  history  of  costume,  up  to  the  present 
time,  sufficient  attention  has  not  been  given  to  what  may  be  called 
the  industrial  causes  underlying  its  modifications  arid  changes. 
With  the  first  mention  of  the  assumption  of  clothing,  that  of  our 
“  first  parents/7  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  the  fig  leaf  is  mentioned 
as  the  garment  they  assumed  :  “  and  they  sewed  fig  leaves  to¬ 
gether,  and  made  themselves  aprons/7  The  text  of  the  original 
simply  suggests  that  they  clothed  themselves  with  a  garment 
made  of  leaves,  and  is  not  specific  concerning  its  special  form  or 
shape.  In  fact,  on  account  of  this  vagueness,  the  description  of 
the  dress  they  made  varies  in  different  versions  of  the  Scripture  ; 
and  what  is  known  among  bibliographers  as  the  “  Breeches  Bible  77 
is  a  copy  of  the  editions  of  the  translation  printed  before  the  au¬ 
thorized  one  of  King  James,  which  we  use,  and  in  which  the  pas¬ 
sage  is  translated  “  made  themselves  breeches.77  The  earliest 
clothes  worn  by  mankind  were  unquestionably  such  as  are  still 
worn  by  many  tribes  of  the  least  developed  savages,  and  consisted 
simply  of  a  skin  tied  about  the  loins  with  a  sinew  or  a  withe. 
Before  any  cloth  could  be  made,  men  had  to  invent  the  entire 
process  of  weaving  ;  and  the  first  forms  of  garments  which  were 

made  from  cloth  were  undoubtedly  imitations  of  the  skins  they 
(1284) 


HOOKS  AND  EYES. 


1285 


had  before  been  using.  The  very  form  of  the  human  figure  jus¬ 
tifies  the  division  of  all  clothing  into  two  classes,  those  depend¬ 
ing  from  the  shoulders,  and  those  from  the  hips.  In  early  times, 
as  in  the  East  up  to  the  present  day,  the  clothing  worn  was  flow¬ 
ing,  and  hung  loosely  from  the  shoulders,  being  secured  about  the 
waist,  if  so  confined,  with  a  cord  or  belt.  For  securing  the  va¬ 
rious  articles  of  dress,  when  garments  fitting  portions  of  the  body 
began  to  be  worn,  strings  were  first  used  ;  and  with  the  invention 
of  lacing,  in  which  a  string  was  passed  through  eyelets  made  in 
the  two  edges  of  a  garment,  it  first  became  possible  to  make  a 
closely  fitting  covering  for  the  upper  portion  of  the  body  which 
should  adapt  itself  to  the  form,  and  display  the  outlines  of  the 
person.  Before  this  the  shoulders  were  covered  with  a  loose 
drapery,  which  either  descended  in  folds  to  the  feet,  or  was  else 
wrapped  about  the  upper  part  of  the  person,  and  kept  confined 
around  the  waist  with  a  girdle  or  belt.  The  garment,  envel¬ 
oping  the  entire  person,  was  made  so  long  as  to  trail  upon 
the  ground.  The  inconvenience  which  would  arise  from  having 
the  dress  dragging  on  the  ground  in  front  was  obviated  by 
lifting  it  up,  so  as  to  make  it  even  with  the  feet,  and  then, 
by  a  girdle  round  the  waist,  confining  it,  leaving  the  excess 

t 

in  length  to  fall  over  the  belt,  in  folds  about  the  waist.  A 
somewhat  similar  style  prevailed  in  Rome,  and  remained  in  use 
in  Europe  until  the  middle  ages.  Then,  with  the  invention  of 
lacing,  tightly  fitting  coverings  for  the  upper  part  of  the  body 
began  to  come  in  use.  The  first  improvement  upon  lacing  was 
the  invention  of  buttons,  and  the  exclusive  use  of  these  was 
finally  replaced  with  that  of  hooks  and  eves.  Before,  however, 
the  advantages  of  this  simple  method  could  be  made  general,  the 
art  of  working  metals  had  to  be  perfected,  and  the  processes  of 
manufacture  which  should  so  cheapen  the  production  of  hooks  and 
eyes  as  to  enable  every  one  to  obtain  them,  had  to  be  invented. 
To  arrive  at  this  has  required  a  long  course  of  industrial  advance. 
Finally,  wire  came  to  be  made  cheaply,  machinery  was  invented 
to  cut  and  bend  it  into  required  shape,  and  hooks  and  eyes  were 
produced  in  immense  quantities,  and  were  put  upon  the  market  at 
prices  seventy-five  per  cent,  lower  than  were  the  like  articles  be¬ 
fore  the  machinery  for  their  manufacture  was  invented.  Hooks 
and  eyes  are  principally  and  extensively  manufactured  in  Water- 
bury  and  New  Britain,  Conn. 


PINS. 


HISTORY  OF  TI1F  MANUFACTURE  OF  PINS  UP  TO  THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

—  THE  MANUFACTURE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  —  DR.  J.  I.  HOWE’S  INVENTIONS  FOR 

THE  MAKING  OF  PINS. 

Among  the  various  articles  for  personal  use  which  modern  inge¬ 
nuity  provides  for  our  convenience,  there  is  not  one  which  adds 
more  to  our  comfort  than  the  bountiful  supply  of  pins,  which  are 
provided  in  such  quantities  by  the  aid  of  machinery  and  organized 
industry  as  practically  to  place  them  within  the  reach  of  every 
one.  The  first  suggestion  of  a  pin  wits  unquestionably  furnished 
to  our  uncivilized  ancestors  by  the  thorns  which  various  plants 
bear  ;  and  among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  who  had  arrived  at  the 
arts  of  working  metals,  various  substitutes  were  made  for  these 
useful  little  articles.  Even  up  to  quite^  modern  times,  pins,  as  we 
now  have  them,  were  unknown,  and  until  the  sixteenth  century  the 
poor  were  obliged  to  make  use  of  strings  and  other  makeshifts, 
while  the  rich,  even  the  ladies  of  the  royal  families,  used  ribbons, 
clasps,  or  skewers  made  of  gold,  silver,  brass,  ivory,  bone,  or  wood. 
In  England  pins  were  first  introduced  from  France,  in  1543.  In 
this  country  wire-drawing,  upon  which  the  manufacture  of  pins 
depends,  was  first  introduced  in  the  Plymouth  Colony.  In  Octo¬ 
ber,  1666,  Nathaniel  Robbinson,  “  wyer-drawer,”  petitioned  the 
General  Court  for  aid  in  establishing  the  business.  The  court, 
however,  did  not  grant  his  request.  In  the  same  month  of  the 
next  year  Joseph  Jenks,  Sr.,  desired  “the  favor  of  the  court  to 
advance  a  sume  for  ye  encouragement  of  wyer-drawing,”  etc.  The 
court,  in  reply,  thought  it  “  not  meet  to  advance  any  money  on 
that  design  ;  but  being  desirous  to  encourage  all  persons  among  us 
in  manuall  arts  and  trade  of  publicque  vtilitye,  and  being  informed 
that  there  are  in  this  towne  a  sett  of  tooles  for  wyer-drawing,  and 

that  there  be  some  in  this  place  that  are  able  and  skillful  in  that 

(1286) 


PINS. 


1287 


imploy,  the  improvement  whereof  would  be  of  great  use  in  sundry 
respects,  this  court  doth  therefore  order  the  Treasurer  of  the  coun¬ 
ty  to  disburse  out  of  the  public  treasury  such  a  sume  of  money  as 
will  be  necessary  for  the  purchase  of  the  said  instruments  and 
tooles,  not  exceeding  fifteen  pounds  and  the  Treasurer  and  Mayor- 
Generall  Leveret  are  appointed  and  empowered  to  dispose  of  the 
said  instruments  so  as  may  best  further  the  ends  proposed,  as  also 
to  disburse  forty  shillings  for  the  encouragement  of  those  that 
shall  make  cards  and  pinns  of  the  said  wiar.” 

Of  the  growth  of  this  proposed  industry  nothing  more  appears 
from  the  records.  The  next  notice  find  of  the  business  during 
the  colonial  times  appears  in  the  History  of  Rhode  Island.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  revolution  pins  were  made  at  Cumberland  by  Jeremiah 
Wilkinson,  who  drew  the  wire  himself  for  their  manufacture.  Up 
to  this  time  the  heads  of  pins  were  made  of  a  fine  wire,  twisted 
firmly  about  the  top  of  the  body  of  the  pin  ;  and  during  the  same 
contest  Samuel  Slocum,  of  Rhode  Island,  who  some  twenty-five 
years  before  had  patented  a  machine  for  making  solid-headed  pins 
in  England,  introduced  a  machine  for  making  them  in  this  country, 
and  commenced  tlieir  manufacture  in  Providence.  In  1775  Leonard 
Chester,  of  Wethersfield,  Conn.,  proposed  to  the  legislature  of  the 
state  to  erect  a  pin  factory  in  that  town  ;  and  a  few  3rears  later 
Dr.  A  polios  Ilinsley,  of  Connecticut,  who  was  a  fertile  inventor, 
invented  a  machine  for  making  pins.  In  1775  the  convention 
which  assembled  at  Newbern,  N.  C.,  on  the  3d  of  April,  resolved, 
il  from  common  prudence  and  regard  for  the  colony,  to  encourage, 
both  by  their  influence  and  by  pecuniary  rewards,  the  arts,  manu¬ 
factures,  and  agriculture  of  the  colony ;  ”  and  the  Provincial 
Congress  of  the  state,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  followed  the 
same  course,  and,  among  other  measures,  offered  fifty  pounds  for 
the  first  twenty-five  dozen  pins  of  domestic  make,  equal  to  those 
imported  from  England,  and  costing  seven  shillings  and  sixpence  a 
dozen.  This  will  give  us  an  idea  of  the  scarcity  and  the  cost  of 
pins  in  this  country  just  prior  to,  and  during,  the  revolution. 

Through  various  struggles,  the  manufacture  of  pins  has  in  these 
times  grown  to  be  a  very  important  art  in  this  country.  Probably 
as  good  pins  as  any  made  in  the  world  are  manufactured  here. 

In  1831  Dr.  J.  I.  Howe,  then  of  New  York,  succeeded  in  in¬ 
venting  a  machine  for  making  pins,  which  did  very  good  work, 
and  made  pins  at  one  operation.  The  next  year  a  company  was 
formed  for  the  manufacture  of  Dr.  Ilowe’s  machine. 


1288  PINS. 

In  1835  another  company  was  formed  for  making  pins  by  ma¬ 
chinery,  which  continued  its  operations  under  the  charge  of  Dr. 
Howe  until  18G5.  Meanwhile  Dr.  Howe  invented  several  im¬ 
provements  of  great  importance  in  his  machines,  among  them  (in 
1838)  the  “  rotary  ”  machine.  But  this  has  been  materially  im¬ 
proved  in  subsequent  times.  These  machines  make  the  solid¬ 
headed  pin.  As  a  necessary  adjunct  to  the  pin-making  machine, 
came  finally  the  pin-sticking  machine,  which  was  invented  by 
Samuel  Slocum,  and  patented  by  him  in  1841.  Dr.  Howe  invented 
an  important  improvement  in  machine  pin-stickers,  which  was 
patented  in  1843  ;  and  he  Jfhd  Mr.  Slocum  eventually  became 
joint  owners  of  the  two  patents.  From  that  time  on,  the  pin¬ 
making  business  steadily  increased  to  its  now  large  proportions. 
The  chief  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  pins  are  situated 
in  Birmingham,  W aterbury,  and  Winsted,  Conn. 


QUARRIES. 

FIRST  GRANITE  USED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  OLD  FOUNDATIONS  AND  WALLS.  — 
THE  QUINCY  GRANITE.  —  FIRST  RAILROAD  IN  THE  COUNTRY.  —  THE  GRANITE 
HILLS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  THE  ASTOR  HOUSE  AND  OTHER  GREAT  GRANITE 
BUILDINGS.  —  HOW  GRANITE  IS  QUARRIED. — PAVING  STONES.  —  AMERICAN 
MARBLES.  —  THE  STATUARY  MARBLES  OF  VERMONT.  —  VARIEGATED  MARBLES 
IN  VARIOUS  STATES.  —  THE  CAPITOL  AT  WASHINGTON.  —  SERPENTINE  AND 
VERD  ANTIQUE.  — WESTCHESTER  AND  SING  SING  STONE. —  EXTENT  OF  IMPORT, 
EXPORT,  AND  MANUFACTURE  OF  MARBLE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  BROWN 

FREESTONE. — THE  PORTLAND  QUARRIES.  - NEW  JERSEY  STONE.  —  HUDSON 

RIVER  FLAGGING  AND  CURBING  STONE.  —  QUARRIES  THROUGHOUT  THE  COUN¬ 
TRY.  —  SLATE  QUARRIES.  —  GRINDSTONES  AND  MILLSTONES. 

Although  the  early  colonists  of  Massachusetts  found,  or  could 
have  found,  abundant  supplies  of  slate,  stone,  clay  for  bricks,  and 
other  durable  building  material,  yet  for  more  than  a  century  wood 
was  almost  universally  used.  In  1657  in  such  buildings  in  Boston 
as,  according  to  the  description,  were  11  fairly  set  forth  with  brick, 
tile,  slate,  and  stone, ”  these  materials  were  imported.  A  single 
building  (King’s  Chapel)  was  built  of  the  Braintree  granite,  in 
1752,  the  first  granite  used  in  the  country.  The  Dutch  of  New 
York,  who  imported  the  yellow  brick  from  Holland,  put  stone  on 
the  free  list,  in  1648,  to  encourage  its  introduction  from  abroad, 
when  literal  “  free  stone  ”  might  have  been  had  for  the  quarrying 
close  by  in  New  Jersey. 

The  foundations  still  standing  of  old  wooden  buildings  erected 
in  the  last  century  show  that  the  early  settlers  made  use  of  such 
surface  stone  as  were  readily  procurable  for  this  purpose,  the  rocks 
in  the  fields  and  on  the  hill-sides  furnishing  the  supply,  while  the 
smaller  pieces  were  used  in  the  stone-wall  boundaries  of  farms  and 
fields.  The  extensive  quarrying  of  the  Quincy,  Mass.,  granite 
began  early  in  the  present  century,  and  the  first  railroad  in  the 
country  was  built  from  these  quarries,  three  miles  to  the  Neponset 
74  *  (1289) 


1290 


QUARRIES. 


River,  in  1827.  It  was  a  horse  railroad,  exclusively  for  the  trans¬ 
portation  of  this  stone  for  shipment. 

All  New  England  abounds  in  granite,  which  is  also  found  in  the 
highlands  of  the  Hudson  River,  on  Staten  Island,  on  Delaware 
Bay,  in  South  Carolina,  in  Georgia,  in  California,  and  in  a  few 
other  states.  There  are  very  superior  quarries  on  the  coast  of 
Maine,  which  have  the  advantage  of  easy  shipment,  while  the 
stone  is  fully  equal  to  that  of  Massachusetts.  For  hardness  and 
durability  the  Quincy  granite  is  most  esteemed.  It  is  seen  in 
many  buildings  in  the  large  cities  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  has 
been  exported  to  the  West  Indies.  Notable  buildings  of  this  stone 
are  the  Merchants’  Exchange  (now  used  as  a  Custom  House)  and 
the  Astor  House  in  New  York,  and  the  Custom  House  in  New 
Orleans.  Enormous  blocks  for  pillars,  weighing  many  tons,  have 
been  got  out  in  these  quarries,  and  the  stone  for  many  buildings 
have  been  cut,  finished,  and  numbered  at  the  quarries  in  readiness 
for  laying  in  their  proper  place  in  the  building,  which  may  be  hun¬ 
dreds  of  miles  away.  The  granite  is  quarried  by  drilling  holes  to 
a  small  depth  in  the  face  of  the  rock,  into  which  small  steel 
wedges  are  inserted  and  driven,  and  the  blocks  of  almost  any  size 
are  thus  split  off.  The  granite  of  Staten  Island,  and  of  Wce- 
hawken,  N.  J.,  is  much  denser  than  the  Quincy  stone,  and  has 
been  largely  used  in  the  Russ  and  Belgian  pavement  in  New  York 
and  in  other  cities. 

Limestone  and  white  marbles  are  plentiful  in  the  United  States, 
particularly  in  Vermont,  Western  Massachusetts,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  Alabama. 
American  marbles  were  first  used  in  making  busts  in  Philadelphia, 
in  1804.  The  Rutland,  Vt.,  quarries  now  supply  statuary  marbles, 
which,  in  whiteness,  texture,  and  purity,  equal  the  celebrated 
marble  of  Carrara.  Several  of  the  statues  designed  for  the  inte¬ 
rior  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington  are  from  this  marble.  The 
working  of  the  Vermont  quarries  to  any  extent  is  of  comparatively 
recent  date.  In  1834  a  factory,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  saws, 
was  established  at  Black  River,  in  Plymouth,  Vt.,  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  marble  from  white  and  variegated  limestone.  Some  of 
the  finest  American  variegated  marbles  are  taken  from  quarries  in 
the  north  of  Vermont,  near  Lake  Champlain.  Gray  and  clouded 
limestones,  quarried  in  Maine,  are  much  used  for  marble  mantels. 
California  produces  a  brilliant  red  and  brown  variegated  marble, 
which  can  be  highly  polished,  and  is  much  used  for  ornamental 


QUARRIES 


1291 


purposes.  The  Potomac  River  quarries  turn  out  brecciated  mar¬ 
bles.  The  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  red  marbles  have  been  considerably 
used  in  the  interior  of  the  Capitol  extensions  at  Washington,  and 
in  other  government  buildings.  Very  handsome  fossiliferous  mar¬ 
bles,  containing  petrified  shells,  have  been  found  in  different  parts 
of  the  United  States. 

Serpentine  and  verd  antique  marble  quarries  were  worked  fifty 
years  ago  in  Connecticut,  and  they  are  found  in  most  of  the  New 
England  states,  and  in  various  parts  of  New  York  and  Pennsyl¬ 
vania. 

Of  the  white  marbles,  the  Westchester  and  Sing  Sing,  in  New 
York,  and  the  Vermont  marbles,  are  largely  used  for  building  pur¬ 
poses.  The  pillars  of  the  Girard  College,  in  Philadelphia,  are  from 
the  Berkshire,  Mass.,  quarries,  and  the  rest  of  the  building  is  from 
the  Pennsjdvania  quarries.  The  marble  in  the  New  York  (old) 
City  Hall  is  from  Massachusetts.  The  stone  in  the  old  Custom 
House,  now  the  United  States  Sub-treasury,  in  New  York,  is  from 
the  Eastchester  quarries.  The  use  of  marble  for  building  purposes, 
particularly  in  New  York,  is  to  a  considerable  extent  superseding 
the  brown  stone. 

Marble  from  Italy,  and  some  manufactured  marble,  to  the 
amount,  perhaps,  of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year,  is  im¬ 
ported,  and  the  United  States  exports  an  equal  or  larger  value 
of  manufactured  marbles  and  other  stone  to  Cuba  and  to  the  New 
Dominion.  There  are  not  less  than  twenty-five  hundred  marble 
and  stone  works  in  this  country,  whose  annual  manufactures 
amount  to  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  million  dollars. 

The  brown  freestone,  or  sandstone,  quarried  at  Portland  (former¬ 
ly  a  part  of  Chatham),  Conn.,  has  been  freely  used  in  building  in 
New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  other  cities.  These  quarries, 
which  are  opposite  Middletown,  on  the  Connecticut  River,  have 
been  worked  more  than  a  century,  and  stone  in  them  is  now  taken 
out  at  a  depth  of  more  than  two  hundred  feet  below  the  river. 
In  these  quarries  were  found,  in  1802,  many  feet  below  the  sur¬ 
face,  fossil  footprints  of  gigantic  birds,  some  of  the  prints  meas¬ 
uring  sixteen  inches  in  length  and  ten  in  width,  while  the  tracks 
were  from  four  to  six  feet  apart.  Whole  streets,  in  the  upper  part 
of  New  York,  are  lined  with  brown  stone  fronts  from  the  Portland 
quarries  ;  but  the  most  of  these  are  ashler  fronts,  of  a  thin  veneer¬ 
ing  of  brown  stone,  backed  with  brick.  This  stone  works  easily 
into  the  most  ornamental  forms ;  but  it  is  liable  to  be  affected  by 


1292 


QUARRIES. 


the  weather,  and  the  frost  sometimes  causes  it  to  scale  and 
crumble. 

These  are  the  principal  building  stones  found  and  used  in  the 
United  States.  Illinois  produces  an  excellent  marble,  which  is 
much  used  in  Chicago  and  other  cities.  Ohio  supplies  a  very 
handsome  yellow  stone  to  Cincinnati  and  Cleveland.  In  New 
York,  of  late  years,  a  great  deal  of  drab-colored  stone,  which  is  a 
freestone,  but  of  the  species  generally  quarried  for  fine  grind¬ 
stones,  has  been  imported  from  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia, 
and  iron  for  stores  and  hotels  is  largely  taking  the  place  of  stone. 

Several  varieties  of  the  harder  sandstones,  especially  those  found 
in  Ulster,  Greene,  and  Albany  Counties,  in  New  York,  and  along 
the  Hudson  River,  are  quarried  in  broad  sheets  for  flagging  and 
curbing.  Similar  quarries  have  lately  been  opened  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  Connecticut,  between  Hartford  and  Saybrook.  A 
bright  sandstone,  containing  considerable  mica,  has  for  many  years 
been  quarried  in  the  Bolton  Range,  in  Connecticut,  and  used  for 
flagging. 

In  1805  a  company  was  incorporated  in  Pennsylvania  for  obtain¬ 
ing  slate  supplies  from  Northampton  County,  for  roofing  and  other 
purposes.  Since  then  very  valuable  quarries  have  been  opened 
elsewhere  in  Pennsylvania,  Vermont,  New  York,  and  Maryland. 
The  extensive  slate  quarries  on  the  Piscataquis  River,  forty  miles 
above  Bangor,  in  Maine,  were  opened  in  1839.  The  slates  are 
quarried  and  easily  split  into  the  desired  thickness  or  thinness  for 
various  purposes,  large  quantities  being  used  for  roofing  and  for 
school  slates. 

The  Virginia  slates  are  generally  green  and  purple ;  the  New 
York  quarries  yield  green,  purple,  and  red  slates,  which  are  used 
in  combination  with  other  colors  to  give  variety  and  figures  on 
roofs.  The  Vermont  quarries,  including  not  less  than  one  hun¬ 
dred  different  quarries  between  the  Green  Mountains  and  the  Hud¬ 
son  River,  produce  roofing  slate,  material  for  tiles,  mantels,  sills, 
caps,  billiard-table  beds,  and  many  ornamental  as  well  as  useful 
purposes.  The  machinery  is  extensive  and  perfect,  and  water  or 
steam  drives  the  cutters  and  planers.  Occasionally  large ,  blocks 
are  got  out  for  monuments  or  bases,  and  the  slate  is  of  the  great¬ 
est  purity,  while  the  supply  seems  to  be  inexhaustible. 

Grindstones,  millstones,  and  whetstones  are  quarried  in  New 
York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Pennsylvania,  and  in  a  few  other  states. 


r 


INDEX. 

•  •• 


Accidents  in  hoisting,  prevented,  1058-61. 
Adams,  Alvin,  714. 

Adams  Express,  714. 

Adams  press,  71. 

Adulteration  of  candy,  and  tests,  247-49  ;  white 
lead,  499  ;  soap,  682. 

Ages  of  Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron,  931. 

Agricola,  G.,  De  Re  Metallica,  351. 

Agricultural  Hand  Implements  (article),  693. 
Agriculture.  See  Farm. 

Agriculture,  colonial,  41. 

Alcoholic  liquors,  (articled,  898. 

Alden,  Charles,  sketch  of,  665. 

invents  condensed  milk,  668. 

Alden,  H.  W.,  67. 

Alden,  T.,  type-setting  machine,  67. 

Alden  Processes  (article),  664  ;  account  of,  668  ; 
Prof.  Krackowizer’s  report,  670 ;  softness  of 
fruit,  etc.  in,  671;  results,  672;  cost,  673. 
Ale  or  beer,  antiquity,  898. 

Alibert,  M.,  730. 

Allen,  A.  F.,  inventions,  270-6. 

Allen,  Edwin,  and  wood  type,  1266. 

Allen,  Ethan,  notice  of,  562 ;  fire-arm  patents, 555. 
Allen,  Otis,  1078. 

Allen  breech-loaders,  559-60. 

Almaden,  quicksilver  mines,  762. 

Amber,  987. 

America  yacht,  102. 

American  Bank  Note  Co  ,  584-6. 

American  Dairymen's  Association.  951. 

American  Educational  Monthly,  228. 

American  Express  Co.,  715. 

American  File  Co  ,  453. 

American  Fur  Co.,  638. 

American  Lead  Pencils  (article!,  728. 

American  Lead  Pencil  Co.,  works,  733  ;  testimo¬ 
nials  to  pencils,  737. 

American  Magnetic  Telegraph  (article),  1233. 
American  ornamental  ironwork,  384. 

American  Spiral  Spring  Butt  Co  ,  549;  descrip¬ 
tion  and  cuts  of  hinges,  549-54 ;  extent  of  use 
of  hinges,  554. 

Ames’  guns,  605. 

Amusement  and  labor,  391. 

Animals,  enjoy  decoration,  435. 

Anime,  988. 

Annealing  glass,  894. 

Annealing  wire,  421. 

Anossoff,  Gen.,  steel  made  by,  934. 

Annuities,  864. 

Anthracite  coal,  476 ;  introduction  of,  475-6 ; 

for  iron  smelting,  352-3. 

Applegath  &  Cowper’s  Press,  71. 

Appleton,  T.,  organs,  1177. 

Aquatint  engraving,  492. 

Aqueducts,  Koman,  1207. 

Archimedean  screw,  466. 

Archimedes,  494,  855. 

Architectural  Iron  Work  (article),  574. 
Architecture,  iron  iu,  383. 


Arkwright,  R.,  473, 968, 1128. 

Armored  Vessels  and  Artillery  (article),  597. 

Arras  (tapestry),  461,  837. 

Arsenic,  used  in  shot,  653,  1066. 

Art  Museums,  833. 

Artificial  Limbs  (article),  425  ;  improved  in  the 
war,  431 ;  of  Union  Artificial  Limb  Co.,  432, 

Artillery,  ancient,  600  ;  in  America,  603  ;  Revo¬ 
lutionary,  anecdote  of,  604  ;  foundries  in  U.  S., 
604;  Dahlgren’s,  604 ;  Rodman's,  605  ;  Par¬ 
rott's,  605  ;  Wiard’s,  605  ;  Ames’,  605. 

Assignats,  1164. 

Associated  Press,  1218. 

Astor,  J.  J.,  and  fur  trade,  638. 

Auburn  Manufacturing  Co.  (article),  693 ;  New 
York  Branch,  697  ;  lands  and  works  of,  698  ; 
extent  of  business,  698. 

Autography,  172. 

Automatic  Relief  Valve  (fire  hose),  274. 

Axes  and  plows  (article),  122. 

Axes,  process  of  making,  128;  varieties  of,  133. 

Axles,  carriage  (article),  1272 , 

Babbitt,  Isaac,  Babbitt  metals,  854. 

Babcock  &  Wilcox  steam  engine,  565  ;  economy 
of,  566  ;  arrangement  of,  567-8  ;  boiler  of,  571. 

Babcock,  Alpheus,  320. 

Bacon,  Roger,  706. 

Bailey,  Timothy,  196. 

Balloon  framing,  40. 

Baltimore,  Architectural  Iron  Works  at,  576. 

Baltimore  clippers,  102. 

Bank  of  England,  1085-91 ;  monopoly  of,  1088. 

Bank  of  the  U.  S.,  1091-92. 

Bank-note  engraving  (article),  583;  processes  of, 
585. 

Bank-notes,  European  and  American,  583  ;  U. 
S.  Treas.  and  Nat.  Bank,  586. 

Banks  and  Banking  (article),  1079  ;  early  Euro¬ 
pean,  1m81-2  ;  English,  1082;  by  goldsmiths, 
108i;  in  U.  S.,  generally,  1092-8  ;  during  the 
rebellion,  1094  ;  present  national,  1094-8  ;  early 
in  U  S.,  1165;  financial  crisis,  1165;  New 
York  system,  1165;  national,  1166-7  ;  circu¬ 
lation  of,  1167. 

Barberini  Vase,  828. 

Barker '8  Mill,  163. 

Barr,  A.  and  R-,  1129. 

Bartlett  ore,  for  zinc  paint,  1068. 

Bartlett,  Robbins  &  Co.,  Architectural  Iron 
Works  of,  576  ;  heating  apparatus,  578  ;  foun¬ 
dries  and  works,  578. 

Bashan,  ancient  cities  of,  548. 

Bayeux  Tapestry,  836-7. 

Beams,  iron,  574. 

Beard,  Thomas,  1252. 

Beauvais  carpets,  837. 

Beck,  Paul,  shot-tower,  655. 

Beds  (article),  501 ;  history  of,  502  ;  Queen  Eliz¬ 
abeth's,  502;  construction  of,  503;  feather, 
evils  of  503  ;  woven  and  wire  mattress,  504. 

Beecher,  A.  &  Sons,  1225-6. 

(1293) 


\ 


1294 


INDEX. 


Beecher,  II.  TV.,  and  paper  collars,  1146;  and 

Sapolio,  6S3. 

Beer,  antiquity  of,  898  ;  German  love  of,  898  ; 
Chinese,  of  rice,  899  ;  with  Saxons  and  Danes, 
900  ;  in  England,  900. 

Beet-sugar,  260. 

Belgium,  glass-making,  892;  Railroad  system, 
1026. 

Boll,  Rev.  P.,  reaper  of,  336-40. 

Bells  (article),  405  ;  history  of,  405  ;  baptism  of 
406 ;  in  poetry,  407-8  ;  electrical,  409  ;  mu¬ 
sical,  409  ;  large  ones,  410  ;  in  Moscow,  410 ; 
Chinese,  411 ;  weight  of,  411 ;  in  U.  S.,  412 ; 
making,  413-14  ;  of  steel,  413  ;  metal  for,  413  ; 
inscriptions  on,  415-18. 

Bentham,  Gen.,  370. 

Benzoin,  988. 

Bernot,  E.,  file  machine,  453. 

Berry  Bros.,  Varnish  works,  990. 

Eerthoud  on  clocks,  1140 

Bessemer  iron,  qualities,  940-1;  process,  938; 

steel,  848. 

Bible,  soap  of,  675. 

Biddis,  J.,  potato-starch  patent,  423. 

Bigelow,  E.  B.,  carpet  loom,  838 ;  wool- weaving 
patents,  918. 

Billiard  Tables  (article),  390  ;  Phelan  &  Collen- 
der's  works,  399. 

Billiards,  popularity  of,  390  ;  history  of,  395. 
Bills  of  mortality,  865. 

Bituminous  coal,  477. 

Black  lead,  729  ;  artificial ,729  ;  where  found,  730. 
Black  walnut  furniture,  1102.  ‘ 

Blanchard,  T.,  700. 

Blanchard,  nail  machine,  1074  • 

Bleaching  calico,  526. ^ 

Bog  iron  ore,  35o. 

Boiler,  Babcock  &  Wilcox’s,  571 ;  details  of  econ¬ 
omy  of,  571-3. 

Boiler-plates,  rolling,  959. 

Boilers,  purifying  water  for,  82. 

Bolt  cutter,  Wood,  Light  &  Co.’s,  68{fc 
Bombshell,  Stevens  elongated,  606. 

Bonnets,  straw,  781. 

Bookbinding,  early,  181-2  ;  first  American,  183  ; 
processes  of,  184. 

Books,  manufacture  of  (article),  181. 

Boot  sewing  machine,  819. 

Borrowdale  mine,  729. 

Boston  Watch  Company,  78. 

Bottcher,  invents  porcelain,  830 
Bottle,  cost  §30,000,  897. 

Boxwood,  for  engraving,  483  ;  for  rules,  739-40.J 
Boyce,  J.,  patent  reaper,  335. 

Boyden,  U.  A  ,  167. 

Bradford,  Wm.,  204. 

braiding  machines,  799.  • 

Braithwaite,  steam  fire-engines,  269.  841. 

Bramah  lock,  1011-12. 

Branca 's  steam  wheel,  611. 

Brandy  of  corn,  899. 

Brass,  Rolled  Sheet  (article),  1045  ;  discovery, 
1045;  inedera  improvements,  1046;  Waterbury 
manufacture,  1047  ;  processes,  1048. 
Breast-wheels,  162. 

Brick,  brick  houses,  36. 

Bridges,  Edmund,  1251. 

Bridges,  iron  first  used  for,  574. 

Briggs,  Samuel,  857. 

Brigham,  D.,  715. 

Brisbane,  A.,  newmethodof  transportation,  882. 
Bristles,  scarcity  of,  278. " 

Britannia  ware  (article),  852. 

British  manufactures,  advantages  over  Ameri¬ 
can,  872 

Broad  and  Narrow  Gauge  R.  R.  cars  (article), 
618. 

Brockedon,  Mr., 729. 


Bromine  in  photography,  315. 

Bronze  statuary,  385. 

Broom -com,  746. 

Brooms  (article),  745;  making,  746;  value  of 
product,  747. 

Brush  manufacture  (article),  277. 

Brushes,  anciently  unknown,  278 ;  materials 
for,  279  ;  processes  of  making,  279. 

Bucket  wheels,  160. 

Building.  See  Architectural  Iron  Work. 
Building,  advantages  of  iron  for,  636. 

Burden,  H.,  horse-shoe  machine,  297- 
Burglar,  qualifications  of,  1011. 

Burke,  P.  B.,  714. 

Burleson,  A.  B.,  1137.  ^ 

Burr,  J.  B.  &  Hyde,  191. 

Button,  L.,  fire  eng’ne  inventions,  845. 

Button  engine  works,  845. 

Button  engines,  merits  of,  847-8. 

Buttons  and  their  manufacture  (article),  1182  ; 
•ancient  substitutes,  1183  ;  materials  of,  1183  ; 
collections  of,  1183 ;  varieties,  1184 ;  making, 
1184. 

Butts,  of  American  Spiral  Spring  Butt  Co.,  549. 


C.  0.  D.,716. 

Cabinet  and  Parlor  Organs  (article),  109  ;  32,000 
sold  in  1870, 112. 

Calamine  stone.  1045. 

Calico,  orig’n  of,  523. 

Calico-printing  (article),  623  ;  in  England.  525  ; 
prohibited,  525  ;  in  the  U.  S  ,  526,  details  of 
process,  526  ;  cylinder  in,  530. 

California,  gold  from,  749  ;  quicksilver  in,  704  ; 
wheat,  994 

Calliopes  (article),  651. 

Calking  ships,  106. 

Carioric  engine,  598. 

Calumet,  241. 

Camphene,  978. 

Candy  (article!,  247. 

Cannon.  See  Artillery,  600  ;  first  cast  in  Er  g- 
land,  351. 

Caoutchouc  (article),  971. 

Carbonate  of  soda  and  steel,  942. 

Carbonic  acid  gas,  and  steel,  942. 

Card  clothing  (article),  646. 

Cards  (for  cotton  and  wool),  646  ;  American  in¬ 
ventions,  647  ;  processes  of  making,  649-50. 

Carhart,  J.,  improved  organs,  113. 

Carlisle  life  tables,  866. 

Carolina,  silk  culture  in,  543. 

Carpets  (article),  834 ;  Eastern  use  of,  834-6 ; 
ancient,  835;  substitutes  in  Englaud,  836; 
first  English  manuf.,  837  ;  first  French  mauuf. , 
837  ;  in  U.  S  ,  838  ;  rag,  838  ;  straw,  839  ; 
Bigelow,  E.  B  ,  loom,  832. 

Carr,  E.  W.,  857. 

Carriage  axles  and  springs  (article),  1272  ;  man¬ 
ufacture  in  U.  S  ,  1273  ;  materials  used,  1274  ; 
process  of  manufacture,  1275. 

Carriage-building  (article),  803. 

Carriages,  history  of  ,  8(  3-4  ;  ancient  German, 
804;  excellence  c Ir  American,  805  ;  Wm.  D. 
Rogers  &  Co  ,805  ;  lumber  supply,  806  ;  mak¬ 
ing,  806-9:  care  in  painting,  809. 

Cars,  Railroad  (article),  618. 

Cartridge,  first  metallic,  559. 

Case,  Lockwood  &  Brainard,  188. 

Cast  iron,  first  in  U.  8.,  358;  welding,  362;  R. 
Wood  &  Co.'s,  work  in,  384  ;  first,  351  ;  fol 
houses,  first  in  N.  Y.,  575  ;  steel  Drum,  938. 

Casting  chilled  rolls,  957-9. 

Caswell,  E.  S.,  1077. 

Cattle,  early  co’onial,  41. 

<  aulking  ships,  106. 

Caus,  Solomon  de,  511. 


INDEX. 


1295 


Cedar,  for  pencils,  734. 

Cementation,  935. 

Censuses,  864. 

Chain-stitch,  50. 

Chairs,  aucient,  1099  ;  American,  1103. 
Challenge  with  glove,  657. 

Chandelier  made,  313. 

Chapman,  M.,  232. 

Charcoal,  for  powder,  707. 

Chariots,  in  Solomon's  time,  1272. 
Charlemagne’s  post  office,  1117. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  1243. 

Cheese  manufacture  (article),  951 ;  origin  and 
growth  of,  951 ;  apparatus  and  process,  952  ; 
dangers  of,  954  ;  quantity  made,  954-5. 
Chemical  manufactures  (article),  1104. 
Chemistry,  in  photography,  877. 

Chevreul,  labors  on  fats  and  oils,  677. 

Chicago  Academy,  1107. 

Chicago  fire,  1156. 


Chilled  Rolls  and  Rolling  Machinery  (article), 
956  ,  making,  957-9. 

Chimes.  412-16. 

China,  beer  and  brandy  in,  898-900  ;  bells,  411 ; 
fire-works,  641;  porcelain,  828;  smoking, 
241-2 ;  engraving,  487 ;  fish  culture,  1200-; 
gunpowder,  705  ;  priuting,  58. 

China-blue  calico,  532. 

Chouteau  Bros.,  fur  trade,  638. 

Chromo-lifhography,  172. 

Church  organs  (article),  1173. 

Cigars,  making,  243. 

Cigars  and  tobacco  (article),  239. 

Cincinnati,  rapid  growth  of,  925  ;  steam  fire  en¬ 
gines,  841. 

Cinnabar,  761.  . 


Clearing  house  for  banks,  1094. 

Clepsydra,  74. 

Cleveland,  rapid  growth  of,  926. 

Clinton,  E.,  282. 

Clinton  &  Co.,  brush  factory,  281. 

Clipper  mower,  344. 

Clipper  Mower  and  Reaper  Co.,  344. 

Clippers,  102. 

Clock,  origin  of,  76. 

Clocks  (article),  1138  ;  first  referred  to  by  Dante, 
1139  ;  of  Strasburg,  1 139 ;  other  famous  ciocks, 
1139-40  ;  Berthoud  on  history  of,  1140 ;  English 
and  French  make,  1141  ;  Connecticut  wooden, 
1141 ;  Jerome’s  brass,  1142. 

Clothes,  sewing  thought  wrong,  607  ;  history  of, 
607. 

Clothing.  See  Linen  Collars,  etc  ;  (article),  607. 

Clothing  (article),  587  ;  home-made,  587  ;  history 
of  making,  583  ;  ready-made,  688-90 ;  second¬ 
hand.  588  ,  wholesale,  591  ;  felt  seamless,  591 ; 
wholesale,  business  how  done,  592  ;  Macullar, 
Williams  &  Parker,  592. 

Cluett,  Geo  B  &  Brother,  collar  and  cuff  busi¬ 
ness,  609-17.  * 

Clymer’s  Press,  71. 

Coach  lace  looms,  800. 

Cod  (article),  475  ;  Newcastle,  ancient  use  of, 
475 ;  internal  improvements  from,  477  ;  min¬ 
ing,  477  ;  anthracite,  in  iron  smelting,  352  ; 
for  gas,  786  9. 

Coes,  A.  O.  &  Co  ,  wrenches,  906  ;  works  of,  910. 

Coining  of  money  (article),  151. 

Coins,  U  S  Mint  collection,  155.  ^ 

Collars,  linen  (article),  607. 

Collars,  paper,  1144  ;  Ray  &  Taylor’s  manufac- 
tory,  1145  ;  making,  1145;  names  of  styles, 


Collection  by  express,  716. 

Collins,  Sam.  W.,  127. 

Collins  &  Co.,  axe  factory,  124-147 ;  plow  busi¬ 
ness,  133 ;  trade-mark,  142. 

Collinsville,  127. 

Collodion  in  photography,  876. 

Columbian  press,  71. 

Combs,  ancients  used,  278. 

Combs  (article),  1179  ;  materials  for,  1180  ;  first 
patent  in  U.  S.,  1180 ;  leaden,  1180  ;  India- 
rubber  and  ivory,  1181. 

Composition  (printing),  64. 

Comstock  vein,  1000-3  ;  yield  of,  1003-5. 
Condensed  milk,  invented,  666. 

Confectionery,  (article),  247;  Ridley  &  Co.'s, 
251-7 ;  healthful  if  pure,  250 ;  materials  used 
in,  253  ;  processes,  254. 

Congreve  rockets,  644. 

Connecticut,  copper,  480  ;  silk  culture,  543. 
Connecticut  clocks,  1141. 

Connecticut  River  water  power,  1194. 
Considerant,  V.,  paper  money  scheme,  1169. 
Conte,  M.,  729. 

Cooking  stoves,  443. 


Copal  gum,  986-8. 

Copal  varnish,  989. 

Copper  (article),  479  ;  mining  in  U.  S.,  479  ;  in 
Conn.,  480  ;  Lake  Superior, 480  ;  mode  of, 482. 
Copper  and  steel  engraving  (article),  4S7. 
Coppering  ships,  106. 

Copper-plate,  oldest,  488. 

Cordage  (article).  285  ;  American  manuf.,  285  ; 

old  and  recent  processes,  286-7  ;  of  wire,  288. 
Corliss,  George  II.,  steam  inventions,  515  ;  sketch, 
622. 

Corliss  steam  engine,  1148. 

Corliss  Steam  Engine  Co.,  519,  725  ;  their  works, 
520. 

Corn-starch,  manufactories  in  U.  S.,  423. 
Cornelius,  £.,  315. 

Cornelius,  K.,  315. 

Cornelius  &  Sons,  gas  fixture  works,  308. 
Cornell  University  chimes,  416. 

Cort,  H.,  352. 

Costume  (silk  dress  goods),  770. 

Cotton  crop,  used  and  exported,  970. 

Cotton,  culture,  966;  processes  of  manufacture, 
967-70 ;  patents  for  making,  968-70. 

Cotton  fabrics,  ancient,  965  ;  oriental,  965. 
Cotton  Manufacture  (article),  964. 

Cotton  manufacture,  importance  to  England, 
964. 

Cotton  thread  (article),  1126 ;  of  Willimantic 
Linen  Co.,  1130  ;  machines,  1133-5. 

Coulter,  revolving,  140. 

Courtney,  II.  B.,  1226. 

Cradles  for  grain,  697. 

Crispin  Organization,  1261. 

Crittenden,  carding  invention,  647. 

Crompton,  George,  723 ;  inventions  of,  724.  \ 
Crompton,  S.,  473,  1128. 

Crompton.  S.,  mule,  969, 

Crompton  Loom  Works,  722. 

Crosby,  Dr  C.  0.,  fish-hook  machine,  814  ;  nee¬ 
dle  machine.  815 ;  other  inventions,  816-19; 
sketch  of,  816-19. 

Crystal  Palace,  N.  Y.,  burning  of,  262. 

Ctesibius,  inventor,  111,  1155. 

Cuffs,  linen  (article),  607. 

Cumberland  lead,  729. 

Cunio,  engravers,  483. 

Curfew  bell,  406. 

Curtains  (article),  289 ;  in  Moses’  tabernacle,  290  ; 
Putnam’s  self-adjusting  fixture,  292 ;  Putnam's 
improvements,  292-3. 

Curtis,  Samuel,  77. 


1296 


INDEX. 


Cutlery  (article),  229. 

Cyanogen  in  making  steel,  941-2. 
Cylinder  Presses,  71. 


Daguerre,  Daguerreotype,  875. 

Dagyr,  John  Adam,  1252. 

Dahlgren,  J.  A.,  and  his  guns,  604. 

Damascus  steel,  933  :  for  guns,  561. 

Dammar,  988. 

Decoration ,  instinct  for,  435 
Delaware  Car  Works,  621.  • 

Delft  ware,  829. 

Dennison,  A.  L.,  77. 

Derringer  pistols,  559. 

Desiccation  of  fruits,  etc.  (article),  664. 

Detmold,  C.  E.,  smelting  invention,  353. 
Dinsmore,  Wm.  B.,  715. 

Discrimination  in  taxes,  869. 

Disston,  H.,  biography,  376  ;  invention  for  saws, 
365. 

Disston,  II.  &  Son,  365-76. 

Distaff,  1127. 

Division  of  labor,  141. 

Domestic  industry,  modem  inventions  in  (arti¬ 
cle),  920. 

Doors,  ancient,  547. 

Double-chain  stitch,  50. 

Double  milling  machine,  Wood,  Light  &  Co.’s, 

686. 

Dow,  P.,  and  D.  Treadwell,  857. 

Dresden  China,  830. 

Dress.  See  Linen  Collars,  etc.  (article),  607. 
Dress  (silk  dress  goods),  770. 

Dress,  distinctions  of,  1182  ;  fastenings  of,  1183. 
Dryer  in  varnish,  989. 

Drying  fruits,  etc.,  by  Alden  Process,  664 ;  how 
effected,  668. 

Dudley,  Lord,  iron  patent,  351. 

Duel,  glove  in,  657. 

Duncan,  J.,  embroidering,  920. 

Dupont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  gunpowder,  710. 
Durand,  A.  B.,  49U.  # 

Dutton,  R.,  mower  of,  344. 


Earthenware,  37. 

Eating,  ancient  manners,  852-3. 

Eaton,  A.  K.,  alumina  safes,  1011  ;  cyanogen 
steel,  941-2  ;  carbonate  of  soda  process,  942. 

Eclipse  Turbine  Wheel,  167. 

Economy,  anecdote  on,  283. 

Education  (article),  217. 

Egypt,  ancient,  iron  in,  350;  locks  and  keys, 
1008  ;  looms,  721  ;  mirrors,  766;  pottery,  826; 
glass,  889  ;  furniture,  1099  ;  pumps,  466  ;  en¬ 
graving  in,  487  ;  calico-printing,  524  ;  hinges, 
547  ;  surgery,  426. 

Electrical  bells,  409. 

Electrophorus,  315. 

Electrot  v  ping,  179. 

Elemi,  987. 

Elephants,  enjoy  decoration,  4S5. 

Elevators  (hoisting  machinery),  1058. 

Elevators,  wheel,  996. 

Eliot,  Rev.  Jared,  544. 

Elm  City  Ruffle  Co., 817. 

Embroidering  by  machine,  920  ;  in  Bible,  922. 

Enamel,  893-5. 

England,  ancient  iron  mines,  350  ;  iron  manu¬ 
facture  in,  351 ;  prohibits  iron  works  in  Amer¬ 
ica,  359,  1047;  forbids  artificers  to  emigrate, 
361 ;  prohibited  American  hat-making,  778  ; 
railroad  system,  1028  ;  prohibits  nail-making  in 
America,  1073. 

Engraving,  tools  and  process,  488;  on  steel, 
490  ;  liue,  491 ;  printing,  491 ;  aquatint,  492  ; 
on  glass,  492. 

Engraving,  bank  note  (article),  583. 


Engraving  on  wood  (article),  483 ;  on  steel  and 
copper  (article),  487  ;  invention  of,  487  ;  mez¬ 
zotint,  488. 

Envelopes,  tint  blocks  for,  1271. 

Eprouvette,  709. 

Ericsson,  .T.,  597  ;  file  machine,  453- 

Ermine,  639. 

Etching,  488-9. 

Evans,  Oliver,  514 ;  carding,  647 ;  steamboat 
inventor,  89. 

Exchange  business,  1083-4. 

Express  business  (article),  713  ;  rise  and  course 
of,  714-15 ;  capital  in,  715  ;  collecting  business, 
716 ;  railroad  arrangements,  716 ;  danger 
from  robbers,  716  ;  business  methods,  717  ;  aid 
to  army,  in  rebellion,  717-18  ;  relations  to  the 
public,  718. 


Faber,  lead  pencils,  729. 

Faber  du  Four,  hot  blast,  352. 

Fairfield,  George,  52. 

Fales,  Jenks  &  Sons,  pumps,  468  ;  thread  ma¬ 
chinery,  474. 

Fancy  loom  making  (article),  721 ;  nature  of 
fancy  loom,  726 

Farm,  G.  F.  Wilson’s  .at  Seekonk,  1109-13. 

Farming  See  Agricultural,  Agriculture,  Plows, 
Reaper  and  Mower. 

Farrel,  Almon  and  Franklin,  960-63. 

Farrel  Foundry  and  Machine  Co.,  (chilled  rolls) 
956 ;  work  of,  959-60 ;  account  of,  960-63- 

Faust,  John,  59. 

Featherbeds,  evil  of,  603. 

Felt  seamless  clothing,  591. 

Felting,  for  hats,  779. 

Fermented  Liquors  (article  by  John  B  Gough), 
898. 

Ferrotypes,  880. 

Ferrules,  697. 

Field,  Albert,  1078. 

Field,  A.  &  .Sons,  nail-works.  1074-77. 

Files  (article),  445;  antiquity  of,  446 ;  descrip¬ 
tions  of,  447;  process  of  making,  449  :  machine 
made,  453 

Finiguerra,  M.,  487- 

Fire  apparatus,  Allen's,  270-6. 

Fire-arms  (article),  555;  Forehand  &  Wads¬ 
worth's.  555-62. 

Fire-arms,  Breeeh-londincr  (article),  812  ;  E.  Rem¬ 
ington  &  Sons  ,  813  19,  compared,  814. 

Fire  Department  Supplies  (article),  261. 

Fire  Engine,  Button's  inventions,  815;  oiano, 
845  ;  number  made  and  used,  846. 

Fire  engine,  steam,  269  ;  (article),  840. 

Fire  engines,  1156  ;  early,  261-5 ;  modern,  first, 
265-6. 

Fire  insurance  (article),  1151  ;  in  U.  S  ,  before 
Revolution.  1151 ;  speculative  nature  of,  1152  ; 
large  investments  in,  1152 ;  state  government 
departments  for,  1153 ;  national  proposed, 
1154. 

Fire  pumps  (article),  465.  ' 

Fires,  liability  to,  262  ;  Roman  sipho  for,  263  ; 
in  ancient  Rome,  263  ;  in  15th  and  16th  cen¬ 
turies,  264  ;  lasses  by,  1155-6  ;  Paris  manage¬ 
ment,  269  ;  London  do.,  269. 

Fireworks  (article),  641 ;  materials  of,  644. 

Fish,  fecundity  of,  1203 ;  as  food,  1198  ;  supply, 
how  preserved,  1199. 

Fish  culture  (article),  1198  ;  ancient,  1199  ;  re¬ 
discovered  by  l’kichon,  1201 ;  by  Jacobi,  1201  ; 
developed  by  Remy  and  Gehin,  1201  ;  French, 
1201  .  Scotch  and  Irish,  1202 ;  modes  of,  1202  , 
profits  of,  1203 ;  state  action  for,  1206. 

Fish  glue,  209. 


INDEX. 


1297 


Fitch,  J.,  steamboat  of,  90-3 ;  and  Foimsey, 
priority  of,  91. 

Fitzherbert  on  sheep,  333. 

Flags,  demand  for,  801. 

Flax  in  Virginia,  29. 

Florence,  Mass.,  twist  made  at,  545. 

Flour,  manufacture  (article),  994  ;  crops  of  vari¬ 
ous  localities,  995  ;  test  of  best,  998  ;  inspec¬ 
tion  and  branding,  998. 

Foaming  prevented,  in  boilers,  572. 

Force  pumps,  467. 

Forehand  &  Wadsworth’s  fire-arms,  555-62. 

Forks,  for  hay,  etc.,  696  ;  making,  697. 

F’oundingof  chilled  rolls,  957-9. 

F’oundry  of  Bartlett,  Robbins  &  Co.,  581. 

Fountain  pen,  457. 

F'ourdrinier  machine,  204,  207-8. 

Fourneyron,  B.,  164. 

France,  fish  culture  in, 1202  ;  furniture  from,  1102. 

Franklin,  B.,  and  paper  mills,  205  ;  postmaster, 
1121. 

Franklin  stoves,  442. 

Freestone,  1291. 

French,  succeed  with  savages,  635. 

French  &  Hawkins,  reaper,  338. 

F'ruit,etc.,  Alden  processes  for,  664  ;  ripened  by 
same,  669  ;  softness  of,  in  same,  671. 

Fulling  or  belting  woolen,  917. 

Fulton,  R.,  steamboat  of,  92;  torpedoes,  606. 

Fur,  in  hat  making,  779 

Fur  and  Fur  trade  (article),  633. 

F’ur,  as  clothing,  1 33  ;  use  of  costly,  634  ;  history 
of  trade  in,  634  ;  American  trade,  634  ;  best, 
639  :  kinds  of,  639-40. 

Fur  Trade,  French  in,  635  ;  French  and  English 
compete  in,  636  ,  in  U.  S.,638. 

Furniture  (article),  1099  ;  ancient,  1099  :«mediae- 
val,  llOO ;  of  time  of  Louis  XIV  and  XV,  1101 ; 
in  U.  S.,  1102;  mahogany,  native  woods, 
1101  3. 


Gale,  Lorenzo  D. ,  1243. 

Galena  (lead  ore),  1065. 

Galileo,  467. 

Garay,  Blasco  de,  511. 

Gas,  extent  of  use,  789;  capital  invested,  790; 
monopoly  in,  790-1. 

Gas,  illuminating,  (article),  784  ;  firstuse  of,  784 ; 
in  U.  S.,  785;  constituents,  785  ;  making,  786. 

Gas  fixtures  and  lamps  (article),  307  ;  processes 
of  making,  310. 

Gas  and  water  pipes  (article),  1207  ;  process  of 
making,  1208-9. 

Gatling  gun  (article),  944  ;  history  of  invention, 
944  ;  construction,  946  ;  operation,  946. 

Gatling,  R.  J.,  Dr.  944-9;  inventions  of,  949-50. 

Gay  &  Co  ,  express,  715. 

Gear,  heavy,  521. 

Ged,  Wm.,  175. 

Geisenhainer,  F.  W.,  hot  blast,  363. 

Georgia,  silk  culture  in,  543. 

German  silver,  1052. 

Gillott,  J.,  pens,  457. 

Gilman  &  Townseud,  707.  -  < 

Gladstone,  reaper  patent,  335. 

Glass  (article),  889 ;  among  ancients,  889-90 ; 
Venetian,  891  ;  in  England,  891  ;  in  Belgium, 
892;  defined,  892;  kinds,  893-4;  devitrified, 
893 ;  qualities  of  kinds,  893 ;  early  making  in 
U.  S.,  895-6. 

Glass,  engraving  on,  492. 

Glass  negatives  for  photographs  876. 

Gloves  (article),  656  ;  in  making  contracts,  656  ; 
ancient  and  mediaeval,  656-7 ;  in  challenging, 
657  ;  materials  for,  658  ;  where  made,  659-60  ; 
costliness  of  early,  658. 

Glucose  in  gum  drops,  248. 


Glue  (article),  209  ;  process  of  making,  210. 

Gobelins,  carpets,  837  ;  tapestry,  461. 

Gold  mining  (article),  748. 

Gold,  product  in  U.  S.  to  1867,  748  ;  from  Cali¬ 
fornia,  total,  749  ;  discovery  in  Peru,  749 ;  ge¬ 
ology  of,  750  ;  mining  for,  750  ;  panning  and 
washing,  751 ;  amalgamating,  752  ;  sluicing, 
752 ;  rocker,  751-2  ;  hydraulic  mining,  756  ; 
quartz  mining,  756 ;  stamping  mill,  757 ;  Platt- 
ner  process,  758  ;  yield  in  California  mining, 
759  ;  mode  of  consumption,  760. 

Gold  and  silver,  coining,  151. 

Golding,  E  ,  and  silk  culture,  544. 

Goldsmiths,  as  bankers,  1083-5. 

Goodrich,  W.  M.,  1177. 

Goodyear’s  patents,  974-5. 

Gough,  John  B.,  article  on  fermented  liquors, 
898. 

ould  &  Curry  mine,  1003. 

Granby  coppers,  480. 

Granite,  1290. 

Graphite  (black  lead),  728-9. 

Grass  Valley  gold  mines,  759. 

Greek  fire,  705-6. 

Greeley,  H.,  on  tariff  (article),  868. 

Green  River  Works,  231. 

Greenbacks,  586. 

Greenough,  James,  48. 

Grindstones,  Nova  Scotia,  694. 

Gunpowder  (article),  705 ;  history  of,  705-6 ; 
making,  707-9  ;  testing,  709 ;  force  of,  709  ; 
making  in  America,  709  ; 

Guttemberg,  59, 1265. 

Hadley  Falls  Co. ,  1194  ;  dam  of,  1195-6 ;  water¬ 
power  of,  1196. 

Hair  cloth  (article),  630  ;  manufacture  in  U.  S., 
630  ;  Lindsley’s  loom  for,  631 ;  processes.  631. 

Hall,  Joseph  L.,  1016. 

Hall  Safe  &  Lock  Co.,  1012-16. 

Halley’s  life  tables,  865. 

Hamilton,  A.,  361. 

Hamlin,  E. ,  improved  reed  organs,  113. 

Hammond,  Andrew,  1134. 

II  mdles,  698. 

Hansards,  Hanseatic  League,  634. 

Hard  water,  what,  82-3. 

Hargreaves,  J.,  473,  968, 1127. 

Ilarnden,  Wm.  F.,  and  express,  714. 

Hartford,  Woven  Wire  Mattresses  at,  504. 

Hats,  (article),  776;  care  for,  777 ;  American 
manufacture,  777  ;  same,  England  prohibited, 
778 ;  in  U.  S.,  value,  779  ;  making,  779  ;  fur, 
silk  and  straw,  780  ;  Panama,  780  ;  palm  leaf, 
782;  H.  A.  Wells’  patent,  782  ;  effect  of  tariff 
on, 783  ; 

Havens,  Mr.,  gas  purifying,  787-8. 

Hayden,  Joel,  1185. 

Hazard  Powder  Co.,  711. 

Ilazzard,  E.,  and  J.  White,  857. 

Heat  in  making  steam,  509. 

Heating  apparatus  of  Bartlett,  Robbins  &  Co.. 
578  1 

Heath,  steel  making,  937. 

llecht  Bros.,  lead  pencils  730. 

Hemp,  growth  in  U.  S.,  285. 

Henchman,  D.,  205-6. 

Henry,  Joseph,  1244. 

Hero,  of  Alexandria,  510. 

High  pressure  engine,  first,  514. 

Hill,  R  ,  and  cheap  postage,  1119. 

Hinges  (article),  647 ;  ancient,  547 ;  moden 
patent,  549  ,  of  American  Spiral  Spring  JButt 
Co.,  549. 

Hobbs,  picks  English  locks,  1012. 

Hodges,  steam  fire  engine,  269,  841. 

Ilodgkiason,  on  strength  of  beams,  574, 


1298 


INDEX. 


Hoe's  Press,  72. 

Hoes,  making,  695  ;  socket  hoes,  shank  hoes,  eye 

hoes,  696. 

Hoisting  machinery  (article),  1055  ;  requisites  for 
safety,  1058-61 ;  Otis,  Bros.  &  Co.’s  works,  1058. 

Holyoke  Water  Power  Co.,  1194-6. 

Holyoke,  town  of,  1197. 

Hooks  and  Eyes  (article),  1284. 

Hope  Iron  Works,  565. 

Uorstmann,  W.  H.,  793. 

Uorstmann  &  Sous,  textile  fabrics  (article),  792  ; 
extent  of  works,  794 ;  account  of  establish¬ 
ment,  794 ;  sales-rooms,  800-1. 

Horse-hair,  for  hair  cloth,  630. 

Horse-shoe  nails  (article),  295  ;  machine  for,  298  ; 
opposition  to  new  kind,  298  ;  importance  of 
good,  301.  4 

Horse  shoes,  ancient,  295-6  ;  Borden’s  machine, 
297. 

Horsford,  Prof.  E.  N.,  1106. 

Horsford  &  Wilson’s  chemical  manufactory,  1105. 

Hose  (stockings),  193. 

Hose,  fire  (article),  1155  ;  early  invention,  1155  ; 
first  practical,  1156  ;  importance  for  fire  en¬ 
gines,  1157 ;  in  hotels,  manufactories,  &c., 
I1 57  ;  N.  E.  Linen  Hose  Manuf.  Co.,  1158. 

Hot  blast  furnace,  352. 

Hot  water  for  warming  houses,  578. 

Hotels  (article),  1186  ;  old  fashioned,  1186  ;  mod¬ 
ern,  1187;  American,  1187-90;  European 
plan,  1188. 

Hour-glass,  75. 

JJ^use-building  in  American  colonies,  34  ;  brick, 
36  ;  early  colonial,  38  ;  improved,  40. 

Houses,  ancient  and  modern,  1070 ;  iron  for,  574. 

Howard,  Edward,  77-8. 

Howard,  E.  &  Co.,  81. 

Howe,  Elias,  Jr.,  48,  1255. 

Howe,  Dr.  J.  I.,  and  pin  machine,  1287. 

Howland,  B.  J.,  on  railroads,  1023. 

Hudson’s  Bay  Company,  639. 

Huningue,  fish  culture  at,  1202. 

Hunt,  Walter,  invented  paper  collars,  1145. 

Hunter’s  screw,  856. 

Hussey,  O.,  reaper,  338. 

Hydrants,  470. 

(Hydraulic  mining  for  gold,  756  ;  hose  in,  1157. 

hydraulic  water  power  (article),  1191. 


Ice  trade  (article),  156. 

Ice,  machine  made,  158. 

Idria,  quicksilver  mines,  763. 

Illuminating  Gas  (article),  784. 

Implements,  agricultural  (article)  693. 

India,  calico  printing  in, *524. 

India  Rubber  (article),  971  ;  trees  affording,  971  ; 
collection  of,  972  ;  chemical  analysis  of,  973  ; 
process  of  manufacture,  973 ;  elastic  cloths, 
974  ;  vulcanizing,  974  ;  extent  of  use,  975  ;  in 
fire  hose,  1159. 

Indicator  diagrams,  565. 

Industry  in  U.  S.,  history,  25  ;  in  Revolution, 
3G(J  ;  effects  of  imports  on,  360  ;  Hamilton's 
services  to,  361. 

Inclinometer,  744.  % 

Indian  corn,  starch  from,  423. 

Ink,  printing.  459. 

Insurance.  See  Fire  Insurance,  1151.  See  Life 
Insurance,  860  ;  origin  of,  861,  1151. 

Inventions  in  domestic  industry  (article),  920. 

Intemperance  a  sin,  904. 

Iron.  t  See  Wire  rope,  288  ;  in  piano-forte,  324  ; 
in  Virginia,  29  ;  in  building,  40  ;  ships  of,  107. 

Iron  (article),  349  ;  history  of  use  of,  349  ;  early 
mines  in  Europe,  351 ;  cast,  first,  351 ;  ores  of, 
353  ;  making  in  U.  8.,  354  ;  foundry,  first  in 
U.  «.,  358 ;  re-established  in  U.  S.,  359  ;  use¬ 
fulness  and  value,  379-81 ;  in  ornament,  382  ; 


in  architecture,  383 ;  architecture  (article), 
574  ;  first  used  for  bridges.  674  ;  for  houses 
and  ships,  574  ;  beams  of,  574  ;  first  houses  of 
in  N.  Y.,  575  ;  supposed  sinfulness  of  build¬ 
ings,  575  ;  advantages  in  building,  576 ;  statues 
of,  577 ;  development  of  use  of,  6S4  ;  Wood, 
Light  &  Co.’s  lathe,  689;  planing,  Warren's 
machines,  690  ;  Swedish,  used  by  Auburn 
Manuf.  Co.,  694  ;  water-pipes,  1207 : 

Iron-clad  ships,  108. 

Iron-clad  ships  (article),  697. 

Ironwork,  ornamental  (article),  379. 

Iron  working  machinery  (article),  684,  Wood, 
Light  &  Co.’s  works,  685. 

Isinglass,  209-10. 

Italians,  fireworks,  642. 

Ivoride,  235-6. 

Ivory,  combs,  1181 ;  veneers,  215- 


Jackson,  Gen.,  on  protection,  870. 

Jackson  &  Sharp  Co.,  works,  621 ;  arrangement 
of,  625. 

Jacquard  Looms,  799. 

Jefferson,  J.,  improved  plow,  135. 

Jenny,  Arkwright’s,  968. 

Jerome,  C.,  one  day  clocks,  1142. 

Jewel,  derivation  of  word,  437. 

Jewelry  (article),  435’;  extent  of  love  of,  436-7  ; 
ancient  and  oriental,  437  ,  in  U.  S.,  43<  ,  man¬ 
ufacture  of,  433. 

Job  Printing,  67. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  against  fire-works,  645. 

Johonnot’s  school-houses,  fire- works,  222. 

Joyce,  J.  0.,  167. 


Kaolin,  832. 

Kellogg,  Edward,  monetary  system,  1171. 
Kertland,  Philip,  1251. 

Keystone  Saw,  Tool,  Steel  and  File  Works,  372. 
Knife  making,  235. 

Knitting  machines  (article),  192  ;  first,  194. 
Knives,  for  corn,  etc.,  695. 

Knives  and  forks,  no  ancient,  230. 

KSnig's  Press,  71. 

Koster,  L.,  58. 

Kraekowizer  on  Alden  process,  670. 

Labor  and  amusement,  391. 

Lac, 987. 

Ladies’  shoes  (article),  1250 ;  manufacture  in 
U.  S.,  1251;  styles,  1256;  process  of  manu¬ 
facture,  1257. 

Lager  bier,  911. 

Lake  Superior  copper,  480. 

Lamb,  I.  W.,  199. 

Lamb  Knitting  Machine,  199. 

Lamp,  Cornelius's,  315. 

Lamps  (article),  307  ;  ancient,  307. 

Lasts  (article),  699  ;  requisites  for  making  700  : 
machinery  for,  700-1  ;  material  of,  7UU  ,  mak¬ 
ing,  701. 

Lathe,  for  irregular  forms,  700. 

Lathe  for  shafting,  Wood,  Light  &  Co  'a,  686 
Latta,  A.  B.,  270,  841. 

Launching  ship,  106. 

Law,  Governor,  silk  clothes,  543. 

Lawrence,  Samuel,  723. 

Lawrence,  city,  723. 

Lead  mines  of  LJ.  S.,  1064  ;  smelting,  1065  ;  use* 
of,  1066. 

Lead  pencils  (article),  728 ;  history  of,  728 ; 
grades  of-  733 ;  making  of,  by  Am  Lead  P. 
Co.,  733  ;  kinds,  demand  for  each,  736. 

Lead  pipe,  making  of,  1066. 

Lead,  shot  made  from,  653. 


INDEX. 


1299 


Lead  and  zinc  (article),  1054. 

Leaden  combs.  1180- 

Lee  Win  ,  knitting  machine  of,  104. 

Leg  ray ,  photographer,  875. 

Le.iman  C  492 
Leonard,  II  &  J  ,  358. 

Lewis  History  of  Lynn,  1252. 

L'ilommedieu,  E  ,  857- 

Life  insurance  (article),  860  ;  first  treatise  on,  by 
HeWit.  853-4  ;  life-tables,  855-6  ;  in  the  U.  S., 
866  .  Phoenix  Co.,  of  Hartford,  857 
Lime,  in  purifying  gas,  787-8. 

Lincoln,  bronze  statue  of,  335. 

Lmdsley.  Isaac.  631 
Line  engraving,  491 

Linen  collars  and  cuffs  (article),  607 ;  process  of 
making  610-17 

Linen  fire-hose  (article),  1155  ’,  mode  of  making, 
1158  ,  India-rubber  lining,  1159  ;  testimonials 
^  to.  1159 

Lithographic  stone  in  U  S.,  171. 

Lithography  (article),  170. 

Lithotint.  173 

Livingston,  E  .  and  steamboats,  93-4. 

Lock-stitch.  49 

Locks,  safety  (article)  1007 ;  ancient,  1007  ;  Bra¬ 
mah,  1011  ,  picked,  1012  ;  Chubb’s,  Pyes’, 
Yale's.  1012  ;  Hall  Safe  and  Lock  Co.,  1012-16 
Locomotive,  thought  absurd,  1020 ;  Stephenson’s 
4  Rocket,'  1021  :  first  in  U.  S.,  1023. 

Lombard  Street  bankers.  881. 

London,  great  fire  of,  263  ;  fires  in,  1156 
Looking-glasses  (article)  765 
Loom,  Bigelow's  carpet,  838- 
Looms,  fancy  (article)  721  ,  ancient,  721  ;  Cromp- 
tou  works,  722  ,  Messrs.  Crompton’s  improve¬ 
ments,  723-5  ;  making,  725  ;  fancy  and  com¬ 
mon,  726 :  Jacquard, 799. 

Loop-stitch.  50 

Louisiana,  silk  culture  in,  543. 

Lumber,  American,  35 

Lumber  and  lumbering  (article),  820  ;  forest  life, 
820  ,  river  driving.  822  ;  saw-mills,  823  ;  extent 
of  business,  824-5  ;  where  found,  824-5. 

Machetes,  695. 

Macullar,  Williams  &  Parker,  592  ;  building, 
595,  business,  595. 

Madder  style  ot  calico,  531. 

Madison  on  protection,  869. 

Magnetism,  Pliny  on,  351. 

Mahogany,  1101. 

Mail-coaches,  Palmer’s,  1118. 

Marine  Railway,  Jackson  &  Sharp’s,  626. 
Majolica,  829. 

Manners,  ancient,  in  eating,  852-3. 

Mansfield,  Ct  .  silk  culture  in,  544. 

Mansfield  Silk  Co  ,545. 

Manufactures,  American, need  protection,  871-3  ; 
advantages  of  British,  872 ;  American,  excel¬ 
lence  of  872-3- 

Manufacturing,  law  of  success,  116, 141. 

Maple  sugar,  ‘260- 
Marble,  quarries,  1290. 

Marbliug  iu  book-bindiug,  187. 

Martin,  Eugene,  1053 

Mason  &  Hamlin,  organs,  114;  factories  and 
salesrooms,  115  ;  improvemonts  of,  119  ;  tests 
and  guarantees  of  work,  120. 

Massachusetts,  industrial  history  of,  31  ;  ship¬ 
building,  32  :  iron  mining,  355-9 ;  silk  culture, 
543  ;  glass  making,  896-7. 

Mastic,  987. 

Matches  (article),  1223 ;  first  patent  of,  1225 ; 

manufacture,  1229. 

Mattresses,  how  made,  503. 

Mawhinney,  Samuel,  701 ;  last  manufactories  of, 
7"3-4. 

Mazarine  Bible,  59. 


1  ■ 

McKay  Sewing  Machine,  1255-58. 

Wears,  R.,  reaper  patent,  335. 

Mercury  (article),  761 ;  sources  of  supply,  761, 
763  ;  uses  of,  764  ;  for  mirrors,  769. 

Merrick,  S.,  screw  wrench,  905-7. 

Metals,  for  domestic  utensils,  852. 

Metcalf,  Betsy,  and  straw  bonnets,  781. 

Mezzotint  engraving,  488-92. 

Micrometer  screws,  856. 

Milk,  condensed,  Alden  invents,  666. 

Miller,  E  L  ,  1023. 

Miller  and  Symington’s  steamboat,  92. 

Mining  of  coal,  477  ;  for  gold,  751-60. 

Mining,  silver  (article),  999. 

Mint  at  Phila.,  operations,  151. 

Mints,  1163. 

Mirrors  (article),  765  ;  history  of,  765  ;  ancient 
metallic,  765-6  ;  extravagance  in,  766-7  ;  sat¬ 
ires  on,  767  J  invention  of  glass,  768  ;  making, 
768-9. 

Mitrailleuse,  from  Gatling  gun,  944. 

Money.  See  Banks. 

Money,  ancient  and  modern,  1162  ;  paper,  1163 ; 
government  to  provide,  1171 ;  Considerant’s 
scheme,  1169  ;  Kellogg’s  scheme,  1171 ;  specie 
and  substitutes,  1091. 

Money  and  produce  prices,  873. 

Money  order  system,  1119  ;  in  U.  S.,  1124. 

Monitor,  Ericsson's,  598;  dimensions  and  ar¬ 
rangement,  599-600. 

Monopoly ,  of  Bank  of  England,  1084-90  ;  gas  com* 
panies,  790-1 ;  railroad,  1034-6 ;  steamboat,  95. 

Moore,  Joseph,  Jr.,  806. 

Mordants,  528. 

Morgan’s,  E.,  Sons,  soap  factory,  677  ;  sapolio, 
682  ;  history  of  firm,  683 

Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  and  telegraph,  1233;  as  an  in* 
ventor,  1239-41. 

Moms  multicaulis,  772-3. 

Moscow,  bells  of,  410. 

Mottoes  (candy),  253-5. 

Mowers  and  reapers  (article),  332.  i 

IVIowry  Axle  and  Machine  Co.,  1274. 

"Mowry,  Samuel,  1274.  • 

Music  See  Cabinet,  etc.  organs,  109  ;  increase^ 
love  of,  109. 

Musical  bells,  409. 


Nails  and  tacks  (article),  1069. 

Nails,  antiquity  of,  1069  ;  made  in  England,  1070, 
1071;  first  machines  for,  1072  ;  first  in  U.  S., 
1072  ;  machines  in  U.  S.,  1073-7. 

Napier  Press,  71. 

Narrow-gauge  railroads  (article),  533. 

Narrow  gauge  roads  and  cars  (article),  626;  Mr 
Poor  does  not  name,  626 ;  extent  of  use,  626-7  ; 
details  of  cars,  627  ;  saving  in  expense,  627  ; 
Rosecrans  on,  628 ;  first  in  New  England, 
1115 

Narrow  Textile  Fabrics  (article),  792. 

National  Banks.  1094, 1166. 

National  Button  Co  ,  1184. 

National  Foundry  and  Pipe  Works,  1208-10  ;  hi» 
tory  of  the  firm,  1211. 

Navigation.  See  Ships,  Ship-building. 

Neilson’s  hot  blast,  352. 

Nevada  silver  yield,  1861-5, 1004. 

New  Almaden,  quicksilver,  764. 

Newbold,  C.,  plow  of,  136. 

Newcomen,  Thomas,  512. 

New  England  Linen  Ilose  Manuf.  Co.,  1158. 

New  England  Screw  Co.,  857. 

Newspapers  (article),  1214  ;  published  in  U.  S., 
1222 ;  stereotyped,  179. 

New  York,  banking  system,  1165;  insurance  de¬ 
partment,  1156. 


1200 


INDEX. 


Nicholson’s  Press,  71- 
Nicot,  J.,  239. 

Niepce  and  Daguerre,  875. 
Niles,  N.,  647. 

Nonotuck  Silk  Co.,  545. 
Northwest  Co.,  (furs),  637. 
Nott’s  stoves,  443. 


Ocean  steamer,  first,  99. 

Ogden,  A.,  and  steamboat  monopoly,  95. 

Ogle,  II  ,  reaper  of,  336. 

O’Hara,  Gen.,  and  glass  making,  897. 

Oil  cloth  (article),  661,  839  ;  process  of  making, 
661-3. 

“  Oil  fever,”  304-5. 

Oil  of  turpentine,  989. 

Onondaga  salt  springs,  149. 

Oregon,  lumber  in,  825  ;  wheat,  994. 

Organ,  word,  in  Bible,  1173. 

Organs,  cabinet  and  parlor  (article),  109  ;  origin 
of,  110  ;  details  of  early,  111. 

Organs,  church  (article),  1173;  ancient,  1174  ; 
pedals,  1175  ;  Puritans  destroyed,  1175  : 
books  on,  1176;  in  U.  S.,  1176  ;  first  builder 
in  U.  S.,  1176  ;  requisites  of  builder,  1177  ;  at 
Boston  and  New  York,  1178. 

Ornament,  iron  for,  382. 

Ornamental  IronWork  (article),  379. 

Ornamenting,  custom  of,  921. 

Otis,  Bros.  &  Co  ,  hoisting  machinery,  1058, 
1148 ;  manufactory,  1061-3. 

Overshot  wheels,  160. 


Packet  sloops,  99, 100. 

Packets,  early,  in  Ohio,  100. 

Page,  Win.  H.,  biography  of,  1267. 

Page,  Wm.  II.  &  Co.,  and  wood  type,  1266; 

their  factory,  1268  ;  machines,  1271. 

Paine,  T.,  89. 

Paint,  zinc,  1068. 

Painting  carriages,  809. 

Painting  of  oil  cloth,  662. 

Paints  (article),  496  ;  materials  of,  496  ;  prepara¬ 
tion  of,  497  ;  early  objection  to  in  U.  S.,  497. 
Palace  cars,  619-21. 

Palladius,  on  reaper,  334 
Palmer,  John,  mail  coaches,  1118. 

Palm-leaf  hats,  782. 

Panama  hats,  780. 

Pa;>or,  albmnenized,  880  ;  articles  of  dress,  1144  ; 
invented,  202-3;  uses  of,  1143;  writing,  201. 

Paper  collars.  1145-7. 

Paper  furnishing  goods  (article),  1143. 

Paper  Hangings  (article),  461 ;  first  in  the  U.  8., 
462;  American  manufacture,  462  ;  making  of, 
463;  wooden,  216. 

Paper-making,  early  mode,  206-7;  by  steam, 
207. 

Paper  mills,  first,  203 ;  iu  U.  3.,  204 ;  in  Mass., 

2>5- 

Paper  money,  1163  ;  in  Franco  and  U.  S.,  1164  ; 

irredeemable,  1168. 

Fapin,  Denis,  511. 

Papyrus,  202. 

Pare,  A.,  429-30. 

Parish  Registers-,  864. 

Parrott  guns,  605. 

Pascal,  B.,  863. 

Paterson,  Wm.,  10S5. 

Payne,  Roger,  182. 

Peacock,  D.,  lock  coulter  of,  136. 
l'easley,  AM,  invented  reed,  113. 

Peat,  at  Seekonk,  1114. 

Pendleton,  W.  S.,  171. 

Pens  (article),  456. 


Perkins,  Jacob,  $57 ;  engraving,  490,  584 ;  nail 
machines,  1074. 

Perrot,  M.,  and  the  Perro tine,  629. 

Peru,  pottery,  828. 

Peteler,  A.,  and  his  brother,  541. 

Peteler  Portable  Railroad  (article),  533  ;  economy 
and  convenience  of.  536. 

Petroleum  (article),  303  ;  sources  of,  303  ;  “oil 
fever,”  304-5. 

Pewter  dishes,  854. 

Phelan,  Michael,  402. 

Phelan  &  Collender,  billiard  table  manuf  ,  399  ; 
patents  of,  401. 

Phillatius,  181. 

Phillips,  S.,  powder  mill,  710. 

Phoenix  Life  Ins  Co.,  86/. 

Phosphate  of  lime,  manufactory  of,  1110. 

Phosphates  in  food,  1109-10. 

Photography  (article),  874  ;  history  of,  874 ;  pro¬ 
cesses,  877-81 ;  albumenized  paper  for,  880; 
extent  of  business,  880. 

Photolithography,  173. 

Piano-forte  (article),  319. 

Piano-forte,  manuf  in  U.  S.,  319; 


Pins  (article).  1286. 

Pipe  of  Peace,  241. 

Pipes,  iron  (article),  1207. 

Pistols,  repeating,  Forehand  &  Wadsworth's, 

555-9. 

Pitch,  983. 

Pitch-pine  and  its  products  (article),  976  ;  annu¬ 
al  value,  984. 

Pittsburg  National  Foundry  and  Pipe  Works  at, 

1208-11 

Planing  iron,  689 ;  Warren’s  machine,  690- 
Platform  scales,  494-5. 

Pliny,  on  reaper,  334. 

Plough,  steam,  950. 

Plow,  history  of,  133. 

Plows  and  axes  (article),  122. 

Plucknett,  T.  J.,  reaper  patent,  335. 

Plumbago  (black  lead),  728-9. 

Poisons  in  candies,  247-50. 

Polish,  artificial  and  natural,  445. 

Poor,  II.  V.,  no  mention  of  narrow  gauge,  626. 
Poor  Man’s  Bible,  58. 

Pope,  Frank  G.,  1283 

Pope,  John,  and  stencils,  1283. 

Population,  records  of,  864. 

Porcelain,  Chinese  and  Japanese,  827  ;  Saxons, 
830 ;  Sevres,  830 ;  in  U.  S. ,  832 ;  art  training 
for,  833. 

Porta,  J.  B.  della,  511. 

Porter  &  Co.,  brass  works,  1047. 

Portland  Vase,  828. 

Post,  ancient,  1116;  Charlemagne’s,  1117  ;  early 
European,  1117-18  ;  money  orders,  1119-20 
Post  Office  (article),  1116;  espionage  in,  1121 ; 
of  U.  8  ,  colonial,  1121 ;  federal,  1122;  postage 
rates,  1123  ;  policy  of  U.  S.  department,  1123  ; 
money  orders  in  U.  S.,  1124  ;  usefulness,  718. 
Postage,  cheap  (R.  Hill),  1119. 

Postal  Savings  Bank,  1119-20. 

Potato  starch,  423. 

Potato  digger,  697. 

Potato  hooks,  696. 

Pottery,  37  ;  in  American  colonies,  831-2;  in  the 
East;  826.  852 ;  in  Peru,  828  ;  Brazilian,  829  ; 
Dutch,  829. 

Pottery  and  Porcelain  (article),  826 ;  distinction, 
827  ^preservation  of  museums,  827  ;  majoli- 

Power,  transmission  through  air-pipes,  950 

Pratt,  8.,  859.  . 

Prices,  legal,  43. 


INDEX. 


1301 


Printing,  printing  press  (article),  57 ;  first  in 
U.  i>.,  60  ;  in  colors,  68 ;  presses,  68. 

Printing,  of  engravings,  491. 

Printing  Ink  (article),  459 ;  colored,  460. 
Printing  of  oil  cloth,  662-3. 

Pritchard,  Thos.  F.,  574. 

Proof-reading,  65. 

Prospecting  for  silver,  999, 1000. 

1  rotection,  376. 

Protection  (article  on  tariff),  by  Horace  Greeley, 

868. 

Providence,  jewelry  trade,  438 ;  screws  made, 
857-8. 

Publishing  business  in  U.  S.,  188 ;  by  subscrip¬ 
tion,  191.  i 

Puddling,  invented,  352. 

Pumps,  fire  (article),  495. 

Pumps,  ancient  Egyptian,  466;  common,  origin, 
466  ;  force,  467  ;  rotary,  467. 

Putnam,  t  ilas  S.,  horse-shoe  nail  machine,  298. 
Putnam,  S.  S.,  sketch  of,  293;  curtain  fixtures, 
292. 

Putnam,  S.  S.  &  Co.,  293. 


Quarries  (article),  1289. 

Quartz  mining  for  gold,  756. 

Queen’s  Ware,  831. 

Quicksilver  (article),  761. 

Quill  and  metallic  pens  (article),  456. 

Quill  pens,  how  made,  456. 

Quimby,  M.  T.  &  Co.,  jewelry  house,  440. 

Rakes,  garden,  lawn,  and  hay,  697. 

Railroad  cars  (article),  618 ;  number  on  single 
roads,  619;  American  style,  620;  process  of 
making,  621 ;  cost  of  styles  of,  625  ;  trades 
employed  on ,  625  ;  narrow  gauge,  626-7. 

Railroads  (article),  1020;  growth  of.  1021 ;  intro¬ 
duction  into  U.  8.,  1022  ;  South  Carolina R.  R. 
first  in  U.  S.,  1023  ;  in  Europe  and  U.  S.,  1025  ; 
Belgian  system,  1026  ;  fares  and  freights,  pro¬ 
fits  by  lowering,  1027-8 ;  English  system,  1028  ; 
panic,  1030 ;  is  bankrupt,  1030  ;  U.  S.  system, 
1030  ;  competition  and  combination  in,  1032 ; 
consolidation  and  monopoly,  1034  ;  land  grants 
for,  1036 ;  financiering  of,  1039-41 ;  watering 
stock,  1039-41;  future  of,  1041;  cost  of  run¬ 
ning,  1042. 

Railroads,  narrow  gauge,  533  ;  and  the  public, 
718-19,  in  England,  Belgium,  etc.,  719;  in 
U.  8.,  719;  rate  of  increase  in  U.  S.,536; 
uniform  gauge  of,  629. 

Raleigh,  W.,  240. 

Ranges  and  stoves  (article),  442. 

Rasps,  what,  447  ;  descriptions  of,  448. 

Ray  &  Taylor,  paper  collar  manufactory,  1145; 
1148  ;  inventions  and  patents,  1147. 

Ready  made  clothing,  588. 

Reapers  and  mowers  (article),  332. 

Reaper,  in  Pliny,  334  ;  A.  Young  proposes,  335  ; 
W.  Pitt  invents,  335  ;  Early  English  patents, 
33  > ;  American,  336-8;  recent  inventions, 
836  ;  one  and  two  wheels,  340 ;  number  of 
patents  ,344 ;  number  of  made,  347  ;  capital,  347. 

Reaumur's  porcelain,  893. 

Reed  &  Bowen  Punch,  1276. 

Reed  instruments,  112. 

Reeves,  counterfeits  Collins  Co.  mark,  145. 

Regalia,  trade  in,  801 

Regnault,  609. 

Reid,  Jas.  M.,  1137 

Rennet,  952-3. 

Resins,  986. 

Revolvers,  Forehand  &  Wadsworth’s,  555-9. 

Rice  beer,  899. 

Richards,  G.  &  Co.,  cord  making,  647. 

Richmond  flour,  995 


Rickman,  Isack,  1252. 

Ridley  &  Co.'s  confectionery  (article),  247. 

Rifle,  Allen,  breech  loading,  659. 

River  driving  (lumber),  822. 

Riverside  Works,  Seekonk,  1111-12. 

Robbers  of  expresses,  716. 

Robert,  L.,  paper  machine  of,  204. 

Roberts,  mule  of,  969. 

Rockets,  644. 

Rodman  gun,  605. 

Rogers,  Wm.  D.,  notice  of,  805-10. 

Rogers,  Wm.  D.  &  Co  ,  carriage-builders,  805 ; 

no  “  cheap  work,”  811. 

Rolled  sheet  brass  (article),  1045. 

Rolling  machinery  (article),  956. 

Rolling  and  slitting  mills,  first,  1047. 

Romans,  printing  by,  57-8. 

Rome,  fires  in,  263. 

Ropes.  See  Cordage  (article),  285. 

Rosecrans,  Gen.,  on  narrow  gauge,  628. 

Rosin,  97S  ;  fires  on  beds  of,  982;  for  gas,  787. 
Rotary  pumps,  467  ;  of  Tales,  Jenks  &  Sons,  468. 
Roughing  rolls,  958-9. 

Roxbury,  watch  factory  at,  78. 

Rules  (article),  739  ;  extent  of  manufacture  in 
U.  S.,  740;  Stephens  &  Co.’s  works,  740; 
making,  741 ;  Stephens  patent  combination, 
743  ;  Stephens  caliper,  744. 

Rumford  Chemical  Works,  1105-11.;  establish¬ 
ment  of,  1107. 

Rumford,  Count,  442,  509,  709. 

Rumford  medals,  515. 

Rumsey,  J.,  invention  of  boat,  89;  steamboat 
of,  90- 

Rupert,  Prince,  488. 

Russell  Manuf.  Co.,  231;  styles  of  goods,  236; 
works,  237. 

Russia,  bells  in,  410-11. 


Sable,  fur,  640. 

Safes  and  safety  locks  (article),  1007. 

Safes,  early  (strong  boxes),  1009-10 ;  fire-proof, 
first,  1010 ;  of  Hall  Safe  and  Lock  Co.,  1012-16. 
St.  Louis,  fur  trade,  638. 

St.  Paul,  fur  trade,  639. 

Salmon,  scarcity  of,  1199. 

Salmon’s  platform  scales,  494. 

Salmon’s  reaper,  336. 

Salt,  manufacture  (article),  148 ;  deposits  of, 
148-9. 

Sandals,  wearing  of,  1251. 

Sandarach,  987. 

Sanford,  E.  S.,  715. 

Sapolio,  682 ;  II.  W.  Beecher  recommends,  683. 
Sargent  Card  Clothing  Co.,  649. 

Sargent,  J.  D.,  and  card  making,  648 
Savery,  Thomas,  611. 

Savings  banks,  postal,  1119-20. 

Sawdust,  for  packing  ice,  157 ;  imitation  carv¬ 
ings,  215. 

Saw-mills,  35  ;  first,  368;  mobs  against,  368  ; 

steam  in,  370  ;  for  lumber,  823. 

Saws  (article),  363 ;  Disston’s  patent  gullet¬ 
toothed  circular,  366 ;  old  mode  of  using,  367  ; 
how  made,  371. 

Scale  in  boilers,  85. 

Scales  (article),  493 ;  history,  493-4  ;  platform, 
494 ;  importance,  495. 

Schermerhorn,  J.  W.  &  Co.,  223. 

Schiller,  poem  of  The  Glove,  658. 

Schoeffer,  P.,  59. 

Schools,  apparatus,  etc.  (article),  217  ;  old  and 
modern,  219.  N 

School-books,  number  and  cost,  218. 

School  furniture,  226. 


1302 


INDEX. 


School-house,  old,  220 modern,  224 

Schwartz,  Berthold,  706. 

Scovill  Manuf.  Co.,  1048  ;  works  of,  1048. 

Screws  (article),  855. 

Screws,  defined,  855;  patents  for  making,  857; 
improvements  in  form,  858  ;  New  England 
Screw  Co.,' 857-9 ;  gimlet-pointed,  858  ;  Pratt’s 
improvement,  859. 

Screw-wrenches  (article),  906;  Merrick  patent, 
906-7 ;  Coes  patents,  906-9;  Richard  patent, 

908. 

Scythes,  made,  694 ;  Snaths,  697. 

Sea  otter,  fur,  640. 

Seekonk,  Seekonk  Plains,  1107-8. 

Senefelder,  A.,  170. 

Sevres  china,  830. 

Sewing  machine,  twist  for,  545. 

Sewing  machines  (article),  47 
Sewing  machine,  Wilson’s,  926. 

Sewing-silk  and  machine  twist  (article),  542 
Shafting,  machine  for,  689. 

Shakers,  brooms,  747. 

Shawls,  American,  872. 

Sheathing  for  ships,  106. 

Sheep,  Fitzherbert  on,  333. 

Sheet-iron,  making,  959  ;  thin,  958. 

Sheffield  cutlery,  230. 

Shingles,  824. 

Ship-building  (article),  101 ,  in  American  colo¬ 
nies,  32-4. 

Ship-building,  depressed  in  U.  S.,  108. 

Ships,  ancient,  101 ;  American  models,  102  ;  de¬ 
tails  of  framing,  105  ;  armored,  597  ;  launching, 
106 ;  iron,  107. 

Ship-yard,  Jackson  &  Sharp’s,  625. 

Shoemaker,  S.  M.,  715. 

Shoes,  fashions  of,  699-700,  1256. 

Shoes,  Ladies’  (article),  1250. 

Shot  (article),  653. 

Shot  making,  1066. 

Shot-gun,  Allen's  breech-loading,  560. 

Shot  tower,  invented,  653  ;  Paul  Becks’,  655. 
Shot  towers,  1066-7. 

Shreve,  H.  M.,  steamboat  captain,  96. 

Sibley’s  Photographic  Press,  1281. 

Sibley,  Rupert,  and  his  inventions,  1279. 

Sickle,  334. 

Siegen,  L.  von,  482. 

Signs,  lithographed,  171. 

Silk,  American,  uses  Italian  trade  marks,  546. 
Silk,  culture  of,  542  ;  introduced  in  U.  S.,  542 ; 
disease  of,  774  ;  early  use  of,  770  ;  early  culti¬ 
vation,  771 ;  raised  in  Europe  and  America, 
771 ;  in  U.  S. ;  morus  multicaulis,  772-3. 

Silk  dress  goods  (article),  770. 

Silk  hats,  780. 

Silver  mining  (article),  999;  in  U.  S.,  before 
1860,999  ;  prospecting,  999-1000 ;  yield  in  Neva¬ 
da,  1003-4 ;  ores  of,  1004  ;  modes  of  extraction, 
1004-5  ;  veins  in  Western  States,  1005 ;  Colora¬ 
do  ores,  refractory,  1006. 

.  Silver  plating,  Martin’s  process,  1053. 

Slate,  1292. 

Slater,  S.,  1129. 

Slater,  S.,  and  Mrs.,  474. 

Sleep  and  beds,  501. 

Sloops,  packet,  99, 100. 

Slop-shops,  558. 

Slotting  machine,  692. 

Smelting  copper,  482. 

Smith,  Adam,  Wealth  of  Nations,  87. 

Smith,  F.  O.  J.,  1241-7. 

Smith,  Capt.  John,  895. 

Smith,  William,  1210;  refused  to  hold  slaves, 
1212 ;  business  operations  of,  1210-13. 

Smith,  plow,  137. 


Smoking.  See  Tobacco  (article^,  239 

Snuff,  in  China,  242. 

Soap  (article),  675  ;  in  Bible,  675  ;  ancient  u3e 
of,  675;  extent  of  business,  676;  Enoch  Mor¬ 
gan’s  Son’s  factory,  677 ;  process  of  making, 
677  ;  kinds  of,  681 ;  materials  for,  681. 

Solingcn,  797. 

Sorghum,  260. 

South  Carolina  R.  R.,  first  in  U.  S.,  1023 

Specie,  1162. 

Sphere,  used  for  transportation,  883. 

Spiders,  first  hinge  makers,  547. 

Spinney,  B.  F.,  1262. 

Spinney,  B.  F.  &  Co.,  1256  ;  their  manufactory, 
1257  ;  their  specialties,  1263. 

Spinney,  G.  N.,  1262. 

Spinning  jenny,  473,  1127. 

Spinning  thread,  472. 

Spinning-wheel,  473, 1127. 

Spirits  of  turpentine,  qualities  of,  977. 

Spirituous  liquors  (article),  899. 

Spool-cotton  thread  (article),  1126. 

Spoon  wheel,  163. 

Spooner,  C.  E.,  626. 

Sprague,  W.  P.,  carpet  factory,  838. 

Spray  nozzle  for  fires,  273. 

Springs  carriage  (article),  1272. 

Spur-gear,  heaviest  in  world,  621. 

Stable  furniture,  &c.,  iron,  385. 

Stamping  mill  for  gold,  757. 

Starch  (article),  422 ;  uses,  422 ;  proportion  in 
grain,  423  ;  making,  423. 

Statistics  of  population,  864-5. 

Statuary,  bronze,  385;  iron,  577. 

Steam,  steam  engine  (article),  507. 

Steam,  how  generated,  508;  saturated,  608; 
heat  in  making,  509  ;  national  importance  of, 
618  ;  used  in  Calliope,  651 ;  in  paper  making, 
207  ;  in  saw  mills,  370. 

Steam,  latest  improvements  in  using  (articles), 
663. 

Steam  boiler,  Babcock  &  Wilcox’s,  671. 

Steam  boiler  explosions,  797 ;  singular  cause, 
1024. 

Steam  boilers,  purifying  water  for,  82. 

Steam  engine,  invented,  610;  early  inventors, 
611 ;  single  and  double  acting,  614 ;  first  high 
pressure,  614;  Corliss’  improvements,  615; 
Babcock  &  Wilcox’s,  565 ;  indicator  diagrams, 
565. 

Steam  fire  engines,  269-70. 

Steam  lire  Engines  (article),  840;  competitive 
trial  in  1858,  842 ;  Button  engine  works,  845. 

Steam  hammer,  in  axe  making,  129. 

Steam  jacket,  566. 

Steam  navigation  (article),  87. 

Steam  plough,  950. 

Steam  type-setting  machines,  72. 

Steamboats,  early  inventions,  88-93  ;  first  in  the 
West,  95 ;  first  Ocean,  99. 

Steel  (article),  931;  and  iron,  difference,  931, 
935  ;  early  manufacture,  932  ;  oriental  make, 
932-3  ;  first  made  in  England,  934 ;  process  of 
making,  935  ;  cast  and  bar,  936 ;  wrought  or 
shear,  936  ;  tests  of,  936-7  ;  patents  for  mak¬ 
ing,  937-43  ;  Bessemer’s,  940-1 ;  Eaton’s,  941-2; 
importance  of  cheap,  943  ;  ancient,  229 ;  mak¬ 
ing,  128  ;  for  bells,  413. 

Steel  and  copper  engraving  (article),  487. 

Steel  engraving,  490. 

Steel  pens,  manufacture  of,  457  ;  American,  458. 

QQ 

Stencil  piates’(article),  1282. 

Stephens,  DeLoss  H.,  740  ;  inventions,  742 

Stephens  &  Co.,  rule  works,  740. 

Stephens,  caliper  rule,  744. 

Stephens,  patent  combination  rule,  743. 

Stereotyping  and  electrotyping  (article),  176. 


INDEX. 


1303 


Stereotyping,  paper  process,  179. 

Stevens,  John  L.,  697  ;  battery,  597 ;  bomb¬ 
shell,  606. 

Stiles.  President,  772  ;  and  silk  culture,  543 
Stilwell  &  Bierce  Manuf.  Co.,  83, 167. 

Srilwell's  heater  and  lime  catcher,  83. 

Stippling,  489. 

Stith's  History  of  Virginia,  895. 

Stock  (of  companies),  watering  of,  1039-41. 
Stocking  frames,  194. 

Stockings,  early,  193. 

Stockings,  manuf.  in  U.  S.,  1955 

Stoddard,  I.  C.,  invents  calliope,  651. 

Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron  Ages,  931. 

Stoves,  American  improvements,  442 
Stoves  and  ranges  (article),  442. 

Stowell,  A.,  857. 

Strass,  893,895. 

Straw  bonnets,  781. 

Straw  carpets,  839. 

Straw  hats,  780. 

Strike,  in  collar  business,  616. 

Stub-and-twist,  American,  561 
Subscription  books,  191. 

Sugar  beet,  260. 

Sugar  maple,  260. 

Sugar,  healthful,  250 ;  history  of,  251 
Sugar  refining  (article),  258. 

Sun-dial,  1138. 

Superior,  Lake,  copper,  480. 

Supermaturation  by  Alden  process,  669. 
Superphosphate  of  lime,  1108. 

Surgery,  ancient,  426. 

Surgery,  modern,  429. 

Suspended  wheels,  162. 

S  wedging  knife-blades,  232. 

Swift  &  Courtney  &  Beecher  Co.,  1225. 

Swift.  Wm.  H.,  1226. 

Sword  business,  797;  blades,  Solingen,  797; 

Damascus,  933  ;  Gen.  Anossoff’s,  934. 
Symington's  steamboat,  92. 

Syracuse  salt  works,  149. 


Tools,  agricultural  (article),  693 
Torpedoes,  in  naval  war,  606. 

Torpedoes  (candy),  255. 

Torre,  pyrotechnist,  643. 

Torricelli,  467. 

Tortoise-shell,  gathering,  1179  ;  uses  of,  1180; 
jewelry,  440. 

Trade-mark  counterfeited,  145. 

Tram-ways,  534. 

Transfer  process  in  engraving,  584. 
Transportation,  Brisbane’s  method  (article),  882 ; 

previous  devices  for,  882. 

Travelling,  early  by  water,  99. 

Treasury,  public  (article),  1161 ;  ancient,  what. 

1163.  ‘ 

Trimmings  (narrow  textile  fabrics),  792. 

Trip  hammer,  for  cutlery,  231. 

Tryon,  I.,. comb  patent,  1180.  y' 

Tucker,  IV.  E  ,  and  porcelain,  832. 

Tudor  F.,  and  ice  trade,  156. 

Turbine  Wheels,  163. 

Turniug  iron.  Wood,  Light  &  Co.’s  lathe,  689. 
Turpentine,  978;  gathering  of,  979;  distilling, 

c7o0-l. 

Twist,  silk,  for  machines,  545. 

Type-setting  machines,  67,  72. 

Type,  Wood  (article),  1265. 


Undershot  wheels,  161. 

Uncivilized  Races  of  Men,  by  Wood,  quoted. 

11S2. 

Union  Artificial  Limb  Co.,  432. 

United  States,  history  of  industry,  25 ;  influ¬ 
ence,  26  ;  silk  culture  in,  642  ;  calico-printing 
in,  526;  white-lead  manufacture,  498;  first 
heavy  scales,  494 ,  copper  mines  in,  479 ; 
coal  in,  476*7 ;  bank-note  engraving  in,  583; 
illustrations  of  growth  of,  924-5  ;  railroads  of, 
1030 ;  mint  at  Philadelphia,  151 ;  Treasury  and 
National  Bank  notes,  586. 


Tabernacle  (Moses'),  curtains,  290  ;  embroidery 
in,  922-3. 

Table  cutlery ,  230. 

Tacks  and  nails  (article),  1069. 

Talbot,  F.,  and  Talbotype,  876. 

Tapestry,  461,  836  ;  Bayeux,  836-7. 

Tar,  982-3. 

Tariff,  The;  by  Horace  Greeley  (article),  868. 
Tariff  and  hat  business,  783. 

.  Tatnall.  Edward,  1226. 


Teazles,  Teazling,  917. 

Telegraph,  magnetic  (article),  1233;  defined, 
1233;  its  moral  influences,  1234. 

Temperance  reform,  903-4. 

Tempering  axes,  130-1 ;  files,  451 ;  saws,  371  * 
steel,  935-6. 

Terra  alba,  247. 

Terry,  Eli,  and  clocks,  1141. 


Theatrical  goods,  801-2. 

Thevart,  A.,  891. 

Thread,  cotton  (article).  1126  ;  in  U.  S.,  1130. 
•Thread  machinery  (article),  472. 

Thread,  history  of,  472;  first  cotton  474. 

Thurn  and  Taxis,  post  monopoly,  1118. 

Tide  wheels,  162. 

Tileston,  master,  227. 

Tilting  of  steel,  935. 

Time,  early  modes  of  marking,  73. 

Tire-setter,  West's,  1279. 

Tobacco,  manuf.  (article),  239;  raising,  244 ;  ex- 
tent  of  use,  245-6 ;  effects  of,  246 ;  Virginia,  28. 
Tonti,  Tontines,  862-3. 


Vail,  Alfred,  as  an  inventor,  1245 ;  biography 
of,  1246. 

Valves  in  Babcock  &  Wilcox  engine,  568. 

Vandenkerchove,  Mr.,  and  the  Corliss  engine. 
519. 

Varnish  and  its  manufacture  (article),  985  ;  de¬ 
rivation  of  word,  985  antiquity  of,  986 : 
nature  and  constituents.  986;  classified,  988  ; 
modes  of  preparing.  988  ;  fixed  oil  kind,  989 ; 
list  of  kinds,  993  ;  Berry  Bros.,  works,  990. 

Vegetables,  Alden  process  fo.*,  664. 

Veneering  (article),  214  *  process  of,  216. 

Venice,  banking  at,  1081 ;  glass  making,  891. 

Vesalius,  429. 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  511. 

Violins  Hamlin’s,  114. 

Virginia,  early  iron  mining,  354  ;  glass  making, 
895 ;  industrial  history,  27  ;  silk  culture,  542  ; 
tobacco,  245- 

Voicing  reeds.  113. 


Wages,  before  and  since  the  war,  376 ;  legal,  37, 
88,43. 

Wall  paper  (article),  461. 

Warming  houses  by  hot  water,  578. 

Warren  patent  shaping  machine,  690. 
Washington  on  protection,  869. 

Washington  Territory,  lumber,  825. 

Watches,  watch  making  (article),  78. 

Water,  purifying  for  steam  boilers,  82 ;  hard. 
82-3. 

Water-olock,  76. 

Water  pipes,  iron,  1207 ;  other  materials,  1208. 


1304 


INDEX. 


Water  power  (article),  1191 ;  cheapness,  1192 ;  at 
Hadley,  extent  of,  1196. 

Water  wheels  (article),  159. 

Water  bury  brass  manufacture,  1047. 

Watt,  James,  512 ;  iron  beams,  674. 

Watts,  Mr.,  invented  shot  tower,  653. 

Weaving.  See  Looms. 

Weaving  of  oil  cloth,  661. 

Webster,  Daniel,  plow  of,  137. 

Wedgwood,  Josiah,  828-31,  874. 

Weed  sewing  machine,  61. 

Weissenborn,  E.,  730  ;  inventions  of,  730 
Welding  cast  iron,  362. . 

Wells,  Darius,  and  wood  type,  1266. 

Wells,  Darden  and  Sophia,  bonnets,  782 
Wells,  H.  A.,  improvement  in  hats,  782 
Wells,  Ilenry,  and  express,  715.  . 

Wfet,  early  steamboats  in,  95. 

Western  Union  Telegraph  Co.,  1249. 

■West’s  American  Tire-setter,  1279. 

West,  Jonathan  B.,  1280. 

Whatman,  James,  203. 

Wheat,  cortfposition  of,  994-5 ;  California  and 
Oregon,  994-5  ;  handling  the  crop,  996;  inspec¬ 
tion,  996  ;  transportation,  997  ;  grinding,  997. 
Wheels,  antiquity  of,  803 ;  care  in  making, 
809  10. 

Whipple,  C.,  857. 

Whisky,  903. 

White  Lead  and  paints  (article),  496. 

White  Lead,  making  of,  498 ;  adulterated,  499. 
White  oxkle  of  zinc,  499. 

Whiting,  Riley,  and  clocks,  1141. 

Whiting,  Win.,  208. 

Whiting  I’aper  Co.,  208. 

Whitley’s  cotton  gin,  965, 1128. 

Whittemore,  A.,  648. 

Wiard  guns,  605. 

Wilder  safes,  1010. 

Wilkinson,  D.,  857. 

Wilkinson  J  ,  nail  making,  1073. 

Williams,  cheese-factory,  951. 

Williamson,  Peregrine,  457. 

Willimantic  Linen  Company,  1130:  mills  of, 
1136. 

Wilson,  G.  F.,  1106  ;  farm  at  Seekonk,  1109. 
Wilson  Sewing  Machine  Co. ,  926-30. 

Winans  Locomotive  Works,  577. 

Window  glass  in  England,  891. 

Wine,  901 :  quality  of  pure,  902 ;  made  in  U.  S., 
903. 

Wire,  antiquity  of,  419  j  uses  of,  419;  process, 


Wire-drawing  (article),  419. 

Wire  ropes,  288. 

Withered,  Ivers  L.  ,  1262. 

Wood.  See  Veneering,  214. 

Wood,  native,  for  furniture,  1102  ,  paper  hang- 
ings,  216. 

Wood  Type  (article),  1265 ;  manufacture  of 
1267 ;  materials  used,  1268 ;  machines  for 
cutting,  1268. 

Wood,  Jethro,  plow  of,  136. 

Wood,  Robert,  account  of,  387. 

Wood,  Robert  &  Co.,  884  ;  bronze  work  of,  385  ; 
works  of,  386. 

Wood,  Light  &  Co.’s  machine  works,  685 ;  pat¬ 
ents  controlled  by,  685. 

Wood  engraving  (article),  483. 

Woodhouse,  Miss,  and  straw  bonnets,  781. 

Wood-rangers  (coureurs  des  bois),  635. 

Wool,  classes  of  (felting,  combing,  and  hairy), 
914;  sorting,  915;  dyeing,  915  ;  manufactur¬ 
ing,  916-17. 

Woolen,  E.  B.  Bigelow’s  patents  for  weaving, 
918  ;  skill  required  in  working,  919. 

Woolen  manufactures  (article),  914. 

Wootz  (Indian  steel),  932. 

Worcester  Co.,  Mass.,  and  card  biasing,  648  ; 
fire-arms,  565;  machine  works,  685. 

Worcester,  Marquis  of,  611. 

Working-women’s  Union,  616. 

Worsted,  918. 

Woven  goods  (narrow  textile  fabrics),  792, 

Woven  Wire  Mattress  Co.,  504. 

Wrenches  (article),  906  ;  Coes’  wrench,  906. 

Wright,  L  W.,  Sot. 

Wright,  Mrs.,  early  silk  making  by,  543. 

Writing,  development  of.  201. 

Writing  paper  (article),  201. 

Wyatt,  John,  968. 


Xylophotography,  484. 


Yacht  America,  102. 

Yale,  L.,  and  L.  Jr.,  locks,  1012. 
Young,  A.,  on  reaper,  335. 


Zinc,  white  oxide  of,  499  ;  in  making  brass,  104S  ; 

and  lead  (article),  1064;  uses  of,  1067. 
Zincography,  173. 


ERRATA. 


Baeder,  Adamson  &  Co  211. 

Baeder,  Charles,  211. 

Brandywine  Powder  Works,  710. 

Breech  loading  Fire  Arms  Compared,  814. 
Curled  Hair  (article),  211. 

Du  Pont,  Eleuthere  Irene,  710. 

Du  Pont's  Gunpowder  Works,  710. 

Erard,  Sebastian,  321. 

Meyer,  Conrad,  320. 


Powder,  varieties  of,  712. 

Remington,  E.  &  Sons,  819. 

Remington  s  system  of  breech-loading  weapons, 
813. 

Riverside  Glue  Works,  211. 

Sand  Paper  (article),  211. 

Stienway  &  Sons,  320 ;  their  pianos,  321-31; 

manufactory,  324  ;  warerooms ,  828  ;  sales,  330. 
Whips  (article),  212. 


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